# Post your crush/press day photos



## JohnT

Folks, 

I thought it would be a great idea to set up a sticky thread for all of your crush day and press day photos. Why not post them here, together so that we all share in the good times?

johnT.


----------



## mennyg19

Thanks John!
Here's my second crushing ever. First (which was 2 days earlier), I used a regular kitchen masher. My hand and arm are still mad at me. So on my second time I got a little more inventive. I dont trust myself to clean my feet well enough, so I triple bagged one leg and squished!!!!


----------



## NorCal

Grenache


----------



## Tnuscan

Those grapes make mine look like miniature blueberries...


----------



## JohnT

That is not necessarily a good or bad thing. Not all grapes are the same Tnuscan


----------



## JohnT

How is everybody's crush going?


----------



## NorCal

Tnuscan said:


> Those grapes make mine look like miniature blueberries...




It's a camera illusion, grapes were in great shape, but not as big as they look in the pic. I swear I could drink this wine right now.


----------



## Kraffty

We're scheduled for the first week in october, probably the afternoon of the 8th. All supplies have arrived, bottling last years wine this weekend to free up carboys and doing a general clean-up in preparation.
Looking forward to living vicariously through everyone's posts until my grapes arrive.

Mike


----------



## mennyg19

Scheduled delivery for 150 (maybe 200) kilo of cab for sunday evening. Gonna have some friends over. Hand destemming it all,, so wish us luck!!!


----------



## JohnT

mennyg19 said:


> Scheduled delivery for 150 (maybe 200) kilo of cab for sunday evening. Gonna have some friends over. Hand destemming it all,, so wish us luck!!!


 
Are you making it an event? Ya know, food and a little something to sip on?


----------



## mennyg19

JohnT said:


> Are you making it an event? Ya know, food and a little something to sip on?




I think we'll have some craft beer and some imported american meats there. Nothing official though


----------



## Johny99

Last Sunday, 204 lbs Sauvignon Blanc. 23 bricks, 3.43 pH, 0.56 TA. Crushed, 18 hours on skins, 8 hours clarification, racked into 50l barrel ~ 60% full, and ~ 3 gal into a carboy. Yeast V1116. Nicely fermenting at ~60-65 F.


----------



## JohnT

Very nice Johnny!!!!!!!


----------



## mennyg19

The picture doesn't really do them justice, but I picked up my cab grapes tonight. Crush is tomorrow. I stuffed 16 of these boxes into the back of a tiny Fiat. 
Guy was nice. He wasn't 100% sure about the weight of the boxes so he threw in an extra 3/4 of a box. In total I got about 157 kilo which is about 350 pounds...


----------



## Masbustelo

My very small time operation. I made 5.5 gallons of a Pyment with 50 pounds of Marquette and 5 pounds of Elderberries.


----------



## Johny99

Gwertraminer, Viognier and Chardonnay. 7 volunteers showed up. A beautiful day to pick and crush.


----------



## mennyg19

The guys who were helping me had to take a break so I snapped a couple of pics
Pic one is all the grapes minus 3 boxes that were destemmed and crushed already. (Each purple crate has 2 boxes)
2 is a closeup
And 3 is the "setup".
Everyone destems into the big buckets as one guy walks around pouring them into the small red one and hand crushes. Then he pours it into the huge blue food grade for the primary.


----------



## BlueStimulator

Had to pick a little early as Leaf Hoppers were taking out my Viognier leafs fast and some of the clusters were looking weird. Tried some lady bugs to help, to little to late. Brix were 19 and waiting on my ph meter, it is in route. This is my first harvest ever on these 6 vines. Picked about 85 lbs destemed and crushed with my squeaky clean sanitized feet. My son was mad as he wanted to do it but was asleep. The Reds will be waiting for him. Ended up with 8-9 gallons of must added Camden tabs. Waited 16 hours to press and finally got some help from my son. He loved turning the crank and checking juice levels in the bucket. We got about 6.5 gallon of juice added some sugar to 23 brixs put in some yeast nutrient and pitched D-47. Now am waiting for the yeast its to get happy. Temp set at 66 degrees in my shop. Since I have no idea what I am doing, not sure this is gonna go well. The juice smells sweet and of green apples. Little man likes the juice even before we added the sugar. Since o have no reference not sure on the outcome


----------



## mennyg19

Crush in progress:
Pic 1 is the guys helping us. (I'm doing this batch together with 2 other guys)
Pic 2 is our fermenting barrel with the must in it
Pic 3 is right after adding sulfites and covered. You can also see my cup of wine from a bottle (pretty good bottle actually) that one of the guys opened for us. Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmel Private Collection (don't know the year)

The thing weighs about a ton. Then we had to transport it to a different apartment. That was fun...


