[Wort-H.O.G.]

just picked up my freshly pressed, nothing added apple juice (cider)- 1.054. should be great in the apple ale

[el_capitan]

I pressed out 20 gallons of cider this year, from a variety of apples.  Some Fireside and Golden Delicious, but most of a couple unknown varieties.  I tend to pick what I can get for free and go from there.

My gravity came out at 1.052, which I guess is pretty high based on what the rest of you are saying.

I wonder if my higher gravity came from the fact that I let the apples "sweat" for almost a month before pressing?  If the apples are sweating out moisture, then the sugar concentration would be constantly increasing. 

I mainly let them sweat since I know they'll keep fine (assuming I've taken care in picking them and not bruised them up or mixed in apples of questionable quality), and I'm amassing a huge quantity over a couple weeks.  I've also read that sweating the apples aids in juice extraction. 

[dmtaylor]

Yeah, sweating will improve gravity significantly.

Unfortunately, I don't do that anymore because with my juicer (yeah, that's right, I use a kitchen juicer appliance), the damn thing will clog up every time if I use the softer sweated apples.  With my appliance, I have to use fresh crisp apples or else it's an enormous PITA.  So, I get a little lower OG juice, and then add a couple two or three ounces of sugar IF necessary to bring it above 1.045.  Which, this year, I didn't even have to do that.  Depends on the apples, and the season, etc.  Last year I only got 1.042 if memory serves, so I should have added a little sugar but didn't.  This year if memory serves I got 1.047 and I was happy with that.

[Jimmy K]

I think higher gravities to improve shelf life are somewhat held over from when ciders were pressed in cider houses using wood equipment, perhaps fermented in barrels, and maybe fermented using natural yeasts. Those conditions would promote a large diversity of microflora, some of which would need to be kept in check. Modern sanitation makes that much less necessary. If we can brew low ABV beers that are stable no reason we can't make lower ABV ciders.

[HoosierBrew]

I think higher gravities to improve shelf life are somewhat held over from when ciders were pressed in cider houses using wood equipment, perhaps fermented in barrels, and maybe fermented using natural yeasts. Those conditions would promote a large diversity of microflora, some of which would need to be kept in check. Modern sanitation makes that much less necessary. If we can brew low ABV beers that are stable no reason we can't make lower ABV ciders.

+1.  I make almost exclusively ~ 5% abv ciders and have zero issues.