One year! Ouch! Why are the time differences so great between, say, a plum wine and a DB? Is part of it down to the fruit? Or something in the making? I want to understand the principles better. And how about the pear?
It comes down to the fruit, in a sense.. The more fruit you use in a wine, the higher the amount of Total Dissolved Solids becomes..
What differences does on the pulp make? Maybe there is a shortcut whereby half is juiced and half, pulp?
It sounds like most of the "serious" fruit wine makers crush to extract juice and then ferment the juice and remaining pulp together.
Perhaps I should worry less about it. I checked today and found that what was 11kg of must yesterday is probably barely 5kg today - the yeast, sugar and enzyme have really extracted out the liquid, meaning it is definitely easier to handle.
As you noticed yourself, the pulp seems to liquify. The fruit breaks down from the yeast, heat and enzymes (pectic enzyme we add being a major one).. But this doesnt mean those 'solids' are 'gone'. They're dissolved, they're within the solution, more available for chemical reactions.. These reactions are what lead to the flavors, aromas, and textures within wine..
But these reactions take time.
So, let me get this right: if you get mush, that's ok: mush in the bucket will split into juice and must as yeast and pectin do their jobs. Is that right???
I almost wonder if a thread where extraction techniques for various fruits are compared, for example, plums: freeze and mash and only use the juice that comes out and the fruit? Skins on? Pears: freeze, mash and bucket? Etc. And how much fruit per gallon of juice is usually required, and so on.
Freeze all your fruits, if you can. Except wine grapes.
I had a red raspberry wine that had the consistency of apple sauce prior to fermentation; I was called crazy at the time lol. Had I known enough to pre-adjust the acidity ahead of time, it would have turned out fine.. 112lbs of red raspberries could have made 7-8 gallons of wine; it was a monster. Point is, post-fermentation, what was apple-sauce consistency, was only then 1/3-1/4 sediment.. Which after isolating, degassing and racking off the wine as it settled, ended up being about 1.5 gallons of sludge.
What didnt turn into sludge, was dissolved and is still aging in the carboys sitting behind me. A
whole lot of berry, that wouldnt be in the wine, if I'd just started with juice, or made a wine that was more along the lines of a DB-style.
So mush is preferred, for bold flavor. Skins on or off, depends on what fruit you're working with and is mostly something you'll learn in time.. I like my peach and pear wines skin-off but apples dont matter; this is part of what makes everyones wines a little different.
Also, I'm planning to bulk age the pear and plum at least six months. Is there any reason not to sorbate, back sweeten and bottle then and aging for another 6+ months? I wouldn't mind reusing those carboys!
But with the mush-type musts, comes the higher dissolved solids, comes more flavor, aroma... But this takes more time, there's more reactions that need to happen before the alcohol settles into the background, before the tannins calm down, before the flavors and aromas really start to stand out.... I bulk age for ~18 months, but it's because it needs that time.
Were you to bottle early, and you happened to get all the sediment out, you may find slight variation from bottle to bottle - some bottles might have had just a little bit more tannin, some less; some might have a little more bite than others, some might oxidize or age faster... Bulk aging for longer lowers the chances of these things happening, alongside giving you more time to properly assess the characteristics of the wine in front of you.. You dont have to guess about if it needs sweetened, or more flavor, or another layering of extracts, or if you want to blend it with another flavor... You have the opportunity to let the wine come of age, as a bulk unit, and bottle it when its ready for bottles
Do you MLF all your fruit wines? This isn't something I know a lot about.
Turock is pretty well-informed; the apple & pear are great MLF'd in my opinion - I just prefer them that way. I'm also going to be experimenting with MLF on a few other fruits, but it's not something I've done and seen, to recommend to others (and Turock has previously told me he wouldnt, but I'm hard-headed lol)
