# Crushing muscadines



## jasaminecreech1960 (Aug 1, 2017)

I see a lot of people smash their fruit or run it through a crushers. Seeing I'm new to this my question is. Could you use a meat grinder to crush your Muscatine . I've see the price of crushers and live on a fixed budget I'm trying to find a inexpensive way to crush my Muscatine.


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## Johnd (Aug 1, 2017)

jasaminecreech1960 said:


> I see a lot of people smash their fruit or run it through a crushers. Seeing I'm new to this my question is. Could you use a meat grinder to crush your Muscatine . I've see the price of crushers and live on a fixed budget I'm trying to find a inexpensive way to crush my Muscatine.



You can pretty much crush them however you like, as long as you don't break the seeds open. I don't whether or not a meat grinder will break the seeds....


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## dralarms (Aug 1, 2017)

I use a wine bottle bottom and crush them a few at a time in a bucket.


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## balatonwine (Aug 2, 2017)

I thought this was a clever, inexpensive, solution to crush:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP9ubxOzoqA[/ame]

And then to press:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vdrGCqkqoA[/ame]


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## dralarms (Aug 2, 2017)

I freeze mine then as they thaw (which by the way yields more juice) I grab about 4 cups at a time and drop them in a 2 gallon bucket and crush them using the bottom end of a sanitized wine bottle. The I do not press them, I dump skins and all in the fermenter add plenty of pectic enzyme (which also aids in the breakdown of the fruit) and the. I place a bowl of kmeta solution into the fermenter on top of the fruit to protect from O2 until they are thawed completely. The. I add my ingredients, yeast and let it rip. I usually leave the skins in there for 5 to 7 days, get good color and flavor, then I'll put it all in a bag and squeeze out the juice (I don't ferment in the bag). Then into the carboy under air lock to finish and clear out. The way I do it makes it take a little longer to clear because I squeeze all the juice out of the fruit, but as expensive as muscadines are around during here is want all I can get out other them.


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## jasaminecreech1960 (Aug 2, 2017)

Thank so much


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## garymc (Aug 4, 2017)

If you're familiar with muscadines, I think you can imagine the force needed to pop their skins on a bucket bottom sized area even if it was only 2 layers of grapes. I think the bottle bottom sized area popping 4 or 5 grapes at a time might be more feasible. I used a food grinder once. It was one of those 60 year old galvanized cast iron things you clamp onto the edge of a table. There is a straining disk with bb sized holes, more or less that you remove. Also there is a cutting blade like a dutch windmill that you remove so it's just an auger pushing the grapes through half inch size triangle holes. This won't break many seeds if any. But chewing up the skins probably releases a lot of tannins and harsh tasting stuff you might not want. The batch I did that way was harsh (I didn't age it long enough either) but some of the harshness could have been due to the 16 to 18 percent alcohol. I've crushed them by just popping the skins in my hands, but that's a lot of work unless you're just doing a gallon or two. 
Some people have taken a 4x4 piece of lumber, wrapped the bottom in Saran wrap and used that in a bucket to crush them. I can imagine the things slipping out from under the slick wrap, so if you had lumber that you know has not been treated, the rough end of the wood would tend to grab and hold them in place. Just be sure the wood is sanitized with K-meta.


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## Rodnboro (Aug 4, 2017)

I "rednecked" a crusher out of pvc. I freeze my muscadines in gallon freezer bags and crush a half gallon at a time in a 5 gallon bucket. The hard part was finding a 4" cap which was flat. The newer ones are dome shaped. I found a flat one in an old dust covered bin in a small town hardware store.


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## sour_grapes (Aug 4, 2017)

Rodnboro said:


> The hard part was finding a 4" cap which was flat. The newer ones are dome shaped. I found a flat one in an old dust covered bin in a small town hardware store.



Nice!

When I saw it, I instantly thought "But but but the bottom of that will be dished! It won't work!"


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## robert81650 (Mar 11, 2018)

Buy you a fruit crusher on amazon or one of the wine supplier companies. Y'all are going at it way to hard for me. Muscadine wine is well worth the money spent on a crusher. They are only about 200 bucks....................


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## balatonwine (Mar 12, 2018)

balatonwine said:


> I thought this was a clever, inexpensive, solution to crush:



FWIIW, I am seeing [ame] in my last post blocking video previews. What is up with the 'ame' tag? Good grief..... The browser I am using? Some more "changes" at this site?. What a pain. So here they are again using the [MEDIA] tag:


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## Maynard123 (Jul 14, 2019)

I freeze mine in gallon freezer bags, I double bag them because they always get a hole in them. Then when I'm ready to make a batch I wash out and sanitize the plastic clothes basket and put them in it to thaw out. That way I can use any juice that gets out of the bags. I usually use 35-40lbs for a 5 gallon batch. Then the next afternoon I take each bag and pour the juice into my primary then seal it back up keeping as much air out as possible. Then I use a rolling pin and crush them, after that I use my fist to push on them to make sure they are all crushed. Then I pour them into the primary with the juice. Last season I bought a crusher and wish I had done it sooner It was a breeze with the crusher. If you are only making a couple of batches it's not too bad to do it by hand it shouldn't take more than an hour.


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## garymc (Jul 15, 2019)

Well, I finally found a crusher someone had for sale. It has adjustable rollers, so it's good for muscadines. I have some supremes and majesties that are pretty big. I've gone from 20 gallons of wine a year to more like 80, so this had to happen. Got a press, too.


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