Pouring boiling water over fruit (Blueberry wine recipe)

[Bacci]

Combing through all the blueberry wine recipes (most recently in the new issue of winemakermag uses boiling water),other recipes use cold. I've always used cold water with marginal color. Can anyone comment on experience using hot boliing water/sugar mixture vs. a cool water addition. Just a thought, recently my wife's blueberry pie out of the oven, the color was as dark as ink. Would hot water help the color and favors? Getting ready to start 5 gals w/18# BBs.

 

[beardy]

Combing through all the blueberry wine recipes (most recently in the new issue of winemakermag uses boiling water),other recipes use cold. I've always used cold water with marginal color. Can anyone comment on experience using hot boliing water/sugar mixture vs. a cool water addition. Just a thought, recently my wife's blueberry pie out of the oven, the color was as dark as ink. Would hot water help the color and favors? Getting ready to start 5 gals w/18# BBs.

I would think the hot (maybe 150° or so) water mixture would "loosen" everything so the colors and flavors would come out stronger. Not boiling as that might kill or destroy some of the fruits natural components. And if you were to cool about half of the water before hand to add a few mins later so the fruit/water mix cools quickly it might be better than letting it sit at a high temp for hours as it cools. Just my thought. Good luck!

 

[cmason1957]

I always freeze my fruit beforehand. Let it thaw some, then invert about half the sugar I think I will need and or it fairly warm over the fruit. Since it is still mostly frozen it cools off very quickly.

(Invert sugar, add 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, a few drops of lemon or lime juice, heat to almost boiling, hold for about 20 minutes.)

 

[Julie]

I'm not sure if I would put boiling water over the fruit, like said before, freeze the fruit that helps in the break down. Add a brewbelt to keep the must warm during fermentation and that should help in extracting color and make sure you are squeezing the bag daily.

 

[Arne]

Get your pectic enzime in there to help break the fruit down. They say boiling the fruit can set the pectin in it and make it much harder to try and clear. That being said, I have done it with the boiling water thing and can't really tell you if it is any harder to clear or not. Did the boil thing pretty early in my winemaking game, now just freeze the fruit for a couple of days or more, thaw, add the k-meta, 12 hrs or so later, add the pectic. Another 12 hrs and the rest of the chemicals, the sugar, stir things up and add the yeast. Best part is, not carrying any pots of boiling water around. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[jensmith]

Hot water does set the color better. Some yeast strains claim to make a "more intense color extraction" or some such line. Hot water is more reliable. Just be sure to use peptic enzyme if you add really hot water! Heat suger and fruit make jelly after all.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I'm not sure if I would put boiling water over the fruit, like said before, freeze the fruit that helps in the break down. Add a brewbelt to keep the must warm during fermentation and that should help in extracting color and make sure you are squeezing the bag daily.

I do the same exact thing as Julie does

 

[saramc]

The major reason people pour boiling water over fresh/fresh frozen fruit is to kill any wild yeast, bacteria, or even bugs (spiders, flies, etc), etc. This method was commonly used in lieu of adding k-meta. This is not to be confused with actually boiling the fruit, completely different thing.

 

[Bacci]

Get your pectic enzime in there to help break the fruit down. They say boiling the fruit can set the pectin in it and make it much harder to try and clear. That being said, I have done it with the boiling water thing and can't really tell you if it is any harder to clear or not. Did the boil thing pretty early in my winemaking game, now just freeze the fruit for a couple of days or more, thaw, add the k-meta, 12 hrs or so later, add the pectic. Another 12 hrs and the rest of the chemicals, the sugar, stir things up and add the yeast. Best part is, not carrying any pots of boiling water around. Good luck with it, Arne.

thanks for everyones advice, Fruit is frozen and believe I'll let the boiled sugar/solution cool a bite (150F) before adding to crushed berries, then cool down and add KMS (shouldn't need much), and then pectin enz. a few hours later. Considering RC 212, it was strong player on my last kit, but have the Red Star Reds on hand as well (Pasteur, Montrachet & Champagne) Any thoughts on these strains for BBs?

 

[petey]

thanks for everyones advice, Fruit is frozen and believe I'll let the boiled sugar/solution cool a bite (150F) before adding to crushed berries, then cool down and add KMS (shouldn't need much), and then pectin enz. a few hours later. Considering RC 212, it was strong player on my last kit, but have the Red Star Reds on hand as well (Pasteur, Montrachet & Champagne) Any thoughts on these strains for BBs?

I just use 71b1122 for my first batch and my slurry and seconds took off well for my blueberry/grape batch also