what juice yield from apples can I expect?

[Crastney]

I've got about 50lbs of apples, a mix of Bramely, and Katy.

What kind of juice yield can I expect?

I'm going to scratt them, and press in a rack and cloth press.

I'm thinking roughly enough for a 5 gal FV - but that's based on guesstimation. :wha:

 

[battwave]

I think you're on the right lines, but I can only visualise the volume of apples necessary. I'm thinking a bathtub or a 40 gallon oil drum volume of fruit for 5 galls if that helps? We never weight them - straight off the tree and straight into the chipper!

 

[user 1290]

An average sort of yield of 66% by weight would give 33lbs of juice, which at 10lbs/gall would be 3.3 galls. If your scratter produces chunks of apple, rather than well milled fruit, it will be less, possibly below 50%. I seem to recall when using an electric centrifugal mill to pulp, then a cloth and rack press, only then was 70%+ possible.

P.S. Pressing 5 gallons juice extraction from 50lbs of fruit is impossible as 1 gall of juice weighs 10 lbs, apples are only 85% juice, and you cant even dehydrate them below 20% water (juice) content.

 

[reebok]

As a broad rule of thumb, I get 1 gallon of juice from about 20-25lbs of apples so your 50lb should yeald about 2.5 gallons or so.

 

[Crastney]

ok - it's a new scratter that I just finished building last night, haven't tried it yet, but it's likely to be more small pieces and chunks than fine grade mush - so I'm looking more like 2 gals of juice.

in which case I'll need to bottle last years 2 DJs first, before starting the pressing.
and with 2 DJs needed to bottle my plum and damson wine, I won't have spare DJ (i only currently have 4) - that shouldn't be a problem straight away, but might be when it comes to racking.

If I start a ferment in DJs and then get more apples and pears a week later, is there any harm in pressing to get more juice in an FV, and then adding the already started DJs into the FV on top of new apple juice?

 

[Wraeccan]

So, to backwards engineer your working...
If I assume a juice extraction of 50% (to be comfortable) I need to press 20lb of apples per gallon.

I need 12 gallons of juice, so that's a lot of apples. I'm going to look like He-Man by the time I'm finished!

 

[Crastney]

From the pressing last night - 3 from 5 bags (so about 30 lbs of apples - 2 bags of Katy and 1 of Bramley - large carrier bags) I got just under 2 gallons of juice (about 7/8ths a gal in each of two DJs). My scratter was ok, but the pulp wasn't fine enough, had to mill some of it twice, and the scratter broke on the harder bramleys - redesign of handle needed there. The press worked quite well after some hasty modifications, but I did have to press everything twice!