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I have caught the bug of seasonal apple pressing from my parents. My Father has a small Walker Desmond apple press that he uses to make apple wine and juice from that he freezes. My mum and dad gave me the same model and I used this for quite a few years, but moving recently to near a big country park in North Liverpool I now have access to a lot more fruit (also coinciding with arrival of COVID-19 more time and desire to drink) so I upgraded to a new press this year. I bought a 9litre V20 INOX all stainless steel cross beam fruit press from local homebrew shop Love Brewind - this link might work. It cost a bit but hopefully should last me.
My Dad's normal route for pressing is cutting up the apples, freezing for a few days, defrosting for a few days, and then pressing. I have always also used this approach, you can't press raw apples without any processing. But with the updgrade to the press I wanted to also try using a cheap hand-turned 'scratter' and compare scratting fresh, to pressing scratted frozen/defrosted, to pressing just frozen/defrosted. So I did a bit of a test and results are below. There's lots of variables in this. I'm using different varieties of apples (although I tried to keep the test loads roughly similar). Also I was using apples that were earlyish in the harvest season, and they had only been picked for a couple of weeks at most. Also I've read online that when professional/large scale presses involving cheese boards that the scratted apple has some time to kind of breakdown by itself whereas mine went quite quickly from scratter to press. So what I am saying is your milage may very well vary if you've done things like store apples for longer. I did run apples through the scratter twice.
Comparing clarity: Method 1 - just defrosted and pressed; Method 2 - defrosted scrat and press; Method 3 - fresh scrat and press
Process for scratting defrosted fruit (passing it through twice)
Comparing residual apple after pressing: Method 1 - frozen; Method 2 - frozen and scratted; Method 3 - fresh scratted
So from my experiment it seems that the method that yields the most juice involves freezing, defrosting and then running through a hand scratter before pressing, give a high return of juice, giving 20% extra juice compared to freezing alone, and almost twice as much as scratting alone. This backs up my earlier observations that scratting fresh apples that I was using gave segments of apple that still had a strong internal structure and hard to the press between two fingers. Maybe my scratter is just a cheap one, but I did pass it through twice. Also when freezing along, I was always happy with the amount of juice however you ended up with squashed apples after pressing that still had a lot of trapped juice in. The only other aspect is in the clarity of the juice, and by leaving pressing intact frozen apples I think you avoid upsetting the core and pips which add cloudyness (pectin?) but having said that it tasted just as good and maybe even a bit nicer with extra flavour.
So that's my results! I have a chest freezer so it makes it a bit easier, and I freeze and defrost in batches, and normally time things so I have a full pressing day on a Saturday getting about 15 litres.
My Recipe for Pressing Apples
My Recipe for Pressing Apples
If you're interested in my full method - much of which copied from my Dad - then my recipe is below. I wrote this for my friend Dan to whom I passed on my retired Diamond Walker press. Appologies for spelling mistakes, and instructions specific to that model of press!
If you're interested in my full method - much of which copied from my Dad - then my recipe is below. I wrote this for my friend Dan to whom I passed on my retired Diamond Walker press. Appologies for spelling mistakes, and instructions specific to that model of press!
Also I came across this great website for a community apple pressing group in Leeds: https://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/guides_and_advice/community-apple-pressing/
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So you can pick the ones that are ripe on the tree by shaking the tree, or use a long stick with a hook to shake the top branches - watch out for your head! I’m returning to same same trees a few times to get the apples as they ripen. You can store these and any decentish windfalls for a few weeks or more without problems.
You can go through these and sort out the ones that need to be delt with immediately - those with damage or looks like might have mites in them.
To prepare for pressing you need to pulp the apples. The best approach I’ve found is to just freeze them as this does a good job of breaking down the crunchy structure inside and make it easier to press and get the juice out. Don’t try using the press on whole/halved/quatered apples without doing this - I’ve tried, it won’t produce much juice and you’ll find it too hard to turn the press.
So to pulp the apples, give your apples a rinse if they need it, then cut up your apples into halves or quarters (depending on size of apple). Don’t worry about cores or skin or skin defects, but cut out any rotten bits or grubs. I find that grubs move into the core so just cut out the core in these cases. Chuck the apple halves into carrier bags, I reckon a normal size carrier ⅔ full is about what you can fit in a press if that helps. Then place the carriers into the freezer and leave to freeze for 48hrs+ (they seem to take a while to freeze properly). After this take them out and I tend to defrost them outside in their carriers for a day or more (again takes a while).
Set up the press, connect up the pipe from the inside (wrap some more of that plumbers tape around the end of it if needed to stop it from pulling through). When you start pressing the juice, watch out for this connection as you might need to fiddle with it and it might even be a good idea to pass water (not piss) through the press to finesse the pipe attachment. When I got it right I tended to put some card or piece of wood to wedge it into that cut out gap on that piece of wood I gave you, just to hold the pipe in place a bit more firmly, and then I have often tried if possible to leave the press setup between uses if this is possible (might not be). When you start to press real juice keep an eye out again, there might be the odd drip, but with a good gradient on the pipe you should see the juice flow freely out of the catchment tray, down the pipe, and into your bottle or jug or whatever your’re collecting it in.
