Juicing question.

[pudland]

Hello all! New member here.

I want to juice the apples from my 2 trees. I harvest them as they fall. I have 2 five gallon buckets and 1 carboy. I have a 5 gallon bucket of apples but would like to make a large batch of cider, say five gallons worth.
Here's my question:
Can I juice what I have, use 1 campden tablet per gallon, let it sit for 24 hours, then put it in the fridge for a week until I get enough to make 5 gallons?

Thanks!

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Yes, you could also fill plastic milk jugs with the juice & freeze it till you need it.
Regards, GF.

 

[natnov]

Gallon size freezer zip locks.

 

[pudland]

Thanks for both replies!
If I freeze it, should I let it thaw in the fridge before adding it or put the bag in a sink of cold water to thaw?

 

[mjleslie]

If you are juicing yourself, freezing the apples whole and then thawing breaks down the cells and softens them up. Just bag them tightly to avoid too much browning

 

[MindenMan]

No matter what you do, you will get browning. That way you can call it "cider" because it isn't clear amber/yello.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

The Camden tablet will dramatically slow the oxidation. Last fall at our brew club's cider press, I had dosed my carboys with one tablet each. At the end of the day, all the carboys had brown cider bit mine, which looked pale green by comparison!

 

[phug]

There's no reason that you can't let that first gallon start fermenting while you gather up the next gallon. Just add the new juice to the already fermenting cider.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[pudland]

Phug... good point actually.