Refinishing a Wine Press

[Jay Galaini]

Hello,
My brother has obtained a old wine press and would like to refinsh the
metal base. His question is what type of paint should be used due the
acidity
of the grape juice. Also my father has an old bottle of Dandelion wine he
made
from a recipe he does not remeber over forty years ago, what is the shelf
life
of dandelion wine? I have tasted a little and it tastes somthing like a
port wine.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Jay

[David A. Holly]

Jay,

You might want to ask the people at Presque Isle Wine Cellars. They sell
basket presses and winemaking equipment and have an excellent catalog.
Their URL is:

http://moose.erie.net/~prwc/index.html

The are happy to give out advice on winemaking and winemaking equipment.
Their address and phone numbers:

Presque Isle Wine Cellars
9440 Buffalo Road (US Rt 20)
North Deast PA USA 16428
Order Line (800) 488-7492
Info & Orders (814) 725-1314
FAX (814) 725-2092

=David=

Jay Galaini <JayRG...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in article
<68eqgk$r...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>...

[Tom Shaw]

Jay Galaini wrote:
>
> Hello,
> My brother has obtained a old wine press and would like to refinsh the
> metal base. His question is what type of paint should be used due the
> acidity
> of the grape juice. Also my father has an old bottle of Dandelion wine he
> made
> from a recipe he does not remeber over forty years ago, what is the shelf
> life
> of dandelion wine? I have tasted a little and it tastes somthing like a
> port wine.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!!
>

I only found one vendor who sold fluid resistant epoxy paint for metal
wine equipment and he was darn antsy about saying that it was sold asw
food grade...to say nothing of wine grade. Incidentally the white
Rubbermaid food grade containers are not recommended for wine according
to a Rubbermaid representative. I do not think you will get
manufacturer to recommend their regular food grade plastic containers
for wine. Same for a paint you could buy.

After going through all this I used plain brown garbage cans for
primaries with no ill effect that I know of. I might have used epoxy
paint on my press and crusher if it hadn't been too hard to get and had
been guaranteed. I used regular Rustoleum to touch up my crusher. One
coat primer and one coat enamel finish. I would do the same on my
press. I dont think the contents of either the crusher or the press are
in contact with the metal surfaces long enough to worry about anyway.
While on that subject the screw on the press is not painted which is
supposed to be a no-no for wine processing since iron supposedly
produces a cloudy compound difficult to get rid of. Never had that
problem with my press.

In my opinion any paint which comes on a crusher or press is nothing
special except it might be epoxy. By the way, also, the big guys dont
have to worry about this since their stuff is all stainless steel...this
might explain why paint manufacturers could care less about food grade
or, more specifically, wine grade paint.
TS

[Bryan Casper]

Jay Galaini wrote:

> Hello,
> My brother has obtained a old wine press and would like to refinsh the
> metal base. His question is what type of paint should be used due the
> acidity
> of the grape juice. Also my father has an old bottle of Dandelion wine he
> made
> from a recipe he does not remeber over forty years ago, what is the shelf
> life
> of dandelion wine? I have tasted a little and it tastes somthing like a
> port wine.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!!
>

> Jay

There is a paint you might consider. Unfortunately I do not remember what it is called.
Commercial painters use a special epoxy paint for cement block and metal alike. This paint
is used in schools and other high traffic, high abuse areas. The paint dries so hard that
it is even hard to scratch with a knife. Local paint suppliers in my area are familiar
with the paint as soon as you mention the uses I stated above. You may wish to ask your
local paint stores about such a product. The one draw back to this paint is it's
cost....as high as $70.00 per gallon. If you are interested and cannot get a response from
your local paint supplier, let me know and I will get the name of the product for you.

Bryan Casper

[Steve]

Jay Galaini wrote:
>
> Hello,
> My brother has obtained a old wine press and would like to refinsh the
> metal base. His question is what type of paint should be used due the
> acidity
> of the grape juice. Also my father has an old bottle of Dandelion wine he
> made
> from a recipe he does not remeber over forty years ago, what is the shelf
> life
> of dandelion wine? I have tasted a little and it tastes somthing like a
> port wine.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help!!
>
> Jay

I have recently refinished a press and crusher/stemmer with excellent
results. Here's what I did:
1. Stripped the old paint on the metal with a commercial paint stripper
2. Used an electric drill with a wire brush attachment to remove any
rust (the rust could ruin the new paint)
3. Applied food grape paint obtained from Pickering Winery Supply, 888
Post St,San Francisco, CA 94109-6013 Phone: (415) 474-1588.

Pickering has both Latex enamel or Expoxy. Expoxy is considered the
toughest. If you call them, ask for advice, they were extremently
helpful. They ship UPS, with two day delivery.

Good Luck
Steve

[Tom Shaw]

>This post reminds me that I did not say that you couldn't get food grade paint but I did say that nobody would recommend ANYTHING for crushers, destemmers, and presses. Grapes are much harder on a finish than regular food. Remember that Rubbermaid does not recommend their food grade containers for wine production.
TS

[The Ronster]

"Jay Galaini" <JayRG...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>Hello,
> My brother has obtained a old wine press and would like to refinsh the
>metal base. His question is what type of paint should be used due the
>acidity
>of the grape juice. Also my father has an old bottle of Dandelion wine he
>made
>from a recipe he does not remeber over forty years ago, what is the shelf
>life
>of dandelion wine? I have tasted a little and it tastes somthing like a
>port wine.

Everyone else seems to be interested in refinishing the press, but I
want to know more about that 40 year old wine! It's got to be very
rare that a home made country wine stays around for that long.
There's knowledge to be gained here.

You might consider giving some to a person who has wine tasting
experience and can maybe say what's in it and what 40 years of aging
has done to affect the flavor.

As for forgetting the recipe, I'd put some effort into trying to
reconstruct it, perhaps by providing present-day recipes for
comparison, or by looking through likely places where it might have
been recorded, such as an old family cookbook. You've discovered an
heirloom that should be preserved (IMHO).

=========================
Ron