Marathon Steam-Juicing Session

[smokegrub]

I just finished a 2-day session of steam-juicing pears and blackberries. I ended up with 13 quarts of pear juice and 31 1/2 quarts blackberry juice. The pears were low in juice, and I sure hope the juice produces a good wine because the amount of labor it took was huge--the pears only produced a bit less than 2 quarts juice per 10 pounds fruit. I learned a couple of things with the pears. First, coarsely chop and freeze them before juicing. By doing that I got 33% more juice than juicing unfrozen pears that were coarsely chopped.

The blackberry juice was derived from about 65 pounds of wild blackberries. Thus, the juice yield was a bit less than 1 pint per pound. These berries were frozen and thawed before steam juicing. I plan to start two 6 1/2 gallon batches of blackberry wine or the juice equivalent of 5 pounds berries per gallon wine.

I look forward to seeing if steam-juiced blackberries eliminate the bitterness I experienced with my last blackberry wine fermented on the berries.

 

[Wade E]

Great job and relax now. Keep us posted on your opinion on steaming vs. fruit sock.

 

[NorthernWinos]

WOW!!!! Awesome amount of Blackberries.

Will be following that wine....should be good.

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Ive only made a couple batches with the steamer thus far, but I think you will like it, I know I do!

 

[termini]

This will be my first time trying a steamer that I got used. A cheap one so I could play with and perfect the process, and then purchase a Mehu Liisa stainless someday.
My question is: I chopped up a bunch of my plums, froze them in Walmart bags for about ten days( I saw in one of the forums that freezing breaks down the pulp even more) and got enough juice to try a 2 gallon batch of plum wine. When I put the juice in the primary, do I then just keep adding sugar water until the S.G. gets to the level to a corresponding ABV on the scale that I wish to enjoy?( I added in this case to get a S.G. of 1.075, put 1/8 tsp of K-meta for 24 hours and then added 1118 yeast)----is it that easy?
I also added some pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient.---I am a little concerned that it seemed to ferment and then stop very quickly, is that because it was only 2 gallons and not the 6 gallons that I am used to working with on the factory kits?---But i guess that the Hydrometer is the true measure---right?
Too many questions--sorry---Really just wondering how to procede in the future if I keep making juice from a steamer.........

 

[NorthernWinos]

Yes...Just add the juice, sugar and water till you get the S.G. you want...Fruit wines are best with S.G. not too high....we like 1.080-1.085. Add all the other ingredients you usually use and keep covered wait a day till you add the yeast.

Have fun and enjoy!!!Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[hannabarn]

I guess I'll have to keep picking blackberries! I'll never get 65# tho! That is alot of berries. This is a good year for berries. We have about 40 wild acres that used to be cleared for crops many years ago. Now it is growing up with pine trees, choke cherry trees, blackberries and many, many blueberry bushes! There are still some blueberries on those bushes but not very many and they are small! I am going to research this and see when it is best to transplant them, etc. Appleman????

 

[smokegrub]

I used half of the juice for a 7 1/2 gal batch and, so far, it looks like it have great potential. I will do a second batch after I see hot the first turns out.