Question On Fruit Wine

OK, lychee season is in and I have 3 trees that are loaded. I realize not many have experience with lychee but its a fruit so wine will be made! I made a 5 gallon batch 2 years ago that was delicious, until I learned what why you add sulphates! It slowly spoiled. My question: The recipe I did find online (1 gallon) says "Peel the lychees and remove the stone. Chop the remaining fruit and add it to the sugar in the primary container." I interpret that as 5#s of fruit including the skin and seed. Or should I use 5#s of lychee that has been shelled and de-seeded? That is a big weight difference! It takes about 20-22 lbs to get 5#s of just the fuit's meat. I know with fruit wine the more fruit the better, but it takes hours to peel/de-stone to get 5#s of just fruit. Thanks for any guidance.

I never made lychee but nothing less than 5 pounds of fruit for most fruit wines. And if this is a mild tasting fruit, I would use all fruit and no water but again like I said I never made lychee.

My question is 5#s peeled and de-stoned or 5#s as it was picked from the tree? With this fruit, it makes a big difference.

Looks yummy! My guess would be 5 lbs after pealed and de-cored. Get to work!

Sorry 5# peeled and destoned. And I'm thinking maybe more than 5#, I would probably go lite on the water and heavier on the fruit.

Those look good.

Julie said:

Sorry 5# peeled and destoned. And I'm thinking maybe more than 5#, I would probably go lite on the water and heavier on the fruit.

Those look good.

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I agree - peeled and destoned - probably go a little more than 5#'s - 6 or 7#'s maybe, and very little water..

Ok, peeled and de-stoned it is. I'll probably stick with just 5#s per gallon as the batch I made with that amount 2 years ago had a nice strong lychee flavor! I've enlisted co-workers in my office to help with the peeling/de-stoning. I bribed them with extra lychee and a bottle of the finished wine and maybe even a small jar of lychee jelly! I appreciate you guys/gals input. Thanks.

Here is most of the 5 gallon buckets that I harvested from my smallest tree, not the large tree in the pic above. At $4.00/lb., this is $516.00 in this photo alone!

wow! that fruit is so expensive here in my region,.. something like 15 dlls for two pounds.
that tree looks nice!

roadwarriorsvt said:

Ok, peeled and de-stoned it is. I'll probably stick with just 5#s per gallon as the batch I made with that amount 2 years ago had a nice strong lychee flavor! I've enlisted co-workers in my office to help with the peeling/de-stoning. I bribed them with extra lychee and a bottle of the finished wine and maybe even a small jar of lychee jelly! I appreciate you guys/gals input. Thanks.

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Sounds like a good plan, good luck and let us know how it come out. Also, when I am not sure on how much fruit, I do the standard 5# and then I'll taste the juice, if it tastes weak, I add more before I start to ferment.

Hope your monitoring this. You need a steam juicer. With the amount of fruit you have and the value, you need to juice as much as you can and bottle the juice for future (winter) use. Not to mention there is no peeling and pitting. jerry

Thanks for the info Jerry. Any links to steam juicers? The shell is fairly stout/thick so I'm wondering how effective it would be.

Found this one on EBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/280739910960?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

While that does look like a quality juicer, it has a quality price tag on it as well.

Anyone have opinions of a more complete fermentation using a juicer vs. mashed/crushed fruit?