$$Apple Cider$$

[Jeff]

Fresh Apple cider is starting off at 5 bucks a gallon this year around here.  

 I'm contemplating ways to build a small grinder and a press for my own wants. I just might do it.   I've seen grinders built with a simple wooden cylinder studded with stainless wood screw heads as the grinders and presses made from oak and hydraulic jacks.

[Tom]

that sounds like a project that I would like to be involved in.  Apple cider..... yummy!

[sawguy21]

Is this sweet cider or Paschale's version?

[Ron Wenrich]

Perhaps the use of Gallagher's sledge-o-matic would fit the bill.   Cheap, simple to operate, and fast.   

[Jeff]

Is this sweet cider or Paschale's version?

Simple cider. "Apple juice"

[Paschale]

I've been thinking about making one too.  I've been noticing all of the old, abandoned apple trees out in the country and remember what you said you used to do:  just get buckets of apples from country apple trees and press it out.

I've seen some plans for some contraptions that use a car jack as a hydraulic jack of sorts.  Wonder if that could work...   

[Brad_S.]

I keep meaning to try this set up out but cider season and peak sawmilling season overlap and I never quite get around to it.

shop press and garbage disposal cider presss

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Juicerator

[Mike_Barcaskey]

yum yum
let it age and get a little hard

[rbhunter]

My uncle has a cider press he ordered the parts for and put togather. It came with a manual crank for grinding the apples. After a couple of uses he replaced it with an electric motor.

Also he uses a blend of about 50/50 jonathan apples and yellow delecious. He is friends of the owner of a fuit farm here and that is how they mix the apples going into thier cider. It gives it more flavor. They also use other apples but the mix basically is split between a tarter apple with more flavor and one that is sweeter.

[scgargoyle]

I've been thinking about making one too.  I've been noticing all of the old, abandoned apple trees out in the country and remember what you said you used to do:  just get buckets of apples from country apple trees and press it out.

I've seen some plans for some contraptions that use a car jack as a hydraulic jack of sorts.  Wonder if that could work...   

Nothing like a little hydraulic fluid to give yer cider that 'certain something' 

[Corley5]

Let it sit for a bit and skim the oil off the top before bottling    I've thought about a 20 shop press 

[Furby]

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=8941.0

[Dave Shepard]

A friend of mine has a nice old cider press that has a grinder built into it. I think it is made to run off of a one-lunger, but I could be wrong. I think it is time to tell him to get it out of the barn.


Dave

[Jeff]

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=8941.0

I've changed my toon since then Furby. Use to be you could get cider squeezed for 25 to 35 cents a gallon. I checked today, (also took a couple pictures) and they wanted $1.25!! (your apples, your jugs)

[farmerdoug]

Jeff,

The 1.25 is great if you are selling it as you need a USDA approved site for selling.  Jugs are getting expensive too.  You get 3-4 gallons of cider per bushel depending on the type of apples. 

The finer the grind the easier it is getting the cider out.  If you have a shop press you could make a fairly good press with multiple layers.  All you need is a strudy tray to catch the cider.

 I would stay away from the garbage can because of the acid dissolving the zinc.  I think that a wine press would work too.

Farmerdoug

[Jeff]

We went to visit one of the small local cider mills today to get some cider donuts and I snapped a picture of the cider press.  Other then the apple washing operation, the whole deal is in the photo.  Little conveyor up to the grinder, (sounds like a garbage disposal unit)  the ground apples and juice drop into trays in the end of a long stainless steel pan. when several racks are stacked, they are slid ahead in the pan until they are under the press. Just a simple Hydraulic cylinder ran by and electric pump with one up and down valve.  THe pressed juice then flows from the pan down a hose and is pumped into a tank where it is filtered can the jugs are filled.

 

[thecfarm]

I do like cider.I have plans to make a press too.Probaly never will.Similar to the link.The plans I have use a bottle jack for the press.Have to keep putting in blocks of wood as you press.The shop jack looks eaiser and quicker.

[Dave Shepard]

For those of us with a tractor, a 4"x12" hydraulic cylinder would be a cheap way to go, and provide plenty of squeeze, and fast. What do you line the layers of chopped apples with? From what I have seen you alternate different layers, at least on older versions. The trays in the picture seem to be a more modern method.


Dave

[tim1234]

JeffB,

Figure out a way to get your LT30 to chop up those apples, then put them in a burlap sack and drop that big redwood table on them.  That should do the trick

Tim