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Cider 2005 - Shredding and Pressing
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Ben searched out an old cider press his grandparents had in a
barn in Maine, and carted it back to NH. It definitely had
some issues which needed to be addressed before it was ready
to be pressed into service. Several of the iron castings had
cracks and needed to be sistered with some aluminum braces,
and the whole thing needed some cleaning and lubing.
Ben's handywork
Ben did most of this work before he and Alexis came down to
Somerville with the press and their load of fruit in the back
of their truck. There was steady rain throughout the weekend,
so we decided to set up in the basement.
One more time, old horse
After a hearty breakfast, Ben and I set to work finishing up
the cleaning and doing triage on the wooden parts of the
press. We decided that the bottom grate that the hooped barrel
sat on and the press block which distributed pressure from the
main screw onto the top of the pomace needed to be replaced. I
brought down a few pieces of local cut air dried maple I have
stickered in the attic and we set to work dressing the pieces
we needed with the jointer and planer.
Dressin lumber
Then we table sawed up the strips for the bottom grate and
jigsawed the press block, assembling the various components
with stainless torx drive wood screws (these rock!, get them
at
http://www.screw-products.com). We lined the drip tray of
the press with plastic; ideally it could be replaced but we
needed to get on with the juicing.
The grate
Now we were ready to set to work.
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We washed a bunch of apples with the hose in the yard and
started feeding them into the shredder atop the press. Alexis
and Becky took the honor of shredding the first bunch of
apples.
Crank it
Watch your fingers
Yee-ha
We mostly tried to shred and press a single variety at once,
saving a plastic cupful and pouring the rest into a big blue
bucket for collection. Even though it would have been more
efficient to fill the press every time, we wanted to be able
to sample the individual tastes to satisfy our natural
inquisitiveness and record our impressions of the flavors. At
dinner that night we had a tasting of the individual pressings
and Ben wrote down any comments we had. It is amazing how
widely divergent the taste and appearance of the different
juices could be.
Under Pressure
The Sweet Nectar
After shredding comes pressing. We tried to weigh the juice
output of each pressing, but the food scale was maxed out and
I had recently busted the bathroom scale by trying to weigh a
soapstone sink on it. Anyway some types of apple, like
Foxwhelp, unleashed a veritable river of juice when pressed
while some types only reluctantly produced a miserly
trickle.
Pomace hernia out the back of the bucket
Too bad we don't have a pig...
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Emergency Repairs
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2005-11
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About 50 pounds into the operation, the weathered timber
forming the main crosspiece of the press frame gave way under
the pressure of the screw and we had to have a little repair
interlude.
Pit Stop
We layed the press down on its side and removed the
long rusted bolt running through the cross piece, freeing it
and the drip tray from the two vertical frame members. Next,
we cleaned up the mortises which the cross piece fit into and
cast about for some material to fashion a replacement. A
scrap of LVL I had lying around seemed to be just about
perfect in thickness, strength, and width. We cut it to
length, mitered the ends, and cut a channel in its long axis
to pass the tie bolt.
Stronger, but uglier: The Modern Way
After installing this piece back into the frame with the tie
bolt and drip tray, we thought it would also be beneficial to
install a second tie bolt near the bottom of the frame to
further resist the tendency of the two vertical members to
spread under pressure. This was accomplished with some steel
threaded rod I had laying around. At this point the press
looks pretty hacked up and wouldn't do at all as a fancy plant
holder in someone's antique shop, but it was now a workhorse
ready to chew into our remaining heap of apples!
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After a pretty long day, which included a fantastic dinner, we
were down to two big blue bins; one full of pomace from
pressed apples, and one full of their juice.
Whew!
The pomace went to the composter in the yard, and the bulk of
the juice went into two 6.5 gallon carboys. About two gallons
of juice were left over to drink fresh, which was split
between the NH and MA teams. Sulphite tabs were dispatched
into the carboys and airlocks fitted to the top.
Ready for the Yeast
We rinsed off the press, cleaned up, packed up, and called it
a day.
Cleaning Up
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Design partially original and partially ripped off from other websites
by Holly Gates
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