Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 71, Issue 22

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Tim Inman" <Tim@historicinteriors.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 71, Issue 22
  • Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 10:50:24 -0600


----- Original Message ----- From: <nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 7:55 PM
Subject: nafex Digest, Vol 71, Issue 22


Send nafex mailing list submissions to
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
nafex-owner@lists.ibiblio.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of nafex digest..."


Today's Topics:

1. Re: Apple pressing (Claude Jolicoeur)
2. Re: Apple pressing (Mark Angermayer)
3. Re: Apple pressing (hwparker@verizon.net)
4. Re: Apple pressing-hydraulic jack (Mark Angermayer)
5. Provocative Tag Lines (K Q)
6. Re: OT carbon (K Q)
7. Re: OT carbon & charcoal (K Q)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

On the subject of apple pressing: I'm a furniture guy, so engineering is beyond me, but I'm also a 'practical' Iowan and I've made lots of gallons of 'home hobby' apple juice/cider over my years. Here's my input on the subject:

Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Simple is good. Low technology has produced millions of gallons of juice over the centuries. To that end, I use 5-gallon painters filter/strainer bags to contain the pomace when I press. They are available at any store that sells house paint and supplies to painters. Lowe's, Menards, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, etc. They are polypropylene or nylon, cheap, and just right for the job. Plus, they're cheap. (Painters use them to strain 5-gallon buckets of paint before running it through airless paint sprayers.) They are priced to be 'throw-aways.'

As for hydraulic or screw: Anything will do unless you're going for commercial output. I have used 'antique' screw-type presses all my life. I find that when the screw gets 'so' tight, the juice pretty much stops flowing regardless how much tighter you turn it. I use a 3-ft long wooden lever as my screw handle. Don't know the equation, but I get a lot of torque on the screw. When it gets tight, relax and take a breath. Wash or grind some more apples. (The reason you want a 2-tub system.) Then go back and turn the screw a little more. If you're like me, you'll find that you get a little more juice the second squeeze, but not much. Driving a bull dozer over the bag would compress it more, but I don't think you'd get very much more juice from a given quantity of pomace.

Grind the pomace as fine as you can - but be practical. My antique machines make a pretty fine mash, and we get a pretty good harvest from it. To get more, we'd have to do a lot more work. Since we do this for fun and hobby, we don't need to worry about squeezing the last nickel's worth of juice out of the mash. We almost always have more apples than we know what to do with, so we try not to make things more work than needs be.

Finally, it seems to me that the sweetest, best tasting juice comes first, and the last bit is pretty much flavorless. I know this because I watch the kids when we press. They always stand at the ready with their cups when the first flow comes. By the time we've pressed and squeezed, they go away and want no more - until another fresh batch is under the screw! So, I'm not really interested in that last drop anyway. What the innocence of the kids teaches me, I'm willing to live by.

Now don't get me wrong! I love to build things and conjure up 'newer and better' ways of doing things. So I'm all for a little good old American Injinuity. But for those who might think making cider is difficult, it ain't. Whatever you use, you'll have fun and a much superior cyder/cider/apple juice than you'll buy at the store.

Just for fun!

Tim Inman
Randolph, Iowa



  • Re: [NAFEX] nafex Digest, Vol 71, Issue 22, Tim Inman, 12/09/2008

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page