I forgot how much juice was yielded from various fruit I have steam juiced. Can't find my notes. Time for a better filing system. Would it be safe to assume if 16 lbs of fruit was steamed it would yield some where in the neighborhood of 8-10 gts of juice? I think I had bought the fruit with the intention of trying to make Meade in 3 gal batches, but I don't think I had intended to put all of the juice in the fermenter. I seem to recall reading that if you used juice obtained by juicing, not as much juice would be needed as compared to using smashed fruit and poking down a cap 2 or 3 times a day. Anybody else ever read this? What do you'll do? Qts per gallon of must? Any input will be greatly appreciated.
Steam Juicing
- Thread starter Jerry1
- Start date
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One thing to remember is that 1 year 16 lbs of fruit steam juiced will yield x amount and another year it will yield a different amount. I usually just keep the fruit frozen until I am ready to make wine/mead and steam whatever I need which is 4-6 lbs per gallon (depending on the fruit) plus extra for an fpac. So 16 lbs. would get roughly 3 gallons of wine plus the fpac. For meads the honey is usually the star, which is why we say get really good honey because it makes a difference and you normally use less fruit. So that same 16 lbs would be enough for a 5 gallon batch and allow the honey shine.
Bartman
Senior Member
Jerry1 said:
I know next to nothing about steam juicing, but I do know that someone from Paris, Texas should know better than to say, "What do you'll do?" - it's "What do y'all do?" !!
My apologies Bart. Although born in Texas, I was dragged kicking and screaming to Calif. at the ripe old age of 3yrs.where I spent the next 8 years of my life. I came back to TX and was only here until the age of 17 when my Uncle Sam talked me into going with him for 8 1/2 yrs. After that I still worked for him as a civilian and he never saw fittin' to send me back home. I've been retired for 12 yrs now and came home as quick as I could, even brought a Yankee wife with me. So you see, I'm still trying to learn to talk Texan again. You don't by chance have one of them books titled "How To Talk Texan" you could loan a feller do ya?
vcasey......if I understand correctly I think you told me Meade takes about half the fruit as fruit wine takes. Let me ask this....if I made a standard Meade and got the sweetness I wanted, would I be able to add the juice at that time to get the taste I'm after, or does the juice always need to be in the must as fermentation is happening? I know it would cut the alcohol content, but I think I'm more interested in taste at this stage of the game. I've read 3 books on making Meade, including Ken Schramms book and I remember adding spices to finished Meade to get a desired taste, but not juices.
vcasey......if I understand correctly I think you told me Meade takes about half the fruit as fruit wine takes. Let me ask this....if I made a standard Meade and got the sweetness I wanted, would I be able to add the juice at that time to get the taste I'm after, or does the juice always need to be in the must as fermentation is happening? I know it would cut the alcohol content, but I think I'm more interested in taste at this stage of the game. I've read 3 books on making Meade, including Ken Schramms book and I remember adding spices to finished Meade to get a desired taste, but not juices.
Bart & Jerry thats pretty good and for the record we say "y'all" in Fla as well. lol!!
Jerry a lot of mead makers will add the juice to the secondary because the flavors of the fruit tend to hold up better as they are not subjected to the more vigorous fermentation. The challenging part of that is not to end up with an alcohol bomb or syrup sweet because the yeast give up or not. And yes adding the juice afterwards is fine, just remember you still need to balance between the flavor and to much sweetness.
Start with an SG around 1090 and add the juice when you rack to the secondary and leave a bit out to back sweeten (and you can use honey as well) and flavor you should be golden. You will need to watch the level of sweetness as meads tend to taste sweeter as they mature and the profile of the honey starts to show.
Oh if you are using strawberries they need to go in the primary. Some enzyme in them needs that violent primary fermentation to prevent off flavors and aromas. You can then add more juice for flavor and color after stabilization.
If you really want to play, make a 6 gallon batch of traditional mead. Once you are ready to rack it to the secondary use 4 or 5 - 1 gallon jugs and add different juices so you'll get several different types of meads from 1 batch. Just make sure you have extra for topping off.
Jerry a lot of mead makers will add the juice to the secondary because the flavors of the fruit tend to hold up better as they are not subjected to the more vigorous fermentation. The challenging part of that is not to end up with an alcohol bomb or syrup sweet because the yeast give up or not. And yes adding the juice afterwards is fine, just remember you still need to balance between the flavor and to much sweetness.
Start with an SG around 1090 and add the juice when you rack to the secondary and leave a bit out to back sweeten (and you can use honey as well) and flavor you should be golden. You will need to watch the level of sweetness as meads tend to taste sweeter as they mature and the profile of the honey starts to show.
Oh if you are using strawberries they need to go in the primary. Some enzyme in them needs that violent primary fermentation to prevent off flavors and aromas. You can then add more juice for flavor and color after stabilization.
If you really want to play, make a 6 gallon batch of traditional mead. Once you are ready to rack it to the secondary use 4 or 5 - 1 gallon jugs and add different juices so you'll get several different types of meads from 1 batch. Just make sure you have extra for topping off.
vcasey....thanks for your quick response. I have enough cherry and plum juice to make 3 gal of each with enough left over for jelly and fpacs. I'll make a 6 gal batch and reserve the remaining Meade for back sweetening if needed. If not I think I'll try some herbs and spices. The only honey I can get locally is a blend. The bee keepers in this area do not keep the various types seperated. Have to go to Sams in the next month, so I'll check and see what they get in.
Local honey will beat Sam's honey any and every day. Sam's honey is good for testing and playing and you can get a good mead, but you'll get a better product using local if at all possible. You can also order honey online and later I'll post some sites or you can search through the mead section for them.
