Help! Waldo.

[smokegrub]

I just finished using my Mehu Liisa for the first time. I steamed 10 pounds of juicy pears and got 4 quarts juice. How many do I need for 5 gallons wine? Do you have a tried and true recipe?

Thanks in advance.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Glad you used your steam juicer.....


Can't help you on a pear recipe....with other fruits I use a few pounds of fruit more per gallon...just to be sure to get a good fruit flavor.


With steamed apples and the steamed grapes I use almost pure juice to make wine...like 18 to 20 quarts for a 5-6 gallon batch. I don't know how many pounds of apples I use...just keep steaming till they are either gone or I have enough juice.


Was your juice flavorful????


I have heard that pear wine might be a toughwine to clear....have read that some people put benonite in the primary to aid clearing...might be something to ask the pros about.


Someday I hope to have enough pears to make a batch too...so will be interested on how yours turns out.

 

[Waldo]

Looks like you got a good yield from the pears smoke and some good advice from NW. I have not made a pear wine either but NW's technique sounds like a good plan to me too.

 

[smokegrub]

I haven't tasted the juice yet--will do so tomorrow. The pears were on sale at Wal-Mart for $.89 per pound so I just couldn't pass them up. If I were to go with pure juice I would have to do 50 pounds of pears! I think I will just do a 1 gallon batch and see how it turns out. We normally have plenty of hard cooking pears around here but a late freeze destroyed all the fruit this year.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[stormbringer]

Your yield for the pears is excellent. My recent efforts of pear steaming produced 1 quartjuice per 5 lbs. pears. Maybe the pears I steamedwere not the juicy type. But the juice has a good flavor.

 

[smokegrub]

I had very ripe, juicy pears and I steamed them twice. After the first steaming they still had considerable flovor and texture so I used a knife and quickly chopped the steamed fruit in the basket. The second steaming produced what appeared to be a darker richer juice. Since this was my first steaming effort I can hardly speak as an authority but it seems apparent that the steaming times provided with the steamer are probably rough guidelines and dependent on a number of variables.

I plan to steam some apples today and will see how it goes.

 

[stormbringer]

It may help,before steaming apples or pears, to quarter them.

 

[NorthernWinos]

With the apples I quarter them and then sprinkle about 1/2 cup sugar over them. The sugar seems to help extract the juices. I steam on high heat for one hour, then sometimes refill the water pan and go for 1/2 hour....dump the pulp and do another batch...sometimes.....I put two batches of pulp together and go another 1/2 hour...


Last night I had a produce fridge melfuntion and froze everything, including a nice box of apples I was saving for eating...I put them frozen in the basket whole and they juiced up real nice.


I think the time for juicing depends on the fruit too...grapes, raspberries and strawberries juice up real quickly if they are not frozen...if the fruit basket is full, the frozen ones take awhile to thaw before they start to juice.


Enjoy your juicers and share your experiences.Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[smokegrub]

Apples are in the juicer now. The house smells great!

 

[Waldo]

Another thing that will help immensely is to pour some of the hot extracted juice back over the fruit,

 

[smokegrub]

The apples didn't have a lot of juice--2 quarts for a full basket in the steamer. Went back to Wal-Mart and got a little more than 10 pounds pears. Half of those yielded 2 quarts--the remainder are steaming now.

 

[grapeman]

A lot of the apples you buy aren't very juicy when you get them. I leave mine in the garage to gradually ripen over a couple weeks before prssing them this time of year. It increases the yield. Normal for me pressing is between 2.5 and 3 gallons per 40 pounds. As it becomes late season, they get riper on the tree, juicier and sweeter. Just watch the acid. If it gets too low I add back in a few high acid Norther Spies.

 

[smokegrub]

Just finished the pears. Final tally, 8 quarts per 20 pounds of pears. Back to the apples either tomorrow or Saturday.