Raspberries - need to be ripe?

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AndyL

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Just curious,

it's coming up on the season for raspberries around here - but with the weather, it's been a slow year... Wondering - should I really be looking for them to be as ripe as possible (and share with the birds) or can I start harvesting them a bit early without affecting the quality of the must?

Andy
 
You want them as sweet as you can get. If you pick early because of the birds pick them and let them get over ripe and then freeze till you have enough. 6-8# per gal needed and some for a f-pac.
 
When you buy fruit at the shops you really do not have any choice besides buying what they are offering.

But when picking yourself you should only pick the ripest and best fruit available. A fruit that matures on the plant is much better tasting as any fruit that is picked to early and left to ripe in a bowl or bag.
The tree or bush will continue to give the fruit what it needs and when picked that process stops.

Most of the time therefore picked and frozen fruit in the shops will therefore be of better quality as fresh fruit in the shops. Frozen fruit will be picked at the top and immediately frozen otherwise it will start degrading.

So called fresh fruit is picked way to early because it has to be transported, and lays around in the shop for god knows how many days.

Next:
Unripe and too early picked fruit will have a far larger acidity as fresh fruit.

I did a story on this:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/08/bramen-gaan-voor-blackberries-have.html

It is about blackberries however can be applied to almost any other fruit.

My blackberries were so ripe that the acidity was at 8 so there was almost no watering down needed and made a full bodied wine.

There is another post in the Fruit Wines section now that is called BLACKBERRIES SOUR in which the author states that his blackberry wine is sour just because he picked to early, just what i was raging about in my web-log entry and above.

Luc
 
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Yeah - looking for the advise, as I know raspberries don't ripen once picked, and each patch is going to vary radically - nothing ever all ripens at once...

Planning to harvest as much as I can find locally without resorting to hitting the stores... And freeze em up to prepare for a nice strong fruit wine (unlike that strawberry skeeterpee that'll be pretty weak on the fruit).
 
Under ripe berries will be very aidic and low in sugar, eat one and ecide for yourself if this s what you want yur wine to taste like. Also very being acidic will hinder your fermentation.
 

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