Wine Press: Stainless Steel or Wood?

[docjavadude]

I'm considering my options in preparation for buying a press for wine grapes. I had 650 pounds of grapes last year, will surpass that a bit this year. My supplier has a great crusher/destemmer that he lets me use, and I have carted all of my fermented juice & must back to the shop to use his press. I want to avoid that last step in the future, so am going to invest in a good wine press. So I am looking for advice.

I can certainly get a larger size (#40 or #45) painted steel and wood model that is widely available. I'm open to suggestions on those. However...

I am also considering a similar-sized stainless steel ratchet press. They come in sizes that seem appropriate for a home wine maker as well as larger commercial sizes. Does anyone have experience with this style of press?

I'd love advice and recommendations.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Rocky]

It sounds like you are talking about 40-50 or so gallons of wine or am I way off? Do you plan on increasing this amount substantially? IMO, if I had free access to a press and a crusher, I would not invest in them for that amount of wine. Instead of carting the grapes and juice around, is there any chance of borrowing the equipment and taking it to your site and then returning it. You would only need the crusher for a few hours at the start and the press for a few hours a couple of weeks later.

If you are dead set on getting the equipment, I have only used the wood basket press with cast iron base and legs and machined steel rachet mechanism. At the time, we were making about 250-300 gallons a year and the press came in handy. We only had a manual crank crusher (it did not de-stem, that was done by hand) with a wooden chute. It worked well enough, but we did not have other options at the time.

 

[docjavadude]

Hey Rocky, thanks for your note. Last year's production was about 65 gallons, I expect to be closer to 100 gallons this year and increasing a bit for the next several years.

I don't mind the investment in a press as the drive with that much wine is not easy. The press owned by my grape supplier can't be lent during "harvest" time as they have several wine makers using the equipment at the shop. I don't mind using their crusher/destemmer as I have to pick up my grapes anyway -- it's nice to have a large, efficient, and gentle machine do the laborious work of that task. But going from fermenting buckets back to the press, then back home only to have to rack again into carboys (there is no way I can cart full buckets and all those carboys at once to the supplier's press), is not easy.

So to streamline my production, I intend to press at home. Seems reasonable to me, and the investment in a press is a small price to pay for this convenience for many years to come.

I've used wood basket ratchet-style presses before and am comfortable with them. In doing my pre-purchase research I have found similarly-styled presses with stainless baskets and bases. So I'm wondering if anyone has experience or recommendations about that style, or even the "original" wood and painted steel models.

Thanks for your thoughts...

 

[Rocky]

You got 65 gallons out of 650 pounds! That is a great yield, 1 gallon for 10 pounds. We used to be happy with 1 gallon out of 14 pounds. These were California grapes and may have lost a bit of water between the West Coast and Pittsburgh, but they sure had the sugar.

Back to the press. If you are trying to decide between SS and Wood, I would definitely go for the Stainless Steel. Much easier to maintain and you can have a high level of confidence that there are no "critters" lurking on the press. Also, you can wash it with fairly harsh detergents and be sure when you rinse it, it is clean. I assume it is more expensive than the wood press, but as you say, you will have it for many years.

 

[roblloyd]

Have you checked out the bladder presses? Those are supposed to be really nice and I've heard you get more juice and an easier press on the grapes. Of course you pay extra for that, but that's what I would get if I was only doing grapes.
If you wanted to do other fruit then the SS one you are looking would be my next pick.