Fruit Juice Production

Making juice from home-grown produce is one of the most satisfying ways of using surplus and windfall fruit. Fresh home produced fruit juice tastes much better than most commercial juices, especially those made from reconstituted concentrates. Home juice making is ideal for those who wish to avoid chemical spray residues; you will know what has gone into your juice. With modest effort these presses will produce gallons of pure juice.

The Fruit

Most people will wish to produce apple or pear juice, so the following will use apples as an example. Any sound fruit is suitable. Although the occasional wormhole or blemish will not impair the quality of the juice, it is best to discard any rotten apples. Small apples are fine but will yield less juice than the same weight of large juicy ones. Hose mud off windfalls - if you do this in a large tub or barrel you will find that rotten apples sink while good ones float.

Crushing

Apples must first be reduced to a pulp; this can be achieved by pounding your fruit in a bucket or tub with a stout length of timber. Pulping is essential because a body of unbroken fruit presents a great resistance to pressure (even hydraulically powered commercial cider presses are fed with finely milled apples). Freezing then thawing the apples before the pounding will make the job easier. Cutting apples into slices is not sufficient.

Pulpmaster

The Vigo Pulpmaster is a simple but effective fruit pulping tool which is used in conjunction with an electric drill. The Pulpmaster consists of a stainless steel cutting blade with spindle, a plastic bucket cover with centre bearing and a 2 gallon bucket. A quantity of fruit is placed in the bucket and pulverised by the rotating blade powered by the drill. Bucket sold separately.

Hand-Powered Crushers

For those who want to produce larger quantities of juice, without the effort of hand pounding and more rapidly than with the Pulpmaster, we supply two models of purpose-built crushers which reduce fruit to a suitable consistency for pressing. Both models have a pair of contra-rotating shafts fitted with alternative serrated rollers and blades (made from acid-resistant alloy) driven by a cast iron hand wheel. Fruit is dropped into the stainless steel hopper, falls onto the blades, is cut and then crushed by the rollers. The crushers can be mounted over cross beam presses or supported over a bucket or barrel. The only maintenance required is a hose-down with fresh water after use and a drop of oil to the shaft bearings.

Crusher A The supporting frame is made in oak and designed to fit over both the 12 & 20 litre presses. Large apples such as Bramleys may need to be roughly chopped before feeding into the crusher. Dimensions: L 580mm; W 350mm; H 400mm; wt. 8.5kg

Crusher B A larger machine than Crusher A with painted steel supporting frame, suitable for use with either the 20 litre or the 36 litre press. This crusher has very substantial rollers and will handle whole apples. Dimensions: L 1000mm; W 410mm; wt. 22kg

Commercial motorised crushers also available.

Pressing

Once crushed, the fruit can be pressed either in the Vigo press or one of the sturdy traditional machines. The traditional presses have a cast iron base plate and legs with a tough plastic coating, (which complies with UK & European standard EN71), oak-slatted cage bound by steel hoops, steamed beech pressure blocks and cast iron pressure mechanism.

Pulped fruit is poured into the press cage (the barrel-like part) and pressed by a wooden piston. The piston is would down with the lever rod: in the spindle-presses a nut, turned on a spindle passing through the middle of the cage, puts pressure on the piston; in the larger presses the spindle is screwed down through a cross-beam to exert pressure on the piston. Both systems work well.

As the pressure in the cage increases, juice will flow from between the cage staves, which are positioned closely to prevent the escape of pips and skin. There is usually no need for a pressing cloth or liner bag can be supplied as an optional extra for use with very soft fruit. The juice flows into the channel in the circumference of the base plate and out through the lip. Once the pulp has been pressed dry the mechanism is unwound, the cage lifted off the base plate and the cake of dry pulp pushed out (a good addition to the compost heap). The only maintenance required is a rinse with water and a smear of vaseline to the spindle thread.

With practice you should be able to do three or more pressings in an hour. Apples will yield up to 50% or more juice by weight and grapes considerably more. As a rough guide 20 lbs of apples will yield up to about 1 gallon of juice. Thus, for example, a 12 litre press used on apples can give an hourly output of around 3 - 4 gallons (14 - 18 litres).

Presses

Vigo Press
Four litre capacity, made from nylon-coated steel and cast iron, with a plastic juice collection tray and outlet tube. Suitable for use in the kitchen (make your own breakfast juice).
Dimensions: H 360mm; cage Ø 145mm; overall width 195mm; wt. 4.5kg.

6 & 9 Litre Spindle Presses
Cast iron base, legs and nut, with oak cage and beech piston.
Dimensions:
6 litre - H570mm; cage Ø 180mm; overall Ø 290mm; wt. 9.6kg
9 litre - H 600mm; cage Ø 210mm; overall Ø 375mm; wt. 14.6kg

12 Litre Cross-Beam Press
The cross-beam arrangement allows Crusher A to be fitted over the cage of the press. This is a very popular combination.
Dimensions:
H 600mm; cage Ø 280mm; overall Ø 420mm; wt. 25kg

20, 36 72 Litre Cross-Beam Presses
Suitable for those with larger quantities of fruit to press. A welded steel frame supports an oak cage with a stainless steel juice tray; the screw is fitted with a ratchet mechanism and operates from above through the hinged beam. The 36 & 72litre presses have a hinged cage to allow easy removal of the cake of pressed pulp.
Dimensions:
20 Litre - H 860mm; W 570mm; cage Ø 320mm; wt. 33kg
36 Litre - H 1000mm; W 570mm; cage Ø 320mm; wt.50kg
72 Litre - H 1200mm; cage Ø 400mm; wt.62kg