Cider? I Hardly Knew Her!

Always kind of wanted to try a cider from scratch.  And since our good friends Kelly and Jason turned up on our doorstep with 20 gallons of apples from their tree, it seemed a good time to get off my butt and actually give it a try.  Found a link online with some hints on how to make a cider press from a car jack, and tweaked it to work with the bits I had available.  There's not a lot to say, really; just a series of photos in progress:

Apples

Chopping apples, with an appropriate tool

Chopped

Smashing chopped apples, also with an appropriate tool

Muslin and nylon mesh; various sources suggested either for filtering, so I used both

Bucket in the press

Car jack pushes on 3/4" ply disc

Jack's a bit short, so used a wood block to extend it's reach

Presto; juice!

Original SG: 1.054.  Which would be respectable for a beer...Pitched Red Star Cotes des Blanc dry wine yeast, with some nutrient booster, both stolen from Bill who is a much better-prepared brewer than I.  Thanks Bill!