Homegrown, homemade apple cider!!

[solatido]

Yum, yum, yum! We went to visit family members who have apple trees and a cider press and spent the weekend picking apples, washing them, and making cider! DS had a blast playing in the apple washing water and taking one bite out of random apples. We made like 10 plus gallons of cider so DH and I brought home almost 6

And it's all organic as the only thing done to those trees is the occasional pruning.

We haven't pasteurized any of it yet. We have one gallon in a jug with some airline tubing running into water. This lets the gas out but no air in, apparently. We are hoping it will become... interesting.

The rest of it is in a 5-gallon collapsible water container. I think DH wants it all to get... interesting... but maybe I should siphon off a gallon or so to freeze for late fall or winter. Probably should pasteurize it and let it remain boring

It doesn't get extremely alcoholic, no more than beer, and if you drink it before it finishes fermenting it's sparkly and all natural!! BUT DH learned the hard way not to drink cider made from ground apples. So we picked them all from the tree this year.

Does anyone else let their cider get a little more exciting the natural way?