The trees around here are loaded with both apples and pears. I have a fruit press I have never used. Any idea how many apples to yield 5 gals of cider (roughly)? We may do an all apple or an apple pear blend, not sure yet. Any advice on pressing?
Apples are allowed to soften before pressing. but IIRC, pears get too mushy for pressing if allowed to soften.
THIS^^^^ Sweat the apples, press the pears when they’re still kinda hard.
My yield varies depending on how wet it’s been. IIRC, in general 2-3 bu. will give me about 5 gal. of juice.
You need at least 40 medium-sized apples per gallon, so if you want 5 gallons, that’s like 200 medium apples (if they’re small you might need 300 or whatever).
As kramerog alluded, apples and pears taste better slightly softened but are easier to juice when they still have some structure left, i.e., before they turn mealy or buttery. I would advise you not to pick the fruit until many of them start falling off the trees, and then leave them to sit in your basement or in a cool shady place (but not your refrigerator) for about 7 to 10 days before juicing. Pears might need to be juiced a little before then, before they get super soft and buttery, otherwise they’ll just be a mess.
You also need a scratter or something to grind up the fruit into little bits. A food processer could work for small amounts but for hundreds of fruits you’ll want to get something bigger. Don’t just press the whole fruits, you won’t get much juice that way! But you probably knew that already.
Good luck and happy cidermaking! I’ll be making some myself next month, my apples aren’t quite ripe enough yet.
Thanks guys. I didn’t think about sitting them. The pears are falling. I was going to buy a cheap garbage disposal and mount it into a board that would sit over my 30 gal brew pot and just grind apples into that before bagging and pressing in some cheap pillow cases.
I will be sure to take pictures when this all happens (if… I’m not the one picking the apples). I figured windfalls that were also somewhat firm would be fine too.
That sounds like a good plan. Yes, keep us posted.
I’d be concerned about the pillow cases not being porous enough, especially for pears. I use woven nylon feed bags (kinda like grain sacks with the inner lining) and they work great.
Feed bags I can get…
Thx
Couldn’t you use a 5 gallon nylon bag from the LHBS? Put the grindings in the bag inside a bucket, w/some pectic enzyme. Wouldn’t even need a press, just lift the small amount of solids that are left behind after a couple of days.
So the apples have been picked. 4 garbage cans full so this will be a bigger event than I had expected.
Gonna start a new thread. Lots of questions.
I recently used the juicer method that was written up by AHA last year and it worked very well. Great extraction taste and very easy. Plus it was all done in a small kitchen.