----------



## LoveTheWine

mennyg19

I have destemmed by hand more then once. It is a tough job so I did some searching the web to find an easier solution. 
Ended up building these screens that sit below the crusher. The fruit falls through and 90% of the stems stay out.


----------



## mennyg19

LoveTheWine said:


> mennyg19
> 
> I have destemmed by hand more then once. It is a tough job so I did some searching the web to find an easier solution.
> Ended up building these screens that sit below the crusher. The fruit falls through and 90% of the stems stay out.




We crushed by hand too...


----------



## LoveTheWine

*Crushed the Foch today*

Crushed the Foch today.
Had some friends over and made short work of it!


----------



## mennyg19

Pressed our cab tonight... here are some pics. We dont have a press so we filled nylon bags and twisted until no more juice came out... 
pic 1 is siphoning into our second demijohn (both are 25 Liters), the first demijohn is entirely free-flow. Much clearer than the second demijohn
Pic 2 is our skins after "pressing"
Then we racked but there was still alot of skins mixed in that we couldnt grab with our hands. It was stuffing up the racking cane, So we put the nylon bag into the must and put the racking cane into there and racked that way. Thats pic 3


----------



## wineforfun

LoveTheWine said:


> Crushed the Foch today.
> Had some friends over and made short work of it!



Wow, you grow those grapes right in your backyard? Nice looking grapes.


----------



## LoveTheWine

wineforfun said:


> Wow, you grow those grapes right in your backyard? Nice looking grapes.



Thanks!

This was the second crop ever on 4 yr old vines.
I was a rough year though...
Dogs broke a couple of cordons off, birds got to a fair amount even though they were netted. Rainy and cold weather in may/June/July caused some bad fruit set on a bunch of clusters and some powdery mildew.

I also dropped 1/3 the crop so the rest could ripen.
Now the rain has come again and I have to work out of town so the harvest had to happen!

Got only #45 but the fruit was nice!

22.1 brix
3.28 ph
11 g/l Acid


----------



## JohnT

Wow, Seems like those numbers look great.


----------



## GreginND

12,000 pounds coming. Who has time for pictures?


----------



## TXWineDuo

@GreginND, at least take a couple some of us do not get to see what 12,000 lbs look like all at once and then how many primary tanks are needed...


----------



## ibglowin

Rich does and he actually picks *his* 12,000 lbs and has the time to take some snaps! 



GreginND said:


> 12,000 pounds coming. Who has time for pictures?


----------



## Johny99

GreginND said:


> 12,000 pounds coming. Who has time for pictures?



You have to pause in life to take in all the wonders, and 12k lbs of grapes is a wonder. Happy crush to you. May you go to bed tired and with a smile every night for weeks!


----------



## BlueStimulator

Picked and crushed 2 vines each of my Petie Verdot and Cab Franc. I got 3 gallons of Petie Verdot must and 3.5 gallons of Cab Franc. This is my first ever harvest and crush the PV is now two days on the skins in the primary and the color is really starting to come through. Punching down the Cap is fun to see how much more color comes out each day. Now this weekend will be 10 vines of Cabernet Sauvignon. I think a destemer/crusher is in my future.


----------



## TonyR

I presses my Petite Pearl this morning, started with 20 gal must, ended up with 13 gal of wine. I presses very gently just using my hands to turn the ratchet and not the pole. Tasted really good for so new


----------



## GreginND

Tony, I pressed my "north fork red" yesterday. It's only half the size of yours. 




Our grape deliveries start today with 4000 pounds of prairie star. I think I've got everything ready.


----------



## TonyR

One hell of a set up


----------



## LoveTheWine

Tight like a Tiger!


