cider with a juicer

So I've been contemplating a cider for a while.

About how many apples would be required for a 5 gallon batch? I know it will vary with type and size of apples as well as growing conditions, just a general idea.
I was considering using a juicer.
Opinions, options?

I have no clue how many apples would be required to make 5 gallons of cider. Like you, I have thought about using my juicer to make cider but I think it would take a LONG time to make enough juice for 5 gallons. Maybe make a 1 gallon batch and see how it turns out?

This site says you'll get 60-75% yield from a cider press (a juicer would presumably be more efficient than a press...not sure what the issues are, though). So, assuming apple juice weighs roughly 8 lbs per gallon, you'd need around 50 lbs of apples to make 5 gallons of cider.

http://www.ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Cider_makers_FAQ

Yuri_Rage said:

This site says you'll get 60-75% yield from a cider press (a juicer would presumably be more efficient than a press...not sure what the issues are, though). So, assuming apple juice weighs roughly 8 lbs per gallon, you'd need around 50 lbs of apples to make 5 gallons of cider.

http://www.ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Cider_makers_FAQ

Click to expand...

I always read figures like that and wonder how in the hell juice ever makes it to the grocery store for $2 per gallon.

RichBrewer: you have any apple orchards around there? If so check them out in the fall and see if you can get a few gallons of fresh stuff when they are pressing. That's my plan at least, but I admit that Colorado likely has fewer orchards than Michigan .

RadicalEd said:

RichBrewer: you have any apple orchards around there? If so check them out in the fall and see if you can get a few gallons of fresh stuff when they are pressing. That's my plan at least, but I admit that Colorado likely has fewer orchards than Michigan .

Click to expand...

We actually have a lot of orchards but most of them are on the other side of the state on the western slope. I think i will scour farmer's markets and the like to see if I can find some this fall.

I've been contemplating using a juicer to provide maybe a half gallon or gallon of juice to add to storebought soft cider.

My understanding is that the kinds of apples used to make soft cider are sweeter than what you would ideally use for hard cider. If we juice some tart apples maybe we can compensate a bit?

The other thing we're looking forward to is taking empty carboys to an orchard in the fall!

I'm not sure if this is too late or not, but just a little info for all ya'll in this thread...

A bushel of apples is 42-48 pounds, depending on size, shape, etc.

"Normal" grinding and pressing yields approx. 3 gallons per bushel...

I'm not sure if you'll get more yield out of a juicer or not, but those 2 figures should help a little. I luckily have several apple trees on my property, and within walking distance.

Has anyone tried useing a food mill? It would put a lot of pulp in but the only thing left over would be seeds and skin.

Chibeast said:

Has anyone tried useing a food mill? It would put a lot of pulp in but the only thing left over would be seeds and skin.

Click to expand...

I once used a liquidiser to break up the apples and then used a food mill to filter the result. Unfortunately the apple pulps had broken up too much so the food mill passed lots of pulp, while the discarded "solids" were still very wet. More solids then separated out in the demijohn during fermentation. (That might have added to the flavour, but you could just add pulp if you want to do that.)

The food mill has similar sized holes to a juicer so it might be possible if you found a way to break up the apples enough that the food mill can cope - you don't want to break it - but without turning them into a purée. Perhaps slicing them very thinly would work, but I didn't try that.

(My food mill is designed to fit over a bowl so I had to squeeze the juice into that and then pour it into the demijohn; that plus the nature of the food mill leads to more oxidation than some other methods.)

You have to keep reversing the handle and removing the dry pulp by hand, which is a pain so I would avoid the food mill for that reason.

This year I used a masticating juicer and it extracted about 3/4 of the weight in juice leaving a reasonably dry pulp. The apples only needed slicing and not crushing first so it was a lot easier.

I've been busy with my juicer today and about 2 15 liter buckets turned into 7 liters of juice. I would say about 40-50% efficiency, taking in account air between apples and the fact the buckets weren't quite full.

