Apples & Cider - A Family Affair

First, we picked our apples - 50 pounds worth!







The girls were in charge of the sorting, washing and drying.



Bill and I pared and cored the lot. God bless the inventor of the Yankee Apple Peeler!





Chillaxin' while the steam juicer works its magic



Finally, Bill adding the sugar and pitching the yeast to get this cider brewing.




It's hard to believe that it took 50 pounds of apples (cored, but not peeled) and a day's worth of labor to make roughly 2 1/2 gallons of juice. We all enjoyed some of the fresh cider before handing the remainder off to our brew master, Bill, for "hardening". ;)

He added some sugar and half a packet of yeast, and into the man cave/basement it went to ferment a while. Our fingers are crossed that this will be fermented, bottled and carbonated by the holidays. See you in three months!