I was given 4 lbs of apples recently. How can I juice them without any specialized equipment? I do have a food processor, a blender, and a cheese press here...
Suddenly Cider? (Gifted apples... now what?)
- Thread starter MightyJesse
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Core them, then freeze, thaw and squeeze with cheesecloth. You'll get the best quality and high yield.
Excellent... I imagine I can fill cheese cloth with apple bits and dump it into one of my pvc cheese molds set up on top of a small bowl inside a larger bowl...
I think so far my greatest yield for the least wear-and-tear on me and my equipment has been to grate them with food processor, squeeze lightly, freeze the compacted moosh, thaw, squeeze again. I didn't bother coring and I found this easiest on my pressing equipment. The first batch, I froze then sliced (or sliced then froze, can't remember) and squeezed by hand in my brew bag and I got awesome yield but holy CRAP it was hard on my body, I strained a biceps and my wrists were PO'd at me for a week.
I found that if I left them whole or even in pieces the size of orange segments, sometimes it took so much to crush them that I broke things in my (admittedly jury-rigged) press because they wouldn't always freeze all the way through (of course I was freezing them in a bucket so I guess it took more than two days to get to the centre) and squashing pieces of raw apple is hard on the equipment...
Happy appling!
I found that if I left them whole or even in pieces the size of orange segments, sometimes it took so much to crush them that I broke things in my (admittedly jury-rigged) press because they wouldn't always freeze all the way through (of course I was freezing them in a bucket so I guess it took more than two days to get to the centre) and squashing pieces of raw apple is hard on the equipment...
Happy appling!
While I'm sure I could use the exercise, I'm pretty sure my lever style press can handle most of the PRESSING, thus saving me any strained muscles... I can exert from 40-70 lbs per square inch using the same 20 lb weight and a drilled out piece of 6" pvc pipe lined with muslin.
I was using a 2-ton car jack with a wooden frame, pressing between two wooden cutting boards (one of which cracked in half eventually) and still didn't get as much out of the bag as when I just squeezed it. 
But the freezing and grating really helped a lot, I stopped breaking stuff after I started doing that.
But the freezing and grating really helped a lot, I stopped breaking stuff after I started doing that.Heh, well I'm not intending to do my crushing with the press... just the post-food processor squeezins.
Now I just need to find a simple (hard to goof up) cyser recipe...
Now I just need to find a simple (hard to goof up) cyser recipe...
Well, the simplest thing is ferment it as-is, let it clear, and then prime with honey to make a sparkling cyser, bottle in soda bottles or sparkling juice bottles if you don't have beer bottles...
If you want to make something a little stronger with more honey included, my suggestion would be to measure the SG of your cider, then add honey to bring it up to wine strength (my cider was 1.050 so I needed to add about half the honey one would normally use in a mead of that volume) and use a good solid yeast like K1-V1116.
I think I used a half-dose of nutrients in the straight cider fermentation... and my lazy-as staggered nutrients schedule in the stronger one.
If you want to make something a little stronger with more honey included, my suggestion would be to measure the SG of your cider, then add honey to bring it up to wine strength (my cider was 1.050 so I needed to add about half the honey one would normally use in a mead of that volume) and use a good solid yeast like K1-V1116.
I think I used a half-dose of nutrients in the straight cider fermentation... and my lazy-as staggered nutrients schedule in the stronger one.
