Apple pressin'

[Cellar_Rat]

Last year I pressed my apples after freezing and it when very very well. This year I am REALLY struggling with freezer space - so l thought would it be possible to extract the juice by putting fresh apples straight in the press?
Has anyone tried this?

[fatbloke]

Last year I pressed my apples after freezing and it when very very well. This year I am REALLY struggling with freezer space - so l thought would it be possible to extract the juice by putting fresh apples straight in the press?
Has anyone tried this?

yes, and it reduces the juice yield considerably.

It's why an apple mill type device is used first and then the pulp is pressed.

You find that when you froze them last year, that the juice cells were broken/disrupted by the freezing/thawing process, enabling the pressure from the press to squeeze the fruit to remove the juice reasonably efficiently.

The same applies to the use of an apple mill device, except it does the same thing mechanically.

if you try and just press the whole fruit, you won't be able to supply anywhere near enough pressure to compress the fruit enough to do this.

There's commercial devices available from places like vigo, but at £195, they're not cheap. Alternatively, you can also use a sanitised/sterilised garden sized chipping machine (search for hedgerows posts - he's mentioned this recently), or you can always get a garbage disposal sink mounted unit, but mount it in a plywood frame and the outlet then ejects nicely fine pulped apple into a bucket (it can be done in a food processor but you'll find that you may burn the motor out - a total crime/offence often punishable by "erindoors").

A decent quality bucket or drum and length of 4x2 can also suffice, but don't break the bucket/drum and it's very labour intensive......

regards

jtfb

[David]

Get a Vigo Pulpmaster and bucket for about £25. These are sometimes cheaper to buy from an HB shop than directly from Vigo.

I've got one of those handwheel driven mechanical crushers, but I still finish it off using a Pulpmaster and get an extra 20% juice.

Berfore I aquired the crusher I'd pulp enough apples to press over 100 gall/p.a. just using the Pulpmaster.

[hedgerow]

if its a smallish amount we used to use an electric drill with a plaster mixing whirly gig on it some thing like this, and put the apples in a heavy bucket, i have put the links to tooll station here as they are very close to me and cheap but some people might be able to get better or cheaper elsewhere

crome paddle, and Heavy Duty Plasterers Mixing Bucket

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+Tools/Builders+Tools/d10/sd140

bucket £9 , paddle mixer £7

blitz untill you get apple pulp goo