Vitamx vs Food Processor

[RegionRat]

My question is this. I am a little unclear as how I am going to handle the raw cranberries. Some say freeze them, some say chop them, some say cook them, etc. I was thinking of putting them in my VitaMix blender with a little water and letting them rip. If I do do you think I will have a problem getting this stuff to clear?

That was a question I asked in my second post. Well I decided to conduct an experiment.

Using this recipe:

4 - 12oz pkgs. fresh cranberries
1 lb. raisins
2 ½ lbs. sugar
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp Bentonite
2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 Campden Tablet
1 Gallon Warm Water

I made 2 side by side versions. The first one I froze the berries on a cooky sheet over night and the put through my food processor with the 6mm chopping blade. I then put the chopped berries in a nylon bag. The second batch I put in the Vidamix and let it rip. Both mixtures are in primary now. I will take SG in the morning and adjust if it needs it. Then I am gonna pitch the yeast. I am curious ff the blended one will clear nicely.

I will post on the progress.

RR

 

[Arne]

Do cranberries have little seeds inside them? If so and you chop them, you might get a bitter taste from them. Let us know if the chopped batch is bitter and the frozen batch not. Just a thought, Arne.

 

[RegionRat]

Do cranberries have little seeds inside them? If so and you chop them, you might get a bitter taste from them. Let us know if the chopped batch is bitter and the frozen batch not. Just a thought, Arne.

Yes there are seeds. Here is a close up of them.


I tasted both batches of wort. They taste the same.

RR

 

[Arne]

Let us know after they ferment. Seems like that ferment will draw the bittter out of some seeds. Let us know, Arne.

 

[RegionRat]

Update - Pitched Yeast

I just pitched the yeast. I made a starter and slowly worked in the wort. Before I pitched the yeast I took SG on both. The Vitamix must showed 1.096 and the food processed and bagged one showed 1.090. Taking the SG on the blended must was quite the chore. It was so thick I had to run a cup through a coffee filter.

The colors are very different. The Blended one is definitely different in color, it has a darkness to it.

 

[GreginND]

I like to freeze them and then chop fine with my food processor. I usually make a semi dry melomel with cranberries. The honey notes plus the cranberry is really good. 1% residual sugar is perfect for my palate. We had a bottle yesterday with the turkey.

 

[RegionRat]

I like to freeze them and then chop fine with my food processor. I usually make a semi dry melomel with cranberries. The honey notes plus the cranberry is really good. 1% residual sugar is perfect for my palate. We had a bottle yesterday with the turkey.

That sounds good.

I have not yet tried my hand at mead. It is on my list though. I was wondering how you accomplish getting a 1% residual sugar? Do you halt fermentation at a certain SG or do you ferment out to less then 1.00 then stabilize and back sweeten with honey? I am getting to the point in wine making where I am going to start making decisions as weather to sweeten or not.

 

[GreginND]

No. I ferment it dry, stabilize and sweeten with regular sugar a week or so before bottling. I don't like to add honey later as it is more of an unknown for biological stability and clarity. There's plenty if honey/mead flavors from the fermentation.

 

[RegionRat]

No. I ferment it dry, stabilize and sweeten with regular sugar a week or so before bottling. I don't like to add honey later as it is more of an unknown for biological stability and clarity. There's plenty if honey/mead flavors from the fermentation.

So, let me see if I have this.

1% sugar would be for a 5 gal (SG 1.000)

(5gal)x(128oz/gal)=640oz

(640oz)x.01=6.4oz sugar

 

[GreginND]

1% sugar would be 1gram in 100 mL or 10 g per liter.


5 gallons is 18.93 liters. So 1% sugar would be 189.3 g in 5 gallons. That's about 6.68 oz of sugar.

 

[RegionRat]

If anyone cares I racked into secondary today. The Froze and chopped ,left side in the picture, is way clearer. The Vidamix one is think like gravy.

 

[RegionRat]

UpdateRacked

So, I racked but wines off the lee this morning. Here they are pre-racking.



As you can seen the Vitamix one has ALOT of lee.


Here they are after racking and topping off.



The one on the right is the Vitamix one. It has a little darker color to it. I did not taste either one.

Now off to a cool dark place to age for 6 months or so... I ll post an up date on how they taste then.

My conclusion as of now. I dont think I will be using the Vitamix any more. Too Much hassle... Oh well

RR

 

[RegionRat]

Update: Racked

I dont know why this posted twice

 

[jensmith]

Tasting them is my favorite part!

Next time you want to use the vitamix to chop fruit do this. Fill the canister 1/3 with water, add about a cup or so of cranberries. Blend on low for up to ten seconds. Strain the chopped berries and reuse the same water for the next batch. Not all the berries will be choped. One or two will still be whole. Just cut those by hand. Still much quicker then cutting them all by hand! I did this last night with mine. I also tried an old chopper, same results as the vitamix, but slower. Next time I will be using frozen instead of fresh cranberries. They should chop better then the fresh in the vitamix. ( no water when frozen, otherwise you end up with icecream!)

You can also make a seconds wine out of the extra sludge you got off of the pureed berries. Add more peptic enzyme and it will eventually settle down. Better then tossing it all!!