Fruit wines

A forum for winemakers to discuss their craft
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fatcontro11er
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Fruit wines

Post by fatcontro11er » Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:10 am

I have lots of blackcurrants, gooseberries and wild plums( similar to damsons) in the freezer and wondered if anyone could advise how to go about putting a recipe together for individual fruit wines!
I did use some of the fruits along with blackberries and elderberries last year but the wines turned out quite tart though very dry!?thanks
Stuart

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Hairybiker
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Re: Fruit wines

Post by Hairybiker » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:16 pm

My rule of thumb form many years ago, was 6lb of fruit per gal of wine.
Clean/cut out any bad bits, chop and put in to a FV, add 4 pints of boiling water stir well along with a campden tablet and a large mug of tea made with 3-4 tea bags (or some tannin powder). Leave to cool then add pectolase, leave for 24 hrs. Add yeast and leave for 5 days covered on the pulp, stirring daily.
Strain in to a Demijohn, add 1 carton of GJ concentrate (or 1L of pure GJ if you can get it) add 8oz of sugar disolved in a pint of water.
Leave for 2 weeks, if you want a stronger wine add more sugar at this point if not top up to shoulder of DJ with water.
Sample after 1 month, if it is too tart
This produced many well liked wines in the late 70's/80's. But I have got of of the habit of wine making now, only making the odd one.
Sorry units are in imperial but that is what I used/still to use

oldbloke
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Re: Fruit wines

Post by oldbloke » Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:25 pm

6lbs per gallon is quite a lot, I've always used 3 to 4. Apart from that, general method roughly as above.

The blackcurrants - unless you have an absolute glut - are best as an addition to anything else you make, as they give anything a wine-like quality

fatcontro11er
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Re: Fruit wines

Post by fatcontro11er » Thu Jan 11, 2018 4:51 pm

Thanks very much for your advice guys!

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MarkA
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Re: Fruit wines

Post by MarkA » Thu Jan 11, 2018 5:41 pm

You could try making a wine with 2lb gooseberries and 1lb of blackcurrants, I made a similar recipe with rhubarb as the base and it came out well. Gooseberry wine is also delicious with nothing else added.

My usual recipe is 3lb of fruit and 2.5 to 3lb of sugar (adding tannin/pectolase/tartaric acid etc depending on what fruit is used) though I know others think that is too much sugar, but I've never had a wine finish overly sweet using Young's Super Wine Yeast Compound. A small bottle of wine sweetener is also handy to keep in the cupboard just in case you do get a batch that makes you pucker!

oldbloke
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Re: Fruit wines

Post by oldbloke » Thu Jan 11, 2018 10:14 pm

The sugar content of most fruit - berries especially - is low enough you can pretty much ignore it when calculating how much sugar to use.
I tend to use 1.2kg per gallon

But.... typical sugar content by weight
Apple (Cooking) 9%
Apple (Eating) 12%
Apricot 8%
Banana 17%
Blackberry 7%
Blackcurrant 8%
Blueberry 8%
Bilberry 6%
Cherry 12%
Cranberry 4%
Damson 9%
Elderberry 11.5%
Gooseberry 8%
Grape 15-20%
Grapefruit 6%
Greengage 11%
Guava 7%
Hawthornberry 8%
Kiwi 14%
Loganberry 5%
Lychee 17%
Mango 11%
Medlar 11%
Orange 11%
Papaya 8%
Passion Fruit 8%
Peach 9%
Pear 10%
Pineapple 13%
Plum 10%
Pomegranate 13%
Raspberry 7%
Redcurrant 6%
Strawberry 6%
Tangerine 7.5%
Whitecurrant 5.5%
Lemon, Lime, Rhubarb - too low to bother about.

fatcontro11er
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Re: Fruit wines

Post by fatcontro11er » Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:14 am

👍

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