tonyhibbett
Landlord.
Having laboriously processed 80 kilos of by hand last year, I bought a wine press. I intended to build one from wood, but the cost of oak for the plans I had was astronomical. The grapes still need to be crushed first, easily done by feet in a large bin, and the bulk of the juice is extracted using a straining bag. Once this has been done, all the pulp is placed in the straining bag which is placed in the press and the first pressing is made. This yielded 10% more juice. The contents of the bag are then loosened and a second pressing is made, yielding a quarter of the juice extracted from the first pressing. In all about 12.5% extra juice.
In a trial run, the results were as follows:
6.25 kg bunches of grapes yielded 4 litres of 'free run' juice. 2 pressings added 0.5 litres in total, actually little more than can be achieved by wringing out a straining bag and, in this example, hardly worth the expense of a press. However, when significantly more grapes are involved, considerably less effort is involved. As the cost of a press increases significantly with capacity, it is worth noting that, after extracting free run juice, the amount of pulp to be pressed is only about 30% of the original bulk, in this case 2 kg, so a 3 litre press would be more than adequate for 6 kg grapes.
In a trial run, the results were as follows:
6.25 kg bunches of grapes yielded 4 litres of 'free run' juice. 2 pressings added 0.5 litres in total, actually little more than can be achieved by wringing out a straining bag and, in this example, hardly worth the expense of a press. However, when significantly more grapes are involved, considerably less effort is involved. As the cost of a press increases significantly with capacity, it is worth noting that, after extracting free run juice, the amount of pulp to be pressed is only about 30% of the original bulk, in this case 2 kg, so a 3 litre press would be more than adequate for 6 kg grapes.
