Recommend apple press/juicer?

Hi all,

I'm interested in making hard apple cider this year, and luckily my parents have a small orchard on their acreage with 8 to 10 mature apple trees. There are a few varieties to choose from, some sweet like golden delicious or red, and other sour like granny smith. I plan to use a mixture and make two 5 gallon batches of dry cider.

Wondering if you can recommend a decent apple press or juicer I can buy to get started. I don't need an expensive industrial model, just something suitable for hobby brewing thats well made, easy to use, and reasonably priced.

Thanks in advance.

rhys333 said:

Hi all,

I'm interested in making hard apple cider this year, and luckily my parents have a small orchard on their acreage with 8 to 10 mature apple trees. There are a few varieties to choose from, some sweet like golden delicious or red, and other sour like granny smith. I plan to use a mixture and make two 5 gallon batches of dry cider.

Wondering if you can recommend a decent apple press or juicer I can buy to get started. I don't need an expensive industrial model, just something suitable for hobby brewing thats well made, easy to use, and reasonably priced.

Thanks in advance.

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i work on an organic farm that has an orchard as well.. every year i rent a press.. renting is the best way to do it i promise… the companies that rent them can help with which models to choice.

oregonbrew541 said:

i work on an organic farm that has an orchard as well.. every year i rent a press.. renting is the best way to do it i promise… the companies that rent them can help with which models to choice.

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Thanks for your reply. The tricky thing now is finding a local place that rents presses

Our LHBS rents wine/cider presses. I also like to make sausage, so I purchased an enterprise lard/sausage/cider press. It works great on shredded apples, pears and crushed grapes.



You will still need to crush &/or shred your fruit to get the most out of any press, and there are several DIY's here on HBT using garbage disposals, etc.

I might just go all oit and make my own apple scratter and cider press. Aside from having to turn an oak drum somehow, it looks like a relatively simple and cheap process...

House jack at harbor freight are good for the smashing mechanism. You basically just have to make a mount, container, discs, and a mechanism.

Craigslist wouldn't be a terrible place to look for supplies. Also avoid using cheap wood at the bottom. If you have to use plywood, over do it a lot and support it.

Do you already have a mash tun?

If so, make a press for about $40. Basically build a strong wooden frame to fit around the mash tun then use a bottle jack to press the apples. Apples go into bucket or steamer basket with holes in it.

If you're handy at all (and have access to tools) you can get kits on eBay, metal parts included you get your own wood. The kits come with instructions. I bought a kit for $75ish and my boyfriend built me my press. It's larger than most I've seen for sale and after wood and all I think we came in under $200, we had most all the necessary tools. Considering smaller ones are $250+ (that I've seen in stores and online) I'm pretty happy with it. Still haven't come up with a masher yet, I've seen some home build ideas but right now I'm seriously considering a large plastic bag and a sledge hammer 8| so it's a work in progress...


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I love that press! I have one just like it, but a bit taller in the legs I think. I don't know who made it, but I bought it last fall for $100.

Edit- here's the thread with photos, so you can see what it looks like: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/look-what-i-found-434977/

If you're going to be doing more than about 10 pounds of apples, I'd definitely get a floor mounted press like this and not those smaller metal tabletop presses.

ebay or craigs list and be patient until you find a nice one, not one locked up in the attic for 50 years with a lot of dust on it.

You can improve any press, even a basket press by using pressing plates. If you put 1 or 2 other plates in the basket with a pressing bag of scratted up apples between each one (called cheeses) it somehow (not a physicists) increases the efficiency of the press. We tried it out on our, first used just the single press plate on top and compared it to using 2 more plates and 3 pressing bags between them, the multiple plates worked much better. You can get round poly plates here at freckleface.com (and probably many other places) that are thicker than normal cutting boards. If you make your own scratter the most important thing is to put a motor on it, dont waste your time putting on a hand crank. After you press the apples from your folks place (toss in some crabs too for tannins) its going to be so good you are going to drive around looking at your neighbors trees and seeing if they will let you pick them

WVMJ

Thanks for all the great leads everyone. Looking forward to getting set up and pressing me some apples this fall. If it works out, I might just pick and press the whole orchard and freeze the excess.

This is my setup, a used garden shredder to mill the apples and lumber from my own trees for the frame, gauze material for the cloths and painted plywood for the boards. Hardly cost me anything and works quite well.

What kind of apples do you have in those yellow crates? We are going to graft in a Rokewood to add to our apple collection. WVMJ

rhys333 said:

Thanks for all the great leads everyone. Looking forward to getting set up and pressing me some apples this fall. If it works out, I might just pick and press the whole orchard and freeze the excess.

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Hey rhys333! Did you ever come up with a workable solution? I figure since I'm in Edmonton too, maybe I could shoot you a few bucks to borrow it from you. I'm looking to get started on making some cider in the very near future and my tree produces 2-300lb of apples. So far I haven't seen any fantastic methods for presses/juicers that are cheap. Let me know what you came up with.

Like most people with an opinion, I think that mine is the best. I was able to make my own grinder and press mostly out of scraps and salvaged material. I much prefer the rack and cloth pressing method to the drum method. Building a stack of "cheeses" is much more efficient when it comes to juice yield. I built a number of racks from strips ripped from cabinet maker scraps (live down the street from a large custom door shop). I use a 4 ton hydraulic jack for pressure. My grinder is a Claude Jolicouer design https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=VTBibjRFNUNaVkpWNFFwYWI5dlZWVWVicDRKenRn . When I google "claude jolicoeur apple grinder" the third hit in the video section is my grinder in action!

Andre3000 said:

Hey rhys333! Did you ever come up with a workable solution? I figure since I'm in Edmonton too, maybe I could shoot you a few bucks to borrow it from you. I'm looking to get started on making some cider in the very near future and my tree produces 2-300lb of apples. So far I haven't seen any fantastic methods for presses/juicers that are cheap. Let me know what you came up with.

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Out of curiosity, what types of apples are you growing in Edmonton? Are you in Zone 2?

chevalcider said:

Out of curiosity, what types of apples are you growing in Edmonton? Are you in Zone 2?

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I believe we're Zone 3A. I think I have a Fall Red apple tree (which is apparently hardy in Zone 2B) or Collet but I can't say for sure because I'm just going off appearance and it was here when I bought the house. What I can say for sure is they finish at about billiard ball size, and are absolutely delicious to eat so I'm hoping they produce some good cider.

Andre3000 said:

Hey rhys333! Did you ever come up with a workable solution? I figure since I'm in Edmonton too, maybe I could shoot you a few bucks to borrow it from you. I'm looking to get started on making some cider in the very near future and my tree produces 2-300lb of apples. So far I haven't seen any fantastic methods for presses/juicers that are cheap. Let me know what you came up with.

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I've been focusing on my beer brewing, so sadly I haven't taken this any further. If you're looking for cider equipment, I recall that Winning Wines in Lendrum Place rents it

I snagged a lightly used Happy Valley cider press way back around 1987ish and have been totally satisfied with it all these many decades

https://www.happyvalleyranch.com/Homesteader-Cider-Press-Grinder-_p_9.html

Like this so much it's been part of every cross-US move we've made, even when moving to a region not known for apples

Those are serious units. I'm going to make 2.5 maybe 5 gallons of cider maximum just to try it out. Any type of machine like that would be overkill for me.

I think I'm just going to try a run of the mill juicer. Hopefully she doesn't burn out. Haha.

I made this apple grinder with a garbage disposal and sink. And bought the red press from Home Depot online.