Presses for grapes: selection rules and self-production. Grape press How to make a manual grape press

In connection with FAQ, I want to tell on the pages of my blog about how I made my first screw press for grapes, with a basket of 20 liters.

It was back in 2007, when I was just starting to make wine "for myself" and I was not going to think about any expansion of this side of my work.
At that time, I had a lot of December on my arbor, there were Muscat Hamburg, Livadia black and a lot of remnants of bunches of table varieties, for the most part overripe, spoiled by wasps and ants. Now I remember this raw material with a smile, but then, like many lovers, I considered it quite suitable for wine. Which, in principle, is true, if you do not delve into what kind of wine. 🙂

But this is poetry, let's move on to the constructive. Literally.

So, a screw press for grapes. What does it consist of, in my understanding?

1. Frame. The option with a screw through the basket (as I have now) then seemed unacceptable to me.

2. Screw. A screw is a screw with a powerful, preferably rectangular, thread. With a smile, now I remember my ordeals for turners in workshops known to me ... Well, people! Lazy bastards! 🙁 Until now, there is a picture from the workshop of our city water canal, when three turners, without letting go of domino bones, told me how busy they were and how they had no time to carve a screw from a finished rod. We talked for 10 minutes...

3. Shopping cart. Well, I saw the basket, in my understanding, it must be made of oak planks. And where can a resident of Dnepropetrovsk get an oak tree? That's right, the first association is parquet! 🙂 That's what I put on this product, the main part of the press. The basket must be tied with hoops. What? Why, stainless steel, of course! For some reason, the hucksters in the local construction market did not have a stainless steel strip of acceptable width and thickness, but there were corners. Well, I took them. Then, oh, how I regretted it, since the basket turned into a life-threatening object ... Well, more on that later.

What is the design? Not only did I make a frame, but I also wanted the press to be self-sufficient, not requiring any supports, equipment. Those. on legs. A kind of frame on legs, a nut is fixed at the top, into which the screw rod is screwed, and in the frame there is a basket of oak planks into which grapes or must with pulp are loaded.

Started with a basket.

In the parquet store I bought two dozen parquet boards, 320 long, 50 wide and 15 mm thick. At the bazaar there are two meter-long stainless steel corners. As I already wrote, no one had a strip 0.5 ... 1 mm thick, I had to take the corners ... 🙁
At the boards on the home machine, I removed the grooves with a milling cutter so that they clog less. As I saw later, the operation is useless: with the help of a dishwasher brush, all the cracks are washed out very easily.

With self-tapping screws (with a stainless coating!) I attached them to the corners with a gap of 10 ... 12 mm. Then, with a grinder, I cut a corner between the planks, bent the edges of the strips, made holes for the bolts in them:

And voila! - the basket is ready:

Necessarily, according to the diameter of the basket, you need an insert, a piston, which will directly lie on the grape pulp. Here is a basket with it, “complete”, so to speak: 🙂

The height of the basket is 32 cm, the inner diameter is 29 cm. The volume (calculated) turned out to be 21 liters.

The photos show the sharp edges of the corners. Oh, how many scratches on my hands when moving and washing, they made me, how many rags were torn ... Until I took the “grinder” again and cut off all the excess to the very planks!

The next day I went and bought a 25 mm angle, M6 bolts with nuts, several drills Ø 6.2 mm. I assembled the frame of the press and immediately into action:

Under the screw on the circle, it is necessary to put planks:

Screw ordered in advance from the “handy” turner found, in the end, with great difficulty. Screw Ø 30 mm and 3 mm pitch, with a nut, with a welded disk with holes for fastening, cost me a considerable amount at that time: 100 UAH!

The rest of the details - a piece of plywood on a stand and a plastic bowl in which I made a hole and inserted a tube - the final touches. They cost a penny. And the total cost of this screw viticultural press (or wine press, right? :)) was about 300 UAH. I was glad that a similar factory Italian press cost about $300. This is such a savings for the family budget! 🙂

As I understand now, that head screw would be enough for a 100-liter press! 🙂 I didn’t have a welding machine then, and I had never held it in my hands at that time, so I did everything on bolts. Well, the apartment, after all. Although on the balcony it would be possible to cook with an inverter, as I now understand.
Due to the bolted connection, the frame “walked” a little, which created additional problems towards the end of the spin, when the forces increased. But what an incredible pleasure it was! 🙂

Well, finally finished! 🙂

It turned out a wine that was not at all ashamed to treat friends!

