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
>