Brewing from Foraged Ingredients

Im voring hard Apple cider. Cook the apples blend em and use a clean thirty to filter out the juice.

Use the apple fiber to make apple butter.

I'm a double use kinda gal. Never waste stuff!

Hmm on second thought you may not be able to make hard cider if you cook the apples. May have to blend with water 1st without cooking.

Couple of things about hops. (Just for fun) There are two basic kinds of hops with a bazillion varieties. One type of hops os for smell and the other is for flavor. The flavor varieties in the commercial hops world are a big secret and top secret. Premium prices for premium hops varieties.

The plants are beautiful and hops in traditional herbal remedies are used as a sedative and for kidney and gall stones

http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgra...84&signature=b9d5bab2a0810a564b02390d9ececba3

OK I'm done derailing your thread. still voting apple cider

 

Building a press for your apples would not be hard.


Though my vote would be either hard cider or Mead.

 

All sorts of ways to apply pressure, including, just a long lever with a block and tackle to raise one end. That press looks nice, but for $800.00, I could have a foot press punching out cores, the disposal chopper system, and a pair of mash presses, working on squeezing out more juice.

 

$85.00 for the disposalhttp://m.lowes.com/pd/InSinkErator-Badger-1-13-Hp-Garbage-Disposal/1267193?http://m.lowes.com/pd/InSinkErator-Badger-1-13-Hp-Garbage-Disposal/1267193=
$260.00 for the sink which sound high..Shop American Standard 22-in x 33-in Silver Single-Basin Stainless Steel Drop-In or Undermount 1-Hole Commercial/Residential Kitchen Sink at Lowe's

$20.00 for some punched angle to form a frame.
An extension cord and switch $20.00.
1 Ton Arbor Press & Other Arbor Presses - Harbor Freight Tools simple bearing press fitted with a sleeve of pipe would core apples with very little effort, and only minor modifications.$50.00
Shop Torin 6-Ton Bottle Jack with Case at Lowe's $20.00 for a bottle jack ,
And say $100.00 in wood , bolts, glue, saw blades, drill bits, ect.
$85
$260
$60
$100
$50
Just over $555.00
Your press and Grinder is nice, but slow and hand powered. (And $800)
It CAN be done, faster, with more pressure, and for less money, but it would require more work to assemble.
Your money, make yourown choices. (Ymmv)

 

As for making apples into pulp for pressing. I bought an old vitamix juicer/blender for $45. New ones go for $400. It will turn pears or apples into thick juice almost like a smoothy, and you do not have to core them, peel them or anything except I would advise washing them first. Cutting them up into quarters or eighths makes them easier to juice. A tight weave cloth bag could be used with an improvised press to get juice without the pulp. The pulp could be used to make apple or pear butter.
.
My point is a used powerful blender/juicer would be very handy for your project. I vote for hard cider.

 

use a hand meat grinder.. Cyser? Have to look it up.. But I am adventurouse so thats my vote..

Update after looking it up.. Oh, thats what it is.. Sounds interesting..

 

I vote hard cider as if you don't catch it at the right point, you end up with some great vinegar. Grand dad made wine out of dandelines, over ripe peaches, elder berries, strawberries and about everything else it seems and while I don't know how good it tasted, it got drank up. Back in the 1940's a lot of our neighbors in the farming community made all of their own beer. They liked it better than the store bought stuff and took great pride in their own distinctive blend. Mead is good, but the taste is kind of unique and you may not like it. The old "small" beers were brewed and drank without ageing as they got sour tasting after a few days and were about the only way a traveler in the old days could be sure that he didn't get sick from drinking the water. I was told that the brewers in Nam washed their bottles with formaldhide and it gave the guys a bad headache the next morning, so the powers that be said that they couldn't do that and they quit using it. Then the guys started to get all these weird tummy problems and they told them to use it again. But then I was told a lot of things at that time that were at best doubtful. We could have a thread on "military myths" like mythbusters I guess and I know as a young troop I didn't know if it was true or not, but if the sarge said it was so I didn't disagree.

 

Well hell boy, why didn't you say so. Power or no power makes a big difference. You need to consider any wine possibilities with readily available main ingredients, and little work to get to the juice point. Grapes, berries, or other ripe fruits not so damn difficult to juice. Peaches, watermelon, lots of possibilities. Making cider itself without power can be a major pain. Go to the library and grab all the books on wine making you can carry and read up. Buy copies of the most informative easy to understand of those books, or glean that info anyway that suits you. If you forget stuff, get some cheap spiral notepads now before school is in full swing as it's the cheapest time to do so. Keep notes on everything you do on this, cause man fails almost as much as he succeeds a lot of the time. Unless you are a quitter and this ain't really going anywhere you need to keep track of things so you can figure out where you went wrong and not repeat your mistakes. You might read up on beer also. It might be easier in the long run. For that matter get some info on making some pop skull stuff with a still. If you can make anything at all and get it to ferment and have some alcohol content, even if it alone isn't what one would normally consider fit to drink, you can distill that into some kick ass liquor. Best to read up and acquire books and info and skill to do this before the SHTF, cause once power ain't available it all gets much harder. Good Luck.

 

@ghrit. You sailors will drink anything lol. A great story ty for sharing it

@duane was your grandpa married to my grandma. She made wine out of everything. ..we had strawberry champagne one year cuz she put too much sugar in it and holes in the ceiling from piping the cork. Headaches from all that sugar were awesome in their magnitude.

I'm trying to think if a hand grain grinder would work for pulping fruit.

I will have to go look at mine

 

My vote for hard cider. I'll PM you my address when you're ready to ship..