As you can see, friends, you don’t need to have a higher education in order to make a screw grape press yourself. There are 3…4 months left until the winemaking season, so whoever wants to use my experience - there is still plenty of time! Harvest to you, and successful homemade wine! 🙂

If it is necessary to process a large amount of grapes or other fruits in order to obtain an alcoholic beverage, a device such as a wine press cannot be dispensed with. It allows you to get the maximum amount of juice in a short time even from large volumes of raw materials. The device has a simple design, so that operation does not cause any problems even for beginners.

Design features and benefits of use

Currently on sale are various options grape press design. But at the heart of each are such nodes:

• Base that includes berry baskets and a frame.
• A pressure device, for example, a shaft or a jack.
• Pressing piston.
• Tray for collecting squeezed juice.

Any modification of the press is a pressure device, as a result of which the juice is squeezed out and redirected to a separate container. According to their type, they can be:

• Mechanical, characterized by compact size and affordable cost. The device is a cast iron frame and a fruit basket, its action is based on the use of the winemaker's physical strength. After twisting the pressing piston, it goes down, crushing the berries. The productivity of such a device is not too high and therefore it is recommended for making wines at home.
• Electric - a more complex device made of stainless steel. The necessary pressure is provided by a hydraulic or pneumatic press. They are characterized by high productivity, due to which electric presses are used in factories or private large wineries.

According to its specification, the press can be universal, that is, suitable for squeezing the juice of any fruits and berries, as well as specialized, designed for certain raw materials.

The advantages of using a wine filter press are obvious:

• Allows you to get the maximum amount of juice, which is especially important if you need to work with low-juicy raw materials.
• The squeezed juice contains a greater amount of micro- and macroelements, since it is less in contact with oxygen and does not heat up.
• Foaming is almost completely absent.
• During the pressing process, the bones, skins and ridges are not damaged, so the must does not taste bitter.

When choosing a press, you need to remember that stainless steel designs are more practical, as they are easier to clean and disinfect. Wooden modifications are considered environmentally friendly, but they need to be regularly inspected for the appearance of mold and fungi. You also need regular steaming, competent disinfection.

We make a grape press with our own hands

Both metal and wooden presses can be purchased at any specialized store. But if desired, they can be made on their own, having received an equally high-quality and effective device.

In order to make a metal press you need:

• Prepare two cylindrical containers of different diameters - the smaller one will be a basket for berries, and the larger one is designed to collect juice. The tank from the washing machine is perfect for this.
• In a container with a smaller diameter, holes are made in a checkerboard pattern.
• Prepare a pressing body, which can be used as a flange, as well as a threaded rod, for example, a screw from a water valve. The flange is welded to the bottom of the screw.
• A head with a hole for the lever is welded to the top of the screw, thanks to which the entire system will work.
• Weld a U-shaped frame from metal profiles, which can either be concreted into the base or bolted to any surface.
• Weld a nut into the horizontal beam of the frame, which will work in tandem with the screw.
• Make a rectangular pan with sides and a small bevel (or tube) to drain the juice.

After preparing all the structural elements, you can begin to assemble it. To begin with, the frame is fixed in the chosen way, after that, a screw is screwed into it, and only then a head with a lever is welded to it. First, a pallet is installed under the frame, and containers inserted into each other are already placed on it. Grapes or other berries are placed in a small container, and then a flange is lowered into it by setting in motion a thrust mechanism. As the juice is squeezed out, the flange lowers more and more, providing the necessary pressing force.

Grape presses are an integral part of the winemaking process, both on an industrial scale and for home use. Good and modern equipment can greatly facilitate the work of the winemaker.

Purpose and principle of operation of the press

A modern and user-friendly press is essential for getting a good must. It is from the observance of the fermentation technology and the use of properly prepared must that the quality of the wine produced will directly envy.

The use of a press helps to quickly and efficiently separate the grape pulp from the resulting must and squeeze out all the juice from the pulp. At the same time, during the pressing process, there is no crushing of grape seeds and ridges, as well as skins. In this way, the press allows you to get juice from the berry without damaging the seeds or ridges of the grapes.

A standard press consists of the following elements and components:

• gears;
• a pair of wooden or stainless steel rollers with a corrugated surface;
• a pair of containers designed for crushed grapes and grape juice.

