Looking for an apricot recipe
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StevenD55
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I used a recipe from a Winemakers Recipe Handbook that went like this:
Apricots 2.5#
Water 7 pints
Sugar 2#
Acid Blend 1 1/4 tsp
Pectin Enz 1 tsp
Tannin 1/4 tsp
Energizer 1/2 tsp
Campden 1 tablet
Yeast EC-1118
Starting S.G. 1.085-1.09
They recommend a fermentation bag.
You will have to figure out the volume. I had 50 pounds to start with from my own trees.
Problem I had was getting it to clear maybe because I didn’t have a bag large enough for that volume. You have to rack a lot and you lose a lot.
Apricots 2.5#
Water 7 pints
Sugar 2#
Acid Blend 1 1/4 tsp
Pectin Enz 1 tsp
Tannin 1/4 tsp
Energizer 1/2 tsp
Campden 1 tablet
Yeast EC-1118
Starting S.G. 1.085-1.09
They recommend a fermentation bag.
You will have to figure out the volume. I had 50 pounds to start with from my own trees.
Problem I had was getting it to clear maybe because I didn’t have a bag large enough for that volume. You have to rack a lot and you lose a lot.
https://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp has a i gallon recipe among other resources.
add bentonite into must prefermentation it will help in clearing later
add bentonite into must prefermentation it will help in clearing later
No, I didn’t make the apricot wine yet.
Can you explain the crushing process please. After I take out the pits would it be ready to put the 9 lbs of apricot in the straining bag. I'm hoping to use ripe apricots. Would it be necessary to use some water to liquefy apricots or briefly pass them through the blender before putting them in the straining bag. I don't want to use water.
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I pitted the fruit and froze till I had time and to break up the cell structure, the pectin in apricot is a mess so I did not blend or otherwise mush it up. Pectin enzyme helps, I did 3x recommended pectase. , , I grew my fruit (16 pounds) so used 1 to 1 but the recipe above from Steven 1 fruit to 3 water would be similar to my final batch. The primary ferment was strained by scooping into a nylon bag and pressing. To create extra liquid I “washed” the pulp with a gallon of water added to the carboy (5 gallon) and “washed” a second time using enough of this to top off the carboy. Ran my ferment in a 50F fridge to help keep flavors.
At 1 year was still cloudy, bottled anyway. Turned out well since friends get the clear top of the bottle and I finish the bottom where the pectin is.
Note. . Apricot will continue to ripen and soften after picked if at room temp, are they still fresh?
I don't have them yet. I want to buy ripen ones at the market place as I think it is the right season to make apricot wine. My pectic enzyme in the fridge is very old which I don't know if it'll work. I guess I live in a inconvenient house: I don't get to use my wine equipments so often.
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Dry enzyme has a good shelf life, cool enzyme has a good shelf life. Heat and moisture reduce shelf life (usually means drying in factory production)
The first time I said “oh sugar” about clearing pectin haze was with a plum and I added the extra 2 doses at third racking. ie you can add more if you aren’t happy how fast it cleared.
Looking at post #1 your goal is 7 liters. My yield with stone fruits is normal, , , based on carboy size 3 gallon batch? ? (11.4 liter) , , , it just takes forever to clear well enough to do a blue ribbon in a contest.
I have 2 liquid pectic enzymes (blue in color). They smell nice. The carboy size is 2.11 gallon (8 liter).
* liquid enzymes are put together with a protein stabilizer (usually bovine serum albumen). The liquid enzymes I have used, lost 5 to 10 percent of activity per year at refrigerator temperature. I would use it up and add extra for the normal loss.
* am always looking for wierd size carboys when racking, where did you find 8 liters?
A longer recipe for metric thinking people:
I would target 8.75 kg of fruit/ water in the primary and 8 liters in the water bottle once you do the air lock
* 4 kg apricot, (guess this is .48 kg natural sugar and 2 liters of liquid)
* For 8.75 kg I would target 22 brix (gm/100 gm) ie about 1.9 kg total sugar therefore I need to add about 1.5 kg of table sugar
* I would guess your fruit is pH 4 (possibly 4.2 if really ripe) my target is to add enough acid to bring the pH to 3.2 to 3.5 (ie taste like white grape if you don’t have a pH meter) a guess is 6 ml but I would add 3 ml and then check how acid it is, , add more if it isn’t acid enough
* pectin enzyme, you have liquid so I can’t give ml but I would double the suggested dose or 3x
* metabisulphite (1 Campden tablet does 4 liters) or about 0.48 gm of powder metabisulphite for 8.75 kg
* tannin low dosage 5 ml or 0.4 gm (maximum 1 gm!)
