Milk Crate Crushing customization.

[WineHombre]

Hey Fellow wine nakers. I am getting ready to make wine as I am getting 200lb of grapes from a local vinyard. They don't have a crusher/Destemmer so I am going to do it myself since Indon't wabt to spend $600- $1000 for one.

I have heard from people that there are issues with snall whole grapes getting through the holes on this so I made an alteration. I purchased metal lath at Lowes and wired it to the bottom of milk crate. This way the snall graoes will get mashed too and I can better soet through the grapes to make sure there are no greenies hiding in some of the bunches.

I will let you all know how it works when I get the grales.

 

[ibglowin]

Hey Fellow wine nakers. I am getting ready to make wine as I am getting 200lb of grapes from a local vinyard. They don't have a crusher/Destemmer so I am going to do it myself since Indon't wabt to spend $600- $1000 for one.

I have heard from people that there are issues with snall whole grapes getting through the holes on this so I made an alteration. I purchased metal lath at Lowes and wired it to the bottom of milk crate. This way the snall graoes will get mashed too and I can better soet through the grapes to make sure there are no greenies hiding in some of the bunches.

I will let you all know how it works when I get the grales.
View attachment 115459

Looks like it should work if you can keep most of the juice in the bucket below when you crush. Don't sweat trying to make sure you crush each and every grape or you'll be there for 6 hours! Trust me I know from past experience. The yeast will find their way into any whole grapes just as well.

 

[WineHombre]

Looks like it should work if you can keep most of the juice in the bucket below when you crush. Don't sweat trying to make sure you crush each and every grape or you'll be there for 6 hours! Trust me I know from past experience. The yeast will find their way into any whole grapes just as well.

Thanks! Yeah, I know not to sweat not crushing every grape. Just thought this would make it easier to get as much as possible crushed to maximize skin contact during cold maceration and primary fermentation.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

That method works really well - even without the wire mesh on it. I believe the wire mesh might give you more problems - not letting the skins pass thru (unless you are doing whites )

 

[Jovimaple]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[Rice_Guy]

. I purchased metal lath at Lowes and wired it to the bottom of milk crate.

The expanded metal I see at Lowe’s is a galvanized steel. On a one time I might use galvanized but not long term.
Zinc is not a good additive in wine or basically all food products. The iron under the zinc will act as a catalyst for oxidation chemistry. There also is aluminum expanded metal. Aluminum is not a good food additive either.

For food applications I use a variety of plastics like the milk crate and/ or stainless steel. Amazon has small stainless that should accomplish breaking all berries.
My small scale crusher is a plastic screw from a tasti-Freeze (similar to a screw in a juicer).

 

[WineHombre]

The expanded metal I see at Lowe’s is a galvanized steel. On a one time I might use galvanized but not long term.
Zinc is not a good additive in wine or basically all food products. The iron under the zinc will act as a catalyst for oxidation chemistry. There also is aluminum expanded metal. Aluminum is not a good food additive either.

For food applications I use a variety of plastics like the milk crate and/ or stainless steel. Amazon has small stainless that should accomplish breaking all berries.
My small scale crusher is a plastic screw from a tasti-Freeze (similar to a screw in a juicer).

Ah ok.. i found some stainless steel wire mesh on amazon with large enough holes to break the small berries while allowing the skins to get through. I'll order that and use that instead. Thanks for the suggestion .

 

[ovjock]

Ah ok.. i found some stainless steel wire mesh on amazong with large enough holes to break the small berries while allowing the skins to get through. I'll order that and use that instead. Thanks for the suggestion .

This is a good choice. I made my own destemmer entirely with stainless and HPDE sheets and rods.

 

[Dennis Griffith]

This is a good choice. I made my own destemmer entirely with stainless and HPDE sheets and rods.

Could you post more pictures of your design?

 

[ovjock]

Could you post more pictures of your design?

Here is the top view in Sketchup. I don’t take credit for this idea tho. I stole liberally from other people.

 

[Dennis Griffith]

thanks

 

[Dewbie]

All great ideas! I find it so rewarding making something instead of buying it. Last week I processed 100# of grapes by hand. I determined that it was necessary to pick off the green grapes & the questionable looking ones. This took care of my desteming. I have always wondered if the larger wine makers have that problem or are their grapes such a good quality that everything goes into the wine? All video & pictures show such great looking hands of grapes, perhaps I’m missing something? Also what about bugs? I don’t spray so I physically remove insects then wash before crushing. Am I being too picky?

 

[ovjock]

All great ideas! I find it so rewarding making something instead of buying it. Last week I processed 100# of grapes by hand. I determined that it was necessary to pick off the green grapes & the questionable looking ones. This took care of my desteming. I have always wondered if the larger wine makers have that problem or are their grapes such a good quality that everything goes into the wine? All video & pictures show such great looking hands of grapes, perhaps I’m missing something? Also what about bugs? I don’t spray so I physically remove insects then wash before crushing. Am I being too picky?

Premium vintners destem (but not crush) grapes onto a sorting table where poor grapes are removed by hand. Jacks (small green stems) are also removed. The grapes are then crushed. The machine most hobbyists use is a combination crusher/destemmer which do both at the same time so sorting whole berries is not an option. The way I like to think about it is that hobbyists crush/destem and wineries destem then sort then crush.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Yes you are, retail fruit can afford sorting,

... Am I being too picky?

Wine making is a process of cleaning. ie we filter out skins, seeds, and bugs. we ferment which removes sugar, we rack to remove small solids. etc.

No commercial winery will wash the fruit. There is limited picking off material out of the macro bin. Picking I might select clusters or parts of clusters. Mechanical picking takes everything.

One difference is that the local winery has pesticides that I don’t have access to. They have less insects than I do.