Apple Cider & Homemade Wine » fruit press

The Colonial Cider Mill is available for sale!

jyounk509 — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:19:13 +0000

Yakima Press Company is proud to present The Colonial Cider Mill. This double tub cider press is handcrafted in the USA. The frame is made with laminated hard Maple from the east coast, with lots of heavy-duty cast iron components. This Cider Mill is built to last generations, just like the apple presses it is modeled after. Check out Yakima Press Company‘s website for more information and photos.

Wine Press for homemade wine

jyounk509 — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:16:39 +0000

Here in the Yakima Valley there are lots of people with a small plot of fruit trees and/or grapes. These small plots are usually not large enough to sell the fruit commercial, but they are perfect for making homemade cider or wine. Using fresh grapes to press your own wine can be a fun and challenging experience. But as you take your first sip, it can be very rewarding. At Yakima Press Company, they design and manufacture fruit presses for both the beginning and advanced home brewers. So whether you are going to produce a few gallons of juice or wine, or a larger batch, Yakima Press is sure to have a grape or apple press to meet your needs. The Villager Wine Press is a grape press that will inspire. If you are looking to produce a small to medium batch of homemade wine, then this is the wine press for you.

Yakima Press Company’s Cider Press

jyounk509 — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:35:59 +0000

Check out Yakima Press Company’s Cider Press. This double tub fruit press can pump out gallons of fresh cider with each press. Loaded with cast iron parts that are made in the USA and a hard maple wood frame this press will last for generations. There is no better cider press on the market.

Weston Fruit Grinder

jyounk509 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:09:22 +0000

If you have already purchased, or are thinking about purchasing a Weston Wine Press, then the Weston Fruit Grinder may be a nice addition to your pressing activities. When pressing grapes to make fresh grape juice or home made wine you aren’t initially required to crush or grind the grapes, although most do. Grapes are a soft fruit and a typical press can easily crush the grapes without any prep work. However, if you plan on making apple cider with your press you must first crush the apples with a fruit grinder. Apples are a hard fruit and simply will not crush with only the force of a typical fruit press. Weston offers a fruit grinder that will attach to a variety of surfaces. This will allow you to crush the apples directly into your pressing tub prior to pressing.

Cider Press Bags

jyounk509 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:20:05 +0000

Chances are that if you’re using a cider press made from wood, you use nylon or cheese cloth bags to line your pressing tubs. This will filter out the big pieces of unwanted material in your juice, such as stems, seeds, chunks of peel, ect. Nylon replacement bags for your cider press are very sturdy and tend to last a lot longer than cheese cloth. Pressing bags come in many different sizes, but you can usually stretch them enough to make them fit for a variety of different sized tubs. If you are looking to purchase or buy cider press bags, you can find them at www.thefruitpress.com, as well as other online stores. They are sometimes difficult to locate in local hardware or related stores.

Jaffrey Cider Press

jyounk509 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:43:28 +0000

Jaffrey Manufacturing and Leslie Wood Products have been building apple cider presses since 1983. They are based in the state of Kansas and have both an apple press and a wine press. The Jaffrey Cider Press includes a grinder for crushing the fruit prior to pressing. The Wine press they manufacture, known as the Yakima, is a table model and is much smaller in size. With the Grape or Wine Press there isn’t a need to crush the grapes like you need to with apples, so it is in effect only a press. Jaffrey also offers accessories for your cider press, such as nylon replacement bags, wheels and other products.

How to make a homemade apple grinder

jyounk509 — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:08:49 +0000

I’ve posted before about a friend that builds homemade cider presses for around $700 a piece. They are built very well and have automated grinders, so there is no flywheel or crank to crush that apples or fruit manually. The most impressive piece of the cider press to me was his fruit grinder. Unlike the Jaffrey Apple Grinder or WestonFruit Grinder, his fruit grinder is made completely of metal. It just looks like it’s going to devour apples and other hard fruits. And it does. Below is a great picture of his homemade apple grinder for everyone else out there looking to make an apple grinder themselves.

Homemade Apple Grinders

European Cider Press

jyounk509 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:02:48 +0000

A new acquaintance sent me pictures of an old cider press he is planning on restoring. As he was explaining it to me I couldn’t understand what type of press he was talking about. So I asked him to send me pictures so I could get a visual. I have posted the pictures of his cider press below. As I continue to learn and be inspired with the restoration of antique fruit and apple presses, this particular press is an absolute marvel. I’m not quite sure how it all works, and since my friend is located in France, it may be a while before I can see it work in person. It is truly a piece of art though and I look forward to seeing the press after he has restored it. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did. If anyone has any ideas, history or other information regarding this style of fruit press, we would love to hear your comments.

Antique European Cider Press

European Fruit Hopper

Handmade Cider Press

jyounk509 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:44:41 +0000

I have a recent acquaintance who just finished building a very nice cider press. I have some pictures I will post below. It is somewhat comparable to the Correll Press, although I like the differences between the two. He is both a woodworker and metalworker so building a cider press was right up his alley. A few highlights are: he buys old pressing tubs from yard sales or other places, then cuts them for the bands around the tubs. This way there aren’t any seems or overlapping on the cider press tubs, very nice idea. And using the aluminum and stainless steel, they won’t rust and should last many many years. He also makes all of his presses with electric grinders, so no fly wheel or manual crank to crush the apples. One of my favorite aspects of his press if the apple grinder. He makes it entirely of aluminum and/or stainless steel and as you can see from the picture below, it will cut through, crush, and “eat up” apples with ease. His grinder is my favorite piece of his apple press. If you are interested in one of his presses, just let me know. He makes 5-10 a year and sells them for around $700. Enjoy the pictures!

Handmade Cider Press

Handmade Apple Grinder

Cider Press Tub

Weston Wine Press

jyounk509 — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:02:57 +0000

The Weston wine press is a great value for the quality of material and construction of the press. Weston makes a ratchet style press, so there is no cross arm to support the screw, rather the screw is anchored at the base of the press through the middle of the press where the fruit tub is placed. This is a great press for grapes and other soft fruits, but I don’t think it’s best suited if you are making cider with apples. It can be difficult to line the tub with a mesh bag, although you could use cheesecloth. But for grapes, the Weston wine press is great as the grapes don’t have as much pulp and excess materials to be filtered out when pressed. You can easily find the Weston Grape press for under $300 as well, which makes it affordable.