Looking at the mass of apples on our trees has me thinking of apple juice
- especially the fermented variety ;-)
Any suggestions of makes and designs, especially whether it is better to go for a design with an external frame rather than a rod through the middle? Any general heads-ups?
stump up and buy the best.
And keep it clean
you will need a crusher/macerator as well as a press.
And somewhere to store both.
And to use them. WE set up a complete production line in a spare workroom, and it gets messy and sticky so not carpets.
three people is good. One washing and slicing the fruit, one operating the macerator and one pressing and bottling the juice
we have this one - the 12 litre - crusher and press. works very well.
Garden shredder
100% fruit in, mush for pressing out
Article on this in last Sat's DT. Quite interesting. Sturdy wooden frame and a car jack. Good results.
I did once see one made out of a washing machine/tumble drier drum. Open end up, obviously. Wooden strips cut to fit snugly in the drum with further strips at 90 degrees to reinforce. It was a long time ago but I think a bottle jack was involved. I guess compress as far as you can, then release the bottle jack and and a block of wood and repeat. I've no idea if it was effective.
Having seen the local village Apple Day use of a macerator and press, I opt ed for one of the bigger electric fruit juice extractors for about £60 of f Ebay. It's seeming production rate may not be so fast but then it's juic e output per measure of fruit is far higher and there isn't a nasty wet mus h of pressed fruit flesh at the end - just a dryish sludge. Also once you get the hang of it, it's a fairly clean process.
Rob
Given the cost of hire for apple presses (I've seen £20 for a day, £35 for two consecutive days, and I think Gardener's World yesterday said £30 for a day), that seems sensible. Provided you have some way of storing it - and I'd guess what you got takes less room than some of the mechanical units.
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