Do We Need A Grape Crusher Or A Crusher/Destemmer? - Wine Making and Beer Brewing Blog

Hello,
My friend and I make wine from grapes. A year ago we bought your fruit crusher FP130 and now we are wondering do we instead need the crusher/destemmer? We want to keep grape hulls and juice together for fermentation, does the crusher/destemmer allow the hulls to pass through and not the stems or is it the catch stand that collects everything but the juice?
Thank-you,
Clayton
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Hello Clayton,
As you may already know, the grape crusher that you have is only going to crush the grapes. The stems, pulp and everything else you put in the hopper is going to pass right through the rollers. Nothing is separated. It is only crushed.
With a unit that is both a grape crusher and a grape destemmer, everything still goes through the crushing rollers, grape clusters and all, but after the rollers the stems are removed from the crushed pulp and pushed out the side of the units. The wine juice and the pulp both fall out the bottom just as you would like.
We have two different models that both act as a grape crusher and a grape destemmer. One is motorized. That’s the one pictured above. Then we have a manual version. One is just as fast as the other. It just needs to be hand-cranked.
Happy Wine Making,
Customer Service
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

0 thoughts on “Do We Need A Grape Crusher Or A Crusher/Destemmer?”

Is it really necessary to remove the stems? I recall as a young boy in the 40’s my dad used to make wine and I recall seeing the stems in the pressed grapes. I have made small batches of wine from grapes but not enough to use my crusher.

We bought the manual crusher destemmer. It does a great job and makes the whole experience a lot of fun. We clean, dry and store the machine per directions. Worth the investment.

Joe, you can get away with leaving the stems in the crush if you are making a white or blush wine, and the stems are not being incorporated in with the fermentation–just the juice. Or, if you are diluting your wine must with water/sugar, such as the case might be with muscadine wine or a wild grape. But if you are making you wine from 100% grapes, stems may cause a problem by introducing too much tannin to the wine.

Joe on March 9, 2012 at 1:47 am said:

Is it really necessary to remove the stems? I recall as a young boy in the 40’s my dad used to make wine and I recall seeing the stems in the pressed grapes. I have made small batches of wine from grapes but not enough to use my crusher.
Elizabeth on March 9, 2012 at 2:54 am said:

We bought the manual crusher destemmer. It does a great job and makes the whole experience a lot of fun. We clean, dry and store the machine per directions. Worth the investment.
Customer Service on March 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm said:

Joe, you can get away with leaving the stems in the crush if you are making a white or blush wine, and the stems are not being incorporated in with the fermentation–just the juice. Or, if you are diluting your wine must with water/sugar, such as the case might be with muscadine wine or a wild grape. But if you are making you wine from 100% grapes, stems may cause a problem by introducing too much tannin to the wine.