Cranberry recipe question.

[WineYooper]

I'm putting together a 6 gallon batch this A.M. and am having issues with crushing the berries by hand. I am using a potato masher trying to break the berries and am finding it to be really tough with the 20+ lbs. in the mesh bag. Should I have crushed a small amount of berries in a seperate container and then dumped in the nylon bag until all were done? Will the hot water aid the splitting of the fruit or is that mostly to help remove flavor and color? Do I need to have all (most) of the berries open before adding the rest of the ingredients. I don't have a mechanical crusher and have blisters already so any tips would be appreciated. This batch is going to be per Wade's recipe.
Finished mashing and have mixed all together. These berries were previously frozen. Next time I will use a mechanical masher or food processor. I mixed in the 15# of sugar with the 22.5# of berries I used and now find at 94F, due to the warm water I added, I have a corrected sg of 1.115. It seems the higher qty. of berries carries more sugar so I may not have needed to add as much. Oh well, I may have a higher alcohol or end with a somewhat sweeter wine. We will see what develops. I have added more water to try to dilute out but am running out of room in the primary so will proceede as is. Initially I had searched for threads this A.M. but did not find the ones tied below.

 

[Mud]

What if you put them in a ziplock bag and ran them over with a rolling pin?

 

[WineYooper]

It sounds good but I wonder if you would run into problems like air blowing out the closer if you don't get out all the air before closing. Would probably have to use a 1 gallon or larger bag. I may have to try to see the result. That's a good thought. Thanks. It was a bugger the way I ended up doing it and messy.

 

[Wade E]

All fruits sugars will vary and this is why you should always add sugar only after determining the Brix of the fruit alone and adjust from there with a hydrometer. Acids will also vary like this as the longer they stay on the tree or bush, the more sugars they develope and usually the lower the acids. This is why it is so important that grape growers leave the grapes on as long as they can to get the right ph and brix so that it is as n]balanced as it can be and also why grocery store fruit in=snt a great idea as they are generally picked to early making the sugar content low and the ta to high. Crnberries are tough as even after they are frozen and dethawed they are still a pita to break open. I used to cutting boards and smashed the cranberries in between them.

 

[WineYooper]

I just took a sg reading at 77F and it was 1.120, I'm thinking not too bad but what would this tell you? My other thought was too pull off some of this juice and freeze and then I could add a little water to dilute, does that make sense?