I borrowed a Jack LaLanne Juicer and juiced about a gallon and a half last week. I've never used a juicer before, but this one was pretty good.

I've got a Kitchen Aid Juicer attachment arriving next week, so I'll see how that goes. There are a lot of mixed reviews, but I ordered from Sears, so returning it shouldn't be a problem.

I did cut the apples and remove the stem and centers. It was quite a process, but this was our first time, so I'm sure things will go smoother in the future.

Dang... Big ol' necro from 2007.

Sir Humpsalot said:

I always read figures like that and wonder how in the hell juice ever makes it to the grocery store for $2 per gallon.

Click to expand...

High fructose corn syrup

Ok, so I got my juicer the other day, and I juiced about 50 pounds of apples. Between sanitizing, juicing, and cleanup, it took about 3.5 hours for my wife and I to make about 3 gallons of juice. It could have gone a little faster, but we had several different apple varieties, and we were splitting different amounts across the three batches. And since this is our first attempt at cider making, things went a little slow.

I used the Kitchen Aid Juicer & Sauce Stand Mixer Attachment, $140 from Sears. We already have a Kitchen Aid, so this seemed like the best use of space and money. The online reviews are very mixed. Some people love it, others hate it. My opinion: it was well worth the money. It's a slow but steady juicer, and the pulp was pretty dry. All but one of the parts can go in the dishwasher. The juicer I borrowed a couple weeks ago is a little faster, but it's more expensive.

Pros: Easy to use and clean. The pulp was very dry. It comes with other strainers for making sauce. It had no problems with my apples (the book suggests steaming apples first, but it's only a suggestion and I didn't follow it). The price point is good compared to standalone solutions.

Cons: The pulp shoot clogged once toward the end of the evening requiring a complete tear-down and rinsing (though to be fair, the other juicer clogged more while making less juice). You have to quarter big apples, but you don't have to peel or remove the seeds. The joint where the juicer connects to the mixer has grease in it, and this grease is exposed when you remove the juicer (be careful to not get grease on your cloths).

So, if you're not making a lot of juice, AND already have a Kitchen Aid (or want to buy one anyway), then I can recommend buying this from a place with an easy return policy. I've only made 4 gallons this year (3 with this one and 1 with a borrowed juicer), but I'm hoping to get another gallon made next month. I think I'll be happy with it until I decide to make more than 10 gallons in a season.

Oh, two last points... 1) Not all apples are good for juicing. We bought some Rosy Glows that turned to sauce, not juice. I don't know if another juicer would work better for them, but the Kitchen Aid juicer didn't work with them.

And 2) Unless you've got money to burn, I wouldn't suggest juicing apples you have to buy. I spent $64 for 50 pounds of apples that made about 3 gallons of juice (if you include the Rosy Glows). Not exactly economical. If you have access to trees in your neighborhood, then a juicer can make economic sense.

Edit: I attached a small, time-laps video of our juice making.

Edit 2: We made another gallon of juice last night. The juicer seemed to have a little more trouble with clogging this time. I think the apples were a little more dense, but I'm not entirely sure. On the whole, I still like this juicer.



View attachment Juicing (small).MOV

I just bought a Breville Elite juicer. It is fast (took me about forty five minutes to crank out a gallon and a half of juice including cutting the apples and cleaning up), it is efficient (one large household cleaning style bucket of apples for that gallon and a half) and it seems efficient (the pulp was very dry and there is no grease anywhere in the system). I just drop the cut apple pieces (quarters or halves depending on the apple size) into the top and juice spews out one side and pulp out the other. Never clogged, but I did have to empty the pulp a couple times (into my compost).

I have two apple trees so I am not having to buy apples. I can't imagine that this would EVER be cost effective if you were buying apples.

As far as food mill, the best you would get is applesauce in my experience. I make applesauce also and the mill basically grinds the apple pieces to a pulp leaving only skin and seeds, whereas the juicer has a very fine screen that separates all the pulp out.