How to Use a Wine Basket Press
- 1). Place a bucket or other receptacle under the spout of the juice collector. Fill the basket of the press with the fruit you wish to juice using a bucket. Once the basket is full, some juice will already be leaking from the spout due to gravity and the fruit's weight. This is called free-run juice. Some winemakers prefer to store the free-run juice separately because it is not very bitter. The free-run juice can then be fermented and bottled on its own, or can be added back to the pressed juice to lessen the bitterness.
- 2). Insert the two half-moon shaped wooden plates that come with the press on top of the fruit. Then, layer the plates with the provided wooden blocks until they reach the top of the basket. The first set of blocks should rest perpendicular to the gap between the plates, and following sets should be layered perpendicular to each other.
- 3). Place the ratchet on top of the plates and blocks. Turn the ratchet clockwise to tighten it downward until it touches the blocks.
- 4). Install the press handle per the press's instruction manual. Turn the handle of the press to work the ratchet. Juice will start to flow from the spout very quickly at first, but then will slow down. Keep working the ratchet until there is resistance from the fruit.
- 5). Taste the juice from the spout once the flow slows down. If it tastes too bitter, reverse the handle to lessen the pressure. If the juice is not too bitter, then continue to tighten the handle and extract juice, continually tasting to test bitterness. Now the juice is ready for fermentation.
Source...