Introduction: Pressing and Making Hard Cider.

By Nelson Studios
About: I am a teacher who enjoys environmentally responsible woodworking. Most evenings will find me in the shop working with my now 8 year old son Shay who is both my greatest helper and biggest fan.

Braving the bees to give the fruit a squeeze!

Some might look at the operation and flinch about the open way we are doing it, well part of that is because we are making a hard cider not a juice.  Remember for 1000's of years humans did this in rock pit with their feet.  Its fine, no one will get sick.  If I wanted juice from this batch it would simply need to be strained and pasteurized.  I will say that while it tastes *awesome* drinking it straight, it is liquid diarrhea so moderation is key if you are not used to it.  We will re-mash and re-press the following afternoon, might even sprinkle some water in to juice things back up.  This second pressing will be much closer to the juice you can buy from concentrate in the stores and might be better for little ones not used to drinking the raw stuff.  No need for a 3rd pressing unless you are trying for a liqueur and don't care much about the flavor.