Making backyard apple cider with a Weston Fruit Press

Watch along as I turn apples into apple cider. i actually filmed all this last year, but forgot to post it. I'm hoping to get out for the last weekend of picking this coming weekend, so it seemed like an opportune time to post it.

[@ramtharthegreat]

I have had the same press about 10 years, and your video is the first time i have seen it run even reasonably well. I think my pointed teeth pieces in the mechanism need polished up so they move easier. I really despise this press, but decided to use it again this year became my kids want to and my orchard isn't producing well enough yet to justify the "real" $1200 press.

[@RIBill]

It's certainly a LOT of work. I usually only make cider once or twice per year because of how much work it is.

[@willbaum7140]

Bladder Press FTW

[@annebrasher302]

Thank you

[@johnoconnor722]

Connect a power drill to your grinder, makes it very easy to crush the apples.

[@RIBill]

They make a high-torque, low-speed motor that would work. I would think the issue with a drill would be the duty cycle. Drills usually have something like a 15% duty cycle. I've seen someone who got a brand new stainless garbage disposal and used that to grind up the apples.

[@briananderson6758]

Surely there’s an adapter to put a drill on that apple grinder?

[@RIBill]

There IS a motorized attachment you can get, but it's a much higher torque and duty cycle motor than a drill. I've also seen people skip the grinder and just get an all-stainless garbage disposal (i.e. InSinkErator) to grind the apples.

[@briananderson6758]

What kind of press and where did you get yours?

[@RIBill]

It's a Weston press. It was given to me as a gift for my birthday one year. I don't remember where she got it. It looks like Weston no longer makes a fruit press, but there are similar ones available elsewhere.

[@petewerner1494]

So, what to do with the apple scrat after it's been pressed??? Put into a container, add some clean water and make apple cider vinegar out of it! Absolutely no waste!

[@RIBill]

I usually give a bunch to the chickens and compost the rest. It would make a LOT of vinegar! Last time, I dumped it in the field across the street and the deer were eating it about a week later and stumbling away drunk. 🤣

[@amessnger]

I have a better idea. Make Apple syrup and can it. Takes a ton of suger but delicious

[@Gaptains_vloG]

What the heck is the difference between cider and apple juice? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@RIBill]

If it's clear and yella, you got juice there fella. If it's tangy and brown, you're in cider town.

[@user-nt9ew7sx8b]

مرحب اين تباع بريس ممكن عنوان

[@johnboi8346]

Cider in America is apple juice hard cider is cider in England

[@RIBill]

Interesting! In the US, we have a tale told in elementary schools about Johnny Appleseed roaming the country planting apple trees wherever he went. As an adult, I now know that farmers gave him food and a place to sleep in exchange for seedling apple trees, which would give them a crop of hard cider.

[@johnboi8346]

If you allow fermentation the apples have a natural yeast so you can make hard cider naturally!

[@johnboi8346]

What do you call orange juice?

[@RIBill]

@@johnboi8346 I have a book from the 50s for making wine (not just grape wine) which mostly uses wild yeasts. I've toyed with the idea of doing one of those for a video.

[@RIBill]

@@johnboi8346 There's a Simpsons line spoken by Ned Flanders... "If it's clear and yella, you got juice there fella. If it's tangy and brown, you're in cider town"