# Using Frozen Fruit?



## arcticsid

Are there any general ideas on using frozen fruit? As you can well imagine, fresh fruit can be outrageously expensive here, especially berries. Has anyone else had any successes, or failures using frozen?
Troy


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## Wade E

Frozen fruit is fine and sometimes better then grocery store fruit as they are typically picked too early so as not to rot before they hit the stands and never develope all the sugar and flavor that a wine really needs to overpower an abv. Even if you buy fresh fruit you should freeze most fruits as it helps break up the cellular structure of the fruit and kets the pectic enzyme that you will add do a better job of extracting more color and flavor of the fruit.


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## jneureuther

Troy, just a note on frozen fruit. I am lucky enough to have access to about 24 elderberry bushes and am able to get fresh berries. Trouble is, I'm usually too busy to make my wine right away, so I freeze the cleaned berries till I'm ready. I believe Wade is correct about the fruit breaking down easier and letting the pectic enzyme do it's job.

Jimmy


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## Wade E

Do this especially with crab apples, they are togh little critters to do anything with but once they have been frozen for a week and then thawed out, you can then squish them with you bare hands no problem. I use the Dolce Crab apples not the tiny nasty crab apples.


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## Luc

Troy,

I freeze nearly all my fruit.
I even freeze dandelions for making wine.

When harvesting there is not always enough time to 
collect all the fruit you need.
So collect whatever you can, CLEAN IT FIRST and then freeze it.
Next you can use it whenever you want.

At this moment my winemaking freezer (yes I have
a separate one for winemaking) is full with rhubarb,
elderberries, blackberries, dandelion petals and some
apples and banana's. 

Advantage is that the fruit will become meshy when it
thaws. That is, like the others said, from the cell-structures
breaking down. This is actually a good thing as it makes the
juice better available for us.

I wrote an essay on rhubarb 2 year ago and how to
process it you can find it here:
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2007/06/scroll-down-for-english-text-al-lange.html

Now freezing has another advantage.
When processing hard fruit like apples or pears everyone
tells you to use a press. but a press is an expensive piece of equipment and just used a few times a year.
You can also use a freezer !!!!

I demonstrated how to process apples without expensive
equipment on my web-log:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/09/appeltje-voor-de-dorst-apple-day.html

So to summarise it all in one sentence:
Freezing fruit is actually one of the best things you can do.

Luc


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## arcticsid

Appreciate the advice, makes perfect sense, was considering what was available at the store pre frozen, and if they should have some type fresh I will be sure to freeze it first, provided the price is reasonable. Not interested in anything in particular, open to any type, ready to graduate from concentrated juice to fruit. Shouldn't have any problem freezing it, temperatures here have been hovering around -40F, with -50F likely, and no end in sight. Thats not wind chill either, yikes!!!!!!!! Troy


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## Wine4Me

Luc
Thanks for the info about making juice from apples without expensive
equipment... I saved that to my PC for the future..


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## Wade E

When making a wine from apples or any other fruit that browns very fast like an apple use Ascorbic acid in the primary. It will not hinder your fermenation at all and it will keep your whires white and pinks pink instead of brown.


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## Luc

Wade,

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/03/bruin-worden-van-appels-browning-of.html



Luc


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## arcticsid

While we are this discussion of frozen fruit, I was at the market today and the cheapest frozen fruit I could find was strawberries, 4 lbs. for 17$US, quess I'll be starting with fresh anyway. Seen some nice pears for like 90cents/pound, didnt get any cause I was hoping you might give me a simple recipe to make my transition to using real fruit. At 4$/lb i guess I could go anyway. is there such a thing as a fruit wine for beginners? Kinda wondering about bannanas, or cantelope, I can afford those. Any simple ideas?Thanks
for any suggestions, still would like to use a concentrate as a base. But would consider bottled juice of any kind and augment it with fresh fruit.
Troy


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## Wade E

Luc, I use both Ascorbic acid and K-Meta in my wines but Im pretty sure the small amount of K-meta we use to kill off wild yeasts before fermentation is not enough by itself to prevent browning!
articsid, I would stay away from melons as they are not a beginners fruit to play around with as they go bad very easy when making wine. If you want to try Bananas then here is a 6 gallon recipe, if you want to make a smaller batch then divide everything in the recipe by the size batch you want with the exception of yeast.

