Odd Stuff to use !

The fruit wines I've been making recently, due to the time of year/whats actually "in season" at the moment, means that I'm often having to mill/crush fruit and then treat it with pectic enzyme before it can be strained/pressed.

Now I've also been reading Luc Volders' excellent wine making blog (you have to scroll down for the english translation) and made my own version of his bucket straining device. This is fine, if a little slow. I've also been using the pressing bag I have for use with my press i.e. I put some pulp in it, then twist the material to tighten it, squeezing some of the juice out (over a bucket of course) before it goes into the press - the only problem with this is that the press has an internal basket made of stainless steel. Now when this was made, the basket has had holes drilled/cut into it before the basket section was formed. The makers didn't bother smoothing the holes on the inner side of the basket, so when the press is operated and the foot comes down to press the bag/fruit, it sometimes catches the edge of the material, tearing small holes in the material. Which after a while, not only allows some of the pulp to squirt out, makes things bloody messy and the bags are about £5 a go i.e. not cheap.

So to try and remedy this, I've enlisted the mother-out-law, and she picked up a box of 5 pairs of "pop-sox" in the local Wilko's (about £ 1.50), so I should (after sanitising them, despite them being brand new) be able to do the same thing, at less cost and it doesn't matter if they get snagged by the inner part of the presses fruit basket. They should "do the job", especially if I don't mill the fruit as finely as I have been with apples (in a magimix).

I am thinking about getting a press with a wooden basket instead, but they're not as cheap as the small press I picked up on ebay (I think it was about £50).

TTFN!