Non-Grape, Fruit Wines (Newbie Asks)

Andrew,

Grapes are very high in sugar content, higher than most other fruits. Grapes can make a 'wine strength' must (one that will ferment dry to ~12% alcohol level) without the addition of sugar. Most other fruits don't have this level of sugar content naturally, and so sugar is added to increase the sugar content to 'wine strength' for preservative reasons as well as balance and others.

Honey or some other substitute, or a low alcohol fruit wine. But don't think that the addition of sugar makes a fruit wine a 'fruit flavored' sugar ferment. Fruit wines can have enormous amounts of flavor, and fruit other than grapes has the advantage of being readily available in many more geographic regions and at many other times in the growing season than grapes. You can also buy fruit juice in many convenient forms; frozen canned concentrate, 100% 'varietal' fruit juice in natural food stores or higher end grocery stores, in 100% juice mixes, etc. There are also dried, canned, and frozen fruits available at most grocery stores. And most homebrew shops will carry canned fruit for winemaking in addition to grape wine juice kits. For the home winemaker, fruit wines are an excellent alternative to vinifera, and produce very rewarding results.

I didn't know you could use canned or concentrated juices. I thought fresh fruit was needed. And from the store that looked REALLY pricey ! Especially berries - though I guess that could be a regional thing.

Thx,

Andrew

If you want wine from fruit go to a U-PICK place.I have made Blueberry, Strawberry, Cranberry, Peach and Blackberry wine from fresh fruit. I make the wine when the fruit is in season and I pick-my-own. This brings the price down ALOT!. I just got a crate if Peaches 3/4 bushel for only $8.00 added sugar and yeast ===== WINE made cheap. Tom

You're right in that most fruit wines are made up of yeast, sugar, and fruit, but I don't know that I would go so far to say just "flavored wines". Fruit wines don't necessarily taste like the fruit you make them out of - they're just different. It is hard to explain, but fruit wines are unique and they certainly don't taste like regular wine you buy at the liquor store. I see that as a positive, but others may not. And I will add(and this is probably blasphemous too), but I was getting a bit bored with the wines which are out there. I was attracted to making wine because I had too much rhubarb in my garden. That's when it started and I've gone on to make many other wines from stuff from my garden or from u-pick places. The other neat thing about making it myself is that I can make the wine the way I like it, not the way someone else decides. Plus, my wine is different and unique. ;) Darlene

wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

'Nuff said.

Ooo - I'm jellus! We don't have U-pick blackberries around here, and the wild ones are much too sparse to find enough for wine, or even a mel. I've had very good success with pear, strawberry and raspberry. I didn't think my peach had turned out very well, but now that it's been bottled for a month or so, it's gotten much, much better. Blueberry always seems kind of ..... flat. Make for a great sparkling mel, though.

I'd love to find someplace that had U-pick mulberries, as it supposedly makes an excellent mel.

Woods

Andrew,

Store bought fruit can be expensive indeed. But if you keep your eyes open you can usually find seasonal sales. It does depend on your location, but I find many fruits on sale for about $1US/lb in VA, and my in-laws in NJ have fruit as low as 75 cents per pound in their local grocery stores.

I know this thread has ended at "'Nuff said" but I wanted to comment... the above summary needs a stronger reply.

The sugar in fruit (grapes or any other) is converted to alcohol during fermentation. When sugar is added to a must, it too is converted to alcohol. The difference between intrinsic and added sugar is negligible, insignificant - it all goes away to become alcohol. The yeast that performs the fermentation is NOT part of the finished wine - it is a means to an end. So what does that say about the original poster's comment that "fruit wines are just yeast, sugar, and fruit 'flavoring'":

- There is no yeast in the finished wine

- There is no sugar in the finished wine (assuming ferment to dryness)

So what is left is alcohol and the fruit essence, plus the intangible, just like grape wine. There is no rule that says you cannot ferment 'other' fruit in a manner similar to grapes, meaning 100% fruit (no water) - with only sugar added to allow a standard finished alcohol level of 10-13 percent. In fact, this is a very satisfying way to pursue fruit winemaking, because it allows you to reach the potential of certain fruit wines to be full-flavored, rich, and true to themselves.

