Post your crush/press day photos

LoveTheWine said:

mennyg19

I have destemmed by hand more then once. It is a tough job so I did some searching the web to find an easier solution.
Ended up building these screens that sit below the crusher. The fruit falls through and 90% of the stems stay out.

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We crushed by hand too...

Crushed the Foch today

Crushed the Foch today.
Had some friends over and made short work of it!

Pressed our cab tonight... here are some pics. We dont have a press so we filled nylon bags and twisted until no more juice came out...
pic 1 is siphoning into our second demijohn (both are 25 Liters), the first demijohn is entirely free-flow. Much clearer than the second demijohn
Pic 2 is our skins after "pressing"
Then we racked but there was still alot of skins mixed in that we couldnt grab with our hands. It was stuffing up the racking cane, So we put the nylon bag into the must and put the racking cane into there and racked that way. Thats pic 3

LoveTheWine said:

Crushed the Foch today.
Had some friends over and made short work of it!

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Wow, you grow those grapes right in your backyard? Nice looking grapes.

wineforfun said:

Wow, you grow those grapes right in your backyard? Nice looking grapes.

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Thanks!

This was the second crop ever on 4 yr old vines.
I was a rough year though...
Dogs broke a couple of cordons off, birds got to a fair amount even though they were netted. Rainy and cold weather in may/June/July caused some bad fruit set on a bunch of clusters and some powdery mildew.

I also dropped 1/3 the crop so the rest could ripen.
Now the rain has come again and I have to work out of town so the harvest had to happen!

Got only #45 but the fruit was nice!

22.1 brix
3.28 ph
11 g/l Acid

Wow, Seems like those numbers look great.

12,000 pounds coming. Who has time for pictures?

@GreginND, at least take a couple some of us do not get to see what 12,000 lbs look like all at once and then how many primary tanks are needed...

Rich does and he actually picks his 12,000 lbs and has the time to take some snaps!

GreginND said:

12,000 pounds coming. Who has time for pictures?

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GreginND said:

12,000 pounds coming. Who has time for pictures?

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You have to pause in life to take in all the wonders, and 12k lbs of grapes is a wonder. Happy crush to you. May you go to bed tired and with a smile every night for weeks!

Picked and crushed 2 vines each of my Petie Verdot and Cab Franc. I got 3 gallons of Petie Verdot must and 3.5 gallons of Cab Franc. This is my first ever harvest and crush the PV is now two days on the skins in the primary and the color is really starting to come through. Punching down the Cap is fun to see how much more color comes out each day. Now this weekend will be 10 vines of Cabernet Sauvignon. I think a destemer/crusher is in my future.

I presses my Petite Pearl this morning, started with 20 gal must, ended up with 13 gal of wine. I presses very gently just using my hands to turn the ratchet and not the pole. Tasted really good for so new

Tony, I pressed my "north fork red" yesterday. It's only half the size of yours.



Our grape deliveries start today with 4000 pounds of prairie star. I think I've got everything ready.

One hell of a set up

Tight like a Tiger!

I like that, looks like you have your hands full. I'm going to be in ND next week for business, unfortunately I'll be in Beulah, a little too far with a tight schedule to stop by, but maybe some day.......

Day 1. We crushed and pressed 4000 pounds of prairie star. Nervously watching the sky as our next trailer of red grapes were delivered. 2000 pounds of king of the north and 3000 pounds of Frontenac. We were dodging thunderstorms and we're pretty lucky. We have another 4000 pounds of Frontenac Gris on the way for today but the weather looks more miserable. Rain coming. The grounds are a muddy mess and we have a group f fifty coming today for a tasting event. Nothing like living the romantic dream.

Pressed the Zin yesterday. Then got the Cab and Petite Sirah into the fermenters.

Just pressing now...SG .996, pH 3.47
Racking and pitching MLB tomorrow.

Sorry, no photos today. After processing 9000 pounds yesterday I was up at the crack of dawn today to clean up for the next 2 tons. I just got home at midnight. Shower and a bed are calling.