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