More bladder press questions

You can inflate it without any load, but don't press the bladder up against the slats.

And yes, you can do as small a load as you like. You just need to partially infolate the balloon before loading the press, so that the balloon inflates evenly when it does inflate to press. That is, you don't want empty space at the top of the basket, so that the balloon would inflate like a mushroom.

Dave

If by slats, you are referring to a wooden basket, mine doesn't have that. It has the s/s basket. Should I still not go right to the basket?

Oh good, an exercise in equating different volume shapes. ;-)

How many pounds of grapes does it take to fill up the 80 liter size basket? I guess maybe that question has to be split into two parts, for freshly crushed white grapes, and for red grape skins coming out of the fermenter, although I would still like the latter in terms of the original weight of the grapes, not the weight of the skins, which of course I wouldn't measure.

TIA Brian

I gnerally try to to touch the balloon with anything, much, except grapes. I wouldn't push it up against the basket.

Dunno. My presses, which are about 3 1/2 feet high and maybe 3 feet in diameter (I'm lousy at estimating that kind of thing--sorry), hold about a ton of macerated reds, and I think half to 3/4 tons of freshly destemmed and crushed whites. Closer to 1/2, I'd guess.

I like to inflate the balloon more than I think I'll need, fill the press, and then deflate if necessary. It's easy to do that, but hard to take the stuff back out if you've underfilled it.

In an emergency, you can use pumice from a previous press run to fill the extra space.

Good luck!

Dave

Dave

Um, that's what I get for posting early in the morning. Make that "pomace," not "pumice." "Pumice" is hard on the stainless steel.

Dave