Home made cider press

[caartman]

Hi,

I'm new to both this group, and to cider making, having been pointed
in this direction by Ray Blockley.

To date I've only pressed a few gallons of cider (into 1 gallon
demijohns), but have already racked a couple, and things seem to be
going as they should.

I've been using a home-made press, but to be honest its a bit basic
and requires a lot of work although the results have been OK for a
first attempt.

I'm thinking more of next autumn really, when I'd like to produce a
larger quantity of cider, probably in blue plastic containers (50
litres or above), and would much prefer to make my own press than buy
one.

Can anyone suggest links to plans for a tried and trusted home-made
press please? I'd prefer to build a rack and press type that takes
stacked cheeses, but am open to any other options.

Many thanks,

Peter Tritton.

[Andrew Lea]

On 05/12/2010 17:40, caartman wrote:
>
>
> Can anyone suggest links to plans for a tried and trusted home-made
> press please? I'd prefer to build a rack and press type that takes
> stacked cheeses, but am open to any other options.

I built a scaled-up version of the Ag-Canada design about 15 years ago.
http://www.cider.org.uk/press.htm I don't use it any more, but I had fun
building and using it. It also had a second life in Yorkshire!

Used synthetic net curtain material instead of the cotton press cloths
but otherwise it was much as described.

Andrew

--
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk

[Richard S.]

On Dec 5, 12:40 pm, caartman <petertritt...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Can anyone suggest links to plans for a tried and trusted home-made
> press please? I'd prefer to build a rack and press type that takes
> stacked cheeses, but am open to any other options.
>

Hello Peter -

I constructed the press Andrew recommended with the same 14" cheeses
but with a couple other modifications including:

1. Use of oak v fir.
2. Use of 6 x 8 for the two main beams (v 4 X 4).
3. Vertical clearance sufficient for a ten layer cheese (v 4) + 10
ton jack (v 1.5 ton).

For a cheese of this size you really need to bump up the suggested
jack rating to get something close to maximum yield. A 10 ton jack
provides 138 PSI to a 14" cheese (theoretically) which is pretty
substantial for a wooden press, hence the 6 x 8 main beams. To give
you some idea of what it is capable of, I typically press 100 lbs of
apples (approx. 2.5 bushels) in a nine layer cheese and get 8 US
gallons per press, somewhere close to 75% yield by weight - a good
target to shoot for. If I have a helper I can easily do 4 pressings
in a day. I'm very happy with it for what I am tying to do.

Also check the archive earlier in the year for a thread on press
racks. The consensus was that you can save yourself a lot of time by
just using solid plywood (or other material) racks v the commonly seen
lattice style racks with little or no reduction in yield.

Good Luck!

Richard S.

[from Heather]

I'm in the US, but maybe you can find something similar over there. I made a smaller version of Al Yelvington's press. My plans are here:
http://candlewineproject.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/building-my-apple-press/

A video of Al building it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0_Ez14bIwA&feature=player_embedded
A video of Al using it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0RW-HzHK8&feature=player_embedded

Thing is, I originally had a horrible shredder, so it would take like 5 hours for two people to do 100 lbs, including set up and clean up. I upgradded the shredder, and suddenly it takes me 2 hours to do 100 lbs by myself, with set up and take down.

Heather



> Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 09:40:16 -0800
> Subject: [Cider Workshop] Home made cider press
> From: petert...@hotmail.com
> To: cider-w...@googlegroups.com

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[Claude Jolicoeur]

caartman wrote:
> Can anyone suggest links to plans for a tried and trusted home-made
> press please? I'd prefer to build a rack and press type that takes
> stacked cheeses, but am open to any other options.

You can also have a look at the pictures of my own small homemade
press and grinder. Although these are not real plans, it may be
helpful.

The press: http://cjoliprsf.awardspace.biz/PresseAcier.htm
and more pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/cjoliprsf/ApplePress

The grinder: http://picasaweb.google.com/cjoliprsf/AppleGrinder2010

Claude

[caartman]

Some excellent stuff here guys, thanks very much !