Plum Wine Color

Hi Dar V:

Do you have plans for cranberry wine this year? I've seen some attractive prices on cranberry in the stores last week. Can you get them fresh were you are. We can't, the drive to the bogs is 4 hours and part of the fun of making wine, I think, is scrouging and making decent wine on the cheap. The gas to there would kill the cheap part.

Last year we made one with 2lbs. per gallon cranberry and 1lbs raisin per gallon. It turned out to light in flavor and too high in alcohol.

So we thought to try 3lbs. per gallon with the raisins and keep the SG at 1.095 or less.

Anyway I hope you're having a good holiday.

Steve - Noobie Oregon

Steve, Yes, I do have plans for cranberry wine. I usually wait until after Thanksgiving, when they usually go on sale and buy them. They look pretty fresh, but I'm too far away to pick them from a bog. Then, I throw them into the freezer for a few months to break the fruit down before I make my wine. The cranberry wine we had this Thanksgiving was a batch I made in

2002 at 12% Alcohol by volume. I shoot for a starting SG of 1.090 (close to yours) - otherwise you have to wait a long time for the wine to smooth out. Rocket fuel...ah yes...been there, but I'm learning. Good-luck. Darlene Wisconsin

Does freezing fruits for months have an advantage over freezing for days?? It would seem to me that once the fuit is frozen the cell walls are broken and extended time would have no advantage. Just curious.

Thanks

I've been an avid gardener for more than 20 years and I have a big freezer to put the excess in. I've noticed that when I freeze a whole bunch of say strawberries or zucchini, that if I open a quart up after about a month of being frozen, that it is pretty much like it was when I froze it. If I open something up after it has been frozen 6 months or longer, it has broken down further. I can also say "yes" there is something to freezer burn for certain things; so you can freeze things too long. I think it all depends on the item you are freezing and some you should not freeze. Watermelon will not benefit from freezing. I prefer to freeze most fruits or veggies for at least a month before I make wine out of it, but at the same time I don't worry if I freeze something for 6 months and then make wine out of it. I prefer to freeze pumpkin for a bit because that is so hard to begin with. I think zucchini benefits from 6 months of freezing, because I always get a lot of liquid from it after its been frozen that long - I think my wine will be better for it. There are some who believe only a week or so, and it'll be fine; and they are right, it does break down a bit in that week.... Darlene ;o) Wisconsin

"gwoolam" wrote in message news:nZwqd.24866$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...

I find it hard to believe this claim. I've never done a controlled experiment, and I haven't heard of anyone else doing so either, but I don't see why colour would be "set" by heat. I suspect fruit quantity and use of pectin enzymes play a far more significant role in colour extraction. As far as maintaining colour is concerned:

*avoiding light exposure is critical and good advice *minimising SO2 additions is important - as SO2 bleaches colour *avoiding oxidation is also helpful

HTH, Ben

Improved Winemaking

Thanks

Steve - Noobie Oregon

It does if the freezer is frost-free and constantly defrosting and refreezing the outermost layer of fruit.