Wine making with fresh or frozen fruit

[dantrubak]

I have looked all over to get a detailed step by step process of wine making with fresh fruit. I only have ever used juices and would like to expand! Could somebody please post a step by step process for me?

Thank you!

 

[djrockinsteve]

You can either press the fruit, or juice the fruit and get your juice that way to ferment, or you can add fruit to some inverted sugar water and allow it to ferment then remove the fruit around 1.020. Allow it to ferment dry.

Freezing fruit will break the cell structure allowing the yeast to feast upon the sugar easier.

For 5 gallons, press for 5 gallons of juice. (best way)
or
Mix up 5-6 gallons of inverted sugar water to a gravity of your desire @1.080
Add nutrients (6 teaspoons)
Tannin if needed. Your fruit is unknown.
Pectic enzyme 21 drops or dry equilevent
Stir well and divide into 2 equal buckets.
Add fruit equally. Recommend 5-6 pounds per gallon.
Rehydrate yeast and add. Stir a few times per day. Push the cap (fruit) down.
Remove pulp/fruit around 1.020
Ferment dry .990
Rack to clear, add 1/4 teaspoon potassium metabisulfite (5 Gallon batch) and degas
4-6 weeks later rack off of sediment and add a pinch of sulfite
Age
Rack, back sweeten, add sorbate and wait a few weeks to see if refermentation takes place. If not bottle.

Depending upon what fruit you use you will get more wine. My pineapple was very juicy and I would up with more than expected.

 

[Tom]

Agree but do not bottle that fast. My fruit wines usually age 6+months before bottling. Fruit wines (from fresh) take much longer to clear than kits. Multiple racking are needed.

 

[Wiz]

I agree with Tom, in my climate it gets down to low 60's every night and up to an average mid 70's during the day. I need to bulk age at least 6 months to keep crystal from forming after bottling.

 

[dantrubak]

How many pounds of grapes would I need to use my juicer and get 5 gallons of juice???

 

[LJPelletier]

How many pounds of grapes would I need to use my juicer and get 5 gallons of juice???

Roughly 70-80 pounds, but I would be wary of using a juicer. You do not want ground up seeds in it.

 

[dantrubak]

So what is the best way to do it?

 

[Tom]

I say closer to 90#
You need to crush and destem them NOT thru a juicer. Let the pectic enzyme do its thing.

BTW, where you getting wine grapes this time of year?

 

[Ernest T Bass]

This is kinda a reply to the question. I use only about 5 or 6 pounds of grapes per gallon and I think it taste pretty good---but--- I have never tasted store bought wine so I may be missing the whole point of making your own wine ? Here are my basic steps, freeze em, thaw em, add a gallon of water for each 5 or 6 pounds, squeeze em, add k-meta and let em set for a day. Log SpGr, check pH and adjust if needed, add pectic enzyme, nutrient and let that blend in for a while and add simple syrup to get SpGr up to 1.085 or close to it. Add yeast (cup of water, 1 tbsp of sugar and yeast (usually red star premier cuvee). When the SpGr gets down to about 1.015 to 1.010 I pour it thru a paint strainer into a bucket then with a funnel I pour it into a carboy with air/lock. When the SpGr doesn't change for 3 days (it's going to be 1.000 or less) I rack it to another carboy on top of sulfite and sorbate. The next day I backsweeten to 1.025. Let that settle out for about a week and rack and add sparkolloid, it will usually clear in 3 or 4 days, if not I'll use superkleer. After that settles out I'll rack it again and bottle. If I haven't left something out, that the way I do it. Would appreachate any coment, except on my spelling (I wanted to add that smile, but don't know how)

 

[Tom]

Sounds like jailhouse hooch!

 

[tjbryner]

Bud with out trying to sound mean, that sounds more like a water wine with some grape added. However your water to gallons would work with some fruits but not with grapes in my opinion.

 

[Ernest T Bass]

Thanks tjbryner, that was the kind of answer I was looking for. I guess I should buy a bottle of grape wine to see what it is suspose to taste like. I made some elderberry wine and used 5 pounds per gallon, it had such a strong flavor - a 1 gallon zip-lock freezer bag weight about 5 pounds. I cut back on the grapes, like I said, I really don't know what it's suspose to taste like. Thanks for the help.

Semper Fi

 

[Runningwolf]

Why would you add any water to a grape wine? The only time I would consider it would be to cut down on the acid.