Homemade destemmer/crusher

[ukric]

I was just trawling the internet, looking at expensive destemmer/crushers and I found this

http://www.stevehughes.org/Site/The_Winery/Pages/Crusher_Destemmer.html

Thought it might be useful for anyone who wanted to make their own instead of paying astronomical costs.

[robwrx]

That is a good find for someone with diy skills. If I had more than 2 vines I might have been interested in making one myself.

[NorthernWiner]

I know Steve. He's actually quite handy and has made a lot of his own equipment. In fact, he's currently working on a DIY book about doing just that.

I only wish I was that ambitious.

[DerekSmith]

Homemade crusher.

Last year, my tunnel vine yeilded 30lt of wine - I crushed the grapes by hand.

This year I bought 500lb of Italian Merlot grapes and decided to look for a little mechanical support as I wasn't of a mind to develop a grip like Popeye.

My solution used a few small sheets of Foamex scrap I have laying about, some hot melt adhesive, my 12V hand drill (running from a 12V car battery) and the one thing I had to purchase - a plastic food mincer - £13.

I just wanted to crush the grapes, not mince them (I didn't want to break the seeds), so I took out the star cutter and the mince plate and replaced it with a disk of plastic with a centre hole 15mm dia. The auger pushed the grapes forward, crushing them gently, and pushed them out the hole. The plate gave just enough back pressure for the auger to crush the grapes and give them a final squishing as they came through the hole.

The mincer and motor was mounted on a sheet of foamex over the top of a 220lt food grade barrel that I used as my fermenter. I also rigged up a chute out of some more foamex to guide the grapes into the neck of the mincer.

The grapes were excellent quality and stripped easily from the stems by hand - I was stripping and crushing about 100lb per hour and finished up with a tiny 2.4% stalk waste.

If I decide next year to do more than 25 trays (9kg per tray), I may well go for 'Precrushed' (optional), but the whole process was one of those memorable events that will add to the enjoyment of the wine when eventually it graces the dining table.

At the moment it is sitting in carboys enjoying a leisurely MLF and tormenting me with a colour so intense you just cannot see through it. My 25lt of home red this year is good, but these Italian Merlot grapes are holding out a promise of something quite splendid.

Derek

[ukric]

So are there pictures of this device?

[DerekSmith]

Hmmm,

Sort of looks like a plastic mincer connected to an electric drill mounted on a sheet of Foamex with a hole in it to let the crush fall through...

But just for you, I will see if I can rustle up a picture of it.

Derek

[DerekSmith]

Images should be self explanatory

MincerWithoutCutter is the mincer with star cutter removed
ExtruderRing is a disk of foamex with a tapered hole to give some back pressure on the auger
AssembledCrusher is the plastic mincer with the extruder plate in place
CrusherPlusDrill is the crusher, the hand crank has been straightened and cut off to fit into the chuck of a 12V hand drill. The drill is supported on a bracket of 10mm foamex hot melt bonded to the base plate.
CrusherPusFeedChute is the crusher assembled over the hole into the fermenter, a small box of 3mm foamex guides the squirts and spatter into the fermenter, and a hopper of 3mm foamex guides the grapes into the crusher.

Derek

[DerekSmith]

Inside my fermenter, I found it useful to float a disk of 3mm foamex on top of the cap to help keep the O2 away from the skins.

Derek