After the grape harvest is harvested, many gardeners, especially those cultivating technical varieties, begin making homemade wine. At the first stage, of course, you will need to chop the berries, crushing them to a pulp.
If previously it was customary to crush berries directly with your hands or feet, now this not very hygienic method has been replaced by modern units - crushers. They made it possible to automate labor and save effort and time in the production of large quantities of the alcoholic drink beloved by many.
Purpose and principle of operation of the crusher
Almost all crushers for crushing berries have a very simple, but at the same time effective design. The units consist of a receiving hopper for loading, a pair of parallel crushing rollers and a container for collecting pulp.
The volume of grapes required for processing is loaded into a special receiving container. Then, mechanically or electrically, the crushing rollers are brought into operation, crushing the grapes and transporting them to the pulp collection.
The main features of such a unit are the presence of a gap between the teeth of the crushing rollers, as well as their rotation in different directions. The gap allows you to leave the grape seeds intact, which is very important for obtaining quality wine. Damaged seeds give the finished drink excessive bitterness, which is due to too much tannin in them.
Types of crushers
Today it is possible to purchase wooden, plastic or stainless steel crushers for grapes. The main condition for a high-quality unit is the manufacture of parts involved in the process of crushing berries from materials that are not subject to oxidation.
The simplest option is a wooden crusher. A more convenient and modern option is a manual or electric crusher equipped with a destemmer. Stainless steel crushers are characterized by high quality and are very easy to clean and wash.
Types of grape crushers
The modern market for winemaking equipment offers a wide selection of devices for crushing grapes. In order not to get confused in this variety of models, we will give a brief classification of crushers for winemaking.
According to their purpose, crushers for crushing grapes are:
- Compact (for home and farm; for small volumes)
- Industrial (private distilleries, wineries)
Based on the presence of additional devices, crushers are divided into:
- • Grape crushers with destemming device
- • Grape crushers with pulp pump
Depending on the type of drive mechanism, grinders are produced in two types:
- Manual grape crushers (optional with gearbox)
- Electric crushers for grapes
Grape crusher (video)
Crushers with and without destemmer
Grape combs can give wine the astringency and richness characteristic of quality drinks. However, their excess amount very often causes the drink to taste bitter or unpleasant, and also negatively affects its color and transparency. And if, when making red wines, it is allowed not to remove the grape stems, then for white wines such a procedure is mandatory.
There are two main types of destemming crushers used for grape processing.
Roller crushers-comb separators
Such a unit best meets the requirements of the technology for preparing raw materials for wine and allows you to obtain high-quality must. Our country has launched the production of such crushers. The operating principle is based on the operation of rollers and a destemmer. A pair or more horizontal rollers are cylindrical in shape and rotate in opposite directions. The size of the gap between the rollers is regulated by a special device. Rolls have a grooved, smooth or bladed surface and can be four-, six- or eight-bladed. Preferably profile rolls are used.
Centrifugal impact crushers-stemmers
Centrifugal crushers, or CDGs, can be either vertical or horizontal. The process of crushing grapes occurs as a result of impacts of a rotor rotating at speeds of up to 500 rpm. The use of this type of crusher-stemmer is characterized by the most complete yield of wort with an increased amount of coloring and phenolic substances. As a rule, CDG is used in the production of wine from red grapes.
Mechanical and electric crushers
The operating principle of a standard electric crusher has minor differences from the operation of a mechanical apparatus. A special feature is the presence of a special comb separator, which is a horizontal cylinder with a shaft and helical blades. Such elements allow you to quickly and efficiently separate grapes from the ridges. As a result of the translational movement of the screw blades, the ridges are pushed outward. Only juice and clean grapes enter the crushing container.
Types of crushers for grapes
There are several types of homemade grape crushers. They are used to squeeze juice from different grape varieties.
With and without comb separator
A manual grape crusher with a destemmer is designed for squeezing juice from white Muscat grape varieties. High-quality Muscat wine should not have the bitter taste that comes from combs containing a lot of tannins. The destemmer removes the ridges from the wort. For red and wine varieties, grape crushers without a destemmer are used. The ridges give a specific, refined, deep taste to red wine. The crusher can be roller type or centrifugal impact.
Mechanical crushers
The roller crusher is of the mechanical type. It consists of a horizontal cylinder, a shaft and helical blades. The rollers of a mechanical crusher for grapes are located horizontally and rotate towards each other, crushing the berries that fall between them, and the ridges are held in a special gap and brought out.