28 lbs – Ripe Bananas
1 tsp – Ascorbic Acid
2 – White Grape Concentrate
11 lbs – White Table Sugar
11 tsp – Acid Blend
3 tsp – Yeast Nutrient
1 ½ tsp – Yeast Energizer
5 ¾ Gallons – Water
1 Sachet Red Star Cotes Des Blanc Yeast

Pour 1 gallon of warm water in a 7.9 gallon primary bucket or bigger.
Add K-meta, Yeast Energizer, Yeast Nutrient, Grape Concentrate, and Ascorbic Acid and stir well. Put all fruit in fermenting bag and squeeze over primary to extract most of juices and then put bag in primary. Pour the 1 gallon of boiling water with all dissolved sugar over fruit. Fill the rest of the way with remainder of room temp water and check SG, it should have a SG of around 1.085 give or take a little, if more then add a little more water, if less then add a little more dissolved sugar in small amount of water as sugars from fruit can vary a little. Let sit for 12 hours with lid loose or with a cloth covering bucket with elastic band or string tied around so as that not to sag in must. After those 12 hours add your Pectic Enzyme and wait another 12 hours while also adjusting your must temp to around 75 degrees. After those twelve hours, pitch your yeast either by sprinkling yeast, dehydrating yeast per instructions on back of yeast Sachet, or by making a yeast starter a few hours prior to the 12 hour mark. At this point either leave primary lid off with the cloth again, place lid on loose or snap the lid shut. Punch down cap twice daily to get all fruit under the liquid level. When SG reaches 1.015, rack to 6 gallon carboy and let finish fermenting with bung and airlock attached. When wine is done fermenting, (check a few days in a row to make sure SG does not change and SG should be around .998 or less) you can stabilize by adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta and 3 tsps of Potassium Sorbate and degas your wine thoroughly. You can now sweeten your wine if you like by using simple syrup which consists of 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water or by using a juice or frozen concentrate. I typically take 2 quarts of an alike juice and simmer on stove at medium heat with lid off until its 1/3 its original size and let it cool to room temp and then add slowly to taste. Be careful not to over sweeten. At this point you can use a fining agent or let it clear naturally. Once clear, rack into clean vessel and bulk age more adding another ¼ tsp of k-meta at 3 month intervals or add ¼ tsp k-meta and bottle age for at least 3 months and enjoy. Longer aging will give you a better wine so save a few bottles till at least 1 year mark so you can truly see what this wine can aspire to.


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## Wine4Me

Luc
I decided to try freezing apples to make juice for the first time.. I got the idea from your web site..
I used Winesap apples! I peeled, cored & cut into pieces & put into baggies and froze for about a week [oops, forgot about them] Now they are thawed and I do not see juice!!! They smashed in your hands very easily. Have a texture like applesauce with bits of apples in it.
My question; do I put them back into the freezer or????


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## Wade E

Ferment them, you dont get lots of juice from apples ands that why youneed a lot moree apples per batch then any other fruit except grape and with grapes thats because thats all you use with most grapes.


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## Luc

Wine4Me said:


> Luc
> My question; do I put them back into the freezer or????



A week in the freezer should be more as sufficient.

Do they not give any juice when you squeeze them ???

Let them thaw, mash them with a potato masher and then try (test a bit) pressing them in a cheesecloth.

Better is to mash them and then treat them with pectic enzymes.
Then try pressing them in a cheesecloth or similar.

Luc


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## Wine4Me

Wade
Im not sure how you can ferment something with no juice??I mean just add water & a bag of mush??

Luc
There is NO juice at all. It is like applesauce.. I was a bit disappointed this morning because I left it sit out [covered with lid] over nite & thought maybe that would "help" juice come, but nothing!!
So I added pectic enzymes & will see what happens!!~


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## Luc

So after freezing it looked like apple-sauce.
That is a good start.

