How much fruit?

[Hootayhoot]

Hello everyone!

So I have made a couple of batches of fruit wines. My first was a pineapple wine and tonight I just made the must for a raspberry, blackberry, blueberry (frozen fruits from Costco). Even though this is my second run I noticed I couldn’t fit it all in my 6.5 plastic primary fermente. Is there a good rule of thumb to go by for pound of fruit per gallon? I encountered the same problem when I made my pineapple wine. I plan on stopping by the brew supply store tomorrow and purchases a second fermenter so I don’t trash the extra must. Thanks for any tips

 

[BigDaveK]

Yikes, how much fruit did you use?

Currently 5 lbs of fruit per gallon is my minimum. Flavor and acid also play a determining role.
And some fruit is crushed and pressed with the aim of reducing or even eliminating the addition of water. With my apples and pears that means roughly 15 lbs per gallon.

To be clear, I don't add 5+ lbs of fruit to one gallon of water. The idea is to have a bit more than a gallon total in the end. Some fruits will break down more than others leaving less pulp to discard, some more, some a lot. It can be a guessing game some time.

 

[winemaker81]

Additionally, don't fill a primary fermenter more than 3/4 full, else you may have a mess when it overflows.

 

[cmason1957]

Hello everyone!

So I have made a couple of batches of fruit wines. My first was a pineapple wine and tonight I just made the must for a raspberry, blackberry, blueberry (frozen fruits from Costco). Even though this is my second run I noticed I couldn’t fit it all in my 6.5 plastic primary fermente. Is there a good rule of thumb to go by for pound of fruit per gallon? I encountered the same problem when I made my pineapple wine. I plan on stopping by the brew supply store tomorrow and purchases a second fermenter so I don’t trash the extra must. Thanks for any tips

Since you asked for tips, here is one that many of us use often. Brute Trashcans (and probably many others) are food safe, made from the same stuff that the fermenter you buy at the LHBS is. 20 gallon ones are great for doing up to 12-15 gallons of wine in and give plenty of not-overflow space. They sell them at Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, Wally World, Restaurant Supply Stores.

 

[Hazelemere]

Hello everyone!

So I have made a couple of batches of fruit wines. My first was a pineapple wine and tonight I just made the must for a raspberry, blackberry, blueberry (frozen fruits from Costco). Even though this is my second run I noticed I couldn’t fit it all in my 6.5 plastic primary fermente. Is there a good rule of thumb to go by for pound of fruit per gallon? I encountered the same problem when I made my pineapple wine. I plan on stopping by the brew supply store tomorrow and purchases a second fermenter so I don’t trash the extra must. Thanks for any tips

5 lb per US gallon 6 lb per Imperial gallon

 

[Rice_Guy]

* I am a grower so I use 100% fruit juice as much as I can, my "style" is put as much flavor in the bottle as possible. A usual down side is that the total acid runs high.
* wine will tolerant a lot of variations, I usually treat my volume as fixed and start adding water later on when I am looking to top off a fixed volume carboy. To do this I may run 13 or 14% ABV off the primary and wind up with 11 or 12% ABV on the wine going to the bottle. An up side of topping off with water is that the total acids gets closer to normal. (acid flavors)
* practically speaking with good yeast nutrition, the advice of four pounds per gallon is good. Bitter off flavors/ aromatics are typical if yeast nutrition is low and bitter will mask fruit flavor (I favor organic nitrogen Fermaid O). AND ,, If I am running 100% fruit and have poor nutrition I probably won't get good fruity flavors.

 

[winemanden]

I've made decent wine at 3lbs/gall, and I've made decent wine at 6lbs/gall, just country wines. Your own personal tastes are what matters. Either way, the main thing is to make sure your fruit is really ripe, and make sure you get acid /tannin levels right.
Some people like smack em in the mouth wines, others like more subtle wines. It's your wine, your choice. There's no perfect way. Just keep trying different ways and enjoy the ride.
We're all still learners even though we've been doing it for years.

 

[Raptor99]

In addition to what @winemanden said, it depends on the type of fruit. You can make a nice cranberry wine with a strong fruit flavor with 3 lbs./gal., but for pear wine I use at least 7 lbs. per gallon.

 

[winemaker81]

@Hootayhoot, there is a lot of choice and variation, and while I'd like to say you can't go wrong, that is not correct.

The advice given so far is all spot on, even allowing for any contradictions. My advice? Given the choice, go with more fruit than less. You can more easily dilute a wine that has too much of something (e.g., acid) than you can beef up a weak wine.

For your next wine, start a new thread, post your proposed recipe, and ask for feedback. You'll get some contradictory responses (ask a question of 10 winemakers, get 11+ opinions), but you'll have the information you need to make an informed choice.

 

[Hootayhoot]

Thank you everyone for all the great feed back! I did a total of 16 lbs of fruit so that should be 3.2 pounds of fruit per gallon. On my way to the brew supply store right now. After I get back I’ll read everyone’s suggestions in detail. Thank you again!

