Had a fun year with hops and cider. First year for the hops, had 8 plants and yielded 26 oz of dried hops.

Rebuilt a old apple press, this thing worked great.  We squeezed 50 gallons of apple cider and 8 gallons of pear cider.

Currently have 5 gallons of Hard cider fermenting and 4 gallons of hard pear cider “perry”. This time I did not add any sugar and used ale yeast.

Notice I use little people for all the hard labor.

Ben & huge hop

C&B picking hops

Child Labor

Old Press

Rebuilt Press 1

Rebuilt Press 2

A few asked for the last cider recipe.

• 5 gallons fresh squeezed apple cider (original gravity 1.045)
• 3 pounds brown sugar
• Red Star Cote des Blancs dry wine yeast
• 2.5 tsp. potassium sorbate
• Heat 4 gallons cider & sugar 165 degrees 20 min
• Cool & pitch yeast (starting gravity 1.080)
• Ferment 4 weeks 70 degrees (finish gravity 1.000)
• Back sweeten with last gallon of cider & add potassium sorbate

Curt