Pressing cider is a great way to preserve the tasty goodness of apples all winter long. Cider can be canned as fresh juice, frozen or fermented into hard cider, all of which keep for months if not years.
The trick is, how do you make cider without breaking the bank? We spend years saving up for a double-barrel cider press, and I had to promise it’d be my birthday present every year for the next decade. Those things aren’t cheap!
I recently had a reader named Sasha contact me and tell me about her homemade cider press that she put together from recycled materials in minutes. She’s seeing yields comparable to our fancy press and for free!
Sasha tells me that her “press is two buckets inside of each other upside down in a stockpot to catch it. Then I stand on it, then my husband does and then we stand on it together. I’ve been able to get about 3 quarts each time out of a reusable bag full.”
Really? Buckets inside each other with body weight, that’s it? I had to see it. I asked her to send pictures so I could share them with you all.
Materials:
- 5 Gallon Bucket
- Slightly Smaller Bucket (or large storage Tupperware)
- Flour sack or pillowcase
- Large Stock Pot or Even Bigger bucket
- Body weight
Placing a small bucket inside a stockpot is the first step. The sack of apples will go on top of this bucket. You can see the inside of the bucket is stuffed with towels, to help support the weight so the inner bucket doesn’t collapse.
Start by chopping the apples as finely as you can and then putting them into a flour sack or pillowcase. Pulsing with a food processor might work well too.
I was told these apples froze accidentally, which probably helps with juice extraction. The freezing will help pop the cells and get more juice out of the apples.
Place a smaller bucket upside down inside a large stockpot and put the sack of apples on top.
The sack of chopped apples is then placed on the smaller bucket. The bigger bucket is being flipped over on top, sandwiching the apples between the two buckets.
Cover the apples and the smaller bucket with a 5-gallon bucket. See what she’s done here?
She’s sandwiched the apples between two buckets, but because the inner bucket is smaller, there’s still space for the juice to escape in the space between the buckets. It then flows down the sides of the inner bucket into the stockpot.
Stand on the bucket to press the apples between the two buckets. It’s that simple!
At this point, just press the apples with increasing amounts of weight. Sit on it. Then stand on it. Then have 2 people stand on it.
She reports yields of about 3 quarts from a single sack of chopped apples, which looking at the pictures tells me she’s doing about as well as my fancy press. Needless to say, I’m impressed.
Cider yield after pressing
Here’s her description of the process, “I used a huge Tupperware container it doesn’t have the size on it but my aunt used it to store flour. I put some towels inside it for support so I wouldn’t blow the bottom out. The lid seals really well so I never had any leak in on the towels. The other bucket (about 3 gal) is from target’s bakery. My mom works there and has someone save them for her. She and my dad used them for tapping one year. Plus a flour sack dishtowel for holding the mash. I double over another one as a filter when pouring into the jars just in case any of the mash leaked out and got in it. I consistently had about 3 quarts from one reusable grocery bag full. Plus the mash still had quite a bit of moisture. I did run one batch of the already squeezed mash through my squeezo to do as apple butter. That yielded about a quart of mash for the apple butter.”
All in all, the total yield was 3 quarts of cider for home canning and one quart of apple butter.
Filtering the finished cider through a fine mesh cloth or cheesecloth. This gets out any of the apples that escaped during pressing.
Thanks so much to Sasha for sharing her homemade cider press!
Have you built your own cider press? How’d it work? Leave a note in the comments.
Or better yet, send pictures of your invention to Ashley dot Adamant at gmail dot com and I’ll publish your photos and story so others can try it.
Few things say autumn more than fresh apple cider. So what if you could make your own from your backyard. That’s what Instructables user Mike Craghead and his friend John Saveliff set out to accomplish. And the execution of this DIY project is absolutely genius! Want to make your own? Read on to learn from Mike and John, and get the tutorial.
Note: This isn’t necessarily a beginner’s project. Mike stays humble about his own DIY prowess admitting, “I have a basic understanding of avoiding the pointy end of saws and drills and whatnot… but there is absolutely no way I could have managed the rest without John’s tools and expertise.” John adds that for anyone considering attempting a DIY apple cider press, “Intermediate woodworking skills and access to a drill press, table saw, router table or lathe, and screw gun is highly recommended.”
MATERIALS
– Squarehead screws
– 11/2″ stainless steel nails
– Carriage bolts
– Jointer
– Power drill
STEP 1
To create a design for our apple cider press, we “cherry-picked” our favorite features from the various versions out there, and there are endless ways to remix the various components: A bottle jack can be substituted for the big screw, for instance. There are approximately four gazillion ways to build one of these so I’ll leave it up to you to figure yours out, and will spare you the exact measurements.
STEP 2
We ran all the wood through John’s jointer, which is really fun if you’ve never done it with hardwood: a grungy-looking chunk of wood goes in on one end, and a beautiful piece of artwork comes out the other end, the grain suddenly visible on an almost perfectly smooth surface.
STEP 3
I drilled good pilot holes, soaped each screw… and still stripped the hell out of quite a few of them. So when you look at the parts I made, please do not look very closely.
STEP 4
John’s grinder wheel was one of the first things we were able to really play with as the frame was coming together. The hopper is removable, both for cleaning and so it can all be packed up smaller when the season is over. A small clamp provides a little insurance so the act of grinding doesn’t pull the hopper off of the frame.
STEP 5
Once the apple cider press is built, it’s time to grind your fruit. But first, sanitize by spraying all the surfaces with a diluted iodine solution and let that dry.
To maximize juice yield, we let the apples sit for a week or so. A mix of sweet and tart apples usually tastes best, but I’ve never met a batch I didn’t like. The apples are cut in halves or quarters (otherwise they’d just roll around in the hopper!). We toss any brown gross bits in the compost, but minor blemishes on the fruit are no big deal.
A 5-gallon bucket sits under the hopper to catch the ground apples, held in place by a little wooden arm that swings out into position. Then we fill up the hopper and start grinding!
STEP 6
The bucket will collect the ground apples, or pomace. When it’s about 2/3 full, stop grinding. Place the pomace in a plastic bucket lined with netting and tie into a bundle. Place the bundle into the barrel or “pressing tub,” then place a disc made of cutting board material on top. Repeat until you have stacked four bundles of pomace.
STEP 7
The barrel, drain, and tray all slide under the screw, and a small sacrificial bit of oak protects the pressing board from direct contact with the screw. Place a bucket with netting below the spout.
Spin the screw until it hits the board and slows down, then crank it a few more turns until the whole structure gives a little groan. Depending on how juicy the batch is, the cider starts pouring out immediately, and the first couple of gallons happens right away. When the juice slows, turn the handle another half turn, and continue that for at least 15 minutes.
When Mike’s cider press is not pressing cider, he stores it under a backyard awning. “My garage is a terrifying no-man’s land so it won’t fit in there just yet, but that’s always been the plan… I’m still in search of the best way to cover it up against all elements, whether or not I manage to eventually squeeze it into the garage.”
As for clean-up, Mike says hosing down the press just after use, works well, “followed by a damp cloth.” He adds, “We also sanitize with a very diluted iodine solution before use. The whole thing comes apart pretty easily, and once it’s hosed off I hang all the parts out to dry. We don’t use anything too powerful because we’re not fond of drinking chemicals. I’ve read that oak has some natural cootie-preventing properties, too.”
Thanks, Mike and John! Check out their Instructables for the full tutorial! Or find even more inventive DIYs on Mike’s Instructables page—including lots of ideas for pumpkins.