Mixed Berry Wine

[7munkee]

12 lbs strawberry
4 lbs mangos
3 lbs blueberries
3 lbs raspberrys
3 lbs blacberries
1 lbs cherries (deseeded)
4 large bananas

All weight is of clean frozen fruit.

I dissolved 8 lbs sugar in 2 qt of boiling water and added to frozen fruit. I let it sit for 12 hours then added 5 tabs of K-meta. Waited another 12 hours then added 5 tsp yeast nutrient and 2 tsp pectic enzyme. One last 12 hour wait then added lavlin K1-v1116, proofed in a weak mixture of the fruit mix juice and warm water and 5 tea bags in a small mesh bag.

My fruit is not in a mesh bag as I didn't have one large enough.

It smells divine at the moment, 2 hrs after pitching yeast.

 

[Johnd]

12 lbs strawberry
4 lbs mangos
3 lbs blueberries
3 lbs raspberrys
3 lbs blacberries
1 lbs cherries (deseeded)
4 large bananas

All weight is of clean frozen fruit.

I dissolved 8 lbs sugar in 2 qt of boiling water and added to frozen fruit. I let it sit for 12 hours then added 5 tabs of K-meta. Waited another 12 hours then added 5 tsp yeast nutrient and 2 tsp pectic enzyme. One last 12 hour wait then added lavlin K1-v1116, proofed in a weak mixture of the fruit mix juice and warm water and 5 tea bags in a small mesh bag.

My fruit is not in a mesh bag as I didn't have one large enough.

It smells divine at the moment, 2 hrs after pitching yeast.

An interesting combo of fruits, for sure! What was the specific gravity of your must at the time of yeast pitching?

 

[7munkee]

1.095 It's the highest I have ever personally seen. I hope the yeast can power through it all. Even if it cant, my last three batches of wine were a little on the dry side so a sweet batch is welcome.

It has worked out to just under 5 gallons of must in a 6 gallon bucket.

I sampled a glass (or 2) of my grape that I made last fall and got a little drunk. Helped me fall asleep.

 

[Johnd]

1.095 It's the highest I have ever personally seen. I hope the yeast can power through it all. Even if it cant, my last three batches of wine were a little on the dry side so a sweet batch is welcome.

It has worked out to just under 5 gallons of must in a 6 gallon bucket.

I sampled a glass (or 2) of my grape that I made last fall and got a little drunk. Helped me fall asleep.

So, did you measure the SG of this particular must?? 8 pounds of sugar in 2 quarts of water and 30 lbs of fruit will yield a SG way too high for any yeast to handle, maybe high enough to keep it from getting started. Or did you leave out the mention of adding water to the must? I see that you added 5 sulfite tablets, does that mean that you have 5 gallons of must? Just trying to make sure you're off to a proper start with your must........

 

[7munkee]

I dissolved 8 lbs sugar in 2 qt of boiling water and added to frozen fruit. I let it sit for 12 hours then added 5 tabs of K-meta.

 

[Scooter68]

Depending on the condition of the fruiit (did you mash it well and break it down or just thaw it out?) your actual (vs your measured) SG is likely as Johnd said, going to be very high. It sounds like you might have rushed into the ferment instead of getting the fruit broken down well and taking an accurate SG reading. 12 hours is not enough time for fruit to break down unless it is also well mashed up.

 

[Johnd]

That's likely going to be a sugary mess. 8# of sugar in 2 quarts of water yields a SG of 1.32333, that's high enough to produce nearly 50% ABV, not that any yeast can handle anything above 18% or so. The added fruit will bring the SG down a bit, most of those fruits will have a BRIX under 15, and probably produce another 1.5 gallons or so of liquid when broken down. That combo would yield a must of about 2.6 gallons of liquid with a SG of 1.172, still enough to produce 25% ABV. If your fruit has lower BRIX values, you may be close to where you want to be, but without taking a SG reading, there's just no way to know. Do you have a hydrometer?
If your SG is high, my suggestion is that you slowly add water to your must until you get it into the range to produce the ABV you desire. A start with 1.095 would be just fine. Once it's fermented dry and you've gotten your wine cleared, you can add potassium sorbate and then sweeten it to your taste without fear of fermentation restarting.

You've also added enough sulfite for 5 gallons of must, it may take a while for the sulfite to dissipate to the point where your yeast will be happy.

Hope this helps............

 

[7munkee]

Starting gravity read 1.095. ALL the fruit was frozen solid when added and yes, I did mash it down after it sat. Remember...I poured 1/2 gallon of boiling water over it.

I forgot to mention in my first post that I did add another ~gallon to get under 1.100 before adding yeast.

I'm optimistic.

 

[Scooter68]

The last time I heard someone use the phrase "I'm optimistic." It was from a 2 star General regarding my chances for promotion. I wasn't promoted.

Bottom line is that unless you throughly mashed that fruit and allowed some time for the sugars to be released, you really didn't get a honest reading of the SG. While I hope things work well, just keep in mind that the sugar content of those fruits is not insignificant and is in addition to the sugar you added. A reading of 1.095 seems pretty low for the amount of sugar you added.