----------



## stickman

I like that, looks like you have your hands full. I'm going to be in ND next week for business, unfortunately I'll be in Beulah, a little too far with a tight schedule to stop by, but maybe some day.......


----------



## GreginND

Day 1. We crushed and pressed 4000 pounds of prairie star. Nervously watching the sky as our next trailer of red grapes were delivered. 2000 pounds of king of the north and 3000 pounds of Frontenac. We were dodging thunderstorms and we're pretty lucky. We have another 4000 pounds of Frontenac Gris on the way for today but the weather looks more miserable. Rain coming. The grounds are a muddy mess and we have a group f fifty coming today for a tasting event. Nothing like living the romantic dream.


----------



## Boatboy24

Pressed the Zin yesterday. Then got the Cab and Petite Sirah into the fermenters.


----------



## geek

Just pressing now...*SG .996, pH 3.47*
Racking and pitching MLB tomorrow.


----------



## GreginND

Sorry, no photos today. After processing 9000 pounds yesterday I was up at the crack of dawn today to clean up for the next 2 tons. I just got home at midnight. Shower and a bed are calling.


----------



## ceeaton

Boatboy24 said:


> Pressed the Zin yesterday. Then got the Cab and Petite Sirah into the fermenters.


 Hey, I've seen that guy before in the image somewhere....wonder where?

Your Dad seem like a good egg, even though he is a Riots & Sox fan! He really seems to be enjoying the wine making adventure. Great thing that you get to share that with him.


----------



## berrycrush

My nebbilo is pressed last Sunday, it almost looks like a Rose:





https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157670758317944


----------



## geek

WOW, never made that varietal but it certainly looks like a Rosé 

How much contact did you leave it with the skins?


----------



## roger80465

I bought a MM Vinifera Noble Barolo kit a couple years ago that looked like that. I fermented it dry and it was quite tasty but nothing close to what I ordered. Received a partial credit though from the vendor so I was happy.


----------



## berrycrush

geek said:


> WOW, never made that varietal but it certainly looks like a Rosé
> 
> How much contact did you leave it with the skins?



7 days. The grapes have the color of red eating grapes and the must looks pale too:


----------



## Boatboy24

Where did you get those grapes?


----------



## geek

berrycrush said:


> 7 days. The grapes have the color of red eating grapes and the must looks pale too:



wow, looks like must from a white grape crush.....


----------



## jgmann67

Redneck wine press...


----------



## Boatboy24

@JohnT: Where've you been? Wasn't your crush this past weekend? Awaiting the tales and the pics.


----------



## stickman

A friend of mine is using my equipment to make a 30gal batch; I'll be babysitting it until bottling. He brought 13 lugs total, 9 Sangiovese, 2 Cab, and 2 Zin, all from Amador. I told him including Zin in the blend was a bit unusual, but it's his wine. Crushed and destemmed and added 35ppm sulfite on Saturday, all blended, the Brix was 27 and pH 3.81. Added nearly 3gal water to drop the brix to 25, and added tartaric acid to drop the pH to 3.55. Lallzyme EXV and Opti-Red added Sunday morning, and a 1.5gal starter of DV10 as well as some untoasted oak was added Sunday evening. Added first dose of nutrients as fermentation was active Monday morning. The enzymes seem to have pulled the color out of the skins very quickly.


----------



## Boatboy24

Getting pretty close to the top there, @stickman .


----------



## stickman

Yes 13 lugs and a few gallons of water pushes the limit on this vat. I turned the cooling on and pulled a couple of pails out just now to prepare for the frenzy that will occur by tomorrow morning.


----------



## GreginND

We have liftoff.


----------



## JohnT

Boatboy24 said:


> @JohnT: Where've you been? Wasn't your crush this past weekend? Awaiting the tales and the pics.


 

Had no time to post. I will fill you all in, I just need a couple of days.


----------



## Boatboy24

GreginND said:


> We have liftoff.



More like: "Houston, we have a problem."


----------



## BlueStimulator

First time listening to football, pressing, testing and drinking last years pear cider. It was a good weekend I could get used to this.


