Cider making without a press

[sbond10]

After a little study on google. I can apparently make cider without a press using a food processor instead of a press. So according them I just blend apples to a purée then muslin cloth and strain and bottle is it really this simple. Anyone want to give me some point a nice simple recipe with min of equipment.

[Pinto]

What apples are you planning on using ? its the wrong time of year for cider apples

Your method will work, but you'll be loosing a lot of juice as a press will extract a lot more than you can squeeze out by hand. Its not really rocket science to make a press either - it'll cost a few quid in setup, but it'll be making you good quality cider for years to come - all you need is some timber, a cheap bottle jack and drills/tools

If you're going to use dessert apples, then you might as well produce turbo cider using cheap apple juice from places like Aldi - and beleive me, it makes some QUALITY brew Do a search on this forum for "turbo cider" and you'll turn up all the experience and knowhow you'll ever need.

Whatever you do... relax and enjoy it

[sbond10]

Any blue prints for a cider press

[Pinto]

Dont have any to hand, but I can describe it

Imagine a simple draw box, approx 600mmx600mmx150mm high. Use an 18mm thick plywood base with multiple 10mm holes drilled in it fixed to the box. Attatched to the outside of the box, a "U" shaped hoop of 100x48 timber over the centre of the box (well braced). You'll need to attach the bottle jack to the underside of this hoop in the centre, facing downwards. I then make a 48x100 frame fixed to the bottom of the box to act like legs on a table, holding the whole assembly about 500mm above the floor. Finally, you'll need a 600x600 square of (and the best thing i've found so far for this is 40mm thick kitchen worktop) timber to act as the press. One more thing... You'll need a santised plastic trug to put under the box to catch the juice (i use a "gorrilla bucket", AKA builders flexi-trug)

I line the box with a sheet of voile (net curtain material), then add a liberal layer of chopped up apples spread evenly over the box. Place the worktop into the box, over the apples, then pump the jack handle.....

Oh, and to finish the heath robinson view for you... I shred my apples for pressing using a sanitised electric garden shredder

[Mitchamitri1]

Dont blend your apples into a puree - you want to produce a pomace not a puree. If you are starting out its better to chop em and bash em up with a log - or buy a vigo pulpmaster.
Go on amazon and order Lomax's Real Cider Making on a small scale.
Its very very easy to build your own cider press - use the heaviest and thickest wood you can afford, and a decent bottle jack. A top tip is to use toughened bolts (as opposed to the threads that you cut to length)
I agree with pinto's comment ref making Turbo cider if you only have dessert apples.
Enjoy!!!!

I have a vares fruit shark - it will take whole apples and saves lots and lots of time. But, also, it aint cheap.

[newtonsshed]

Hi I'm looking into getting into cider/perry making as have a few trees in my garden I think they'd be classed as desset apples in that you can eat them from the tree.

With a home made press am I right in thinking they work best with a few layers chopped fruit rather than one single layer or does it not matter too much? Was just thinking lenght of net curtain I would need if I were to make one.

Also I see the comments that if just dessert apples than just use use from concentrate from shop ie turbo cider - why is this sorry? Is it because the mix isn't right and you need cooking apples to balance the sweetness with the sharpness??

Thanks

[Pinto]

The reason is down to tannins - cider apples contain plenty, dessert apples not much. Whilst you can "modify" dessert apples by adding a percentage of cooking apples (or better, crab apples) to mimic proper cider apple juice, its cleaner, easier and cheaper just to buy pre-pressed apple juice and add tannins (such as strong tea or wine tannin) to suit if you're going to use dessert apples.

Cider apples usually come free as they aren't very nice for eating they only come this time of year tho

Lidls Apple nectar is 79p / 1.5 litres - you'd be hard pressed to match that buying and pressing your own apples.

[floydmeddler]

So if someone were planning to plant an apple tree in their garden for the sole purpose of making cider, that variety of apple tree should they buy?

[Pinto]

Could plant with both eating and cider in mind - Golden Russet or Katy are varieties known to be good eating and make good cider. I think most of the full cider apples we get round here are Dabinetts, although there are some Herefordshire Red Streak locally too.

Try somewhere like here : http://www.ciderappletrees.co.uk/index.php

just watch what rootstock you get or you might get a beautiful tree and need a very long ladder to get at the apples !

[newtonsshed]

Ah ok could I not just tannin back in if I wanted too and what sort of % mix would I be looking at to brew say 25l.? Would I be right in thinking for a one Kg of apples get about 1l of juice? So how many crap apples to the Kg of dessert apples? I really need to get cioder making on a small scale don't I.

Interesting though I think I might have a kity apple tree I've got a few well established apple/pear tree in the garden that were here prior to moving in and a few friends also have trees in their gardens too so I should hopefully have enough trees to get free fruit and there's only so many apple pies/tatin's that can be made cooked eaten and given!