Add grape to a a pail of Juice?

[Spencerthebuilder]

Stripped my 2 lugs of shirah by hand. Added it to a pail of Cab. Took way too long, but when it's all you have, that's what you do. But I'm guessing a crush/destem is an hour to then clean?

What do the voices of experience say about the small (cheap $) presses? Are they too small to get even a few lugs pressed? Cheaper to just hand squeeze and accept a lower squeezed juice yield?

 

[BMarNJ]

Stripped my 2 lugs of shirah by hand. Added it to a pail of Cab. Took way too long, but when it's all you have, that's what you do. But I'm guessing a crush/destem is an hour to then clean?

What do the voices of experience say about the small (cheap $) presses? Are they too small to get even a few lugs pressed? Cheaper to just hand squeeze and accept a lower squeezed juice yield?

I also stripped and crushed by hand, and agree that it is time consuming, but other times without Covid, I had friends help. No cleanup other than me since the juice squirts everywhere and I am a sticky mess when done. I agree about cleaning (and storing) a crusher or a press for such small amounts. I feel the same way about food processors vs knife and cutting board.
For pressing, I got heavy duty fine mesh at the fabric store and sewed into a bag shape, about 24 x 18. I strain the grapes into it and squeeze by rotating the bag so it twists tightly from the top down until the flow stops. I fill the bag about 2 times per lug. The resulting skins are pretty dry. The pressing takes very little time.

 

[joeswine]

Yes less is more , the difference between a six gallon bucket and 6 gallon kit is all in the base structure.
Doing the cheap wine kits theory is the same adding flavor weather it's background or blended is the same.
I've found in the past buckets we're weak all the way around that's why I moved on to kits and desided to create changes.
If your working with fresh product then once again it's all in the base product ( grapes, fruits). If it's not in there from the start it's not.
Yes you can take a bucket of juice and be very creative with it.no dought.
Always remember less is more, and think outside the box.
Take the time to review tweaking cheap wine kits, it all applies.

 

[cmason1957]

What do the voices of experience say about the small (cheap $) presses? Are they too small to get even a few lugs pressed? Cheaper to just hand squeeze and accept a lower squeezed juice yield?

I have a small #35 or so wooden press. It works great for the amount of grapes I do in a year, 400-500 lbs more or less. After fermentation that takes about 5 or 6 fillings to press. I probably wouldn't go with anything smaller than that. There are some tabletop presses that are very small and for me of no use. It really depends on your batch size.

 

[Rocky]

Funny, I started out my wine making career as a "grape stripper and de-leafer" along with a few of the cousins in our family. Everything was done by hand and we would strip the grapes into trays or buckets, pass them to the "crusher" who turned the crank on the unit on top of the "working barrels." We would get at least 100 lugs ($.75 per lug) and they were 42 pound lugs of Zinfandel and Muscat. We would go to school for weeks with stained hands and since I lived in a "white bread" neighborhood, we took a lot of razzing. I remember we had to strip 3 Zins and then one Muscat because the wine was a 3:1 mixture, co-fermented. The Muscat was much easier to strip. It took the whole weekend and seemed terribly onerous at the time but now is a wonderful memory.

 

[Rocky]

BTW, I have never tried this but have often wondered if this would work as is or be "rigged" to work as a press. I would put bags of skins or line the wringer with a large paint strainer before squeezing. If it could be made to work, it would be a very inexpensive press. ($65 at Home Depot) The plastic used would have to be checked for food safety but many Rubbermaid products are NSF, like the Brute containers.

 

[Spencerthebuilder]

Yes less is more , the difference between a six gallon bucket and 6 gallon kit is all in the base structure.
Doing the cheap wine kits theory is the same adding flavor weather it's background or blended is the same.
I've found in the past buckets we're weak all the way around that's why I moved on to kits and desided to create changes.
If your working with fresh product then once again it's all in the base product ( grapes, fruits). If it's not in there from the start it's not.
Yes you can take a bucket of juice and be very creative with it.no dought.
Always remember less is more, and think outside the box.
Take the time to review tweaking cheap wine kits, it all applies.

Joe, I'm about 2/3 of the way through your thread. Lots of good info there and an asset to this forum. thanks

 

[Spencerthebuilder]

BTW, I have never tried this but have often wondered if this would work as is or be "rigged" to work as a press. I would put bags of skins or line the wringer with a large paint strainer before squeezing. If it could be made to work, it would be a very inexpensive press. ($65 at Home Depot) The plastic used would have to be checked for food safety but many Rubbermaid products are NSF, like the Brute containers.

View attachment 61487

Hmmm. Interesting idea. i'll look at mine. I suspect the tolerances are fine for a mop, but too loose for a small grape must. If you fabricate some oak plates to tighten up the gaps, you may have a great idea. Cut some vertical channels in 2 oak boards for drainage and mount them to the press. Quick, easy to clean, good leverage, simple and camoflaged from that ever expanding wine hobby budget..

Is the NSF/ food safety PBA leaching really an issue if the contact is very quick? Certainly an issue for multi week contact, but a few minutes?

 

[sour_grapes]

BTW, I have never tried this but have often wondered if this would work as is or be "rigged" to work as a press. I would put bags of skins or line the wringer with a large paint strainer before squeezing. If it could be made to work, it would be a very inexpensive press. ($65 at Home Depot) The plastic used would have to be checked for food safety but many Rubbermaid products are NSF, like the Brute containers.

View attachment 61487

It has been done by our own @GreginND (among others): homemade wine press ideas?

 

[Rocky]

It has been done by our own @GreginND (among others): homemade wine press ideas?

Be danged! He did it exactly how I described it. I think the idea occurred to me when I was at Sam's Club and saw the piece. Great minds...

 

[Spencerthebuilder]

i was there yesterday. Indeed the bucket is HDPE 2 with no NSF stamp. A call to Rubbermade tech support could confirm the plastic used. Looks like a 3/4" board spacer inserted into the squeeze area would be needed, but get the job done nicely

 

[JB1956]

Lots of great information in this thread. I tried adding a lug of Petite Sirah grapes to a bucket of juice for the first time last fall. It is coming along nicely and is a definite improvement over the juice only batch I made. The grape batch has much more body, better color and is smoother than the juice only batch. It has the potential to be one of the best reds I’ve made.
I used an overturned milk crate for destemming and crushing. It worked amazing well and took under an hour to do the lug. I’m going to try a grape only batch this fall and a couple of mixed grape/juice batches for comparison.

 

[1d10t]

Over on home brew talk someone that claimed to work in a place they made buckets said the difference is release agents used on the molds. It isn't just the type of plastic. They didn't indicate if you cleaned the crap out of it if it would be sufficient to make it NSF.