Plastic Fermenting Tubs.. Whats the Deal, anyone using them

Mac60 · Sep 25, 2017

Whats the deal with the drain valve and screen you can buy for various size fermenting tubs, I have a 200 and 300 liter and I bought the valves and screens assuming I could drain the juice from the tub and than press the grapes.

Big fail.... Not happening the valves clogged up with skins and seeds, I didn't realize the screens are open on the bottom and the screen sits about 1-1/2 from the bottom of the tub and would allow the skins and seeds to go under the screen and clog the valve and plastic tubing.

Has anyone used these drains with screens successfully to drain the tubs juice by gravity?
I have always bucketed out the must into my press and strained the juice into glass or VC stainless tanks.
This year I attempted to use the drain valve with the screen with a 1/2"I.D hose draining into my 250 Liter VC Tank. (Big Fail)
Just curious what everyone who makes 100+ gallons of wine does.

user 36973 · Sep 25, 2017

I bucket it into the press and pump the resulting juice/wine into a tank.

I've seen others that do the primary fermentation in tanks with manways and then forklift the tank near the press to drain/scoop into the press.

JohnT · Sep 26, 2017

Here is my outlook/process..

- to help things along, I like to take a LARGE (14' diameter) stainless steel restaurant sieve, and skim off the skins from the fermenter and into the press before I remove the free run juice from the fermenter. This leaves lees to clog things up and is MUCH easier on the back when you do not need to bend so much.

- Yes, the screen/valve set ups that are included with fermenters always seem to be WAY undersized.

- To provide more area, I like to take some schedule 40 pvc (4 inch diameter) with an end cap and drill a ga-zillion 3/8" holes into the sides and into the end cap. In other words, I build a column sieve.

- I then pump from the sieve into the tank/glass.

Here are some pictures.

stickman · Sep 26, 2017

You have to install another spigot low enough so the open end of the screen sits on the bottom of the vat. Another option would be to get creative and cut a plastic disk to fit the opening of the screen, maybe secure with string or stainless wire.

Mac60 · Sep 26, 2017

JohnT said:
Here is my outlook/process..

- to help things along, I like to take a LARGE (14' diameter) stainless steel restaurant sieve, and skim off the skins from the fermenter and into the press before I remove the free run juice from the fermenter. This leaves lees to clog things up and is MUCH easier on the back when you do not need to bend so much.

- Yes, the screen/valve set ups that are included with fermenters always seem to be WAY undersized.

- To provide more area, I like to take some schedule 40 pvc (4 inch diameter) with an end cap and drill a ga-zillion 3/8" holes into the sides and into the end cap. In other words, I build a column sieve.

- I then pump from the sieve into the tank/glass.

Here are some pictures.

JohnT,
Thanks a bunch... great system you adapted

Mac60 · Sep 26, 2017

stickman said:
You have to install another spigot low enough so the open end of the screen sits on the bottom of the vat. Another option would be to get creative and cut a plastic disk to fit the opening of the screen, maybe secure with string or stainless wire.

Thanks stickman, was thinking about that also