Yesterday my friend JR and I trekked down to N.’s Little Village estate to avail ourselves of her cider press. Five hours and three bushels and change later, we had just under seven gallons of fresh squeezed apple nectar that, hopefully, will in the not-too-distant-future mutate into even more delicious hard cider. If it doesn’t, I guess everyone gets apple cider vinegar for Christmas.

Most of the apples on hand were Mutsu, a crisp, semisweet Japanese varietal (also known as Crispin) that yields a whole lotta juice. But we spiced things up a bit with a couple pounds each of tart, tender McIntoshes, pale, aromatic Fameuses, and nutty, leathery Roxbury Russets as well. All have the acidity and tannins necessary to give good cider a full, round body and structure. 

Right now the juice in my three-gallon carboy is just sitting there, dark and still, with nary a bubble in the fermentation lock. But I can wait. I’m wild fermenting this batch and last time I tried it all I got were several loud, middle-of-the-night explosions, as the corks blew on every last bottle and sprayed my kitchen with a fine, appley mist.

Apparently I bottled it a little too soon. Will try not to get too eager this time around.

In the meantime, here are some pix:

The press.

Bucket o’mutsus. We soon discovered that they needed to be cut even smaller.

JR grinds away.

The pomace.

The juice.

A whole lotta cider.