Hi everyone!
I'm in the middle of reading Smith's Postmodern Winemaking - an interesting book... Meanwhile, the only thing I can adopt from there as a home winemaker is what he writes about a basket press, Smith argues that the main drain of the press should be from the bottom and not from the sides, he explains that the new metal-bottom presses prevent the drain from the bottom (the wooden bottom has leaks) and this reduces the efficiency of the press. I think I agree with him - when I press with a basket press I get a "cake" that is very wet in the center and dry towrd the edges, which means that a lot of wine is trapped inside the cake.
To solve the problem, I thought about placing a perforated stainless steel or wood mesh at the bottom of the press with some kind of elevation creating a false bottom, and thus create the possibility of drainage from the bottom.
The press i use is this one:
Anyone have an idea how to apply it in practice - which material to make that bottom from?, how to create an elevation for it without affecting the strength of the bottom?, in what size will the holes be? etc. Has anyone experimented with this?
I'm in the middle of reading Smith's Postmodern Winemaking - an interesting book... Meanwhile, the only thing I can adopt from there as a home winemaker is what he writes about a basket press, Smith argues that the main drain of the press should be from the bottom and not from the sides, he explains that the new metal-bottom presses prevent the drain from the bottom (the wooden bottom has leaks) and this reduces the efficiency of the press. I think I agree with him - when I press with a basket press I get a "cake" that is very wet in the center and dry towrd the edges, which means that a lot of wine is trapped inside the cake.
To solve the problem, I thought about placing a perforated stainless steel or wood mesh at the bottom of the press with some kind of elevation creating a false bottom, and thus create the possibility of drainage from the bottom.
The press i use is this one:
Anyone have an idea how to apply it in practice - which material to make that bottom from?, how to create an elevation for it without affecting the strength of the bottom?, in what size will the holes be? etc. Has anyone experimented with this?