Pulp size for pressing

[Chalkyt]

Up until now, I have used a juicer for one gallon batches of cider. The yield is normally about 0.5 litres per Kg of apples (about 10 medium size apples). Roughly this means easy arithmetic... 100 apples per gallon of juice and hence cider.

I have a press (Santa brought it for me a couple of years ago) so I decided to go a bit traditional and pulp and press the apples this year. The first early season batch is under way.

I bought an apple and vegetable grinder from ebay. It works O.K. but the apple chunks are quite big at around 1/4-1/2 inch. The yield after pressing is only about 0.3 litres per Kg of apples.

The idea of theraputically grinding the apples then pressing while sipping on the results of past efforts, is appealing and the resulting juice is quite clear, meaning that I don't have to do any filtering. Using the juicer is noisy and the juice has to settle out or be filtered. And... I end up with a bit of a mess to clean up.

So, Jolicouer (my new favourite book) suggests that the pulp should be about 1/8 inch... what size pulp and yield do you folk get?

The grinder I have isn't really adjustable for size, but I am happy to cobble a timber one together to get smaller pulp, especially if this improves the juice yield. Any thoughts on dimensions, clearance etc.

All thoughts welcome.

 

[gregbathurst]

I was shredding some apples a few days ago.I use a garden shredder so the chunks were skinny and long, it kind of slices through the apples,about 2-3mm thick and 5-10 mm long. 1/4 inch would be fine,1/2 inch is getting a bit big. If you are using a basket press you will never get very good yield, making your own trad style pack press would work better. I use a hydropress, I get about 60% yield.