hroth521

Recipes 

Homemade apple grinder and press. Test run. Used 1/4 bushel and made 3 quarts juice. Press has nearly 3 bushel capacity. Garbage disposal is 1 1/4 horsepower from Costco mounted on a stainless steel sink. Press is 2 X 4 's mostly screwed and glued. Box and frame are oak. Pressboards are oak plywood 3/4 " thick. Bottle jack is 6 ton. Cheeses are polyester curtain material from the fabric store.

Edcculus

Recipes 

Sweet! How do you feel your yeild from the press was?

I hope that wasn't a good knife you were using!

hroth521

Recipes 

1) I'm very pleased - I've seen estimates of 2 -3 gallons/bushel. I got 3 quarts from 1/4 bushel = 12 quarts from 1 bushel or 3 gallons. I have three press boards and fabric for 3 cheeses so conceivably I could do 3 bushels or 9 gallons a press
2) Very old knife.

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Sirius Cider

"There are more old drunkards than old doctors." — Benjamin Franklin

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

Thanks for posting this, I just commented I would like to see a DYI thing, and a video showing it operation is fantastic.
So, how much wood chips get added by using wooden stick to move the apples in the disposal?

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In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.

hroth521

Recipes 

There's a few. I sanitized everything that comes in contact with the juice or apples, then I figured out how to minimize it while I was working it. Besides, it all gets filtered out by the press.

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

It really does look like a good setup, once again thanks for taking the time to make the video of the test run. I hope it's very well for you for many sessions.

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In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.

MeadWitch

Recipes 

Very cool video, but I had to cringe every time I saw the knife blade hit the metal sink. Treat your knives with respect, man and they will do the same. However, the juicer and press were way cool!

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Primary: Cider House Rules Cider

Tertiary: Sweet Dried Cherry/Vanilla Mead, Prickly Pear Mead, Jalapeno-Peach Sweet Mead

Bottled: Huajillo Honey Mead - 4 bottles only, first ever mead, Light Draft Style Cider, Raspberry Mead, Hibiscus Mead, JAOM, Peach Melba Mead, Limoncello, Kahlua, Spiced Winter Cider, Orange/Vanilla Mead

hroth521

Recipes 

You're right about the knives. I learned from that test run. When I used this setup to press 12 bushels of apples a couple of weeks ago, I had a long table set up with multiple cutting boards for people to use.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=15515118&l=6cea1cd63c&id=885005566

Fletch78

Recipes 

How much time in manhours can you estimate it takes per gallon of cider with your setup, and how long does it take to set up, and break down?

hroth521

Recipes 

Good question. I did 12 bushels for about 30 gallons of juice. Took about 45 minutes to set up and rinse everything with star san, etc. Two people chopping apples could get ahead of me and grinder fairly easily. I didn't grind when I was pressing. I got a lot more efficient at pressing as the afternoon wore on. The press held 3 bushels of apple pomace. With all that consideration I think I could have pressed all 12 bushels in 4-5 hours with 4 people if we all worked at pretty good efficiency (that is if we didn't drink so much of last years cider during operations ). We also had a bunch of little kids running around and took breaks to eat and talk, etc. It was a really good party. So what's that - 16-20 man hours for 30 gallons? About an hour to clean, break down and load the truck to go home.

NOTE: There are modifications to the press that need to be made for next year. The pressing board will be reinforced and weighted more. I will probably get a larger bottle jack. I will reinforce the bottom of the pressing box with another 3/4 inch plywood. The frame held up extremely well.