Converting a washing machine

[Norman of Anstruther]

Hi guys - I'm new here! You seem to have a lot of experience and enthusiasm so I hope this topic will stir some response.

I'm more interested in wine than beer at the moment - that changes from year to year - and in particular strawberry wine, as I live in strawberry country. I have 20 litres on the go just now, and I am fed up having to manhandle this quantity of liquid. I'd make more if I could.

The first thing you have to do with strawberries - 20 kg of them - is mash them up. This year I used a power drill and paint stirrer (new) which was a huge improvement over doing it by hand.

The next step is to strain the liquid off the pulp and this is always a problem. Any cloth bag such as a sparging bag gets clogged up pronto. I could leave it to drip but it would take days to complete, during which time the liquid would probably have gone off. So I struggle every time and rack my brains for a better solution.

In the wee hours I was think about this, and it occurred to me that a front-load washing machine might just do the job. Obviously it would have to be clean! Bung in the fruit and put it on a short wash to mash them up, followed by a spin, collecting the clear liquid from the washing machine's drain output. To clean the fruit out of the machine, run a boil wash with dishwasher powder, which seems to digest food quite effectively. Possibly more than once. Followed by a few rinse cycles.

If the holes in the drum are too large and let too much pulp through, it might be possible to line the interior of the drum with a finer mesh, made of cloth or stainless steel or something.

Has anyone any experience of this, or any comments to make (other than ones suggesting I should get out more)?

[Shadowknight]

What about a muslin bag and a mangle?

[Norman of Anstruther]

Shadowknight - My experience suggests the bag would burst.

[barney]

Take the washer apart and fit the drum inside a large pot or pan, use the centrifugal force to extract the juice and collect from pan, saves going through the drains.

[crafty john]

I have heard of people using a washing machine for making cider, same principle really scrat the apples pop them in the washer and spin to get the juice out.

[barneey]

From what I can see you trying to make something similar to a honey extractor?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksi ... r&_sacat=0

[Norman of Anstruther]

barneey - somewhat like a honey extractor. But honey extractors don't spin very fast.

A friend has just suggested using a separate spin dryer instead of a whole washing machine.

[Froggit]

Don't wash any of your socks for 2 weeks, put the strawberries in the socks and tie the ends, put the sockberries in the washer on a 50 minute spin cycle, hey presto you have your juice and your socks are clean.
Don't forget a colour catcher!

[Norman of Anstruther]

Hmm. Worth a couple of punnets just for the hell of it. Also good for after dinner stories.

[Froggit]

Hmm. Worth a couple of punnets just for the hell of it. Also good for after dinner stories.

While they were drinking the wine, that would be classic!

[Norman of Anstruther]

Sockberries - hee hee.

[Norman of Anstruther]

Well, a spin dryer looks a better deal. You can get a new one for about £100 as compared to £150 for a washing machine. But a washing machine brings in all sorts of extra facilities that might cause problems - such as adding water to the mix. A spin dryer is just a centrifuge. It's probably also a lot easier to clean, so a second hand one might be possible, where I would have doubts about a second hand washing machine.

Thanks for your help and comments!

[Fil]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quality-6L-Fr ... 2ebc193cb2

im sure it would cope with strawberries too

[Norman of Anstruther]

Fil - Interesting idea. I reckon it could squash strawberries but I'm not sure what would happen to the pulp. My guess is that the pulp would just be squished out between the spars and I would still have the same filtration issue. I've never made cider so I don't know what happens to apples in a cider press.

[Norman of Anstruther]

Time to report ... I bought a White Knight gravity spin dryer. "Gravity" means the liquid trickles out a spout under gravity; the alternative is to have a wee pump and a hose. The White Knight model I bought has a stainless steel drum. Cost was about £100.

I made a calico bag to fit inside the drum, and put just water through to try it out, and to clean the system. Although the drum is SS, it sits inside a casing which is made of mild steel, and mostly powder painted. It is sealed at the bottom with some synthetic resiny substance. And I can't see what the drive shaft is like as it lies under the drum. But let's get back to the story.

Water passed through just fine, though the drum had a tendency to bang about.

Eventually I had 20 litres of strawberry pulp. (Side remark - I pulped the strawberries using a power drill and a paint stirrer. It took under a minute, compared to ages and risk of RSI when doing it by hand. That was an unqualified success.)

The first problem was that the calico bag seems to have shrunk. It did not fit well, and when I spun it with strawberries, it fell down into the drum. I tried pinning it up with bulldog clips and clothes pegs but as it had shrunk, this was not possible.

I decided to try without the bag. As the pulp had a fair amount of chunky bits, including the hulls, I reckoned it might filter itself in the small drum holes. And this worked fairly well. Then I though of using my sparging bag, and that worked well too. I had to pin it up with clothes pegs and bulldog clips though.

The procedure was this: stop the drum, open the lid, pour in 1 - 2 litres of pulp, close the lid, spin up, bang, stop, spin up, bang, stop, ... each time getting a little juice out. Eventually enough juice was out and the banging stopped. Then I could spin up to full speed for a minute, and stop, and open the lid. It was clear from looking inside that the sparging bag was filtering perfectly - it was lined with dried pulp which had been held back, and which created a good filter. The only problem was the banging, and the way it slowed down the whole process.

It was clear that the banging only happened when there was "too much" liquid in the drum. If I could just trickle the pulp in slowly then I could run continuously at speed. How to do this? I could drill a hole in the lid. Or I could override the interlock and run it with the lid open. I chose the latter. Bear in mind that a fast spinning drum has a lot of energy and is therefore dangerous.

At first all went well. As I was running continuously, higher speed built up than before. (It is rated at 2800 RPM.) I continued to trickle, when suddenly there was a bang, the lid flew off and there was an explosion of strawberry pulp. I got a shirtfull, and the walls and ceiling were splattered. Luckily the lid did not hit me.

I have thought a lot about what went wrong, and what went well. The good news is that if you can get the drier to spin, it works well as a centrifuge. It would only take a few minutes to spin the 20 litres, and the filtering would be effective. The juice I now have is fairly clear. But what exactly went wrong? The drier - apart from the lid coming off - does not seem to be damaged. It runs OK. What I think happened is this. The banging is caused by the drum being unbalanced. Free liquid in the drum can move around very quickly and at certain speeds, banging could set up resonant waves. Also, the rotating drum has angular momentum so if you push it to the side, it may react at 90 degrees. I think my final explosion was due to a combination of a small excess of free liquid and the high speed of rotation. The solution is therefore to eliminate the free liquid. One way is to fill the drum with cloth - towels, say - and trickle the pulp into that. The drier is effective, so there would not be any wasted juice.

I will do some experiments - but I will do them outside, and from a safe distance.