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  • From: Don Yellman <don.yellman@webformation.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [nafex] Apple Grinder Recommendations
  • Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 00:20:38 -0400

Anton:

1. Have you considered using a new kitchen disposal to grind your apples? I have been doing this since the fall of 1997, and wrote it up in the January, 1999 Cider Digest and the 1999 winter edition of Pomona. I think quite a few small-scale cidermakers have adopted this idea, though I have no way of knowing how many.

2. The idea occurred to me after we had installed new countertops in the kitchen, and I was left with a nice new piece of formica from the sink cut-out. It seemed that piece of formica should be used for something, so I went over to Home Depot, bought a Badger 1 disposal (from ISE), built a small table from scrap lumber, installed the disposal, wired it up, and began grinding. It worked much better than I had reason to expect. The fall grinding/pressing has been a family project here, and we are easily able to process 20 gallons of cider in an afternoon, which requires about 7 bushels of apples. My cider yield immediately doubled from about 1 1/2 to nearly 3 gallons per bushel. The hand cranked grinder I had been using produced apple chunks, but the disposal produced a beautiful pomace, which I pressed in a basket press after removing the pomace from plastic buckets lined with Happy Valley nylon pressing bags. I cannot explain why no one had ever tried this before, but, as far as I know, no one had.

3. Veteran NAFEXer Claude Jolicoeur has recently published a new Cider Maker's Handbook, which included a description of the disposal grinder, along with commercial models, and his own home-built apple grater, which is surely the Rolex of apple grinders. But if you are not an engineer, and favor the conservation of financial resources, a disposal grinder can be put togther in around two hours at very low cost. My total expenditure was $33, the price of the disposal, but I think the bottom of the ISE line, which is what I recommend, is more than double that now. You may also have to buy a switchbox and extension cord, and possibly a little lumber for the table. I had those things on hand.

4. If you have questions about any aspect of the disposal concept, please post here or e-mail me directly at: don.yellman@webformation.com.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA































  • [nafex] Apple Grinder Recommendations, Don Yellman, 09/24/2013

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