First harvest

[u/Maximum_Confidence67]

Don't think we got the best from the amount of grape. Got it in the tank with cooling plates set at around 5°C. Kept chilled at about 11 °C for 20 hours. Then had a pipe leave the chiller while at work. Got home it was at 19. Chucked ice in the chiller and stabilised it at fermentston to 16°C. Now running for 2 days fermenting at this temp. Sugar turing to alcohol from reading so still getting away with it. But hey, wine is a yeasty lityle bstard. 😄

[u/devoduder]

Looks great. Next time I’d suggest layering rice hulls in the press, they help form channels to increase your juice yield. I’ve used them with good success in similar basket presses.

https://craftabrew.com/products/rice-hulls-for-brewing

[u/sheadong → u/devoduder]

Grape stems work for this too and conveniently (usually) come with the grapes

[u/gangaskan → u/sheadong]

Yeah I don't even wash mine, I just throw in some camden after.

Probably should, but it's amazing wine after it ages

[u/Maximum_Confidence67 → u/devoduder]

Thanks

[u/czargamingco → u/devoduder]

Does this help with other fruits also, or mainly just the small berry types?

Was looking to get a press for pears and apples.

[u/devoduder → u/czargamingco]

It probably should, my first small basket press I bought from Amazon was listed as a fruit/apple press and it’s 1/4 the size of this one.

If you were asking about rice hulls, likely not necessary for those types of fruit but it’s couldn’t hurt to try.

[u/Wine_Maker_68 → u/devoduder]

Nylon mesh laundry bags work a treat for small batches, put your crushed grapes in them and you can cold soak your white skins and press or leave them in the must for reds through the entire fermentation process.

Just pull them out, pop them in the press and once your done pressing dump the cake out of the laundry bags.

Keeps your must a lot cleaner and saves a lot of mucking around with skins and cleanup is a breeze.

[u/czargamingco]

Awesome work. The grapes look great.
Hope everything goes smooth and you have a great wine to celebrate with. Cheers!

[u/Maximum_Confidence67 → u/czargamingco]

Fingers crossed. There are still many potential pitt falls. But we always said that considering we bought the vinyard 3 minths ago without a scoobie doo of what we are doing. We'll take this year as a learn

[u/czargamingco → u/Maximum_Confidence67]

The chiller looks really interesting. I haven't seen them or used them. I thought of trying to brew a beer with a deep freezer as a chiller. But decided it was more effort than worth.

[u/Character_Welcome329]

Must have been stressful trying to stabilize the temp like that!

[u/daveydoit]

I love seeing home winemakers so kitted!