just picked up my fresh pressed juice from the orchard. 1.055OG and 3.35PH. boiling down some to 2qt of concentrate to pump up the OG…smells awesome boiling right now! cote des blancs at 58F.
Edit: the boil down added to 5 gals got me to 1.070… happy with that. A nice 9% winter warmer cider [emoji14]
I tried boiling some down to syrup for a gravity boost a year or two ago. The syrup itself was awesome, but the finished cider had a bit of a bitter off taste. I’d definitely follow your plan of using a concentrate rather than a full-on syrup if I did it again, but I’ve been having luck just using store-bought canned/frozen concentrate lately.
The orchard I usually use just started pressing on Thursday. I hope to pick up a few gallons this afternoon and get my first batch going. I’ve settled on a nice formula that has been working for me lately to make a nice draft-style cider that has a lot of apple flavor without nearly the sweetness level of commercial versions like Woodchuck or Angry Orchard:
2 gallons fresh juice + 1 can apple concentrate, fermented with D47 or 71B along with pectic enzyme and a pinch of yeast nutrient. After about 7-10 days it is finished, then I cold-crash, keg and force-carbonate. I use 3-4 pints of more of the same fresh juice to backsweeten and then force-carbonate. I’ve gone from orchard to glass in as little as 10 days. I’m usually bringing growlers of this with me to every Thanksgiving and Christmas get-together I go to, and it goes fast.
Unlike last summer, we got some rain this year and while it was hot, it wasn’t a desert like last year. All of our fruit trees have bumper crops. Got 75 lb. of pears from a tree that usually yields about 2 lb. All of our apple trees are loaded. About time to break out the cider press!
Opposite this year here. Last year was the bumper crop, this year a very light crop. I had about 25 gallons of fresh cider to work with last year, not sure what this year will bring.
FWIW for anybody else considering this, I’ve been waaay more happy with slightly iced juice in this situation. Sometimes there’s a particularly rainy year and ya have low sugar apples; it happens. And I don’t generally like to ferment anything under 1.055. Boiling down, while certainly viable, isn’t the character I’m looking for.
Cheers
Michael
Bad years are followed by good years, weather permitting. When MI lost almost all of the apples and cherries to unseasonable warm weather in March followed by a freeze, the next year was a record crop. The trees have some catching up to do. 
Yeah, we’ve seen that over the 20+ years we’ve loved in this house. But this year is extraordinary.