A pair of rollers is mounted on gears. When the handle moves, the rollers come into action and begin an oncoming forward movement. With a special device, you can adjust the gap between the gears depending on the size of the processed berries.

The minimum clearance is 3mm and the maximum distance between the gears can be set to 8mm. The result of the press is the extraction of juice from the berries and redirecting it to a separate container.

The standard process of pressing grapes consists of several stages:

• gravity separation of the wort;
• obtaining the wort of the first pressure;
• obtaining wort of the second and third pressures.

Any press is a pressure device, complemented by a fixed stove and a basket in which the pulp is separated from the grape juice. In the interdisk space, a peculiar drainage system, which contributes to the removal of pure juice. Directly under the press is an auger designed to remove the squeeze.

Varieties of the press

There is currently a large number of varieties of such aggregates that help to get juice from grapes.

• Mechanical press for grapes. The unit includes a wooden basket and a cast-iron frame. Such a unit is compact and its price is quite affordable for most consumers. A good and high quality mechanical press is the best option for home winemaking. The principle of operation is based on the application of physical effort. The performance of such a unit is not too great.
• Electric grape press. Made from high quality stainless steel. Such material is not prone to oxidation, durable and does not adversely affect the taste characteristics of the final product. The principle of operation is based on the pressure obtained by using water (hydraulic) or air (pneumatic) through a special pump. The performance is very high.

In addition, according to the purpose of the press, they can be made into universal ones, which can be used to press not only grapes, but also other berries or fruits, as well as special ones, the use of which is adapted specifically for grapes.

By material

The most demanded wooden and metal presses:

• wooden presses need more thorough care, which consists of washing, disinfecting and systematic inspections for the appearance of mold or pathogens. The quality main basket of the press is made of beech or oak;
• metal presses can be either cast iron or stainless steel. Such materials are more hygienic and easy to maintain. In addition, such materials are very durable and do not impart foreign odors to the wine. Metal presses can be both household and industrial.

By volume and power

Of course, home winemaking involves the use of more budget options for the press, which have a low, but quite sufficient performance for domestic use. For domestic use, presses without metal elements or homemade designs.

Hydraulic press for grapes (video)

Benefits of using

• grape juice obtained in this way contains all the useful and nutrients, which is due to minimal contact with oxygen;
• the press allows you to get a larger volume of grape juice;
• with this method of extraction, foaming is practically not observed;
• a high-quality press is not only durable, but also reduces the cost of effort and time.

When choosing a unit for home or domestic use, you should choose simple design which is easy to assemble and clean after work.

DIY manufacturing

Very often, at home, winemakers replace the press with conventional food processors or juicers. However, the use of such devices very often causes poor clarification of the wine and the formation of sediment.

You can make a press yourself from improvised means. Such a device will facilitate the process of obtaining juice and will not require the cost of purchasing expensive equipment.

Step-by-step instruction press making:

• preparation of a container for loading berries, which can be used as a drum from a conventional washing machine, in the walls of which holes should be drilled in a checkerboard pattern;
• prepare a container that is larger than the drum from the washing machine. The container, like the drum of a washing machine, should look like a cylinder without a bottom and have a number of additional holes along the bottom;
• inserting one cylinder into another, you should fix them together by inserting bars between the walls;
• prepare a U-shaped frame, on the crossbar of which, through drilled hole the working part is fixed in the form of a thick cast-iron pancake with a lever;
• both containers are placed in a wide basin made of food-grade plastic, in which a hole is drilled for a hose to drain the juice.

The principle of operation of such a mechanism is very simple. Concrete in the form of a horizontal bar, the U-shaped frame with a working mechanism is the basis, under which a structure made of a basin with two perforated cylinders is installed. The hose from the basin should be placed in a container to collect the finished juice. Grapes are loaded into the drum and covered wooden shield, on which, with the help of a lever, a cast-iron pancake of the press is lowered. The squeezed juice flows down the hose into a clean container.

The best and highest quality juice is the one that is harvested from grapes without the use of a press, that is, by gravity. As a rule, winemakers combine it with the juice of the first and second extraction, which allows you to get the highest quality wines. Juice from the third and subsequent pressings can be used in winemaking to make simpler alcoholic beverages. Pressed pulp can be mixed and re-pressed, but no more three times.

