First presses with a bladder press... need help!

[Travis Storm]

Hi all,

I recently upgraded from a homemade rack and cheese to a Lancman bladder press. I did two presses this weekend, each of 800 pounds of apples. The first was gravenstein, the second was early gold. Sticking with my old procedure, I used a modded garbage disposal to get fine pulp, then pressed that.

The first press (gravenstein) went well. I did a long press at 2.5 bar, got a decent yield.

The second press (early gold) was a disaster. I couldn't get a good seal around the bottom of the press basket, and I kept getting jets of pulp squeezing out whenever the pressure reached about 1 bar. So the yield was terrible, and the mess was a nightmare.

Some questions:

1. Is this too find of a pulp for a bladder press? If so, why did it work well for the gravenstein but horribly for the early golds?

2. Is it a problem with the press itself? Is it possible that it's misshapen? I'm positive that it wasn't on level ground, maybe that's a factor?

Thanks in advance!

[Mike Beck]

I have been pressing fruit for 40 years.  I would expect early golds to be horrible to press all by themselves.  We always blend fruit before pressing apples and the resulting pulp will be more manageable.  Example: Paula Reds are absolutely  terrible to press, when we mix them with some ginger gold and gala the press works much better. Far less pulp will squeeze out or less shifting of the cheeses.  We will also change the screen under our blade mill to the largest hole possible so we are pressing a larger chunk when we are using marginal varieties or when pressing any fruit past December.  I would try blending fruit and making courser pulp for early golds, paula reds, lodi, Viking, snow apple, etc.  We have experienced that most early season apples are problematic. 

2 bits

M. Beck

Saint Johns, MI

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[Travis Storm]

Mike - it's amazing seeing familiar names on this forum! Thanks very much for your response.

What is it about the early golds that makes them so hard to press? On a fundamental level. I'm trying to understand how you know beforehand which ones need a coarser pulp (or maybe it's purely experience/advice?)

[Richard Anderson]

I agree with Mike, we always mix and it is a must when you have a particularly mushy apple.

[WV Mountaineer Jack]

You upgraded your press now you need to upgrade your grinder:) You could also do an old grape winemakers trick and add some rice hulls, available from winemaking supply houses, this gives soft pulp kind of a grip and some friction. These guys are trying to tell you that some apples have a texture that makes them perfect for pressing while others dont hold up as well and their pulp plugs up everything as you have found out. WVMJ