[The Norfolk Turkey]

Anyone ever built/fashioned their own cider press? Always fancied having a go, but buying one or hiring seemed expensive and not as much fun!

[GillE]

Does this woodworking thread inspire you?

 

[jimbeekeeper]

I use an electric cloths spinner to spin out the juice, and and electric garden shredder to chop up the apples by the bucket load.

[The Norfolk Turkey]

My wife would clearly and justifiably go mad if I used the tumble drier to get the juice out and the link looks extremely impressive but also far beyond my skills set!! The apples need chopping up, which could be done with a food processor/blender, and then juicing, its the juicing Im struggling on really - short of driving over them in the car - I cant come up with a simple and quick way of generating sufficient, sustained pressure - how much does it really need? Or could the apples be left to drain?

[Ropster]

it takes quite a lot of pressuer to get the juice out, I have just made 20 Litres of apple juice and I had a 4 foot bar on my cider press to add a bit of grunt to it..

I have a vigo press, it was given to me by my fatherinlaw, as you say they are expensive

if you google apple press there are loads of easy to make examples, the ones using a bottle jack look easy to make, if i didnt allready have one I would give it a go

[jimbeekeeper]

it takes quite a lot of pressuer to get the juice out,

My wife would clearly and justifiably go mad if I used the tumble drier

It is not a tumble dryer I am using, it is a clothers spiner, i.e it just does a the spin cycle like a washing machine.

It spins at about 2000 rpm, so using centrifugal force, far more so than most DIY type presses.

You can buy them second hand for about £20 + an electric garden shredder for about £20 and have a far btter set-up than you would pay hundreds/thousands of pounds for

[Ropster]

What sort of juice return do you get? sounds like a good system

[jimbeekeeper]

The solids left in the spinner are dry to the touch

[glyn.c]

I have just built a jack type press with green oak and ply for the plates got some muslin of flea bay and spent a couple of hours pressing 96kg of apples and got just 75l of juice out with a 2 ton jack,to say im chuffed is an understatement !,realy simple to build and as easy to use,used a 4' length of 3x3 green oak to pulp the apples in a bucket ,if i can do it anyone can ! made cider from supermarket juice by the gallon before  but this is the first REAL BREW   hic hic

ATB GLYN

[mrs.ploppy]

Invest in a juicing machine such as the Antony Whirol Thompson one and it separates the pulp and juice so quick and easy if not a bit messy. Did all my wine with one this year I borrowed and saved so much time ans energy!

[JohnB]

