I have not searched the archives of this group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush with a light pressing in the
basket press?

-Wayne

Wayne Harris wrote:

I have not searched the archives of this group,
apologies if this has been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a grape
press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine
press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush with a
light pressing in the basket press?

-Wayne

Some wineries do what is called whole cluster
pressing and do not crush first. I believe this
is done for varieties like some whites and Pinot
Noir. If you are making a red, the basket press
will not remove the stems, however, so you need a
way to get most of them out of there. With
whites, you are interested in the juice only so
the skins and stems are discarded. With the reds
you will have to add the skins back into the
pressed juice. You might see if there is a local
winemaking store or club near you. Maybe you can
rent both for a short time.

"Wayne Harris" wrote in message
...
I have not searched the archives of this group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush with a light pressing in the
basket press?

-Wayne


Wayne,
Small quantities of grapes can be crushed by hand and the stems removed
using the following technique. Put a clean, plastic milk crate on top of a
suitable container (a new, 33-gallon trash can). Pickup a few clusters of
grapes in both hands. Place your hands in the bottom of the milk crate and
squeeze the grapes. Then make a scrubbing motion and the crushed fruit and
juice will drop through the crate into the container. Discard the stems
from the crate and repeat the process.
Good luck with your winemaking,
Lum

On Mar 21, 11:35*am, "Lum Eisenman" wrote:
"Wayne Harris" wrote in message

...

I have not searched the archives of this group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush with a light pressing in the
basket press?

-Wayne

Wayne,
Small quantities of grapes can be crushed by hand and the stems removed
using the following technique. *Put a clean, plastic milk crate on top of a
suitable container (a new, 33-gallon trash can). *Pickup a few clusters of
grapes in both hands. *Place your hands in the bottom of the milk crate and
squeeze the grapes. *Then make a scrubbing motion and the crushed fruit and
juice will drop through the crate into the container. *Discard the stems
from the crate and repeat the process.
Good luck with your winemaking,
Lum

I plan on making about 75 gallons of Cab this fall. I think that will
require about 1200 lbs of grapes.
Off-hand, that sounds like too much to process in this fashion.
thoughts?

I'm in a bit of a financial funk. 1200lbs sems too much to do by
hand, and too little to justify a 500 dollar crusher/destemmer.

Wayne Harris wrote:

On Mar 21, 11:35*am, "Lum Eisenman"
wrote:
"Wayne Harris" wrote
in message


...

I have not searched the archives of this
group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a
grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine
press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush
with a light pressing in the basket press?

-Wayne

Wayne,
Small quantities of grapes can be crushed by
hand and the stems removed using the following
technique. *Put a clean, plastic milk crate on
top of a suitable container (a new, 33-gallon
trash can). *Pickup a few clusters of grapes in
both hands. *Place your hands in the bottom of
the milk crate and squeeze the grapes. *Then
make a scrubbing motion and the crushed fruit
and juice will drop through the crate into the
container. *Discard the stems from the crate
and repeat the process. Good luck with your
winemaking, Lum

I plan on making about 75 gallons of Cab this
fall. I think that will require about 1200 lbs
of grapes. Off-hand, that sounds like too much
to process in this fashion. thoughts?

I'm in a bit of a financial funk. 1200lbs sems
too much to do by hand, and too little to
justify a 500 dollar crusher/destemmer.

Have you considered child labor or the help of
your wife or significant other. My Significant
other use to help me crush grapes by hand but
that got old fast so she helped contribute to the
purchase of a stemmer crusher.

Sometimes you just have to look at it as a
pleasurable past time and not something that you
have to justify the cost for every purchase.

I have my own backyard vineyard. Friends often
want to buy my wine. I tell them two things 1) I
can't sell it legally 2) if I could sell it, they
could not afford it because if I had to pay
myself for labor, etc that it takes to grow the
vines and make the wine, I could not even afford
to drink my own wine

On Mar 21, 3:22*pm, "Paul E. Lehmann" wrote:
Wayne Harris wrote:
On Mar 21, 11:35*am, "Lum Eisenman"
wrote:
"Wayne Harris" wrote
in message

...







I have not searched the archives of this
group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a
grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine
press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush
with a light pressing in the basket press?

-Wayne

Wayne,
Small quantities of grapes can be crushed by
hand and the stems removed using the following
technique. *Put a clean, plastic milk crate on
top of a suitable container (a new, 33-gallon
trash can). *Pickup a few clusters of grapes in
both hands. *Place your hands in the bottom of
the milk crate and squeeze the grapes. *Then
make a scrubbing motion and the crushed fruit
and juice will drop through the crate into the
container. *Discard the stems from the crate
and repeat the process. Good luck with your
winemaking, Lum

I plan on making about 75 gallons of Cab this
fall. *I think that will require about 1200 lbs
of grapes. Off-hand, that sounds like too much
to process in this fashion. thoughts?

