Batch 1 is my homegrown Anna and Dorsett Goldens

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20 lbs of apples made about 5.5 qts.  Added 2 qts of HEB apple juice to fill out the 2 gallon container.

SG was 1.048
Juiced and pitched pectic enzyme and campden tablets.  Then after 24 hours transferred over to eliminate most solids.
Pitched cider house select yeast.
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FG .998, added 55gr sugar 170gr xylitol.

Batch 2, Cosmic Crisp!  HEB had it on sale for 98cents a pound

30 pounds of cosmic crisp plus the last few stragglers off my trees.
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I let these "sweat" a couple of weeks until they just started to barely get soft.

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SG of the apples was 1.056
Added 2 qts HEB Apple juice and 1.4 qts of Cherry juice to fill out 3 gallon carboy.  Overall SG 1.054

Pitched Safcider Ab1

That is going to be good! Apples can frow in Texas? I had a apple tree but it died. Same with my pear trees, after my neighbor bought one and planted it, it developed a disease that killed all three of them.

Why add anything to the apple "squeezings? When I was a kid(back inna day) we collected,washed,cut out the bad spots and ran em.thru the grinder/press. Added nothing and enjoyed the cider untill it turned to vinegar. (there was a short time it was hard cider). Just curious.

Pectic enzyme makes alot of the pectin precipitate out.  Leaves it alot clearer at the end.

Campden tab at the start for 24 hours nukes any pre-existing bacteria.  Not strictly necessary but I think it gives your chosen yeast strain a better chance starting from a clean slate.

FYI, the cider was turning to vinegar because of air exposure after fermenting.   Acetobacter (naturally occurring) turns ethanol and oxygen into vinegar.

Yes!  Certain varieties do better than others.

I have a long thread about my experimental orchard in the homestead forum.

Look into Williams Pride.  Supposed to be very disease resistant.

I actually picked the Annas a little green because they were starting to develop scab spots.

Thanks, good to know. I'll look into getting some.

I have a small orchard on my property that we maintain. About ten old growth apple trees.
Every fall we have family up and we harvest the trees and have a Mennonite farmer with a huge press make our cider.
He's got a full set up, all hydraulic. We just bring milk jug containers and our zillion apples in boxes.
Takes him an hour or two and we get between 50-75 gallons that we sell, keeping about ten for the family.

Dang if it's not the best stuff ever. Nothing added and it so sweet. Love me some apple cider!

That's awesome.   Man, you're getting alot of apples!  And yeah, fresh pressed apple juice is night and day different to store bought, to me.  

Do you happen to know what variety apples they are?  Would love to see some pictures if you don't mind.

Neat...

Well, one bottle exploded.  Might have overprimed them a hair....

Tried one...it's good.  Somewhat tart and sweet.  Anna apple flavor coming through more than the golden.