Have you tried filtering it through a cheesecloth or
something alike. I think you would see some juice forming then.

But now wait till the pectic enzymes have done their job.
Then use a cheesecloth to filter the solids out.

Luc


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## non-grapenut

Fruit wine for beginners...hmmm. Make small, 1-2 gallon batches of whatever's on sale, frozen, fresh or dried. If you blow it, your investment won't ouch as much. If you really like a batch, multiply it by 5 or 6 and invest...Here is a good starter for you:

http://brewsupplies.com/homemade_wine_recipes.htm


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## Conquistadude

I experienced this first hand. When we were doing the pomegranate wine. we stated by juicing the avrils, but didn't have the time to just them all, so we froze the half that we didn't use yet for the next day. it was in Just over night. (not even 24 hours) when we pulled them out and let them thaw out. the we noticed that the avrils were in a lot of juice, so we separated the avrils from the juice and from 1 lb of avrils we got 2 1/2 cups of pure, juice. and it was 99% pulp free, as apposed to the juices which was about 75% pulp free...so yeah...freezers baby!!! not just a place to store Ice Cream.


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## Wine4Me

Today. I checked the apples and there was some juice & I ran it through a seive.. Got much more juice. This is soooo neat that I am getting juice from it!! 
I have never made applesauce or juice before so this all is new to me.. 
NOW if the wine just makes me as happy!! lol


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## Luc

Glad it turned out so well 

(Told you so )

Did you measure the ratio of weight against juice.
That might give you a hint in the future about how many
apples to buy when you want to make a certain volume of wine.

Always goods to make as many notes as possible for
future use.

Luc


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## arcticsid

Keep notes


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## Wine4Me

I am not sure what you mean by "ratio of weight against juice".
I have made no notes turning the apples into juice but I do keep notes when making wine!!


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## peagen

The "ratio of weight against juice" is just How much juice did you get from how many pounds of fruit. then next time you want to use that kind of fruit you will know how much to get


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## Wine4Me

ohh OK sounds like I need to get a food scales if I am too keep making wine from fresh fruit!!!!


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## arcticsid

Hey Wine, myself just made the plunge to making my first batch from whole fruit. I just pitched the yeast on an orange cranberry. It is pretty exciting! LUC is right, keep notes, it might be a few months before you really know how it turns out, good or bad, you want to know what you did, and besides you may have 12 more batches going and may have forgot all about the one that tastes so good that you started "a while ago"
Take Care
Troy


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## Boozehag

I realise this is an old thread but thought id mention that I am making an apple wine using concentrated juice. The receipe is from a winemakers guild notes and is an eaasy beginners receipe so thought Id share it for others-

1 litre Apple Juice (!00% juice no preservatives0
250g sultanas
750g sugar (I put in 500g to get an sg of 1.085 so stopped at that amount!) 
1 teaspoon Yeast ntrients
1 teaspoon Tartaric acid
wine yeastapprox 1.5 l water

Wash sultanas (Oil on some brands make a laxative not a wine)
Chop and mince sultanas up well
Pour the water into a 1gallon sterile container, add the sugar, acid, nutrients and mix well until all dissolved.
Add apple juice and sultanas. The level should be below the shoulder of the jar to allow for foaming etc. Fit airlock and put in warmish place. Fermenting should start in a few hours.
After 2-3 days te 'head' should subside. Top up to within 1" of the top of the neck with cold boiled water. Put under airlock again.
When fermentation has stopped and most of the yeast settled, rack off into a fresh sterile jar. Add 1 campden tablet to keep clean and stabilise.
Once clear 9racking off as necessary) the wine can be bottled and matured for at least 3 months.


I like the sound of this as its easy and you cna drink earlier than most!!! Something to keep me entertained while the others age!!!!


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## shoes

whats a sultana?


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## Wade E

Its a Raisin!


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## Boozehag

Hope youre not mocking me!!! Seriously is this receipe bad or okay??