----------



## BlueStimulator

Using the newer toys


----------



## BlueStimulator

Waiting on MLB for my first ever vintage


----------



## JohnT

Here are the first picture of crush. This was taken by my niece (she has such a good eye) and sums it all up with the side of a lug, a bunch of petit sarah grapes, and a glass of my cousin's home brew.

I had several folks taking pictures. As they are sent to me, I will post them here...


----------



## JohnT

Here is a shot of the dumpster (the day after).


----------



## ceeaton

JohnT said:


> Here is a shot of the dumpster (the day after).



You know you are a serious wine maker when you need a dumpster to clean up after crush!


----------



## JohnT

Here is another photo from the niece. Each year, at crush, I take a clean side of a lug and have everyone sign it. I miss the boat on this and passed it around after half the folks had already gone home. Chalk it up to having too good of a time!

I have been doing this for about 10 years. My plan is to decorate a wall in my cellar with them.


----------



## mennyg19

Still no pics of the actual crush. You know what they say John... "Pics or it didn't happen"


----------



## JohnT

mennyg19 said:


> Still no pics of the actual crush. You know what they say John... "Pics or it didn't happen"


 
My phone dies, so I could not personally take any pics. I did have others take them. 

I will post once I receive them.


----------



## the_rayway

We did our apple crush again this year - good fun for my little family! We started with around 15-18 gallons of frozen apples, crab apples and ure pears. Ended up with a solid 10 gallons of juice. I did 16 Litres of pasteurized juice, apple syrup (x2), apple jelly (x2), and then gave away a gallon or 2. I'm currently fermenting the last 4 gallons with 20 pounds of fruit from the freezer: raspberries, peaches, nectarines, and tart cherries. No water, all fruit.


----------



## Sage

the_rayway said:


> We did our apple crush again this year - good fun for my little family! We started with around 15-18 gallons of frozen apples, crab apples and ure pears. Ended up with a solid 10 gallons of juice. I did 16 Litres of pasteurized juice, apple syrup (x2), apple jelly (x2), and then gave away a gallon or 2. I'm currently fermenting the last 4 gallons with 20 pounds of fruit from the freezer: raspberries, peaches, nectarines, and tart cherries. No water, all fruit.



Could you post a little detail on the fruit grinder in the photos. I'm looking for something like that for apples.


----------



## the_rayway

Hey @Sage it's a rental unit that we got for the day. Electric plug in, and does a terrific job. Sorry, I don't know much else about it! Here is the link to the business we got it from (prob not much help, sorry!)

http://www.brewersdirect.com/specialties/rentals/grape-crusher/


----------



## JohnT

2016 is "in the can"!!!


----------



## Kraffty

Our Crush started odd but still came out great. Invited 5 people that all had something come up and couldn't make it so it was my mom, wife and me with 11 lugs and 12 gals of juice. Luckily I bought a crusher/destimmer this year, and for any one thinking about buying one, my advice would be...BUY IT!! Even with the hand crank, it took less than a minute for each lug, loading, unloading and cleaning took far longer but it did an awesome job. Kmeta, Lallzyme, OptiRed and OakChips Saturday night then a great bbq dinner. On Sunday I adjusted Sugar and PH, pitched yeast, cleaned up and plan on pressing next saturday. All in all looks like we're off to a good start this year.
Mike


----------



## GreginND

Those look a bit full. You might want to split those up into two fermenters each our get bigger brutes.


----------



## Kraffty

@GreginND, Thanks, you're right, I realized that as soon as the caps started forming and pulled about 5 gallons from each can.
Mike


----------



## stickman

Just a few photos from press day, 10 days on skins, 28gal free run sg .992, 8gal press wine at 1 brix, pH 3.55.


----------



## Johny99

Saturday, 455 lbs of Sangiovese. 22.5 brix, TA .85, pH 3.35. Sunday it was 245 lbs of Syrah, 27 brix, .66TA, 3.52 pH. No pictures from Sunday, I was too tired to walk up the hill for the phone


----------



## kevinlfifer

You guys make me look like I play with match box wine toys.


----------



## ibglowin

What in the world are you doing with a mortar mixer! 



kevinlfifer said:


> You guys make me look like I play with match box wine toys.


----------



## Kraffty

Cool destimming tool, is it a repurposed mixer of some kind?
Mike


----------



## Kraffty

I'm always 2 seconds Late...... maybe time zone thing....
m


----------



## Masbustelo

Necessity is the mother of invention.


