Years ago, I used to squish apples, laboriously, with a 6x6 baulk of oak. This for fermenting on pulp, for CJJB's apple wine. Hard work, apples not pressed.
My dad had one of those blade-in-a-bucket things, driven by an electric drill, the choppings then being pressed. From the little I saw of it, it was inefficient in terms of extraction.
I have watched a Youtube video of one of those green things (you know the sort) which you turn by hand. It too seems to produce a rather coarse pulp for pressing, so probably not very efficient. 50:50, at a guess? Anyone?
A couple of years ago, I purchased a used kitchen sink, with waste disposal unit attached. This is excellent, producing puree which goes into a filter bag in an 18L press. I sit the sink on a couple of sawing horses, and run the output into the press. Juice runs out before pressure is applied, and I reckon there's about 4:1 juice:residual pulp, or better, depending on the apples..
The waste disposal unit overheats if used continuously, so I tend to chop/debug a sinkful of apples, then feed those through, let it cool while I cut more apples, repeat, repeat... I might couple it to a separate electric motor, as others have done.
What is your experience with extraction efficiency?
Also, have you added a separate electric motor to a waste disposal unit? How? I was thinking "electric lawn-mower induction motor".
Do you care about oogly dooglies in the apples adding their own juice to your brew?
My dad had one of those blade-in-a-bucket things, driven by an electric drill, the choppings then being pressed. From the little I saw of it, it was inefficient in terms of extraction.
I have watched a Youtube video of one of those green things (you know the sort) which you turn by hand. It too seems to produce a rather coarse pulp for pressing, so probably not very efficient. 50:50, at a guess? Anyone?
A couple of years ago, I purchased a used kitchen sink, with waste disposal unit attached. This is excellent, producing puree which goes into a filter bag in an 18L press. I sit the sink on a couple of sawing horses, and run the output into the press. Juice runs out before pressure is applied, and I reckon there's about 4:1 juice:residual pulp, or better, depending on the apples..
The waste disposal unit overheats if used continuously, so I tend to chop/debug a sinkful of apples, then feed those through, let it cool while I cut more apples, repeat, repeat... I might couple it to a separate electric motor, as others have done.
What is your experience with extraction efficiency?
Also, have you added a separate electric motor to a waste disposal unit? How? I was thinking "electric lawn-mower induction motor".
Do you care about oogly dooglies in the apples adding their own juice to your brew?