Cold soaking cranberries

I stocked up on 15 lbs of cranberries to start a 5 gallon batch some time next week. I actually wanted to crush them tomorrow (Sunday), but discovered that I have no yeast and pectic enzyme left in the empty bottles (I have no idea why I kept them, if those are empty). I ordered the additional supplies, but they won't come in until Tuesday or Wednesday.

Given this situation, would you advise to wait until I get the yeast and the pectic enzyme, or should I proceed with crushing, adding K-meta, and cold soaking for a few days to extract the color, etc.?

[The cranberries are in a good condition, so they definitely can wait uncrushed for a few days, if need be.]

Also, how long do you soak/macerate cranberries, if you ever made such a wine?

Thanks

I have a cranberry mead going right now. If you want to do an extended maceration you might want to add something like Opti-Red. Also you might want to skip the meta up front.I would say don]t worry about native yeasts, I think much of the to-do about them come from commercial operations that cant risk the outside possibility of a negative experience with thousands of gallons of product. Cranberries are high in Malic acid, and the berries should be carriers of MLF bacteria, afterwards it should do a spontaneous MLF. The soak might not be necessary, my fermentation is proceeding somewhat slowly. It looks like it will take about ten days to reach the end of the first fermentation. It might be my yeast, the temperature, or the acidity of the cranberries. So if it takes ten days there will be plenty of soaking time. Definitely shred or crush the berries. Without the pectic enzyme I don't think you'll gain much with the soak. The berries are hard and waxy, and really need the enzyme.

I suppose, it wouldn't hurt to wait then. I can also agree on leaving K-meta out of the initial process because the fermentation environment is already hard enough for any random yeast/bacteria to spoil the must. Besides, in my past experimental attempts the native yeast never yelded over 7% ABV without acid reduction and any fermentation additives.

I recently started a 5 gallon batch of cranberry wine and we used 33lbs for 5 gallons. So far there is a very strong flavor. Hoping it doesn't turn out too strong. It should settle down once we back sweeten and age. One thing we learned is how much of a pain it is to juice these without steaming or a full press. You have to essentially "pop" each berry like a grape.

We also made a Cranberry White grape wine. Used 11 pounds of cranberies and a can of white grape concentrate. So far it has excellent flavor. Both are still in car boys in the racking stages.

In both batches we pitched the yeast with no success. Added some energizer about two days after adding yeast and that kick started it with no problems into full fermentation.

Acorn: My experience has brought me to running the cranberries thru the food processor and then add boiling water to them. I make cranberry wine every year and this is year #40.

Daylo: IMO you should definitely make a second run with your cranberries. With 33 pounds, I'd do another 4-5 gallons; and leave them in the primary for at least 10 days. And don't press them very much after the first run. If the first run of wine comes across a bit harsh, use the second run to blend with to mellow the first. You can use the second run to blend with many wines in the future.

It is always intersting to learn how different people make this wine differently. I also make cranberry wine every year, but this year I was caught by surprise of not having the ingredients on hand, hence this thread.

My experience has brought me to running the cranberries thru the food processor and then add boiling water to them

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I start in a similar fashion, except I don't mash the berries into small pieces or even a paste, but rather just enough to crush/pop them open so that the extraction goes smoothly and the berries don't float as much. I typically soak them cold for about 4 days on pectic enzyme alone before adding any yeast. I then add yeast and let it ferment half way, whereupon I hand press the berries and let the fermentation finish on juice alone. As a result my cranberry wines often end up on a lighter side, which is the way my "consumer base" likes it

This time, however, I will experiment and make it a bit more intense by chopping/dicing the berries.

Thanks, Double Daylo and Vinobeau for sharing your methods. I see you both are definitely using far more cranberry per gallon than I do, so I would assume it is safe for me to go a little further and add a few more pounds to the batch.

Vinobeau said:

Acorn: My experience has brought me to running the cranberries thru the food processor and then add boiling water to them. I make cranberry wine every year and this is year #40.

Daylo: IMO you should definitely make a second run with your cranberries. With 33 pounds, I'd do another 4-5 gallons; and leave them in the primary for at least 10 days. And don't press them very much after the first run. If the first run of wine comes across a bit harsh, use the second run to blend with to mellow the first. You can use the second run to blend with many wines in the future.

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Interesting thought. We do primarily fruit wines and we have never done a second run of any of our fruit. Mainly because we press the fruit as much as possible before and after fermentation to get as much juice as possible. We shoot to 5-6lbs of fruit per batch. I can't imagine there is enough flavor left after we press to do a second run. Alot of times the fruit is mush by the time we are done pressing.

Acorn: The most cranberries that I've ever used has been 5 pounds per gallon, and the least was 2.5 pounds. I've made it with canned cranberries at a rate of 34 oz per gallon. This year, I got canned berries on closeout, and I used 76 oz per gallon.

Daylo: The second run or False Wine, works best with hearty fruits like Elderberries, Cranberries, Wild Grape, etc. The fruit is free - the only real cost is the sugar. Even if it is too "dull" on its own, it is quite useful for blending.