Home made cider, is there a cheap way of pressing the apples and any other tips?

dieselhead

We have so many apples and I would love to have a go at making cider, just starting to look into it and it seems most of the equipment can be had very cheaply from ebay, all except the apple press (which can be bought from ebay but is very expensive). Any idea on a cheap press or a alternative way to get the apples pressed?

Also anyone got any tips for making good cider?

nanokitten

can you not stick them in a food processer / blender?
You could then separate the pulp by wrapping them in muslin and putting something heavy on it

frogglet

My parents used to use an old fashioned mincer to chop them up then sqeeze it through muslin with weights overnight.

missychrissy

nanokitten wrote: »

can you not stick them in a food processer / blender?
You could then separate the pulp by wrapping them in muslin and putting something heavy on it

I tried this and I still ended up with alcoholic apple puree and not wine. Even when I watered it down and tried wine finings it still wasn't right. I have come to the conclusion that you either need a juicer or a press. I notice there is a juicer in Lakeland for just under £100. I'm tempted as I have access to lots of apples at this time of year. This apple wine has been my only failure so far but I used it up by adding it to sausage and pork casseroles.

There is a thread called Adventures in Homebrewland that will give you lots of advice on making cider.

Happy Brewing

cheeswright

last year I bought a whole fruit juicer from lidl - around £15
got out my extension cord and sat in the garden on a nice sunny day
and juiced 12 buckets of apples
not a murmer of complaint from the motor - and no i didnt take the stalks or cores out
the juice was slightly murky - so I lined a collander with a boiled cotton t towel ( loosish weave) and lobbed the juice through that. it was crystal clear and we're still drinking the wine - The left over pulp was pretty dessicated - but on further reading I found I could soak it overnight and strain it - back to the T towel - and it rendered even more juice. this was the cider - but it was better for being double fermented.
good luck

cheeswright

and dont put camden tablets in - it makes it....odd...not exactly cloudy....but....slightly whitish? didnt affect the taste of the one batch I did this way - but..not so pretty.

frogglet

Pureeing in a blender breaks up all the cells rather than crushing it, its like if you try and make mash potatoes in a blender it goes gloopy.
My parents used this sort of mincer
http://www.thereallyusefulstore.co.uk/product.php?product_id=140597&source=froogle

you sometimes see them at carboot sales,
they bottled it twice to get rid of the settled bits after it had finished fermenting and added a bit of sugar to the second bottle to make it fizzy, they just left the tops a bit loose on the first bottling. they had one or two explode in the pantry but it just added to the excitement of making our own cider lol.