anyone make apple cider/vinegar

[plantsnobin]

I have tons of apple trees, and I am going to try to make my own vinegar for weed killer. The 5% that you can get at the store is good for dandelions, but I am hoping a higher % will be more effective on grasses.

[johno]

I think we'll be making an attempt at apple cider this year. Loads of apples, as I mentioned in the apple butter thread... I was just talking with dad about it yesterday. I googled it last week to see what kind of equipment it takes. I thought the special equipment would be a bit of a holdup until dad told me how they did it when he was a kid.

Maybe we'll make apple cider vinegar if the cider doesn't turn out right.

[grungy]

Tell us how your dad made it John. Please.

[johno]

Well, I'll have to write it all out one of these days... Of course you start by grinding the apples as fine as you can - I'll have to locate or make a grinder. Then you need to have an apple press to make the juice - again, make or find one, a hydraulic jack should come in handy. Then comes the fermenting process. That's where dad's old memories come in. I'm not too sure just yet about the yeast amount and type, but he mixes it all up in a [new] trash can with a tight-fitting lid, around the middle of which he places a belt to keep it from bursting. Then he takes a quick peek under the lid every so often to inspect for condensation. When there is no longer any condensation on the underside of the lid, he throws in some sugar, the specific amount of which I'll have to find out and write down when we get to that point. Then it's ready to bottle.

We're not prone to using exact recipe's on either side of my family... But hopefully I can break that tradition if and when we make this batch, and record some measurements.

[grungy]

Thanks, John. Have you any idea what the alcohol percentage is?

[grunt]

Johno: The grinder is easy. A disc with nails or screw through it, mounted on an arbor, with a feed chute for the apples, and a discharge underneath for the mush. I'll get out my camera tomorrow and post a couple of pics of the one I use. It's a lot easier than trying to mount spiked rollers to run the apples through.

[plantsnobin]

Thanks for any info anyone can provide. Pics would be great. I am going strictly for the vinegar myself, for weedkiller. I bet lots of people have trees around that don't really produce good eating apples, but could be used for this. With the weeds we have had this year, I am willing to try anything. I came across a website with instructions, and that guy used the unripe apples to make it. Most other sites say use ripe. Guess it couldn't hurt to try.

[grunt]

This is the mounting arrangement. Any electric motor will do, and the arbor is more to adjust speed downwards a bit than anything else.



Plain wood will work for the chute, but will be a bit harder to clean up when you are finished. If you stagger the spacing on the nails (which the builder of this one did not) you will get an even finer grind. This one is done with nails, but drywall screws would do, and have the advantage of not rusting. I would also adjust the chute so the center of the disc was at the very edge of the chute. This tends to hang up on the occasional apple. This rig works on grapes as well.




I put a spatter guard on the back of the disc, because it gets the motor pretty messy if you don't. I add a hopper to go on top of the chute feed, because there is a lot of back spatter when the apples hit the grinder. The loose plywood on top helps cut back on spatter too. The white thing is a scoop made from a plastic cleaner bottle, used to scoop the pomace out of the rubbermaid tote I use to catch it in. (From there it goes into bags to go in the wine press we use to make our apple juice with).
Cheers
Dan