My club, the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild, is doing the club cider pressing today at Grainger’s Orchard in Howell MI. They have a variety of heritage apples, always increasing, that they make different blends for 4 pressing. Each pressing is ~70 gallons, the club members sign up for what they wish 5 gallons at a time on a google sheet (some rules are applied to the sign up so everyone has an opportunity).
It is a fun day, even though the press room is not heated, and it is damp from the apple washer. It gets a great turn out. It is one of the activities we look forward to.
I highly recommend this for a club activity if you have an orchard in your area that would want to participate with a club. It is a win-win, as the orchard we deal with uses the apples that are not going to be sold at the end of the season, or apples that are not popular, i.e. not Honey Crisp.
I have a lot of apples this year but unable to juice them as my juicer died (kitchen appliance burned up after just 2 quarts). I don’t have a fancy press. Guess I’ll just make sauce.
If you have an orchard near you clubs location, approach them about doing this. I found out today that tha AABG has been doing this activity for 9 years. Where did the time go?
If your club is working on doing this with your local orchard, and they have questions, give me a message and I will give contact information to the Graingers. They can give the orchards perspective, which would help. There has to be some positives for them to have done it for 9 years.