Pressure regulator for bladder press

[Maheesh]

I just read about putting a pressure regulator on a bladder press. If I understand correctly,I could set it for 15/psi and walk away, it would maintain the pressure as the cake compresses....has anyone done this? Is it as simple as inserting it between the press and the hose? Thanks in advance.

 

[mainshipfred]

Interesting concept, 15 psi appears to be 1 bar. I may have to give it a try. I usually press to 2 bar for my wine. The wine I get when finish pressing to 3 just gets put in a separate vessel, sometimes I use it and sometimes not.

 

[NorCal]

Good idea, haven’t seen it done before.

 

[Maheesh]

When I tried whole cluster pressing, at two bar there were still grapes almost wholly intact.

 

[mainshipfred]

When I tried whole cluster pressing, at two bar there were still grapes almost wholly intact.

Can't say I ever tried whole cluster, mine are always crushed and destemmed and more often then not fermented.

 

[balatonwine]

When I tried whole cluster pressing, at two bar there were still grapes almost wholly intact.

A different animal than crushed grapes. With whole grape pressing it is like shampoo. You have to rinse and repeat. That is, you have to stir up the grapes and press again. And maybe stir and press again. And maybe again..... And again.... etc.... Even so, your output will be less (much less with direct from field white grapes) than with crushed grapes. Hope this helps.

 

[stickman]

I haven't used a bladder press, but looking online, it appears that some of the Lancman models come with a brass regulator.

 

[Maheesh]

I have a lawn man, and yes, you can manually control the pressure...what appealed to me was a poster in another forum who says he uses a regulator, sets it at 15 psi, or 30 psi, and comes back after a couple hours, and finds that the cake is fully pressed, even at 15 psi..with the lancman controls, you have to be there all the time, manually adjusting the pressure..

 

[stickman]

The models VSPX and VSPIX show a pressure regulator on the water inlet and safety valve on the outlet. The other models don't show a regulator on the water inlet. Maybe the regulator isn't sensitive enough to adjust automatically for the small changes during pressing.

 

[Maheesh]

Interesting...my lancman 55 l didn’t come with the regulator, but I’m ordering one now. The aim is to set it at 1.5 or 2 bar on my Pinot Gris and have it maintain that pressure as the cake compresses, rather than having to reduce flow manually while watching the gauge.

 

[AaronSC]

I had a related question (which maybe should be its own thread). I have a Speidel bladder press powered by water pressure. It works well (with crushed grapes, not so well with whole clusters as I discovered...) but it takes quite a lot of water to do a single pressing (around 8 gallons). I do many pressings a year and this really adds up to a ton of water being wasted. I live in a dry area of California with a home well as my only water source, so this makes me nervous.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to just reuse the water each time. I originally thought about pumping it up to a tank and letting our friend gravity do the work, but when I did the math the tank would need to be 70' up!

A more realistic way would be to use a pump, but I'm kind of at a loss as to what pump would be able to do this.

Anyone have any ideas? I imagine I'm not the first to want to do this.

Thanks,

-Aaron

 

[JoP]

I just read about putting a pressure regulator on a bladder press. If I understand correctly,I could set it for 15/psi and walk away, it would maintain the pressure as the cake compresses....has anyone done this? Is it as simple as inserting it between the press and the hose? Thanks in advance.

There is something called Adjustable water pressure regulator for RVs, see on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/AECOJOY-Pres.../B078NHQZFM/ref=psdc_4650349011_t1_B07TB9C36N

 

[CDrew]

Mine has a over pressure "regulator" that opens at 2.5 bar. Not adjustable though.

But honestly, I don't think a regulator is needed. Once the bladder press is up to pressure, it's only a minute or two until all you're going to get has been pressed. I don't see any reason to set it to 15psi (1 atm) and walk away from it. You're going to get what you get in under 5 minutes, at least that has been my experience.

 

[mainshipfred]

Mine has a over pressure "regulator" that opens at 2.5 bar. Not adjustable though.

But honestly, I don't think a regulator is needed. Once the bladder press is up to pressure, it's only a minute or two until all you're going to get has been pressed. I don't see any reason to set it to 15psi (1 atm) and walk away from it. You're going to get what you get in under 5 minutes, at least that has been my experience.

My understanding of the reason for the regulator is to maintain a certain pressure for a given interval. If the gauge on the press is at say 15 psi the pressure drops as the grapes are being pressed so you have to stay by the press and increase the pressure as it drops. The bladder presses I see at commercial wineries, albeit they are air not water, maintain a set pressure for this given amount of time. These are horizontal presses which are then rotated and presses again, a luxury our presses don't have. Some of the wineries have a given pressure they will only press to based on the tannin levels they are trying to achieve. I believe if you would press at a given maintained pressure more juice will be extracted at a lower pressure, especially if you reduce the pressure, let the grapes relax and press again.