School me on presses and crushers

[jswordy]

OK, first the crushers, please:

Midwest has an Enoitalia stainless with red crank that is $30 cheaper than the Enoitalia stainless with green crank. The descriptions read exactly the same. Is the hopper bigger on the green crank one, or what?

Is it worth it to make the pretty big jump in price to a crusher/destemmer?

Anything else?

Now for presses:

Looking at the #25 Italian ratchet press. Will this be adequate for my usual 10-gallon batches? I currently have a press that has the T handle, want to move up to ratchet. My current press is just 6 quarts (we did not buy it for winemaking but for herbal extracts). That makes for a lot of loading and unloading.

Add anything else you might think of that could help me out, please.

I only wish such equipment would come up used around here, but it never ever does, so I guess I will reluctantly have to go new. I suppose shipping will be huge, too.

If you have a used solution, please enlighten me and save me some money. Thanks!

Thanks.

 

[Rocky]

Jim, I hope I am understanding your questions correctly.

Crusher: Just a guess here but I bet one was made in Italy and one was made in China.
Press: I think that size would be adequate. You can load it and press it more than once. I assume you are using about 4 lugs (140-150 lbs. of grapes) for 10 gallons.

Good luck!

 

[jswordy]

Both crushers are made in Italy by the same company, Rocky.

Yep, it takes about 120# of muscadines to make 10 gallons of juice.

I'm always torn on this stuff. I can keep doing it like I am and spend nothing, or spend $500+ on equipment I'll use once a year. Shrug. That's why I wish I could find it used around here. Nada.

 

[Deezil]

A destemmer-crusher is worth its weight in gold, even if only used once or twice a year. It took me 18 hours to destem 150lbs of Riesling grapes by hand; I'll only be doing that once. A crusher-destemmer could do the same job in an hour or two

I wont lose sleep over the money spent there, but i definitely lost some while on my feet last fall

You'll probably want to make sure that the rollers are adjustable, as grapes are different sizes - I'm sure these Riesling are a lot smaller than the Muscadines you'll be playing with - and you'll want to be able to fine-tune the crusher-destemmer for those different sized grapes

Most come with compatible stands (additional $), or you can fashion one yourself, but somethings gotta hold the crusher-destemmer up so you can have a chute/bucket under it to catch the goodies. If you build your own, consider pine for the structure and white oak for anything that the wine/grapes actually touch.

 

[Runningwolf]

A destemmer-crusher is worth its weight in gold, even if only used once or twice a year. It took me 18 hours to destem 150lbs of Riesling grapes by hand; I'll only be doing that once. A crusher-destemmer could do the same job in an hour or two

Deezil correct me if I'm wrong but I think a small electric crusher/destemmer would would do 150 pounds in about 10-15 minutes.

 

[ibglowin]

I did 800lbs last Fall in about 2 hours with a hand crank crusher/destemer. Worth every $$ I paid for it!

 

[Runningwolf]

I did 800lbs last Fall in about 2 hours with a hand crank crusher/destemer. Worth every $$ I paid for it!

Thats sounds more like it. Throw a motor on it and it'll be a fraction of that time.

 

[Deezil]

Yeah i wasn't thinking motorized myself, but... IB's actually used one, i'm still in the day-dreaming stage

He's got better numbers

 

[ibglowin]

Oh man.......

That hurts just thinking about it!

It took me 18 hours to destem 150lbs of Riesling grapes by hand; I'll only be doing that once.

 

[jswordy]

Stems are not a problem for me, as I do my own picking at u-pick vineyards. That means I get all grapes.

I still have no idea why there's a price difference between the 2 crushers. It must be hopper size.

Why can't a hand-crank one just be put over the bucket or trash can and cranked right into it?

Maybe I'll buy the crusher and hold off on the press. Shrug.

 

[ibglowin]

I used a setup like this last Fall. Worked pretty good but did have some grapes that didn't go into the bucket. I will more than likely pick up the stand that goes with this C/DS. It is small enough to ship via FedEx or UPS.

Why can't a hand-crank one just be put over the bucket or trash can and cranked right into it?

 

[jswordy]

Well, I found out the lower priced one is for apples and fruit, the higher priced one is for grapes. They are crushers only, not destemmers.

The apple one has knives; the grape one has paddles.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I bought a used crusher for a price I could not pass up (for everything except grapes) - When doing grapes I will still ask my friends for use of there crusher - destemmers, definitely a time saver !!! If I was going to purchase one today - it would be the the one with a destemmer