juice extraction

[hedgerow]

i have a question that i want to ask everyone and this is it,

i have saved up to buy an extractor i have £100 to spend, now do i buy a good quality centralfugal type which seem to be the most use full for me or do i invest in a stainless steel large steam extractor for the elderberries which i do , a large, very large, amount of, the best idea is to put the elderberrys in the centrafugal but will they work or will the blades crush to many pips and bitter the wine, which way would you go, but it has to cost less than £100, and its many job if for wine, help please

[gwing]

How about one of the traditional fruit presses?

I use a Ferrari stainless steel press very successfully for elderberries etc and with a bit of negotiation you will just about get one of the large ones for your budget. No problems with grating pips, cooking the ingredients, getting cloudy juice and faster than a steamer. Why aren't they used more?

Something like this: http://www.brewgenie.co.uk/index.php?p0=products#

[hedgerow]

i already have a fruit press its a bit on the large size as i made it from a large gas cylinder, and as such great when set up , but it is a bit big for only the odd gallon or two, its around 700mm tall and 300mm round,

the problem i have is i can only afford one of the extractors, either a steamer or a juicer, and i want to know what one i would get the most use out of

[fatbloke]

if you search here at WAH, there's a recent thread where someone found a good price for steam extractors, £40 I think...... (I'm also thinking that it was at the Westfalia website).

If then you dig further you'll find that a lot here, who have them, will have got them from lakeland, as they (apparently) had them on sale when they were clearing out the stock, or the likes of me who got one from ebay (£11 plus postage).

I'd guess that for wine making, steam juicing might have the edge as you don't damage the seed/pips/stone and that removes the possibility of getting any bitterness that way, plus you don't have to mess around i.e. stone/seed/pip removal first...

Electric centrifugal ones are great for fresh juice that's gonna be consumed almost straight away.

Downside of steamer, is that if it's "heat sensitive" fruit (apples, kiwi fruit, etc) then you will tend to get a "cooked" flavour to the juice.

And of course the downside to the centrifugal one is that it will damage the seed/pip/stone with the possible addition of a bitter taste to the wine......

So really it's up to you.

If you can find the link to westfalia (I'm sure it was their site) then a steam juicer for about £40 or £50, and save a few more pennies and I'd think that you could find an electric one for about £50 or £60. Enjoying the best of both worlds.....

regards

jtfb

[goldseal]

Hedgerow, are you anywhere near Hereford? If so, you are welcome to borrow my steam juicer.

[hedgerow]

gold seal thanks for the offer but your a little to far for me to come over ,

[lockwood1956]

i have a question that i want to ask everyone and this is it,

i have saved up to buy an extractor i have £100 to spend,

Zeb (I think) found a steam juicer for around €45 as john says ..from the westfalia website

ill look for a link in a bit

and you can find the breville cenrifugal juicers on ebay (the ones that take a whole apple) for around €30

so you could buy both!

If you can only buy one....buy the steam juicer

[lockwood1956]

/It was pyrosfx

here is the link

http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/household/boiling_down/juicing/juicers/320475-stainless_steel_juicer_9_litre.htm

great piece of kit

one of my favourite winemaking toys, Martina has one too, and we are juicing some "Mahonias" (also known as Oregon grape) this afternoon when it stops raining....

using her steam juicer (we have his and hers juicers )

[hedgerow]

just found the west felia site i had never heard of them till today, i like the idea of the £50 stainless extracter, for most of the time i reacon that will do , might get a little over worked with the elder berry season kicks of but we can just take our time. i know it sounds soft but is there a perfered list of things to blitz and things not to, this was my concern with high speed blades and elder berries, whats your opinions?

[hedgerow]

goldseal we do go slightly your way once a year to a family friend he has several large orchards that we can strip clean we normaly go do wn with a big trailer and bring back a couple of hundred weight of mixed apples, most of his apples are cider which i dont do anymore, but lots of crab and eating and cooking apples

[fatbloke]

goldseal we do go slightly your way once a year to a family friend he has several large orchards that we can strip clean we normaly go do wn with a big trailer and bring back a couple of hundred weight of mixed apples, most of his apples are cider which i dont do anymore, but lots of crab and eating and cooking apples

well with that in mind hedgerow, you'd need a half decent sized cider press anyway, unless you've got a hell of a lot of buckets to put pulped apple into.

don't worry about the mix of apples, a combo like that will create a nice "complex" juice to make into apple wine. Don't forget the difference between the regional ciders i.e. west country tends to be purely cider apples/bitter sweet and bitter sharp, whereas, kentish cider is a little more "wine like" because it's a mix of (mainly) eaters/sweet and cookers/sharps.

Either that or when you've had your fill of them, tell your friend to put an ad on ebay any extra could be sold that way......

regards

jtfb

[goldseal]

goldseal we do go slightly your way once a year to a family friend

Well, if you are in the area just shout

[hedgerow]

this is what i did to a medium size gas cylinder an welder and a friend at a powder coaters i can press roughly 30kg at a time , i normaly use a 6 ton bottle jack but with apple i can use a 12 ton jack in stead works great but a bit on the brutal side of largePIC_1209.jpg

[Duffbeer]

Ouch my neck hurts, can you rotate

[hedgerow]

sorry about that not very techno and my son is not here to sort it for me, being that my son is not here i will use fathers rights and promtly blame himPIC_1209.jpg