How to make a grape press (video)

Of course, you can squeeze grape juice manually or through a juicer. But such options have a large number of disadvantages, including the loss of juice and a decrease in the quality of the wine. Therefore, for winemaking at home, it is recommended to purchase or make yourself at least the simplest press. It is very important to thoroughly rinse the device immediately after use, and then the press will serve faithfully for many years.

A grape press is often used in the preparation of grape juice and wine. It is popular not only in small private farms, but also in industry. Such devices are different types, manual, electric, and if you wish, you can make a grape press with your own hands.

What is a grape press

A grape press is a machine that extracts juice from grapes. Such juice can be used simply for making wine, but it is very concentrated, so it is often diluted while drinking. But most often a grape press is used in the preparation of high-quality must.

During the extraction of grape juice by a press, the bones are almost never crushed, which means that the taste of the must does not deteriorate.

The device is a pressure device. When grapes are poured into the basket, the squeezing process begins. The piston under pressure crushes the grapes and the juice begins to ooze out of it, falling into a large canister. When the tap on the tank is opened, the juice flows out. Thus, it is convenient to bottle, jar. The juice from the grapes is squeezed 2-3 times, of course, the highest quality product is obtained during the first pressing.

Types of presses

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When choosing a grape press, you need to consider what type of device fit best way, and will bring many benefits.

What materials are used for presses

In order for the press mechanism to work correctly, many different parts are used that are made of various materials. But depending on what material dominates in the press, they are of several types, the most popular of which are only two.

• The wooden press is environmentally friendly and safe. In such a press, you can make high-quality juice. However, a wooden press requires careful and proper care, disinfection, otherwise it will not last long.

Experienced winemakers do not advise squeezing juice from one batch of grapes more than 3 times. After the 3rd spin, the raw materials need to be changed!

• The metal press is made of cast iron or stainless steel. Such material is hygienic, easy to clean, durable. If the metal is of good quality, then it will not spoil the smell or taste of the juice.

How to make a do-it-yourself grape press

The price categories of a grape press depend on the material from which it is made, size, functionality, characteristics and some other qualities. And yet it is not a cheap mechanism. Therefore, many growers make a press for squeezing grapes with their own hands.

The dimensions of the various parts depend on what size press is needed, so in different occasions may differ. You can take a large or small basket for grapes, and the rest of the details, their dimensions depend on this, the main element. This is important to consider! So, how to make a grape press with your own hands?

1. The first thing to do is a basket for fresh grapes. To do this, you can take an old tank, a drum from a washing machine, a large pan, or something like that. Holes are made in the walls of this container in a checkerboard pattern with a distance between holes of 2-3 cm and a distance between rows of 2-4 cm. The diameter of the holes should be small, only so that the juice can ooze.
2. If you need a grape press for a long time, then it is better to find a stainless steel cylinder, or find a fine stainless steel mesh and make a cylinder from it. This design is not subject to rust, does not oxidize and will not give the juice a metallic taste.

You can make a grape press with your own hands not only from metal, but also from wood, but it will take more time and effort, otherwise the design will be unreliable.

Now the structure is assembled and tested. A basket filled with grapes is placed in a basin with a faucet. Next, install in a frame with a press. The basket with grapes is closed with a pancake and placed exactly under the jack. When the jack begins to unwind, under its action the pancake crushes the grapes and juice oozes out of it. Grape juice enters the basin through the holes of the cylinder, and drains through the tap. To get a purer juice, it is filtered through cheesecloth or a sieve.

As you can see, the design is quite simple, but it also needs to be properly looked after, otherwise it will not last long. After each use, all components are washed and dried. And while working, the grapes are choked intermittently so that too much pressure is not created inside, then it will be of high quality.

The question of how to quickly and efficiently process the grown crop is quite relevant for those who own personal plots a large area and is engaged in their processing. Many of the devices that help to effectively solve this problem can be made independently: for example, it will not be difficult to make a do-it-yourself grape press. Using such a useful device, you can quickly process even big harvest grapes, prepare juice for the winter, make wine or grape vinegar. To make one, you do not need special knowledge and skills, the use of sophisticated equipment and expensive consumables.

What is a grape press

A juicer, working on the principle of a press, is a device with which you can squeeze juice not only from grapes, but also from other berries and fruits. The grape crusher consists of the following elements:

• carrier frame;
• a pallet in which the squeezed juice is collected;
• a barrel in which the juice is squeezed;
• an element with which the pressing of berries or fruits is carried out;
• a power screw that starts the pressing element;
• fine mesh acting as a filter element.