No having said all that, since your fermentation has probably not kicked in yet. I would draw another sample to test now and again in another 24 hours. A lot depends on the ability of your yeast to deal with that heavy up-front sugar load as well as the tolerance that your yeast has for alcohol. Lavin K1-V1116 has a high tolerance for Alcohol but the question is how well it will deal that that initial sugar loading.

Also what was the pH reading as well? That's another point to deal with. You don't want a highly acidic must or too low either. When you expecting the yeast to consume a lot of sugar, it needs very good conditions to perform it's job well.

Sorry if all these comments sound like doom and gloom but experience is sometimes a tough teacher.

 

[7munkee]

20 hours after pitching and the must is bubbling away happily.

I didn't get a pH reading. Never bothered with it before but this IS my first time using frozen fruit. The recipe I followed called for 25 lbs mixed berries and 8 lbs sugar + water to make 5 gallons. I added the frozen banana peels at my brothers advice.

 

[Scooter68]

Grapes and berries/ban ana etc are very different in their acidic make up. You should always take a pH reading unless you have a really good ability to taste test for acidity.
Hope all goes well.

 

[Johnd]

Starting gravity read 1.095. ALL the fruit was frozen solid when added and yes, I did mash it down after it sat. Remember...I poured 1/2 gallon of boiling water over it.

I forgot to mention in my first post that I did add another ~gallon to get under 1.100 before adding yeast.

I'm optimistic.

20 hours after pitching and the must is bubbling away happily.

The recipe I followed called for 25 lbs mixed berries and 8 lbs sugar + water to make 5 gallons.

So which is it that you actually did here? First time I asked, you confirmed that you only used 8# of sugar and 2 quarts of water, period.
Then, after more contemplation, you decide that you added water to get under 1.100.
Now, you’ve actually followed a recipe which had you add water to 5 gallons.
CK, is that you??

 

[7munkee]

So which is it that you actually did here? First time I asked, you confirmed that you only used 8# of sugar and 2 quarts of water, period.
Then, after more contemplation, you decide that you added water to get under 1.100.
Now, you’ve actually followed a recipe which had you add water to 5 gallons.
CK, is that you??

Are you insinuating that I am a liar?

I was told this was a friendly helpful forum. And so far it has been.

Or are you just 'that guy' that you find in every group?

In my first post I said I dissolved the sugar in 2 qts of boiling water. That's it. Period.

I also didn't mention that I used a 6 gallon brew bucket. Or that I had to let my dog out while the water was boiling.

I wasn't expecting a grand inquisition. I wasn't expecting anything. Perhaps next time I decide to make a post I will attach a sworn statement that it is 100% accurate and complete in every detail. Will that satisfy you?

If I decide to post again, that is.

 

[Johnd]

Are you insinuating that I am a liar?

I was told this was a friendly helpful forum. And so far it has been.

Or are you just 'that guy' that you find in every group?

In my first post I said I dissolved the sugar in 2 qts of boiling water. That's it. Period.

I also didn't mention that I used a 6 gallon brew bucket. Or that I had to let my dog out while the water was boiling.

I wasn't expecting a grand inquisition. I wasn't expecting anything. Perhaps next time I decide to make a post I will attach a sworn statement that it is 100% accurate and complete in every detail. Will that satisfy you?

If I decide to post again, that is.

I am not insinuating anything, the posts are the record. My sole intention was to help, and things weren't adding up, I was trying to get to the bottom of it to help you in your endeavor.

I asked specifically about water additions in post #4, and I quote: "8 pounds of sugar in 2 quarts of water and 30 lbs of fruit will yield a SG way too high for any yeast to handle, maybe high enough to keep it from getting started. Or did you leave out the mention of adding water to the must? I see that you added 5 sulfite tablets, does that mean that you have 5 gallons of must? Just trying to make sure you're off to a proper start with your must........"

Your response in post #5 was "I dissolved 8 lbs sugar in 2 qt of boiling water and added to frozen fruit. I let it sit for 12 hours then added 5 tabs of K-meta."

That's a pretty clear response, no mention of added water, and also clearly inconsistent with obtaining a SG or 1.095. We see folks struggle with reading hydrometer frequently, so I continued, patiently, to try to help get to the bottom of it.

Subsequent postings indicate adding water to get under 1.100, and / or following a recipe and adding water to 5 gallons. I'm not sure which you did, but these are both good things, I'd loved to have been made aware of it prior to going to FermCalc to figure out the potential SG and ABV of your concoction to see if there was a problem.

You are correct, you posted and didn't ask for anything in return . My mistake was seeing some numbers that made no sense from a relatively new winemaker, and offering my time to see that it would turn out well. I'm sorry if you feel like it's the grand inquisition, but if you'd given all of the pertinent information when I asked, or simply stated that you don't want any help, I wouldn't have wasted my time trying to help you. Trying to help was my decision, I will not make that error again.

 

[Scooter68]

Given that Dave has not participated much in this forum in 16 months other than some critical comments I'd have to suspect that the problem is less with the forum regulars than folks like Dave who drop in once in a while to snipe at folks and then dissappear. Dave, your last post was a negative one in August and was again just more negativity. So given your sparse but predominantly negative posts, I'd say that you contribute little to no "friendliness" the forum.