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| DIY apple cider press basket made from Home Depot bucket. |
This post will give step by step instructions on how to make a durable DIY apple cider press basket without expensive materials such as oak or stainless steel. The best part of this project is that it can be used to press apples, grapes or any other fruit for homemade wine that you would like to extract juice from. Spring is here in Oregon and that means homemade apple cider! This project took me a little under one hour to complete including shopping for materials. I have had the joy of testing this basket out four times now and have had no problems with it!
- 5 gallon paint strainer or nylon homebrewing bag
- 5 gallon plastic bucket
- Large industrial strength zipties
- Drill with 1/8″ or 1/4″ drill bit
- Plywood or plastic cutting board roughly 16″ x 16″
- Plywood dowel or 2′ x 4′ x 8″
Step 1: Drill 1/8″-1/4″ holes spaced about every 2″. Place the next row about 2″ below this row and alternate the spacing of holes to make a “diamond” pattern as seen in the image below.
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| Apple Cider Press Basket With Zipties For Strength. |
Step 2: Wrap industrial strength zip ties around the bucket, but between each row of holes drilled. Pull until as tight as possible. I used vice grips and held the bucket between my legs to tighten as best as I could. Your cider press basket is done, now we move onto the press plate.
Step 3: Measure the inner diameter of your bucket, some buckets slope inward and the diameter becomes less as you go down the inner length of the bucket. If this is the case be sure to measure about halfway down the inside of the bucket for the inner diameter.
Step 4: Using a handsaw or miter saw cut either plywood or a plastic food grade cutting board into a circle with the same diameter you measured. If using plywood, you will need to purchase a Ziplock bag large enough to hold the cider press plate. As plywood is not food safe, we need to wrap it in a plastic that is. If using the cutting board method, no need to wrap it up.
Step 5: Finally cut a wooden dowel or part of a plywood piece long enough to fit the length from halfway down into your cider press basket, but high enough to reach the base of whatever type of cider press you have made or purchased. An image of this is below:
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| Apple Cider Press Plate & Wooden Dowel. |
Step 6: Purchase either a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from a local hardware store, or a 5 gallon nylon bag from your local homebrew shop and place it in the bag. The bag looks something like this:
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| Apple Cider Basket Press 5 Gallon Nylon Bag |
Step 7: Place your ground up apple pieces into the mesh bag, make sure this bag is in the cider press bucket first. Close the bag by pulling the strings shut, or folding it over itself at the top. Place the cider basket press plate on top of the apple pulp in the bag. Finally place your dowel above the press plate and support safely to your apple cider press.
I personally use a bottle jack and apply pressure slowly to the cider press. A few images of my completed apple cider press and apple cider press basket are below:
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| My DIY Apple Cider Press Basket & Press (Side View) |
Note the order from top to bottom: Cider press, hydraulic bottle jack, wooden dowel, apple cider press plate(not shown), apple pulp in bag(not shown). The turkey tin can be bent to form an end that will drip into your waiting bucket below. Happy brewing everyone, if you have questions feel free to leave them here in the comments section. One more pic of it in action:
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| My DIY Apple Cider Press Basket & Press (Front View) |
The Brewing Realtor 