Must sampling attachment for winemaking grapes hopper - extracts batch representative sample through mesh panel in hopper wall

摘要

The hopper is of the type having a bottom section with a sloping wall leading down to an outlet. Part of the sloping wall is now made of a fine mesh grill. The grill forms the top of a juice chamber on the outside of the sloping wall. The juice chamber has a drain valve at its lowest point. Inside the hopper a mechanical fruit crusher is installed adjacent the grill to expel juice into the chamber. The crusher pref. comprises a rotary shaft with radial blades which just touch the grill during rotation. The blades are pref. made of a flexible material and are fixed to a rigid shaft. The shaft can rotate continuously in one direction or be periodically reversed via an automatic gear. Used for sampling juice from a batch of grapes so that quality can be assessed prior to mixing with juice from other batches for a particular wine. The sample obtd. via the inclined wall mesh grill is more truly representative of the batch than samples taken at the base of the hopper. Base-extracted samples tend to represent the softest grapes which were most easily crushed during transport and handling.