Pressing

As with milling, there are various commercial options for pressing. We’ve used a small (12-litre/2.6-gallon) basket press for many years, and it has given us excellent service. Things start to get time-consuming when producing anything above 100 litres (22 gallons), so if you ever find yourself approaching this volume (you will… cider making is addictive!) you’ll need to think bigger. Traditionally styled ‘rack and cloth’ presses are more efficient with regard to the amount of juice they can extract, as the milled apples are wrapped in cloth and loaded on to the press between wooden or plastic layered slats. As the pressure is applied, each layer presses against each other, squeezing out the juice in a most efficient manner.