I plan on doing 20-30 gallons of red this fall.. Something I can let age for some time...
I have a press and a crusher, but no destemmer.
Since I don't have to get 100% of the stems, how effective is using a stem rake?
I have a 50gal stainless drum I plan on crushing and fermenting into. I shold have pleny of room to get a rake in there.
Any suggestions?
Pete wrote "I have a press and a crusher, but no destemmer."
Pete - Same situation here at my place. I crush and then rub the stems over a piece of 2-mesh stainless steel cloth. This keeps the stems out and lets the grapes fall through. It's a lot of work...crushing only takes a few minutes but getting the stems out takes longer. Wish I had bought the crusher-destemmer machine but I got cheap.
That said I believe the best wine I've made was back when my wife crushed the grapes by foot. Then we separated the stems like mentioned above. My crusher has rubber parts that crush the grapes and is pretty gentle on the seeds but I believe foot crushing results in a must that makes better wine. Probably not true but it's still fun to make wine that way.
Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas USA
I got mine free....
it has cast iron rollers...
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