DIY Apple Cider Press

Get started pressing apples for cider today with this DIY apple cider press.

By Lyndsay Mynatt
Updated on October 9, 2022
article image
by AdobeStock/Luidmila Spot

Fashion a DIY apple cider press so you can learn how to make apple cider. Get started pressing apples for cider today!

Each fall, we host a cider-pressing event. Crates overflow with crimson-striped, emerald-speckled, golden-laced apples. But the center of attention is not the 2,000 pounds of apples. Stealing the show is a wooden, handcrafted cider press that looks as if it has been transported through history, custom built in 1998 by local woodcrafter Andrew Campbell. Friends and neighbors eagerly gather to help squeeze out the rich, juicy apple cider that will be frozen or fermented for the winter to come. The tradition simply would not be possible without our cider press, around which we create memories and cultivate deeper relationships as one season turns to the next.

A pressing matter

Before explaining the materials, tools, or step-by-step instructions, it is necessary to understand the basic process of the cider press.

Apples are fed into a hopper and pushed into the grinder with a wooden push stick. A set of pulleys powered by a small electric motor drives the grinder, which pulverizes the apples into a mash. The apple mash flows from the grinder box to a wooden barrel. When the barrel is full, it is slid forward underneath the presser. Downward force is applied by turning an acme rod that runs through the presser plate. The pressure is held constant until the juice stops flowing. Conveniently, this is the same amount of time it takes for the grinder to fill the second barrel, and the process continues.

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