All fruit must be crushed before you can press it.

Even grapes must be pulped by treading them or squashing them otherwise the fruit will not press.

There are several crushers and pulpers avaialable here's how to crush apples.

First get the apples! The riper the better, nice soft apples crush easier, no bad or bruised ones though!

You really have to pulp fruit before you can press it.

Even the huge commercial presses use crushed fruit, you can tread it, whack it with a mallet or use the blender.

But it does have to be crushed.

For small amounts you can ferment on the fruit to soften it, freezing and thawing apples also works really well

In the picture I'm using the crusher with blades that really chops the fruit to bits, even then it's better if you chop the apples in half.

For grapes and soft fruit you'll want the crusher with no blades.

We also have the pulpmaster a cheap but very useful type of crusher for small amounts

This is the 'pomace' or crushed apples before going in the press.

We put it through the crusher twice and it seemed better

Simple!

Just throw the fruit in and turn the handle down.

Use you hands or a jug, anything but pile it in!

It doesn't need much pressure, when it gets hard leave it a few minutes and it eases off. You'll soon find that it's better to take a few minutes more and use a lot less energy. It's easier on the press too.

This is the small 5.3 litre stainless press, it's fine for a quick 5 gallon of juice, anything more you need a big press.

Juice pouring out of the press.

It's cloudy, thick and delicious!

Commercial fruit juice looks like it's been watered down to me. Home made is really tasty, it keeps about 2 to three days in the fridge.

To keep it longer you'll have to pastuerise it, we have a heater for the job or you can do it yourself.

Heat it to 85oC and no more than 90oC. When cool to 75oC bottle or can it.

You'll find it's so nice that you'll drink most of the juice in a couple of days.

You can also freeze the juice in plastic bags, it will freeze and defrost but it's better to pastuerise it before freezing.

It's easy!

Just add yeast to your apple juice and let it ferment out. You'll need a clean container and an airlock.

There's more instructions on the recipes page