Cider Time - Crushing
Fall means apples, and apples mean apple juice.
Our primary use of apple juice around here is apple cider vinegar (ACV) due to its many uses and health giving qualities.
To make ACV, a good starting point is apple cider. And to make apple cider, you need apple juice.
And of course, if you need apple juice then you need some equipment...
I spend a lot of time scouring the internet for solutions to extracting apple juice from apples that is both economical and efficient.
During this search, I found the Whizbang Cider system that involves the use of a garbage disposal unit to turn apples into pulp.
There are lots of videos on Youtube showing how a continuous use garbage disposal unit is a great solution for grinding apples. But they cost about $200 to purchase new, so I went to the restore and bought a standard second hand disposal for $20 and gave it a thorough clean.
I found an old solid oak coffee table at a second hand store for $20, and so I bought that and cut a hole in it so I could mount the disposal unit into.
I did not modify the disposal unit, and it did get hot. I found that if I pulped only enough apples at one time to fill the press then the grinder had just enough time to cool while I processed the juice. If I was going to be processing more than 5 gallons of juice, then I would seriously consider investing in an upgrade. But for $50 I'm personally OK with doing things a little bit slower.
