Sugar content of Fruit

[winemanden]

Looking through my wine books during our latest lockdown, I came across this. I'm sure I remember someone asking about sugar content in a previous thread. It's only a guide, but it may be of help to someone.

Sorry folks, I'm having problems with the file. I will repost later

 

[user 32114]

i always have computer issues
Dawg lol

 

[winemanden]

You're right Dawg. If you didn't laugh about it you'd end up trashing the damn thing. I still can't get the thing to scan properly.

 

[winemanden]

Another try. Hope it works

 

[Scooter68]

Another try. Hope it works

I'm sure there are others I missed but MISSING from that document are two significant fruits
Blueberry and Raspberry (Black and Red)

Here's a list I found with a search on Duck-Duck-Go

 

[winemanden]

Thanks Scooter. I don't know what I was doing - right or wrong- but at last the info got through.

 

[winemaker81]

The lists are interesting -- it helps set expectations regarding how much a fruit wine will need chaptalization. It also spurs ideas regarding fruit mixes, e.g., mixing high and low.

Of course, the hydrometer rules!

 

[beano]

Very interesting.
It seems, bananas are closest to grapes for natural sugars. That is if my old eyes didn't miss something. Of course all of these sugars are variable. A great reference. Thanks for sharing.

Beano

 

[Raptor99]

What are the units of measurement?

 

[sour_grapes]

What are the units of measurement?

Weight percent, pretty sure.

 

[Scooter68]

Ya had to ask that question didn's ya.

I agree with Sour_grapes - it's probably weight in grams per....

Hmm - well according this chart they are giving grams per 100 grams. And the numbers seem to correlate with the first chart I listed.
For grins you can search with duckduckgo.com with the term I used "chart of sugar in fruit" or Grams of sugar in fruit and if you look at the images there are plenty of charts to chose from......

 

[sour_grapes]

I agree with Sour_grapes - it's probably weight in grams per....

Hmm - well according this chart they are giving grams per 100 grams. And the numbers seem to correlate with the first chart I listed.

Yeaaaaah, what is that Latin word for "100"? Centum, I think? So 1 g per centum grams? Hmmmm.

(Scooter, just to be clear, I know that you were in on the joke from the start. No offense intended to anyone, not you, not @Raptor99 , just mussing around while dinner is cooking.)

 

[Raptor99]

I learned long ago in science class to always include my units. For a relative comparison the units don't matter. We're going to measure the SG/Brix anyway. But to do any kind of calculation we need to know the units.

Thanks for sharing the chart. It is useful to have a comparison like this.

 

[sour_grapes]

I learned long ago in science class to always include my units.

Absolutely! Good on you!

Here is what one of my students wrote to me today (after I explained to him via email how he could have found his mistake more easily) "I need to get better at checking units; it is almost a freebie in physics for verifying results."

 

[Raptor99]

Grams per 100 grams of solution = Brix. Here is the definition from Wikipedia:

One degree Brix is 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and represents the strength of the solution as percentage by mass.

​

 

[Scooter68]

I'm just amazed at all the charts that popped up in my little search and seriously all those numbers, without any definition of what they mean and all the negative comments of the impact on diet, obesity etc.

(Sorry didn't mean to go weird with dietary stuff. Just tired of the never ending litany of stories like "Wine is bad for... " then a month later "Red wine is good for ...." and then Red wine is risky because..." )

Ok, I'll go chill out now.

And no offense taken from anything I've seen.

 

[user 32114]

I'm just amazed at all the charts that popped up in my little search and seriously all those numbers, without any definition of what they mean and all the negative comments of the impact on diet, obesity etc.

(Sorry didn't mean to go weird with dietary stuff. Just tired of the never ending litany of stories like "Wine is bad for... " then a month later "Red wine is good for ...." and then Red wine is risky because..." )

Ok, I'll go chill out now.

And no offense taken from anything I've seen.

DRINK UP..
Dawg

 

[winemanden]

To those who queried it, I've checked again, and there are no units mentioned. Considering Gerry Fowles was a Professor of Chemistry at Reading University, I find that very strange.
My own guess is that the % is of weight of fruit.
Assuming my list is readable, Raspberries missing is my fault. No mention of Blueberries, presumably because they weren't all that common in the UK in those days (1982)

 

[sour_grapes]

To those who queried it, I've checked again, and there are no units mentioned. Considering Gerry Fowles was a Professor of Chemistry at Reading University, I find that very strange.
My own guess is that the % is of weight of fruit.
Assuming my list is readable, Raspberries missing is my fault. No mention of Blueberries, presumably because they weren't all that common in the UK in those days (1982)

It says % right there on the column heading:

total sugar
(%)

It may have been nice to explicitly say "weight %" but I consider that "adequately documented."

 

[Scooter68]

Bottom line these charts give excellent relative information - Apples vs Bananas vs Grapes vs Strawberries etc. We still need to rely on an SG reading for real data because of varying fruit ripeness, seasonal variations and varietal differences.
These charts can give us pretty good ideas of how much sugar we can expect to need to add when we do a batch from any given fruit vs other fruits we've used.