* yeast nutrient 10 ml in the batch (9 gm)
* I skip yeast energizer since the fruit has a lot of natural dirt (minerals/ vitamin)
I would run about 5 days then filter in a nylon bag (or cheese cloth bag) and squeeze juice My goal is 8.1 liters racking to the bottle, a little extra if needed or to taste
My goal is to have 8.0 liters when I rack again, however an 8 liter plastic is flexible so you could squeeze the air out of the bottle and put a solid cork on. NO air! Yes this may trap some CO2 in the wine
My goal is to age 9 months at 18C however if your climate is warm, , 25 to 30C you might be stable in 6 or 7 months.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
other example, If I was doing a sweet cherry I would assume 19 brix (ie 760 grams of natural sugar in 4 kg fruit) therefore add about 1 kg per 8 liter batch
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
other, If the air lock goes dry a trick is to add glycerine not water, haven’t done it but a drop of olive oil on top of the water would keep the air lock from going dry
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SORRY, , , I have stopped following recipes and started checking the sugar in the crop to calculate the targeted sugar and pH and volume since it makes it easier to work with either liters or 500 gallon tanks
I would target 8.75 kg of fruit/ water in the primary and 8 liters in the water bottle once you do the air lock
* 4 kg apricot, (guess this is .48 kg natural sugar and 2 liters of liquid)
* For 8.75 kg I would target 22 brix (gm/100 gm) ie about 1.9 kg total sugar therefore I need to add about 1.5 kg of table sugar
* I would guess your fruit is pH 4 (possibly 4.2 if really ripe) my target is to add enough acid to bring the pH to 3.2 to 3.5 (ie taste like white grape if you don’t have a pH meter) a guess is 6 ml but I would add 3 ml and then check how acid it is, , add more if it isn’t acid enough
* pectin enzyme, you have liquid so I can’t give ml but I would double the suggested dose or 3x
* metabisulphite (1 Campden tablet does 4 liters) or about 0.48 gm of powder metabisulphite for 8.75 kg
* tannin low dosage 5 ml or 0.4 gm (maximum 1 gm!)
* yeast nutrient 10 ml in the batch (9 gm)
* I skip yeast energizer since the fruit has a lot of natural dirt (minerals/ vitamin)
I would run about 5 days then filter in a nylon bag (or cheese cloth bag) and squeeze juice My goal is 8.1 liters racking to the bottle, a little extra if needed or to taste
My goal is to have 8.0 liters when I rack again, however an 8 liter plastic is flexible so you could squeeze the air out of the bottle and put a solid cork on. NO air! Yes this may trap some CO2 in the wine
My goal is to age 9 months at 18C however if your climate is warm, , 25 to 30C you might be stable in 6 or 7 months.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
other example, If I was doing a sweet cherry I would assume 19 brix (ie 760 grams of natural sugar in 4 kg fruit) therefore add about 1 kg per 8 liter batch
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
other, If the air lock goes dry a trick is to add glycerine not water, haven’t done it but a drop of olive oil on top of the water would keep the air lock from going dry
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SORRY, , , I have stopped following recipes and started checking the sugar in the crop to calculate the targeted sugar and pH and volume since it makes it easier to work with either liters or 500 gallon tanks
Great clarification!
I found a 8 liters glass carboy at the Carrefour Shopping Center.You say 8.75 kg of fruit will make 8 liters in the bottle. But why 4 kg of apricots will make less liters?
* For estimating the batch I used 8.75 kg of fruit, water,and sugar. The density is higher than 1.0 specific gravity therefore you will wind up with close to 8 liters volume. , , , , Practically speaking I don’t add all the water at the beginning. I guess what the sugar target is based on actual fruit measurements and top off the carboy with water. Last year I did two batches where I estimated lees loss on first racking plus second racking and formulated for high alcohol on the first racking which let me always top off the carboy with water, , , trying to make the process easier.
US apricot probably has 95% moisture if I ran a sample in the lab. My guess is that there is significant liquid left in the pumice (maybe 40 to 50%), so I might get 2 liters out of a 4 kilo sample. , , , , on post #7 I said I did “washing”. This is knowing that I will not be very efficient removing liquid. In an attempt to pull natural sugar and flavor out and leave mostly water behind I sometimes don’t use all the calculated water at once. I will press what I can get easily, add a bit more of the calculated water and then top off the carboy with this diluted natural sugar mixture.
I thank you all for the very helpful information. I used ripe 4 kg apricot, 2 litters of water and added white sugar until the SG increases to 1.070. I pitted the fruit and froze them for a while. I followed the steps as close as I could , I tried as hard as to get the liquid out of the fruit, I filled up the 8 litter glass carboy. I made my yeast starter. On the second day of the primary fermentation the SG dropped to 1.030, and I increased it up to 1.050 once again. I had a super strong fermentation and it continues in this way after I increased the SG. Is it ok if I interfere the fermentation with adding sugar?
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The over all answer is it works and tastes good.
To have that fast a drop of gravity you must be running warm.
If you weighed everything going in it is possible to calculate a theoretical alcohol, some folks will know that taste is more important than theory.
I added lemon juice from 2 lemons as well along with all the ingredients. It smells tasty already and I don’t want a dry wine and I just wanted to get the most out of the 14% toleranced alcohol yeast. Then I realized I need to keep the original specific gravity at 1.090 so I recompensed by raising it up to 1.050 after it dropped to 1.030. The yeast I used is for making fruit wine that keeps the aromatic flavor of the fruit as it claims.
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Fermentation of the apricot must is finished at 0.990. The OG was 1.090. I’ve got 1.39 gallons of wine out of 8.81 lbs. The taste isn’t very aromatic, maybe a little harsh taste comes from the alcohol. Perhaps it will reveal its aroma over time
. At least I am longing for this to happen.
. At least I am longing for this to happen.
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I made an apricot wine, and Holy-Moly the sediment! I lost, like half of my volume (ok, maybe a third!), and added apple juice to compensate. I call it apple-apricot, it's still aging from Feb., but I'm hopeful.
