Fruit press

[British Red]

Here you go Tony - I've shopped with these guys many times - they offer a range of presses and fruit crushers

http://www.ascott.biz/acatalog/Fruit_Presses_and_Home_Brew.html

From 1.5 litre minis

to 36 litre beasts

Crushers as simple as a blade in a bucket

to ones doing 800kg an hour

Worth a look at least to guage whats out there

Red

 

[stevesteve]

I have used my-father in-law's press which has a powder coated perforated steel drum and a screw press. We blitzed the apples whole and got it into muslein inside the drum.

The resulting juice partly oxidised toa golden colour and was bottled in old lucozade bottles with no added yeast and some sugar.

The result was some really good cider. Lots of fun to make and drink.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Colin.W]

My home made press is a 2 feet (600mm) length of 4inch (110mm) soil pipe fixed to a piece of 3/4" ply through the top I have inserted a length of flat bar which a threaded bar with a snug fitting turned disc on the end goes through. I havn't used it to crush hard fruit so I don't know if it will stand up to it I have only juiced soft fruit that I didnt want to put through the blender because of mixing in the pips etc
I know a lot of you like to see pics but my computer skills havn't got that far yet sorry I promise I will work on it

 

[spamel]

Making the apples small and manageable for the press has been one thing I've been thinking about and cannot come up with a really decent solution. Something like a massive rotary cheese grater would be fantastic but bearing in mind we are in a recession and times are hard it would need to be home made. Maybe I could get some old cheese graters and cobble them together into a rotary grater of doom, with a pipe feeding the apples onto the grater of doom I could potentially get the apples grated quite easily. Attatch to a motor or the kids bike and I should be able to get mushing and pressing some good stuff quite soon!

 

[stovie]

You could always make one of these Tony...it'll never break...

 

[Tony]

Yeah, that's cool. Umm, I'm starting to think that this is going to end up being a next year thing, especially if i make one.

 

[SteveW]

I wonder if I could adapt something for my Fly Press.....

 

[EdS]

Making the apples small and manageable for the press has been one thing I've been thinking about and cannot come up with a really decent solution. Something like a massive rotary cheese grater would be fantastic but bearing in mind we are in a recession and times are hard it would need to be home made. Maybe I could get some old cheese graters and cobble them together into a rotary grater of doom, with a pipe feeding the apples onto the grater of doom I could potentially get the apples grated quite easily. Attatch to a motor or the kids bike and I should be able to get mushing and pressing some good stuff quite soon!

Just use a juicer - I do about 5 gallons of cider that way. Approx 20lb per gallon of apple

 

[BigShot]

Tony, you could rent one this year and make one in plenty of time for next.


Stovie... I see a project, that looks like it would lend itself to a knock-down construction really well! Set it up for use and then slot it all away into about 3 cubic feet when finished!

 

[spamel]

Tony, if you check out tonights episode of Autumn Watch on iPlayer then you will see them using one of the presses on there making apple juice. It had the beam over the top, much more heavy duty looking and a lot larger than the one Addo has lent me.

 

[Tony]

ahh, missed this, i'll see if it's still on there and tomorrow morning at some unearthly hour when i'm up with Jenna (18 months) i'll watch it

 

[Tony]

Right, I caught up with that naturewatch spam and saw the press, yeah, i'd love that, although it seems to be good enough for a huge amount of people so something smaller. That setup must be about £400+ I'll go for something smaller

The whole setup there with the community orchard was excellent, we need more stuff like that.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Experience with owning two Vigo presses taught me that center spindle presses were a pain in the bum. Crossbar ones are much better (IMHO, mind), it's easier to get the pomace out for a start and they press more efficiently overall.

If you don't want to spend loads you should be able to easily and reasonably economically fabricate your own press with decent scrapwood by using a car jack for the mechanism. I've seen those in action and they're pretty good.

http://ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Homemade_Cider_Press

And of course you'll need something to crush your apples with first:

http://ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Homemade_Scratter

 

[Tony]

Umm, that does look easy enough to construct...Ummm thanks for that.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Go on, you know you want to.

http://www.colouritgreen.co.uk/applepress.htm

 

[BigShot]

"Scratter"
I've never heard it before but that's one of those words you've just got to love.

And from the how to make page...
"NEVER PUT YOUR HANDS INTO THE HOPPER WHILST IN OPERATION. BITS OF YOU CAN ENTER THE PULP AND TAINT THE CYDER... NOT GOOD THAT. "
Nicely put!

 

[Shambling Shaman]

Started to press are Apples this year, top tip Freeze them 1st when you defrost them they go mushy to the point that the weight of the apples starts the juice flowing,

This is the one work got me.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fruit-Press-A...Brew?hash=item53dc044fbd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

[Tony]

that's a nice simple setup chicken of the woods

 

[chickenofthewoods]

'Tis so.

Can't believe they blew so much of the budget on a chopping board though, nine quid? More money than sense.

As an aside... we've got a 'proper' Vigo scratter as well as a pulpmaster (given to us!). The scratter goes with the press and is the business but pulpmaster is a pricey bit of nonsense considering it's basically a bucket and a blade you attach to your own electric drill. It's not 'all that' at the job either - unless you seasoned or have frozen your apples first to soften them it's heavy going. I personally wouldn't waste cash on it.

 

[stovie]

This is the pulp after its been through the garden shredder. the juice begins to flow without pressing

This is the "dry" cheese after pressing

The apples are allowed to "blett" prior to use. The juice is already fermenting at this stage

The mangle is used to initially scratter the apples, before being fed into the shredder

then the juice flows