Cider Digest #0182

Published in

· 7 months ago

Subject: Re:  Cider Digest #181 Thu Oct  1 11:00:02 EDT 1992 
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 11:39:36 EDT 
From: (Don't Call Me Dude!) <stevens@stsci.edu> 

In Cider Digest #181, Tom McCullough asked about using cane 
sugar in cider. 

Homebrewers don't use cane sugar because it tends to give a 
cidery flavor to their beers. Somehow I don't think this is 
a big concern for cider makers :-)   

If you've been happy with your results using cane sugar, then 
why switch now? Cane sugar is usually cheaper than corn sugar 
and more readily available. 

Cheers! 
- ---Mark Stevens 
   stevens@stsci.edu 

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Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 11:55 CDT 
From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling) 
Subject: APPLE PRESS 

 To: Cider Digest 
 Fm: Jack Schmidling 

 Although a picture is worth a thousand words, I will try to  
 describe the press I made without a picture and less than a  
 thousand words. 

 It is a tall wooden box approximately two feet high and one  
 foot square.  It is made from four pieces of 3/4 pine nailed  
 together at alternate edges.  The bottom is another piece of  
 3/4 pine screwed to the bottom of the box.  It and the  
 bottom quarter of the box have numerous 1/4" holes drilled  
 randomly. 

 Apples are dropped into the box and smashed with a ram that  
 is nothing more than a two inch square piece of wood about 2  
 1/2 feet long.  I tried all sorts of other things like food  
 processors, and meat grinders but this works incredibly well  
 and efficiently.  One bash per apple takes care of the  
 crushing part.  The crusher sits in a plastic dish pan and  
 the juice starts running after a few apples are crushed.  I  
 can usually do about ten lbs before it gets too sloshy to  
 continue.  At this point, I pour the juice in the pan into a  
 jug and go into the pressing mode. 

 The heart of the press is about two feet of 5/8" threaded  
 rod from the hardware store.  This rod threads into a nut  
 that is on the bottom of a board that straddles the top of  
 the box.  There are retainers on the bottom of the board to  
 keep the nut from turning and on top of the box to hold the  
 board down.  The ones on top swing in and out for removal of  
 the press.  The bottom of the rod presses into a board that  
 just fits the inside of the box and presses down on the mush  
 when the screw is tightened.  The top end of the rod has two  
 nuts that act as a lock nut and provide purchase for a box  
 or crescent wrench. 

 I left out a lot of details but there should be enough to  
 get anyone going who is really interested. 

 As mentioned before, I get about 3 quarts of juice from ten  
 lbs of apples.  This equates to about 3 gals per bushel. 

 js 

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