An apple press is an investment that will yield healthy, homemade apple and other fruit juice for decades if selected with care. The best apple press is one that is easy to use, one you can share with friends, easy to clean, and affordable. Read on for the best apple press!
This apple press was gifted. All opinions remain my own.
An apple press is a device that crushes apples in order to release their juice. The juice flows from a spout or opening into your receptacle and then you can refrigerate or can it. An apple press is ideal for people who have a lot of apples and/or want to drink a lot of apple juice.
As our family ranch has had many apple trees that produce well for years, I’ve always thought we should have a press because we can only eat so much applesauce in a year’s time and lots of apples ended up wasted- even the bears don’t eat them all.
An apple press came to the top of my interest list as my sister and I both now have kids of our own. Kids love juice, and homemade 100% juice is something I’d like to make for them.
I started shopping and saw that there’s a lot to choose from. An apple press varies from another in terms of capacity (the one I chose has 5 gallon capacity) and the mechanism in which the apples are crushed/how much person-power will have to be exerted to crush them.
I chose the Macintosh apple press from Pleasant Hill because 1. It is affordable 2. It came with an all stainless steel model so I wouldn’t have to reseal the iconic wooden slats (sorry, but I’d never do that) 3. It was easy to clean 4. Is easy to use.
It is very important to note here that the more expensive press available from Pleasant Hill allows for the Maximizer Apple Grinder to be mounted natively in a super-handy way on top of the press. The press that I got is wonderful, and I love it, BUT the Maximizer Apple Grinder does NOT mount natively to the Macintosh Apple Press and I didn’t realize that. This is an important consideration that I discuss fully in this post here, but in short, you want to think about your workspace set up before deciding on which press you want.
I wanted a press that wasn’t giant. I wanted to be able to put in the back of a pickup and take it places if I wanted to crush apples on-site if it made sense to do so.
I wanted one that was easy to clean. The Macintosh apple press is easy to take apart and put back together. I loved this part of the press- it is lightweight enough even when full of apple pulp to easily pull off the main red frame and go dump in the chicken yard or compost pile. I love too that the bottom tray is separate from the sides, which both are easy to separate and clean.
I wanted a capacity that was on the smaller side because sometimes, you might want to only press a five gallon bucket of apples. I didn’t want to dirty up a huge capacity press if I only had a small amount of apples.
There are electric presses that are a lot more expensive but I have no shortage of one husband, friends, and family that will help share muscle power in crushing the apples so I didn’t consider getting the more expensive ones for that purpose.
Final Thoughts on The Best Apple Press
Now that I have this press, I see 1. How great a new, high quality press is. This press will last a lifetime. It is easy to clean (how many times can I mention that?!), easy to use, and so effective. 2. I could have perhaps got the bigger, more expensive one so that the Maximizer Apple Grinder mounted natively to the top and the whole set up would have been still easy to clean, heavier, less mobile, but a lot more efficient in a workspace sense. It would have been as handy as a shirt pocket, as they say.
The Macintosh Apple Press is easy to turn- I’m a medium to smallish sized person, and I don’t lift weights or do CrossFit for fun. I have heavy kids that I like to lift up but that’s the extent of my upper body strength training- that and daily yoga. It was easy to press the apple pulp with this press.
The best apple press is one that fits your needs. Consider capacity, how easy it will be to clean and care for, mobility, and price.
If you’re shopping for an apple press, Pleasant Hill Grain has a great Buying Guide that compares different presses HERE.
One element you’d expect perhaps would be the yield a press promises to deliver. That’s actually dependent upon getting a separate, but indeed important tool called an apple grinder. I got the Maximizer Apple Grinder, and you can read more about that here.
Pair the Maximizer Apple Grinder with the Macintosh Apple Press for homemade apple juice- use this recipe!
Want to make the juice but aren’t sure about canning? Join my Free Canning Basics Course! I’ll share valuable lessons straight in your inbox that will help you get started canning the easiest way!
Overrun with apples? Read the 3 Easy Apple Recipes for Beginners Post– In is is my applesauce recipe, the apple shrub recipe, and the BEST applesauce muffins!
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