In fact, the very absence of such fruit wines in the commercial market is what originally led me to try winemaking. So far, I have had the most success with berry wines (blue, black, rasp, and straw), peach, plum, apple, and pear in my 100% fruit efforts. And that's enough to keep me very interested in fruit wines even though I make a couple of red grape wines each harvest.

Roger Quinta do Placer

Rodger,

I'm really glad you decided to reply. As you know, I'm a Newbie and don't have your level of knowledge or experience. Yet, after several extensive 'net crawls thru google, I really hadn't found squat about fruit-wine making that *didn't* involve large amounts of sugar. It was beginning to look like 5lb. bags of Domino's Refined Sugar mattered more than the fruit!

I'm a little confused by some of your reply though; You say no H2O whereas many "real" grape wines add it. You also said using sugar to achieve OH levels of 10-13. But how much sugar is that? Most of all, I'd like to know more about how you're able to make your fruit-wines more "au natural", if you will.

---Andrew

Hi Andrew,

It is true that some grapes require amelioration with acid, sugar, or water - to address various deficiencies. Acid addition for high pH, sugar addition for low starting Brix, water addition for high starting Brix and/or high acid. But in general grape wine is made "au naturel." At least we seek to do so!

The amount of sugar added to any fruit to reach 'standard' winemaking starting SG is, of course, variable based on the natural sugar present in that fruit - fruit type notwithstanding. With grapes the addition is typically minimal, because grapes - even at their worst - routinely come very close. Ben Rotter's Improved Winemaking site has some tables showing typical sugar and acid content in various fruits

However it is imperative to measure your must in order to get an accurate starting point. It's pointless for me to cite "5 lbs" or "50 lbs" because natural sugar and volume of must are critical to the equation.

There are various techniques for determining starting SG with *pure fruit* that you will get accustomed to selecting from with experience. For example, it is generally very helpful to freeze many types of fruit prior to fermentation in order to facilitate tissue breakdown and the resulting release of juice.

Take strawberries for example; you can freeze them in Ziploc bags from which you have pressed out all the air. Thaw them in the same bags, and as they warm up they will begin to virtually drain themselves of their color and juice. You can pour off a sample of this juice to determine starting gravity. After 2 days of thawing, which can be considered cold maceration, I would press the strawberries just like white grapes and ferment the juice only. This juice would be measured for SG and sugar added accordingly. I don't even keep notes on the quantity, just the original 'raw' SG and the adjusted 'starting' SG.

Many fruits simply do not contain adequate liquid in any reasonable quantity to follow the 100% philosophy. Bananas, figs, cranberries, tomatoes, etc. - so for these fruits one would follow more traditional 'country' winemaking techniques. I tend to focus on fruits that have reasonable sugar and liquid, such as berries, apples, pears, peaches, plums, and so on. It's not possible to do this with simply *anything.*

Finally, the fruits I choose are typically moderate to high acid fruits. As such, I avoid adding acid. In fact, I take the approach of "finish it they way it wants to be finished." That means ferment to dryness, then sweeten to taste according to the final acidity of the wine. Some wines can be left dry, whereas some require sweetening. Also, you are free to try a malolactic fermentation with malic fruits like peach and blackberry. That can reduce the acid even more (possibly too much) - allowing for additional options.

So that's a basic overview of my own approach that's evolved. I have only 3 'vintages' under my belt but in that time I have found what I like.

Roger

Before there was refined sugar there was honey. Mead and Melomel was the drink. Melomel is honey wine made with fruit. Inother words you are just using the same recipe but with honey instead of sugar. Why did people stop using honey? Sugar is cheaper.

Ray