SAGARGOIZ Project: Early natural cider

In the SAGARGOIZ project, NATURAL EARLY CIDER took place between September 2021 and June 2022. And 60% of the project has been financed by funds from the Basque Government and EU funds, FEADER.

The project used early apple varieties and brought them to the R. Zabala cider house in Aduna (Gipuzkoa), where they were pressed. Initially, the apples were washed on their way to the crusher, passing through a water channel that transported them to an elevator belt. This deposited them in a drum, where they were freed of leaves and mud and where they received a final wash with clean water. From the drum, they fell onto another belt to separate the defective and spoiled apples, and were subsequently elevated to the crusher. From here, the resulting pulp was pumped by a paste pump to the 300 kg capacity pneumatic press. Two pressings were carried out. The first was on September 6, 2021, with 265 kg of the early apple varieties. The press was filled, and then, with the press stopped, the draining process took place, which lasted approximately 30 minutes. From that moment on, the press began operating according to a specific program cycle. The second pressing took place on September 10, 2021, with 220 kg of apples. Filling the press took 20 minutes, and the subsequent draining took about 30 minutes. From then on, the process continued as with the first pressing. The must obtained from the first pressing was kept in a refrigerated container. The must from the second pressing was then added to fill a 300-liter stainless steel tank, where fermentation took place.