Electric crushers
The centrifugal impact press performs extraction using an electric rotor. With an electric grape crusher you can obtain a large yield of wine material, as well as coloring and phenolic elements. The rotor speed per minute is 500 revolutions, which significantly reduces the processing time of wine material. Simultaneously with the extraction of the juice, the ridges are separated and thrown out. The destemmer consists of a horizontal cylinder, a shaft and helical blades. Using an electric crusher with a comb separator, we obtain clean pulp at the output.
Advantages of using crushers
A grape crusher is a useful and practical unit for those involved in winemaking. Using such a device in wine production has a number of advantages:
- reduction in technological loss of pulp by several times;
- absence of saturation of the pulp with components undesirable for the final product;
- saving time and effort;
- obtaining higher quality pulp;
- the design of the unit is simple, reliable and very durable;
- a manual or mechanical crusher can be used in the absence of electricity;
- The high-quality stainless steel crusher is reliably protected from corrosion and does not impart any foreign odors to the grape juice.
It should be remembered that crushers equipped with destemmers are not used when processing Muscat grapes.
We also recommend that you read the article about grape presses.
Making a crusher with your own hands
A simple, but quite technologically advanced grape crusher is quite easy to make with your own hands. When making small volumes of homemade wine, there is no point in purchasing a factory design, which, by the way, is quite expensive. Making such a unit yourself will take a little time, and in terms of efficiency it will be almost as effective as devices sold in stores.
Instructions for making a crusher:
- The body can be made from any material, the most preferable option being high-quality oak boards.
- Making a drum, or beater shaft, from a pipe and equipping it with stainless steel blades 1.5 mm thick
- Manufacturing bearings in the form of plastic bushings with longitudinal slots, which will allow you to change the size of the gap between the drum and the deck.
- Installation of the drum using a metal rod with a diameter of 1.4 cm on bearings in the form of plastic bushings for sliding.
- Installation of a concave or deck under the beater shaft, the dimensions of which depend on the size of the berries. Most often, a grid on the deck with a cell of 7.5 x 14 mm for small berries and 12.5 x 25 mm for large grapes is used.
- Installation of a handle with which the beater shaft on bearings will be driven.
The manufactured manual crusher is installed on a container for collecting pulp. Almost any container can be used as a pulp receptacle, but preference should be given to barrels or tanks made of food-grade plastic or stainless steel.
Shaft crusher - step-by-step manufacturing instructions
A device of this type is most preferable for self-production. For this you will need:
- Oak bars 50x50 for making the frame.
- Oak boards, plywood, sheet iron or plastic for making a bunker.
- Wooden rollers - 2 pcs.
- Gears, identical in size - 2 pcs.
- Lever.
- Tank for collecting pulp.
First you need to assemble a frame from oak bars into which the rollers will be installed. The length of the frame depends on the diameter of the pulp collection tank on which such a pulper will be installed. The width of the inside of the frame should be slightly larger than the length of the bolsters.
Wooden ribbed rollers are attached inside the frame at a distance of 2–3 mm from each other, the shape of which is shown in the drawing above. Gears are installed on their axles outside. You can make rollers yourself from round-shaped blanks, such as rolling pins. One option is to use old rollers for spinning clothes from an activator-type washing machine. They need to drill six rows of holes with a diameter of 10 mm to a depth of 5 mm.
A handle is attached to one of the shafts, which sets the rollers in motion. Then a receiving hopper is installed on top. It can be made from any materials. It is made in the form of an inverse truncated pyramid. Now all that remains is to install the crusher on the pulp collection container. You need to rotate the handle in such a way that the rollers rotate towards each other, pulling the berries into the space between them and pressing them like a press.
After the homemade crushing apparatus has been assembled and tested, you can begin to improve it. For example, equip the shafts with an electric drive. To do this, you need to install a pulley instead of a handle, and use an electric motor with a belt drive to rotate it. You can connect a drill or screwdriver as a motor.
To separate the ridges, you can install an additional device called a comb separator. It is a mesh that is installed on top of the rollers. A screw mechanism is mounted above it, which is activated by rotating the roller drive handle.
The blades of this device constantly mix the mass of grapes, the berries are separated from the ridges, fall through the mesh and then fall onto the crusher shafts. You can make such a device with your own hands from stainless steel.
After each use, the crusher must be washed thoroughly to prevent mold.
