Cider Press...

[MickD]

Hi,
We have a few apple trees in the garden, and then neighbour has six and were thinking af making our own cider as the apples just go to waste... but the price of presses was wondering how much juice you get from apples, is it worth buying a press ? the ones I've seen are £100 + so need to know im going to get plenty of juice...

any info would be appreciated.

Mick.

 

[mosh]

i have a book called real cider making on a small scale it has a desisgn for a small press if that helps i could e-mail you the plan

 

[MickD]

Thanks Mosh sounds good, please mail to [email protected], but do you know how much juice you get? dont want to built it to find you get no juice lol.

Thanks,

Mick.

 

[mosh]

it says it's a 10l press and you'll get 1/3-1/2 a gal per pressing but if you are planning to do quite a large scale build the frame and then use the cheese and cloth method this will allow you to press more apples at a time

 

[kentish dave]

there is a brilliant site somewhere by an engineer who built his own press and reported the yield of juice as percentage weight of the apples, and then tried different methods and compared them. I must have bookmarked that...

here it is:
http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/press/press.html


to get any yield at all you need some kind of grinder or scratter, this one looks good:

http://www.ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php ... e_Scratter

doing similar things myself this year, currently a race against time to finish building before the harvest.
So far I have spent £21.50 on materials for a press that is nearly finished, and £20 on a 'pulpmaster' which is a quick and dirty shortcut to the above 'scratter'.

Dave

 

When I make "real cider" I expect to get 1 gallon from 20 lbs of apples.

 

[MickD]

Thanks guys, will have to look at the different plans and see if I can get on built before its time to harvest the apples.

Thanks Eric, seems a lot of apples for a gallon, but I suppose they'd only go to waste.

Mick.

 

seems a lot of apples for a gallon

It could well be that my crushing and pressing is not very efficient.
Let me know your results :thumb:

 

[Alan Clark]

Last year with the home made press I was getting about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons per 20lb bag full if memory serves me correctly, I seem to recall 3 demijohns full from one pressing, i think, (helpfully the larger Aldi carrier bags hold almost exactly 20lb).

 

I was getting about 2 1/2 to 3 gallons per 20lb bag full

Oops!
I must learn to do better.

 

[MickD]

Thanks guys, don't think i'm going to get time to build a press before the harvest, so looks like another wasted crop.... ah well theres always next year...

Just a thought I wonder if brew shops hire them out? doubt it but might be worth a question.

Or does anyone near Chesterfield want to loan out their press at harvest time?

Mick.

 

[kentish dave]

anyone got a 'pulpmaster' ? just took delivery of mine, what a piece of ****.
note for the makers and marketers of the pulpmaster: a blade should not have a thickness at it's cutting edge that can be measured with a ruler. A blade has been tempered, shaped and ground to make it sharp.
Seriously, the 'edge' is 4mm thick, it's just a piece of what everyone else calls metal bar or metal stock.
Could have just bought a paint stirrer from b and q. Or made something far superior myself, which I will now do.

 

[Aleman]

As an alternative to a scratter, a length of 4" square oak with some coach bolts studded into it and used pestle and mortar like in a robust bucket works well

As does freezing the apples before you want to use them the juice runs out when you thaw them.

 

[mosh]

i've just ordered a pulpmaster do you think id be able to shrpen the blades myself

 

[gailincheltenham]

I used a potato ricer last year for my pear wine and i got lots of juice. Got to try this year on apples, but peelining each one and then mashing the **** out of it worked well. Took a while and had to keep the pears and the resulting pulp under cold water, but i have a very good wine this year.

 

[Aleman]

Apples don't need peeling . . . just smashing to bits . . . which is why it won't work that well with a ricer . . . it'll clog . . . . . do try the chopping roughly and freezing trick though . . . let them thaw before you press and the juice flows freely.

The peel and core contains the tannin

 

[kentish dave]

I think a pulpmaster could probably be ground to an edge, I know almost nothing about metalwork but I believe it will not hold that edge very well. Perhaps It doesn't need it, what bothers me is that it isn't worth the money for something so crude and that it is misdescribed.

 

[Growler]

I made a press a little while ago using a jack from a taxi and 3x3 timber I think I posted some pics will try to find them

found them they are in this thread

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7648&p=81414#p81414

 

[pomme homme]

I use a petrol engine garden mulcher to pulp my apples. It's not a pretty sight but it certainly does the job. I found that the juice yield increased by about 50% compared to the manual broyeur (a bit like an old fashioned mangle but with pinion profile rollers) that I used to use. I now use the broyeur only to crush the plums for the eau-de-vie.

 

[MickD]

I did think about a garden shredder, neighbours got one, but it will take way to much cleaning I think, will see how it goes though...