Here are some pictures of my new cider press.
Made from begged/borrowed and scavenged wood this press makes the whole pressing operation a great deal easier and quicker. More importantly it is alot more efficient.
Up until now all my pressing was done on a small 6 litre basket style press.Although it was classed as a 6 litre press that only equated to approx 2.5 litres of juice per pressing.The 6 litre being the volume of pulp the press will hold.
I found with pulping by hand using a 3"x3" piece of wood combined with the basket press was not the most efficient, it was also time consuming.
As you can see it won't win any beauty contests, but cheap and efficient it certainly is.
A basic 'A' frame design with a couple of pieces of angle iron to protect the oak top beam.
A trug full of pulp ready to be slopped into the cheese frame.
The first cheese is down and then a sheet of wood to help the flow of juice goes down before the next cheese is formed.I may change the format of this sheet to something more effective.
Then add the pulp.
The pulp is in, approx 10lb per cheese.Well pulped for better juice extraction.
With 5 cheeses in and some packing blocks, the pressing starts...
The juice flows quickly and freely.
Get some pressure on...
And the juice just keeps on flowing...
With the small 6 litre basket press I was averaging 21-23 lb of apples needed to produce a gallon of juice.
Now with a more efficient way of pulping the apples and using the traditional cheese method on the new press, the amount of apples required to get a gallon of juice has dropped considerably.
It's quicker too, giving me more time to drink the finished product.....