For pressing grapes, it is best to use a screw-type press. At the same time, the berries of white varieties are pre-crushed, and the red ones are processed after they lie down in a warm place for several days and begin to ferment.

The principle by which the press for squeezing grapes works is quite simple and is as follows: the raw material loaded into the basket-barrel is affected by a pressing element driven by a screw mechanism.

The most common materials from which grape presses are made are stainless steel and wood. Such materials, being environmentally friendly, do not emit harmful substances and, accordingly, do not have a negative impact on the quality of the finished product.

Homemade stainless steel crusher

In order to make a stainless steel grape press, in addition to a set of locksmith tools, you will need welding machine, and some parts of such a device will need to be ordered from a turner. For the manufacture of the press, it is not necessary to purchase new sheets of stainless steel, you can completely get by with the metal from which the tanks of the failed tanks are made washing machines.

A do-it-yourself steel press for grapes is made in the following sequence.

1. Tanks from unnecessary washing machines are cut and from the resulting metal, using a welding machine, two cylindrical containers without a bottom are made. The height of both containers should be 24 cm, and the diameters should be 23 and 29 cm.
2. A container of smaller diameter will serve as a basket into which berries will be loaded before pressing. In the walls of such a container along its entire perimeter, it is necessary to drill holes with a diameter of 8 mm, placing them in a checkerboard pattern. The outer container is necessary in order to ensure the collection of juice, which will exit through the holes in the walls of the basket when pressure is applied to the berries loaded into it. To ensure that the finished juice is drained from the outer container, a cutout must be made in its lower part.
3. To install an outer cylinder with a basket, it is necessary to make a pallet with sides, one of the sides of which should be made beveled in order to provide more convenient draining of the squeezed juice. From the narrowed side of the pallet, from where the juice will drain, there should not be a side.
4. As a punch that will put pressure on the raw materials loaded into the basket, you can use a flange with a diameter of 21 cm. Such a flange is connected by welding to a screw rod, which can be used as a screw from a water valve. A head with a hole for the handle is welded to the top of the screw, with the help of which it will be rotated.
5. Paired with a screw, at the lower end of which a punch is fixed, a nut welded into the upper horizontal jumper of the U-shaped frame works. To ensure high stability of the frame of a homemade grape press, it is concreted into the floor or securely fixed to the desktop surface with screws.

The working surface of the flange-punch of the above design is recommended to be perforated with a drill with a diameter of 4 mm, which will reduce the pressure on the side walls of the press basket. When making such a grape press, it is also desirable to weld bandage rings in the upper and lower parts of the basket, which will ensure that it is located exactly in the center of the outer container.

A home-made press made of steel elements can be used to squeeze not only grapes, but also currants, chokeberry, apples and grassy raw materials. To extract the maximum amount of juice from certain types vegetable raw materials, the latter must first be crushed using a conventional meat grinder or a special crusher for this purpose. Do-it-yourself grape crusher, as well as devices for similar purposes for other types of plant materials, can be made with minimal financial costs.

Wooden juicer

More budget option a device for squeezing grapes, which you can make yourself, is a wooden press. To use such a device without an outer metal container, it must be equipped with a tray with high sides that will prevent the squeezed juice from splashing on the sides. In this case, the metal elements of a home-made press will be only a screw with a nut and drainage gratings, with which the layers of fabric bags with vegetable raw materials are shifted.

To make a basket of a wooden press for squeezing juice from grapes with a volume of 20 liters, it is necessary to prepare 20 boards 320x50x15 mm in size and, laying them in a row, fasten them together using self-tapping screws and two stainless steel strips 0.5–1 mm thick. When connecting the boards from which the walls of the press basket will be formed, it is necessary to maintain a distance of 10–12 mm between them. After all the boards are connected to the metal strips, the resulting structure is rolled into a cylinder, and the ends of the stainless steel strips are fastened together using a bolted connection. The result should be a lattice wooden basket with a diameter of 29 cm, the height of which is 32 cm.

The press for wine and grape juice, made of wood, can not be equipped with a metal thrust flange. The role of the punch in this case can be performed by a wooden circle with a diameter of 27 mm, the pressure on which is also exerted using a screw with a handle or car jack installed at the top of the grape press frame.