My syrah finished fermenting this weekend. About 40-50% was whole cluster. I put the whole cluster at the bottom of the tank and foot treaded before added the destemmed grapes on top.
I did all I could to get my little basket press to press the whole clusters, but it looked like I was leaving a lot of juice in the grapes. Is there a secret to basket pressing WC? Or do I need to to a more aggressive foot treading to break up the grapes more?
That would be my suggestion. Stomp them clusters good before you put 'em in the press.
You gotta do something. Maybe stomping them a bit more before you put the stemmed grapes on top would do the trick.
It’s impossible to get a decent press with those little basket presses on anything that is not totally crushed, and even then you’re bound to get only 135-145 gals/ton. They’re sort of limiting, and not a very good design. Compared to other basket presses I’ve seen, I think they’re too tall and skinny, i.e. you should be able to get a flatter pancake for a better press.
Adding enzymes to your fruit at crushing helps get a few more gallons but if you dont want all that extraction then use rice hulls as you add your fermented must to the press. The more pads you use, the greater the yield also. My press works great with reds using the above methods, not so good with whole cluster whites.
Stems facilitate pressing also.
Tim, the inserts sold with the small presses are totally inadequate. I cut some semi circular 2 inch thick blocks as an addition, that made a huge difference. Now I can stack them 5-6 deep instead of using the little blocks. It lets us crank it much harder.
Make sure you load it as even as possible and I like to push down 1-2 times as I load it to make sure everything is flat. I fill it about half way maybe 2/3 and do a light press, then fill the rest of the way and press again. As it gets down to finish you really need to crank it, then let it rest for 45-60 seconds, then crank it again. Repeat that 15-20 times. You’ll think you’ve got it as far as you can, then it will loosen up and you can get another half rotation in. It’s a two person job and the stronger the person the better.
I’d offer some video but I don’t think we’re using ours this year. We have about 500 liters in the Haut Tubee base and I think I’m going to stick it in the bladder press.
Paul, this is exactly the input I was looking for, thank you ![[worship.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/9/99a8907a1d5b3c023582052741dc72dc9823c044.gif "worship"){kind=small}
tim - Stef reminded me on Thursday to take some pictures. Second picture down: