On Sep 13, 1:51 pm, Send an Instant Message The Builder's Studio
> wrote:
> are? I cannot afford a press and no one locally rents them as far as
> I know (and probably cannot afford to either). Grapes, what are the
> options? Ferment like other fruit and squeeze a bag? Pros and cons
> (3-5 gallon batches).
>
> Thanks!

Crusher: Do a search on the group, I think some people had used
homemade contraptions for this.

Pressing: Bag or pantyhose work fine for small amounts like yours. For
the reds I make at home, I ferment the normal way and then press
through pantyhose. It's a bit of a PITA but definitely doable. I could
afford a press but live in condo so it's pretty much out of the
question...

Pp

Yeah to echo what Pp said... I just did a single gallon of wine with
the grapes off my father in law's vine. I did them like any other
wine more or less. Crushed them up in a straining bag and kept the
skins in. 5 days into fermentation the juice had a great colour and I
hand pressed the bag till there was almost no juice left in there,
then chucked the seeds and skins away... Its richly coloured and
tasty now, having finished fermenting more or less so i cant
complain...

Jim


On Sep 13, 11:27 pm, pp > wrote:
> On Sep 13, 1:51 pm, Send an Instant Message The Builder's Studio
>
> > wrote:
> > are? I cannot afford a press and no one locally rents them as far as
> > I know (and probably cannot afford to either). Grapes, what are the
> > options? Ferment like other fruit and squeeze a bag? Pros and cons
> > (3-5 gallon batches).
>
> > Thanks!
>
> Crusher: Do a search on the group, I think some people had used
> homemade contraptions for this.
>
> Pressing: Bag or pantyhose work fine for small amounts like yours. For
> the reds I make at home, I ferment the normal way and then press
> through pantyhose. It's a bit of a PITA but definitely doable. I could
> afford a press but live in condo so it's pretty much out of the
> question...
>
> Pp

Get a hold of a 1x6 about 8 feet long. Cut it in half, and join one
end of each with a door hinge or a piece of flexible heavy cloth,
canvas maybe, old jeans leg material....whatever, with short dry wall
screws.

Use that to smash the grapes in a bag, panyhose, laundry bag for SWMBO
delicates (oops). It gives you tremendous leverage and you don't get
tired at the end of the run like you do with hand sqeezin'.

OR

I built a lever press from 2x6 and 4x4 and a 2'x2' piece of plywood I
had laying around. Works GREAT and fast! Driiled a 5 gallon pastry
bucket full of holes for the basket use a larger size nylon mesh bag
for the grapes. This year I'm putting a windlass (kind of) with a
stop on the end of the lever so I can leave it to press while I get
other stuff ready.

Steve
Oregon



..


On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:53:59 -0700, jim > wrote:

>Yeah to echo what Pp said... I just did a single gallon of wine with
>the grapes off my father in law's vine. I did them like any other
>wine more or less. Crushed them up in a straining bag and kept the
>skins in. 5 days into fermentation the juice had a great colour and I
>hand pressed the bag till there was almost no juice left in there,
>then chucked the seeds and skins away... Its richly coloured and
>tasty now, having finished fermenting more or less so i cant
>complain...
>
>Jim
>
>
>On Sep 13, 11:27 pm, pp > wrote:
>> On Sep 13, 1:51 pm, Send an Instant Message The Builder's Studio
>>
>> > wrote:
>> > are? I cannot afford a press and no one locally rents them as far as
>> > I know (and probably cannot afford to either). Grapes, what are the
>> > options? Ferment like other fruit and squeeze a bag? Pros and cons
>> > (3-5 gallon batches).
>>
>> > Thanks!
>>
>> Crusher: Do a search on the group, I think some people had used
>> homemade contraptions for this.
>>
>> Pressing: Bag or pantyhose work fine for small amounts like yours. For
>> the reds I make at home, I ferment the normal way and then press
>> through pantyhose. It's a bit of a PITA but definitely doable. I could
>> afford a press but live in condo so it's pretty much out of the
>> question...
>>
>> Pp
>

On Sep 14, 12:32 am, spud > wrote:
> Get a hold of a 1x6 about 8 feet long. Cut it in half, and join one
> end of each with a door hinge or a piece of flexible heavy cloth,
> canvas maybe, old jeans leg material....whatever, with short dry wall
> screws.
>
> Use that to smash the grapes in a bag, panyhose, laundry bag for SWMBO
> delicates (oops). It gives you tremendous leverage and you don't get
> tired at the end of the run like you do with hand sqeezin'.
>
> OR
>
> I built a lever press from 2x6 and 4x4 and a 2'x2' piece of plywood I
> had laying around. Works GREAT and fast! Driiled a 5 gallon pastry
> bucket full of holes for the basket use a larger size nylon mesh bag
> for the grapes. This year I'm putting a windlass (kind of) with a
> stop on the end of the lever so I can leave it to press while I get
> other stuff ready.
>
> Steve
> Oregon
>
> .
>
>
>
> On Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:53:59 -0700, jim > wrote:
> >Yeah to echo what Pp said... I just did a single gallon of wine with
> >the grapes off my father in law's vine. I did them like any other
> >wine more or less. Crushed them up in a straining bag and kept the
> >skins in. 5 days into fermentation the juice had a great colour and I
> >hand pressed the bag till there was almost no juice left in there,
> >then chucked the seeds and skins away... Its richly coloured and
> >tasty now, having finished fermenting more or less so i cant
> >complain...
>
> >Jim
>
> >On Sep 13, 11:27 pm, pp > wrote:
> >> On Sep 13, 1:51 pm, Send an Instant Message The Builder's Studio
>
> >> > wrote:
> >> > are? I cannot afford a press and no one locally rents them as far as
> >> > I know (and probably cannot afford to either). Grapes, what are the
> >> > options? Ferment like other fruit and squeeze a bag? Pros and cons
> >> > (3-5 gallon batches).
>
> >> > Thanks!
>
> >> Crusher: Do a search on the group, I think some people had used
> >> homemade contraptions for this.
>
> >> Pressing: Bag or pantyhose work fine for small amounts like yours. For
> >> the reds I make at home, I ferment the normal way and then press
> >> through pantyhose. It's a bit of a PITA but definitely doable. I could
> >> afford a press but live in condo so it's pretty much out of the
> >> question...
>
> >> Pp- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Crushing is easy, use your hands or feet (put bread bags on your
feet). Everyone asks me if I use my feet to crush grapes like it's an
awful idea. If you wash first and protect your feet it's actually the
safest cheapest way to crush grapes. it's next to impossible to crack
a seed with your feet.

I finally rebuilt my press but a bucket full of 1/8' holes was what I
used for the last 5 years. I used another bucket at the ram and
placed all of that in a third to catch the must.

Joe