Dried Apricot

[G259]

. . . starting to get concerned about the health of my must. Some alcohol must be present, so some preservation will occur, but still . . .

 

[Scooter68]

If that's an airlock on a plastic bucket... you're lucky to see any bubbles. The lids on those things rarely hold any seal at all.

On the plus side you do have evidence of fermentation. Just be prepared with containers (Smaller "carboys") of less than a gallon. You could probably find them at a recycling center if you had more time. As others will suggest you can top off a one gallon carboy with a white wine after fermentation is done and you rack into a carboy.

Find a good large stainless steel strainer and you can use that to strain out the pulp for that first racking. I've had to do that several times and it doesn't take long. Usually I rack with a siphon first until I start seeing a lot of pulp getting sucked up - then just pour the rest through a strainer into another bucket, then you can siphon that or just pour with a funnel. Not a lot of fun but it saves a lot more of the good fermented juices.

The first few batches 'offer' a huge learning curve with fruit wines - but that's the fun of the challenge. Take good notes on this batch and you'll keep improving and finding better processes as you go.

 

[Scooter68]

If your readings were correct:
Starting of at least 1.092
Currently at (last numbers you gave us) 1.025

Then the current ABV is 8.79% Not a high ABV but nothing to worry about especially if fermentation is continuing.
Just keep the lid on the bucket and on your fears - It should be just fine. Sometimes the fermentation can slow as the numbers get down there.
At about 1.010 you should think about racking into a carboy. When you do rack it, if the volume loss isn't really high and the liquid level is somewhere between the vertical side of the carboy and the neck... I would just let it finish fermenting. See image for rough look at minimum level where you would want to be after that first racking.

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

Have you tasted/smelled the wine? I'm having problems from adding just one pound of apricots to a 6 gal batch of chardonnay.

I added mine to secondary, and the smell through the airlock was bubblegum, and I thought it was going to be amazing. It ended up tasting like burnt vinyl siding.

 

[G259]

It smells . . interesting, but I don't remember any lasting impressions, as I have a terrible memory! I don't think it smelled 'off', I think I knew it was fruit, not burnt anything. I siphoned it off the thick cap today, and was left with just over half of my 4L jug. The SG was 1.020, so I added a packet of yeast again (last time!) I saw another thread that suggested that boiling them would remove the sulphites. I have 2 lb of apricots left, maybe I'll try that, but use more apple juice for the volume loss.

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

Good luck. Ill keep watching for updates.

I'm pretty sure I'm blacklisting them. Just not worth the headache for me.

 

[Scooter68]

That's the problem with using fruit that has gone through an unknown process before it lands in your fermenter.

Dried Fruits and other fruits not specifically prepared for use in making wine may have gone through treatments or been treated with chemicals that, while small in quantity, may have robbed the fruit of elements in fresh fruit or fruit prepared for wine making use.
This might be especially true of fruits with more delicate 'essences' that can be destroyed buy processing.

I don't pretend to be a scientist or fruit expert but it makes sense that any heating or drying process could lose a lot of elements of the fresh fruit. Drying food can be a harsh process and especially so if the end product was not intended to preserve and protect all the elements of the fresh fruit. ( A piece of jerky can be pretty good but it's far from what that meat might have tasted like when fresh.)

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

Very well put.

 

[Scooter68]

By the way - We once were members of a food coop that had among other things dried apricots -d ried without presevatives. They were tough and hard but once you sucked on piece for a few minutes it was decent. Not great but decent. The soft dried apricots I've had almost always smelled and/or tasted of the sulfite used to preserve it.

In the end remember that fruit drying, food drying, was a practice used to provide food during long nasty winters with the purpose of keeping body and soul together. It wasn't expected to taste great but rather to keep you alive and hopefully ward off sickness. Remember also the history lessons about scurvy and other diseases cause by lack of specific vitamins and minerals caused by those hard winters and sea voyages.
Jerky
Hardtack
Pemmican
and other such things - not the elements to make great dining.

 

[G259]

The 1/2 4L jug has cloudy clumped up whitish 'things' on the bottom, like clouds. I'll be lucky to get a 750 out of this! Three Sheets is on the right track for dried fruit!

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

The soft dried apricots I've had almost always smelled and/or tasted of the sulfite used to preserve it.

I ate the rest of the apricots I had bought and, in the aftertaste, I could definitely detect a bit of what I smell and taste in the wine

 

[ThreeSheetsToTheWind]

The 1/2 4L jug has cloudy clumped up whitish 'things' on the bottom, like clouds. I'll be lucky to get a 750 out of this! Three Sheets is on the right track for dried fruit!

I can just imagine. I put mine in a nylon stocking but the stuff that got through it made a huge mess. Lots of light fluffy lees that wont compact out.

 

[G259]

. . . same here, Cumulus clouds! It compacted a 'little' overnight. I'll try to get a couple fairly clean 750's, and a 500, that I can reserve for top up in the future for these.

I plan to use the other 2 pounds of apricots in cooking, oatmeal cookies perhaps!

 

[Scooter68]

I've had issues with large quantities of lees making peach wine.

What worked for me was to use normal siphoning method first, then take the lees and pour them into a large stainless steels strainer over a bowl. As the liquid drains off I roll the strainer around to push the lees into what eventually becomes a glob of lees. The rolling lets the liquid run through unclogged holes in the strainer. Normally it's best not to fill the strainer more than 2/3rd full. Repeat until all the lees are processed. With 3/4 gallon of lees from a 3 gallon batch I can often recover over a 1 quart of wine.

Don't go too slow because you want to reduce the amount of time your liquid is expose to the air. BUT it does work well.

With those extra apricot - soak in water then strain of the water and use them in baking as suggested, ice cream, yogurt etc. All a better, and less stressful use than for wine.

We live and learn.

 

[G259]

Learn yes, I realized that the 'clouds', were really the apricots themselves! I am new, and normally do 100% juice from bottles, so I was concerned, I was not used to this. I think I'll run it through cheesecloth to help filter it. It looks hazy on top, so more pectic enzyme will be in order.

 

[G259]

You know, I have some 'white grape/ginger' wine, that I have reserved for blending. This may be a good opportunity to use it.

 

[G259]

I realized that it was the fruit, after noticing chunks and pieces rising to the surface, the falling as I tapped the glass of the carboy (degassing I'll assume).

 

[Scooter68]

Hardest thing for me is the patience to wait these wines out - to let them clear in their own time. You can hit them with chemicals all you want but that always runs the risk of stripping out colors and tastes so I try to avoid anything but Pectic Enzyme and Bentonite. I have used Chitosan but that even used with Bentonite, hasn't been 100% for me.

With one exception so far time has worked for me.

 

[G259]

This was a fun(?) experiment, with knowledge gained, so a success! I probably won't do it again, but who knows? I haven't tried the resulting wine yet, so a slight possibility, if it is outstanding.

 

[Scooter68]

Don't expect much from a young wine. It's going to take at least 9-12 months for that wine to becomes something enjoyable. Right now if it's "Drinkable" you've succeeded. It is likely to be rather sharpish tasting - lots of bite and unless you have a lot of residual sugar OR you back-sweeten it, the flavor will not be much to talk about. Apricot can be a very delicate flavor the apple will dominate most likely.