I'm in a bit of a financial funk. *1200lbs sems
too much to do by hand, and too little to
justify a 500 dollar crusher/destemmer.

Have you considered child labor or the help of
your wife or significant other. *My Significant
other use to help me crush grapes by hand but
that got old fast so she helped contribute to the
purchase of a stemmer crusher. *

Sometimes you just have to look at it as a
pleasurable past time and not something that you
have to justify the cost for every purchase. *

I have my own backyard vineyard. *Friends often
want to buy my wine. *I tell them two things 1) I
can't sell it legally 2) if I could sell it, they
could not afford it because if I had to pay
myself for labor, etc that it takes to grow the
vines and make the wine, I could not even afford
to drink my own wine - Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Excellent point.

Child Labor eh?

I could trade grape destemming time for Xbox-time with my boys

Wayne Harris wrote:

On Mar 21, 3:22*pm, "Paul E. Lehmann"
wrote:
Wayne Harris wrote:
On Mar 21, 11:35*am, "Lum Eisenman"
wrote:
"Wayne Harris"
wrote in message


...







I have not searched the archives of this
group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a
grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket
wine press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush
with a light pressing in the basket press?

-Wayne

Wayne,
Small quantities of grapes can be crushed by
hand and the stems removed using the
following technique. *Put a clean, plastic
milk crate on top of a suitable container (a
new, 33-gallon trash can). *Pickup a few
clusters of grapes in both hands. *Place
your hands in the bottom of the milk crate
and squeeze the grapes. *Then make a
scrubbing motion and the crushed fruit and
juice will drop through the crate into the
container. *Discard the stems from the crate
and repeat the process. Good luck with your
winemaking, Lum

I plan on making about 75 gallons of Cab this
fall. *I think that will require about 1200
lbs of grapes. Off-hand, that sounds like too
much to process in this fashion. thoughts?

I'm in a bit of a financial funk. *1200lbs
sems too much to do by hand, and too little
to justify a 500 dollar crusher/destemmer.

Have you considered child labor or the help of
your wife or significant other. *My Significant
other use to help me crush grapes by hand but
that got old fast so she helped contribute to
the purchase of a stemmer crusher.

Sometimes you just have to look at it as a
pleasurable past time and not something that
you have to justify the cost for every
purchase.

I have my own backyard vineyard. *Friends often
want to buy my wine. *I tell them two things 1)
I can't sell it legally 2) if I could sell it,
they could not afford it because if I had to
pay myself for labor, etc that it takes to grow
the vines and make the wine, I could not even
afford to drink my own wine - Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

Excellent point.

Child Labor eh?

I could trade grape destemming time for
Xbox-time with my boys

There you go. Problem solved; plus you would give
them an experience that they would probably
remember a lot longer than xbox-time.

On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:53:21 -0700 (PDT), Wayne Harris
wrote:

On Mar 21, 11:35*am, "Lum Eisenman" wrote:
"Wayne Harris" wrote in message

...

I have not searched the archives of this group, apologies if this has
been covered.

I have neither a Crusher/de-stemmer nor a grape press.

Does anyone ever use a standard basket wine press for both roles?

Can I get by with doing the initial crush with a light pressing in the
basket press?

-Wayne

Wayne,
Small quantities of grapes can be crushed by hand and the stems removed
using the following technique. *Put a clean, plastic milk crate on top of a
suitable container (a new, 33-gallon trash can). *Pickup a few clusters of
grapes in both hands. *Place your hands in the bottom of the milk crate and
squeeze the grapes. *Then make a scrubbing motion and the crushed fruit and
juice will drop through the crate into the container. *Discard the stems
from the crate and repeat the process.
Good luck with your winemaking,
Lum

I plan on making about 75 gallons of Cab this fall. I think that will
require about 1200 lbs of grapes.
Off-hand, that sounds like too much to process in this fashion.
thoughts?

I'm in a bit of a financial funk. 1200lbs sems too much to do by
hand, and too little to justify a 500 dollar crusher/destemmer.

the past couple of years I have been making wine from about 75 Kg (165
lbs) of grapes. It takes about 4 hours to pick out all the stems and
"crush" by hand squeezing with two people working and one person
"helping".

If I could get it here I'd buy the crusher.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)