 

[Hootayhoot]

* I am a grower so I use 100% fruit juice as much as I can, my "style" is put as much flavor in the bottle as possible. A usual down side is that the total acid runs high.
* wine will tolerant a lot of variations, I usually treat my volume as fixed and start adding water later on when I am looking to top off a fixed volume carboy. To do this I may run 13 or 14% ABV off the primary and wind up with 11 or 12% ABV on the wine going to the bottle. An up side of topping off with water is that the total acids gets closer to normal. (acid flavors)
* practically speaking with good yeast nutrition, the advice of four pounds per gallon is good. Bitter off flavors/ aromatics are typical if yeast nutrition is low and bitter will mask fruit flavor (I favor organic nitrogen Fermaid O). AND ,, If I am running 100% fruit and have poor nutrition I probably won't get good fruity flavors.

I did the same thing with topping off with a little bit of water when racked to second fermentation. I bottled my very first round of pineapple wine today and the ABV landed at 11.29%. I did end up back sweeting with 75 ml of pineapple juice in each bottle, it was a little too dry for my taste buds. The one clear bottle I didn’t stabilize in hopes of getting some carbonation

 

[Hootayhoot]

Yikes, how much fruit did you use?

Currently 5 lbs of fruit per gallon is my minimum. Flavor and acid also play a determining role.
And some fruit is crushed and pressed with the aim of reducing or even eliminating the addition of water. With my apples and pears that means roughly 15 lbs per gallon.

To be clear, I don't add 5+ lbs of fruit to one gallon of water. The idea is to have a bit more than a gallon total in the end. Some fruits will break down more than others leaving less pulp to discard, some more, some a lot. It can be a guessing game some time.

The must I made last night was 16lbs of fruit for 5 gallons so 3.2lbs per gallon.

 

[ChuckD]

I typically go for maximum fruit

Last week I ground up about 110 lbs of apples and added 8 gallons of water… just enough so it was “liquid”. It was like stirring applesauce for a few days but now it’s pretty runny. Apple has a LOT of solids, which is why most people press them first. I didn’t because I was working inside and didn’t want the mess.

It was at 1.030 yesterday so I’ll be straining out the solids this weekend. I have two 20-gallon Brutes about 2/3 full. I figure I’ll net 10 to 12 gallons after all the straining and settling.

 

[user 32114]

Since you asked for tips, here is one that many of us use often. Brute Trashcans (and probably many others) are food safe, made from the same stuff that the fermenter you buy at the LHBS is. 20 gallon ones are great for doing up to 12-15 gallons of wine in and give plenty of not-overflow space. They sell them at Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, Wally World, Restaurant Supply Stores.

ummm i might have a small problem, i have 2- 55 gal ferment drums, 2- 20 gallon drums, 2- 14 gallon drums,
Dawg

 

[cmason1957]

ummm i might have a small problem, i have 2- 55 gal ferment drums, 2- 20 gallon drums, 2- 14 gallon drums,
Dawg

Don't get much more. I ain't no good at math run outta fingers and toes, but that comes awful close to some magic number that them revenoeers don't care for much. Good thing they don't get all that upset about it, until they do.

 

[Ericphotoart]

If I started my wine making journey all over again, I would definitely start from a wine that you can drink soon after it's done like Dragon Blood. The wine you start now is full of flavor and will be drinkable relatively sooner than Pineapple Wine. And I know from my experience you will be impatient to try it. My pineapple wine that I started in June '22 is still aging and needs several months more. With DB even 3lbs/gallon or less makes something you will enjoy.

 

[winemaker81]

A common problem for new winemakers is fear and a lack of confidence. This is true for most endeavors, so it's not exclusive to winemaking.

Producing a quicker drinking wine helps with the confidence -- if one can make DB, one can make any wine. It's all the same process.

And I know from my experience you will be impatient to try it.

I don't know if any new winemaker lacks impatience.

 

[user 32114]

If I started my wine making journey all over again, I would definitely start from a wine that you can drink soon after it's done like Dragon Blood. The wine you start now is full of flavor and will be drinkable relatively sooner than Pineapple Wine. And I know from my experience you will be impatient to try it. My pineapple wine that I started in June '22 is still aging and needs several months more. With DB even 3lbs/gallon or less makes something you will enjoy.

 

[user 32114]

If I started my wine making journey all over again, I would definitely start from a wine that you can drink soon after it's done like Dragon Blood. The wine you start now is full of flavor and will be drinkable relatively sooner than Pineapple Wine. And I know from my experience you will be impatient to try it. My pineapple wine that I started in June '22 is still aging and needs several months more. With DB even 3lbs/gallon or less makes something you will enjoy.

other than dragon blood and skitter pee which i bulk 1 year,, , i tend to bulk age all my wines for 3 years or more, somebody might need to see if I'm in a coma,,,,
Dawg

 

[Ericphotoart]

Ha, ha. I would probably bulk age that long too if I had more carboys. I started with 2, 16 months ago and I have 15 carboys now. Still not enough.