Having set up the above and when you’re ready to press, tip a kettle of boiling water through the press and pipe to sterelise each time you use. Maybe also put some vegetable oil or similar on the metal screw. Place your collecting vessel at the other end of the pipe. Open up the press (unscrew the top thing to almost it’s end, and slide out the crossbar so you can take take the plunger assembly with crossbar away completely). Put the plastic spray guard around the inner metal tube and the upright supports. Then put in the fabric pressing bag into the inner tube folding the top over (like a sock, turned over). Then tip the apples in, and probably including any juice that has already accumulated. When maybe almost full, fold over the pressing bag into the middle, then refit the top plunger assembly starting with the plunger plate, and then the screw with it’s crossbar (it’s a bit tricky to get that cross beam under both sides of the upright supports sometimes, sometimes the inner tube rides up over one of the bolts at the bottom of one of the upright supports, so press on the side of the metal tube above the offending bolt (see below) until the metal tube seats properly, and then the cross bar should go in easier both sides. So now if you turn the top screw it should simultaniously push down into the hole on the plunger plate and up on the horizontal supports, ands the more you turn the more downwards pressure it puts on the apples.
I tend to press down over the course of 20 mins or so, turning the press until there is ‘tension’ then leaving it to let the apples slowly vacate their juice, and then coming back to it giving another few turns (turns a lot easier after a pause). Make sure your collecting vessel doesn’t overflow, so maybe get a second empty one just in case. Then when you probably get to about an eighth of the way from the bottom, your’re probably getting as far as you’re going to get and you find it’s a bit too much of a job to turn the screw, so leave it again to get any last juice out, maybe tipping the whole thing if you’re brave. Then release the pressure, take off the top plunger assembly, dunk out all the apples into your compost/bin/garden mulch, and repeat with next batch (I don’t bother sterelising between batches on same day).
With the juice I tend to save enough for fresh drinking in week and then rest for alcohol I put in freezer in batches until I have enough to make a few gallons of wine/cider I guess. I place doubled freezer bags inside tupperware or the bottom half of milk containers, put the juice in and tie up top, then put in the freezer. When it’s frozen and I want to freeze the next batch I pull out the inner freezer bag with the juice in it, and place a new freezer bag inside the outer freezer bag (the outer of the double freezer bag just makes it easier I find to pull the juice out of the container once it’s frozen as it makes it slippy).
When I’ve run out of room in the freezer and ready to make alcohol, I do some working out about freezeing a whole load of apples for pressing, and simultaneously taking out and defrosting the existing juice in a fermenting bin (the only bit of equipment you might need). It takes a few days to defrost the juice, so that gives you time to go for broke with a last few bags of apples to quickly freeze and defrost and press so that all come together at the right time. As long as your fermenting bin is clean an sterile before use you can probably have your juice defrosted and sitting for a day or so in the cool, but one thing you might need to think about doing (depending on your cider recipe) is that you might need to put a few crushed Campden tablets (don’t breathe in the fumes) into the juice, generally 1 tablet per gallon/4.5litres - this kills the natural yeasts in it so do this after you’ve add all of the juice you’re going to use.
I haven’t done cider but I’m guessing that depending on your recipe you’ll either be adding sugar, or yeast nutrients, and packet of yeast of some sort (or you’ll rely upon the natural yeasts in which case ignore Campden tablet above). I would think you need to leave in your fermenting bin for maybe a week or two, then you might need to put into a pressure barrel or something else more air tight for longer term. It it was me I’d be looking to do that primary ferment in the fermenting bin, then put in my pressure barrel and start drinking after 1 week to a month, but that’s what I’m hoping. I’ve seen one recipe which says about waiting for 6months to a year, I don’t know but to me that;s too long to wait!
Shopping List
Shopping List
So from the above, just to give you an idea what to look out for
Fermenting barrel 5 gallon (notice to go for one like this with a cap that has a basic vent, rather than one with a fitting for a gas cartridge which are a bloody nightmare): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-Pressure-Beer-Barrel-vent/dp/B002R6DIIQ
Some people online talking about demijohns for storage of cider as alternative to barrel above, or in advance of putting in barrel: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pair-Litre-Demi-Johns-Grommets-Airlocks/dp/B00J3S9M2C/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=demijohn&qid=1600898583&s=kitchen&sr=1-1
Cider yeast (white whine yeast might do too): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gervin-Cider-Yeast-Sachet-Fermentation/dp/B012H1JHD0/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=cider+yeast&qid=1600898499&s=kitchen&sr=1-4
Campden tablets:
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