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david1

inthewind
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looking for some ideas, has anybody ever frozen the fruit before initial fermentation? just wondering if this may extract more from the fruit. we are about to make a strawberry 5 gal. batch. maybe crushing, freezing and then using a ferment bag. would this help to break down the fruit better?
 
Freezing definitely as it helps break open the cellular structure of the fruit, not really much help with strawberries as it is with like blueberries or cherries as you will cut up the strawberries somewhat.
 
Freezing is indeed the best way to have fruit release their
juices.
Freezing breaks down cell structure and by that the juice is released.

I do not crush before freezing. I just freeze the fruit and when thawed it will be mash already. Most times you can easily press it by hand (in a cheesecloth) when thawed.

Just make sure to let it warm up to room temperture and then add pectic enzymes to release even more juice. But like said wait till room temperature because enzymes do not work at lower temperatures.

I once did an essay on juicing apples without any expensive equipment and freezing definitely produced most juice:
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/09/appeltje-voor-de-dorst-apple-day.html

Luc
 
would you freeze something like bananas instead of letting them ripen and get the same results?
 
Almost anyone who had made wine for a while freezes fruit first. I don't crush either. I have a steam juicer that gets every drop of juice out there is to get. Freezing for a couple weeks first really boosts the juice output.
 
would you freeze something like bananas instead of letting them ripen and get the same results?

You should do both !!!

Freezing unripe fruit does not give you the quality you are looking for.
Any fruit that is going to be used in winemaking should be ripe !!

Luc
 
Almost anyone who had made wine for a while freezes fruit first. I don't crush either. I have a steam juicer that gets every drop of juice out there is to get. Freezing for a couple weeks first really boosts the juice output.
I have a steam juicer on order, in this week. How do you like yours and do you extract juice from all of your fruit you use? Would there be some fruit you wouldn't use it on, i.e. bananas?
 
I have one and used it for several years.

I have used it on blackberries, elderberries, bananas and plums with great success.

I had less success with apples and carrots.
So I favor using it with soft fruit.

look up my story on juicing apples on my web-log (the august or september 2008 entry) and you can see that the steam juicer gave the worst results compared to other methods for juicing apples.

Luc
 
Luc, in my part of the country we don't grow apples, too hot and humid. But we do grow figs, lots of them and I'll be picking in about 2 weeks. Figs are a soft fruit sooo I was just wondering if that would work also. BTW, elderberries are in full bloom here. They are every where to be had by anybody, nothing more that a weed around here.
 
Tall. I recently started a batch of strawberry banana. I froze the starwberries and smashed them quite easily when they were thawed. The bananas I pelled(discard) and sliced the nanners and brought them to a boil simmered for 15 mins or so, added them to the strawberries and mashed it good, transfered all to a straining bag and were on the way.
Troy
 
Troy, adding bananas to anything is like throwing in a batch of yeast nutrient, in fact I use bananas when trying to get a stuck ferment going. Just boil 3-4 over ripe bananas for 30mins. or so and add this liquid to the batch, you'll be surprised.
 
Luc & Smurfe,
Have you used your steamer juicer to make a F-PAC? If so, do you add pectic enzyme to the f-pac?
 
Troy, adding bananas to anything is like throwing in a batch of yeast nutrient, in fact I use bananas when trying to get a stuck ferment going. Just boil 3-4 over ripe bananas for 30mins. or so and add this liquid to the batch, you'll be surprised.
As a side note;
When my wife buys bananas and they get brown instead of tossing I peel them and freeze. You be surprised how fast that adds up.
 
Luc & Smurfe,
Have you used your steamer juicer to make a F-PAC? If so, do you add pectic enzyme to the f-pac?

Using a steam juicer will release a lot of pectin. So always use double to triple the amount of pectin enzymes (when the juice has cooled down).

Luc
 
So lets say you made (steamed) 2 quarts say of peaches for a f-pac. How much would you add? Would you figure for 6 gallons or2 quarts?
 
I still keep breaking my brain over these awkward measures you have :d

2 quarts is half a gallon right ???
So how much would you add normally to a gallon.
Use about 3 times that amount.

Then again I would personally just add a teaspoon full.

Luc
 
Tom, if you are asking how much of an F Pack you made to add, I just add to taste.
 
Tom, if you are asking how much of an F Pack you made to add, I just add to taste.
Yea I got that I'm asking how much pectic enzyme to a f-pac if I made a 1/2 gallon of juice fron the steamer juicer.
 
A quart is almost a litre luc.. about 950ml..

Yeah I wish they'd all get with metric too....

it's a problem with the colonies.... :)

Allie
 
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