----------



## GreginND

Probably the last of the grapes this year. Picked 900 pounds of King of the North from a neighboring vineyard to make our best seller, a sweet, grapey red wine we call Bison Tale.


----------



## Masbustelo

Greg When should your own grapes come into production?


----------



## GreginND

Long story - one vineyard has some soil issues and gets hit every year by spray drift, so they are struggling. The other should have produced this year but we got hit by a May freeze. Maybe next year I'll get a little?


----------



## Johny99

GreginND said:


> Long story - one vineyard has some soil issues and gets hit every year by spray drift, so they are struggling. The other should have produced this year but we got hit by a May freeze. Maybe next year I'll get a little?



Ain't farming fun. Hope next year is a good one


----------



## Masbustelo

What are the soil issues? You did have Clopyralid or Picloram contamination?


----------



## GreginND

Masbustelo said:


> What are the soil issues? You did have Clopyralid or Picloram contamination?




Yes, while my growing tests early on showed very little contamination out there, that could be a problem. However, the pH is quite high - about 7.9. That's likely to be the big problem. It also is clay underneath. This vineyard struggled from the beginning by being flooded right after planting and two very bad winters after that. The vines just haven't had a chance to flourish. I'm slowly transitioning to a better location on my property.


----------



## stickman

I realize it's not press day photos anymore, but just an update on my friend's Amador Sangiovese blend.

On the 14th I completed the 72hr racking and moved the wine to the basement, ML culture CH16 added, no nutrients or Acti-ML used, added 2 French oak M+ convection toast, and 2 M toast Mercier staves. Some of the press wine was added to the free run during the racking; pH 3.59 tank, remaining press wine pH 3.66.

I ran the first chromatogram yesterday, and after only 11 days, it appears to be on the move, holding temp is around 68 to 70F. The 1/2 gal on the end is the remaining wine and lees from the last racking, not surprising it is further along; I'm retaining and working this material with stirring and oak, just as an experiment, to attempt to create a high polysaccharide blending component.

The wine taste at this point is surprisingly pleasant, fruit and tannin in balance, a bit lighter in color than what I'm used to, definitely not a block buster, but that wasn't expected with these grapes.


----------



## FreddyC

From a friends harvest this year. 1500 pounds of grapes and I lifted all into the crusher


----------



## FreddyC

My harvest from my own small 250 vine vineyard. We always have a good crew to take off the nets and pick the grapes. This year I made all the wine into a Syrah Rose.


----------



## Boatboy24

@FreddyC: How'd you get the pic of the refractometer reading?


----------



## geek

Boatboy24 said:


> @FreddyC: How'd you get the pic of the refractometer reading?



Good question, I assume he places his phone right against the view on the refractometer and the phone places focus on it....


----------



## Johnd

Although I've never done this with a refractometer, I do it all of the time with my rifle scope and binoculars. You can take a pic with your iPhone or iPad from a long ways away, looks like you are right on top of a deer.


----------



## Johny99

Fall is here so it was a bit cold for final picking. 750 lbs of Petit Sirah, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Picked, crushed, pressed what we picked a month ago, then food and tasting.


----------



## JohnT

Awesome John!!!! 

To me, that post is like crack! 

What did you end up tasting? What food did you have? How many people did you have?

That is so cool and I need *details man!*


----------



## geek

Nice pics...


----------



## ceeaton

At least when it gets cold like that you don't have to worry so much about the dang bees! Looks like a fun event.


----------



## Johny99

JohnT said:


> Awesome John!!!!
> 
> To me, that post is like crack!
> 
> What did you end up tasting? What food did you have? How many people did you have?
> 
> That is so cool and I need *details man!*



Let's see. We had last year's Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc, three years of Cab Sauv, a best of show 2012 Merlot and something we call Stehekin Red cause that is where our hiking crowd came up with the blend, Tempranillo and Sangiovese (yeah, go figure). Food: my lovely wife made her lip smacking ribs, a friend brought comb honey, pasta for the vegetarian.... 9 folks showed up. Quite the good time. Long time till next fall, I'll have to plan a mid-winter bottling party


----------

