Newbie cider maker - need some advice please!!

[Nugget]

With the above in mind I have a few questions that I haven't been able to solve or find answers to and wonder if anyone can help?
I have 2 apples trees with good amount of apples but they seem to all have some kind of fly eating them and are all blemished, can I still press these for cider?
I have a 70L wooden fruit press with a central screw and cannot find anyone to supply straining bags big enough, any suggestions?
Finally I bought a large wooden whisky barrel which I think is 50 gallons, is that too ambitious for a newbie and should I then let fermentation take place directly in the demi johns with air locks, of which I have 40?

Grateful for any advice, many thanks

 

[ScrumpyRam]

With the above in mind I have a few questions that I haven't been able to solve or find answers to and wonder if anyone can help?
I have 2 apples trees with good amount of apples but they seem to all have some kind of fly eating them and are all blemished, can I still press these for cider?
I have a 70L wooden fruit press with a central screw and cannot find anyone to supply straining bags big enough, any suggestions?
Finally I bought a large wooden whisky barrel which I think is 50 gallons, is that too ambitious for a newbie and should I then let fermentation take place directly in the demi johns with air locks, of which I have 40?

Grateful for any advice, many thanks

Wow Nugget, fair play to you, you sure have got your work cut out.
Do you know what apples they are? Blemishes should be ok but you don't really want to be pressing apples full of larvae.
You are going to need a lot and i mean a lot of apples to make 50 galllons of juice (approx 9kg of apples will give you 4.5 litres of juice). I would strongly advise you to ferment in plastic fermantation bins rather than demi-johns for that amount of cider. Make it a whole lot easier.
Can't help you on straining bags I'm afraid. For a press that size could you use hessian sacking?
I don't meant to sound negative and I wish you every success. I'm into my 3rd year of making cider and really enjoy it. The hardest part is getting enough of a supply of fruit in the frst place.
Good luck

 

[Nugget]

Really appreciate your thoughts and advice - thank you.

 

[Nugget]

Wow Nugget, fair play to you, you sure have got your work cut out.
Do you know what apples they are? Blemishes should be ok but you don't really want to be pressing apples full of larvae.
You are going to need a lot and i mean a lot of apples to make 50 galllons of juice (approx 9kg of apples will give you 4.5 litres of juice). I would strongly advise you to ferment in plastic fermantation bins rather than demi-johns for that amount of cider. Make it a whole lot easier.
Can't help you on straining bags I'm afraid. For a press that size could you use hessian sacking?
I don't meant to sound negative and I wish you every success. I'm into my 3rd year of making cider and really enjoy it. The hardest part is getting enough of a supply of fruit in the frst place.
Good luck

I think we are going to go with a fermentation bins and decant to demi johns after the main fermentation. Appreciate your advice thanks. Not a lot I can do about the larvae though, I'll have to try it otherwise i will struggle to get fruit. Got some hessian sacks so testing this weekend. Do you recommend a yeast and /or sugar or just let nature take its course?

 

[ScrumpyRam]

I think we are going to go with a fermentation bins and decant to demi johns after the main fermentation. Appreciate your advice thanks. Not a lot I can do about the larvae though, I'll have to try it otherwise i will struggle to get fruit. Got some hessian sacks so testing this weekend. Do you recommend a yeast and /or sugar or just let nature take its course?

Good luck with the pressing. I've always used yeast. Mangrove Jack's cider yeast, MO2. Always get good results. The only reason to add sugar at this Stage is to bump up the final alcohol strength. If you have a SG of around 1050 at the start and ferment out to 1000 you'll end up with around 6.5% which is good for me.
I would recommend testing the acidity of the juice before adding yeast. You're looking at between 3.6 and 4.2 ish. You can pH strips for this. If it's above 4.2 consider adding malic acid or below 3.6 precipitated chalk to balance it up.
Cheers.

 

[Nugget]

Good luck with the pressing. I've always used yeast. Mangrove Jack's cider yeast, MO2. Always get good results. The only reason to add sugar at this Stage is to bump up the final alcohol strength. If you have a SG of around 1050 at the start and ferment out to 1000 you'll end up with around 6.5% which is good for me.
I would recommend testing the acidity of the juice before adding yeast. You're looking at between 3.6 and 4.2 ish. You can pH strips for this. If it's above 4.2 consider adding malic acid or below 3.6 precipitated chalk to balance it up.
Cheers.

Thank you so much for your input, I'm very grateful. The pressing went very well yesterday and our test cider is underway. The whole day and activity was very rewarding and enjoyable. I could get to like this!!

 

[ScrumpyRam]

Glad to hear it. I don't normally press until end October. It's a shame its a seasonal activity. At least I can brew beer in-between cider season and mix things up

 

[freester]

With the above in mind I have a few questions that I haven't been able to solve or find answers to and wonder if anyone can help?
I have 2 apples trees with good amount of apples but they seem to all have some kind of fly eating them and are all blemished, can I still press these for cider?

As long as the fruit isn't too brown I'd go for it. Does the juice taste OK?

I have a 70L wooden fruit press with a central screw and cannot find anyone to supply straining bags big enough, any suggestions?

I got some filter bags from an Ebay user called 'bj-filters' go look them up and see if they have anything big enough?

Finally I bought a large wooden whisky barrel which I think is 50 gallons, is that too ambitious for a newbie and should I then let fermentation take place directly in the demi johns with air locks, of which I have 40?

Grateful for any advice, many thanks

Never too ambitious. I did around 300 litres in my second year. To be honest you don't have to fill the barrel, 2/3 full will be fine once it starts fermenting. Covered with CO2. Beware it will be hardwork.

Personally I'd go for the 'traditional' or 'au naturel' method. I do the majority of mine that way. It's less reproducible but a better product IMO.