DrPizza makes apple cider again this year (video from 2011)

[DrPizza]

Seeing this old thread, I cannot believe how I used to pick apples. I just 2 or 3 large tarps under the tree so that the ground is completely covered. Then, I shake the crap out of the tree. Occasionally, for those really high branches that I can't get to/climb up to, I just toss a rope over the tree & shake it that way. Rope gives me the advantage of, well, I'm not under the tree when the apples are falling. (I should wear a hard hat.) 5 minutes to spread the tarps, and in about 5 more minutes, the tree will be all but bare of apples. Gather up the tarps, toss the apples into a storage tote or bushel basket (leaving leaves & twigs behind), and it's a quick bushel or so of apples.

Made 7 1/2 gallons for my brother the other night (fermenting for hard cider), and quickly made 2 gallons tonight. Very smooth, nice level of sweetness. (I'll pick up 2 more 6 gallon carboys this weekend to make 12 gallons of hard cider.)

 

[spidey07]

What caused the bad last year? Heat? Here in ky we've been wet and mild so conversely what made for a good year? My apple tree would go nuts some years and others not much. Or are they cyclical like that?

 

[DrPizza]

Last year, it got unseasonably warm very early in the spring. A lot of flowering trees bloomed really early. A couple normal time of the year hard frosts wiped out the crop of apples after that.

 

[spidey07]

So early flower and then a hard frost/freeze killed them all. I see.

 

[gorobei]

any idea of how high your ABV proof gets on the hard cider?

 

[mmntech]

any idea of how high your ABV proof gets on the hard cider?

Cider has similar ABV to beer. Most pub style ciders are around 5-6%.

There's a cidery not far from me that makes the real stuff. I'll probably go there in a coupe weeks to buy some for Thanksgiving.

 

[DrPizza]

any idea of how high your ABV proof gets on the hard cider?

The ABV depends on how much sugar is in the cider when it starts fermenting. It should finish around 6%.