I hope I can keep this short? Firstly I have 29 gallons of cider on the go so far this year.
1st how to make the apples suitable for pressing:- DO NOT USE the bucket and 4 inch square wood bit. Use a garden shredder it will give you the perfect size of apple for pressing and I mean perfect. Cut to whatever size will go through the slot at the top with a bucket underneath to catch the shredded apples AND THE JUICE. Makes sure that you leave a bucket underneath at all times as juice will drip out for a while.
2ND The press:- A/ Get an Ebay cheapo.....don't bother they break in no time, plus they are to small.
B/ Again Ebay search and save the search for a Walker Desmond wine press. I have also seen it called a Boots wine press so maybe still available new. Weird design but very well built not huge but adequate for most people.
C/ make your own if you have the ability tons of designs available on the Internet.
D/ buy a new or used one of Ebay or even a home made one of Ebay BUT do a local search and save as postage maybe expensive.
3 The apples. There are 2 types of cider apples one is called a multi purpose (very fashionable now a days) Thatchers (the company) ciders are an obvious example. Or vintage varieties. these are single purpose and taste manure and are unsuitable for cooking they are only suitable for for making cider. Gwatkins a small cider maker on the Herefordshire border are the best example of this (very very cheap if you buy bag in a box will deliver 20 liters for £47 about £1.20 a pint for prize winning cider IE best in Britain)
Odds are you are not going to have either available to you and your cider will NOT taste great. This is what experienced amateur suggest to do.
A/ Blend the apples before you make the cider this assume you have more than 1 variety of apple.
B/ blend the juice before turning into cider. Both the latter need more than 1 variety and the variety have to be available at the same time.
C/ Blend the finished single variety ciders before bottling. The latter is supposed to be the hardest and is used by professionals. As I never have all my apples available at the same time I am going to give this a go but doubt I am skilled enough.
THE LATTER ALL SUGGEST THAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE A GOOD cider NO MATTER WHAT APPLES YOU USE as long as you blend them right. I say that  2 lots of manure apples or ciders will not make a good cider. Therefore the following is what I have done up to now. I have taken my iffy ciders (to say the least) and mixed them with bog standard cheapo apple juice (pasteurised) just before I drink them. Its is not necessary to have more than 25% juice to 75% cider to get very nice cider.
This is what I am trying this year Mix the shop bought pasteurized juice with the pressed apple juice at the start. Also trying mixing it after the first the first and second racking. Also trying adding it just before bottling at what ever proportions I think is right after tasting it. I am doing all the latter this year or put another way experimenting. You can also add sugar but yeast turns all sugar to alcohol (pasteurised apple juice is only water and sugar) so you need to stop the fermentation after you bottle so the sugar does not turn into alcohol. Also it is said that the bottles may exploded if there is to much fermentation going on the bottle. So bottle leave in the house for 2 days then put in the garage (somewhere cold in other words). Take it out when you want to drink it leave at room temperature for 2 days then refrigerate. This will result in a nice fizzy cider and minimal loss of added sugar.
4/ Where to get apples from. This relates only to people living in rural areas, in fact only to people living on the Lincolnshire Wolds. There is a huge amount of apples trees that have been planted in hedge rows quite a lot in road side hedges. I found 3 on 1 road almost immediately I started looking. You need to walk to find them and like mushrooming picking you need to get your eye in. You will soon spot some. Ask people with apple trees in there garden nearly all have loads spare. Back roads are best as they will not be able to sell them outside there house. Now it is important to remember it cost nothing to ask. A farmer drove me up to his field the other day as I had spotted some on his permissive path. Left me to collect them while he did a little bit of ploughing and then drove me home. Result 5 gallons of cider all I did was ask. Also got 60 concrete post for terracing and fencing my garden for free. He is even going to deliver them (I only have bicycles and bicycle trailers) ASK! IT IS FREE AND YOU MAKE NEW FRIENDS. All though they expect a few bottles of your cider.....*.
This has taken me ages to wright so I am going for a rest.....Well I may have some Gwatkins cider first as I have run out of my last years cider and for that matter my Sloe gin and furthermore my mates Elderberry wine, although most of that exploded in my daughters car redecorating the roof and mine and both daughters clothes.  JB
PS REAL CIDER MAKING ON A SMALL SCALE  by Michael Pooley & John Lomax........Excelent book maybe available in Library
PPS I made one particularly fine cider last year. It was a mix of 2 variety from someones garden. I had to mix as they did not have enough of each to make a demijohn BUT I FORGOT TO RIGHT WHICH TREES THEY WERE. They have 6 trees all are different varieties. NOTE EVERYTHING DOWN IN A BOOK AND ON YOUR COMPUTER. It will take me years to work out the right blend again.

[Kleftiwallah]

I got two scaffolding planks, tied them together at one end, opened them up and put a bag of chopped apple between.  Placed a collecting bucket beneath, closed them up as far as they would go and weighed the end with copious amonts of lead I had collected for making fishing weights.  Worked a treat.   Cheers,   Tony.

[JohnB]

I got two scaffolding planks, tied them together at one end, opened them up and put a bag of chopped apple between.  Placed a collecting bucket beneath, closed them up as far as they would go and weighed the end with copious amonts of lead I had collected for making fishing weights.  Worked a treat.   Cheers,   Tony.

Not a bad idea but you must have a garden shredder available, your own or borrow one. Shredded apples will give you a lot more juice. And use the wife's (or your) tights, they are excellent for using instead of muslin bags to put the shredded apples in. Again you will get more juice and therefore more cider!

[jimbeekeeper]

Appart from some cookers, the trees are not empty. Last few apples picked off the grass at the weekend and the trees given a good shake for the last few.

The wait now begins....

[mrs.ploppy]

Oh John B!  What a shame you live so far away as I would have loved to have given you a visit to help you sample all that cider! Hope it all works for you as it sounds delicious