Wade, had a look at your site today and your fabulous wine rooms! Have to say Im terribly jealous, what a divine set up!!! 800 bottles like WOW!!! Very cool!


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## Wade E

Thanks Boozehag! Got another 56 bottled over the weekend and still have another 116 ready to bottle but dont have enough of the b ottles. I need to but another case of the 375 Cobalt blue hock bottles for my Peach Ice wine and another case of the Dead Leaf 375 Belissama bottles for my Orange Chocolate Port! Those are all ready, I also have another batch of the Orang Chocolate port that I just started and has been in primary sine Sunday and a Chenin Blanc fresh juice clearing now.


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## Boozehag

Oh so just a few more. Bet tastings at your house are fun. Im going to convert my garage to my wine making room now, the dining room is starting to smell like a brewery!!!

Two questions -

1) What is the peach ice as in what makes it different to just peach?

2) How long will you age the Port for and was it easy to make?


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## Wade E

The Peach Ice wie is actually a Vidal grape base and they are picked when the grapes are frozen so when pressed only the juice comes out as the water in the grape is still frozen and you get much more flavor and sugar naturally from the fruit but require much more fruit to get juice to the level desired. A peach juice is added after fermentation to get the desired taste mix. As for the Chocolate Orange port, it will age for about 1 year and I still have 3 gallons of this that is ready to bottle besides the 3 gallons I just started. This is a limited edition kit from RJ Spagnols. I have made Ports before like my Chocolate Strawberry port. Check out my site and look at recipes. There is some work to do these and get that thicker liqueur like consistency. Some people just add a higher abv alcohol to a wine and call it a Port but its also consistency that is needed also. Glycerin can be used to get this extra thickness but I just use syrup myself.


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## Boozehag

The chocolate Strawberry Port sounds divine. Not sure on some of the ingredients as to what the equvilent here in NZ would be, so will need to do my research. Thanks for sharing that.


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## pbyrd1959

Luc,

do you have a rule of thumb for number of apples per gallon? I'm going to try this!! JThanks!


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## doc294

ok...so...pectic enzyme. When do you add the pectic enzyme? During the thawing process? How would you prepare frozen strawberries, frozen blue berries, and frozen blackberries?


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## Wade E

Strawberries yo can cut up in say 1/3's either before or after freezing but strawberries really dont need to be frozen as you are breaking the cell structure by cutting them up. Blueberries really need to be frozen as can you imagine trying to burst each one so that you can make sure you can get juice from it? This is the reason we freeze the fruit unless you have a fruit press. Basically its any fruit that you wont be cutting up that needs to be frozen unless you have the press. Once the berries are thawed out pour boiling water or very hot water over the fruit first and then the rest of the water being room temp to cooler until you are at around 80* F and then add sulfites to kill off any wild yeasts. Now you add all other ingredients except for yeast and pectic enzyme. After 12 hours you add your pectic enzyme and then after anothe 12 hours you pitch your yeast! Making a yeast starter is the better way to go but you can just sprinkle it on the must.


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## surlees

*Using frozen fruit*

I've got strawberry wine which is almost finished fermenting. I froze fresh berries, used pectic enzyme, acid blend, a little tannin, and put the berries in a strainer bag. My question is how do I clarify the wine? Does it clear during aging or do I need to add a clarifier (e.g. bentonite) to clear out the suspended particles of strawberry pulp?

Thanks for your advice.


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## Wade E

You can let it clear over time by aging or you can using a fining agent like Bentonite, Isinglass, Sparkaloid, or SuperKleer KC just to name a few. I prefer SuperKleer KC over any of them if using a fining agent as it never fails me and does a great job very fast. I try to be patient with most fruit wines though.


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## surlees

Great! That's what I thought.

Thank you, Wade.


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## balloonpilot

Hi there, 

I'm wondering about juicing my crab apples with a steamer/juicer and then freezing the juice for winemaking. Has anyone done this or am I better freezing the fruit so that the skins and all are on before doing the wine. Also what is everyone's take on the apple seeds being in the fruit when frozen or in if I do use the juicer they'll be in there as well.


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