Granny Smith Apple & Bartlett Pear wine

[timber]

Anyone tried this combination?
I'll use fruit from local orchards next summer and am considering making a Granny Smith wine and a Bartlett Pear wine and blending from each, rather than mixing the fruit during fermentation. This way I can have 3 wines rather than one.
I'll be asking some questions when it comes time to prep the fruits.

My wife loves both GS apples and Bartlett Pears, as do I, so I think the sweet/tart combination would make an interesting wine ...
... any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks,

 

[Angelina]

That sounds really good. I happen to have 60 pounds of Granny Smiths shredded in the freezer, but I have heard it is best to used mix apples. But I would really like a GS Apple flavored wine. I would be interested in thoughts on this as well. I agree Pear wine and Pear/GS Apple wine does sound promising too.

 

[timber]

Hi Angelina,

I think it's worth a try with the GS's. I'd need to get another carboy, perhaps a 3 gal. for the GS then use my new 6 gal. for some ripe pears.

So far I've only made one gal. of blackberry wine but I've got the fever now and want to explore tastes for wine that I enjoy in local fruits and berries.

We have some frozen red raspberries in our freezer (hopefully enough for 2 gal.) that came from the yard. This will be my next venture. If I have enough I'll make an f-pac as well to truly keep the raspberry flavor. I'll run it to dry then sweeten to my wife's taste (she picked them). Any suggestions on the raspberry wine? (Thinking about after sweetening with honey rather than sugar). Need to find a good recipe and get the right yeast.

 

[Angelina]

I don't have any suggestions on the raspberry wine. I haven't done them yet. Hopefully this summer my raspberries will produce a hopeful amount. I understand the wine fever. I have it too! If it is fermentable then I am thinking about it.
I have some mixed fruit in the freezer and I am thinking about doing half my GS apple wine with them and pears with the other half.

 

[timber]

Granny Smiths shredded in the freezer

How did you process the GS so they are shredded?
For one or even two gal. batches I thought I'd try the juicer for fruits, I imagine it will be a slow process but if it works well, I think it will be worth the effort.

As for the raspberries, they like lots of sun (and seem to like our fairly acidic soil here) and ours give us several pickings per year. What we have frozen is from a couple of years pickings.
I relocated mine last year and it seems to have stunned them a bit but they should take off this summer since I'll prune anything that shades them.

Good luck with your next batch!

 

[Angelina]

I first corded and cut them in in sections skin on and popped them in a fermenter bucket with some lemon juice and water (to prevent oxidation) then when I was done with that task I got my 3 gallon fermenter (got this at Lowe's or Home Depot) and I sent them through my food processor. I could only do 8 apples at a time before my processor was full to the max. I would keep dumping them in. I also filled a spray bottle with lemon juice to spray on the apples after I dumped them. I also put a layer of plastic wrap over the shredded apples to keep the air off between dumps. They oxidize super fast and even with all that they still did just a little bit. I was able to put 60 pounds of apples in this bucket plus two gallon zip lock freezer bags which I will use for a f-pac. Then in the freezer they went asap.

I just planted about 6 raspberries 6 blackberries and 4 blueberry bushes this past year so I am not sure what to expect. I did however get some property a few weeks ago and was told there are blackberries near the back of the property so I will try for those too. On a side note I also spotted a lot of Honeysuckles vines so I plan to make some honeysuckle wine too

Good luck with yours as well!