Author Topic: Seasonal Fruit wines !  (Read 5138 times)

jwalker

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Seasonal Fruit wines !
« on: September 25, 2013, 03:29:32 PM »
Every fall here in the Creston Valley I make wine from all the different fruit available this time of year , so far have made five gallons of each , Rainier Cherry , Italian Plum , and Crab Apple wine.

I have one more batch to make from my own home grown grapes (kind of a small Concord seedless type) , I have a LOT more plums so will probably do another batch of that as well.

They are all coming along well , except for the Apple wine , it turns out that Crab apples have a LOT of pectin in them and you must add pectic enzyme when making wine , it turned into kind of an alcoholic apple jelly that couldn't be strained or clarified in any way , I tried everything and had to throw it out in the end. (I made a batch of Crab apple jelly as well and it turned out delicious).

I had pectic enzyme in my arsenal too , just didn't know enough to use it , Oh well , next time.

Just so you know. ;)

High Altitude

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2013, 04:53:49 PM »
Fruit wines...excellent!  I've actually never tried one (that I can recall), and certainly have not made one, but bravo to you for taking seasonal fruits to a higher plane  ;D.  Would love to see some pics of your process, and see (if possible) your Rainier cherry make!  I'm from WA and they are simply the best cherries on the planet!

I awoke this morning to lovely aroma of my fermenting Chocolate Raspberry Port.  Have only ventured to make kit wines (now on my 4th), but it's a start.  Excited to try this one (and give gifts) for Christmas 2014!

shotski

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2013, 12:19:21 AM »
Hi Jim,
   it is always fun trying something new. In the past I have made German plum, cherry, and strawberry with limited success due to my taste buds and my wine making experience. My consistently favorite fruit wine is Blueberry. I have been making it for about 25 years now and can never keep some to age, blueberry or grape for that matter.  It does take forever it seems to ferment, I started a 60L batch 1 month ago and it is still fermenting.

High Altitude, Chocolate Raspberry Port does sound good. Is that a kit as well? 
 It is a little more involved preparing the fruit in the beginning but  after that it is pretty much the same as the kit process. if you use grapes it usually ends up costing about as much as a premium wine kit with much superior results and a lot of fun. In April of this year I got some frozen crushed grapes from Chile. They are young at this point but are coming along very nice indeed.

I live 20 minutes from the Niagara wine region and have ordered some grapes to be picked up the beginning of October, so I am expecting something will get past a year in a bottle.
   

High Altitude

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2013, 02:45:29 AM »
Very inspiring!  I noticed a bunch of folks picking up "real" grape juice from the back of our local homebrew shop the other day, so maybe I'll get into that as soon as I pump out a couple more kits and build confidence!  Yes, the port is a kit as well.

shotski

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2013, 09:09:15 PM »
Very inspiring!  I noticed a bunch of folks picking up "real" grape juice from the back of our local homebrew shop the other day, so maybe I'll get into that as soon as I pump out a couple more kits and build confidence!  Yes, the port is a kit as well.

If you like white wine try it first because you can just get juice. White grapes are pressed as soon as they are picked because the colour does not need to be extracted out of the skins. This would give you closer to a kit process without having to press the grapes after the fermentation. Gewurztraminer is my favorite white wine.

shotski

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2013, 09:13:58 PM »
Hey Jim

"except for the Apple wine"

To many bad experiences in my early teen with country roads apple wine. ;)

High Altitude

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2013, 12:29:41 AM »
Shotski, I'll remember that advise, thanks!  I like Gewurz..., but may start with a Pinot Grigio :-).

Tomer1

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2013, 11:31:49 AM »
I find that there are few key points to great fruit wines.
1)ripe fruit - unripe fruit will give you very little aromatic intensity. so use tree ripened fruit if possible.
2)acid adjustment - either addition (peach,strawberry,pear) or deacidification (plums, pomegranit, berries) to give a proper balance to the wine.
3)dont add water - dilutes flavors,body and aroma.
4)adjust sugar to about 11.5-12.5% pottential alcohol.
5)ferment cold with appropriate yeast strain to retain aromas and avoid ester formation which masks the fruit aromas.
6)with apples , malolactic fermentation can give nice buttery flavor and complexity - simmilar to chardonay.

jwalker

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2013, 02:34:16 PM »
Allthough I have all the fancy ingredients in my winemaking arsenal , My two favorite wines are very simple , I got the recipe from an old friend who just passed away at 89 years of age , George was well known for his wines and he had a large cherry / mixed fruit orchard , from which he got all his base ingredients , he had over 60 years experience making wines.

In fact , that's where I get most of my fruit as well.

Here it is:

20 lbs. very ripe cherries , slightly crushed , just enough to break them open , pits still in them.
5 lbs. white sugar
5 gallons water
Any good wine yeast
4 Campden tablets crushed in water

put all in primary fermenter ferment for ten days at room temp , stir daily , strain out pulp and pits , let sit overnight , siphon into carboy with air lock and rack into another carboy when stable , let sit for a week or two and bottle.

The cherry wine seems to clear itself very well without adding any finings of any kind , it is amazing how clear it comes out after just one racking , the solids seem to be very heavy and sink to the bottom easily.

The plum wine is basically the same , just substitute plums for cherries , the plum should be racked several times tho , or cleared with finings , or filtered through a wine filter .(something he used and something I am going to buy soon).

Very good at six months , but even better after a year.

The plums I use are basically free , as I have a tree myself , and there are many wild ones growing around here , cherries can be very expensive , but George would let me pick whatever was remaining on the trees after harvesting , for free , (I would trade him my honey for cherries) , not sure if I will have that privilege from now on as his son runs the show now.

These may sound too simple to be as good as they are , but we have a local winery that makes a cherry wine from the same cherries , his wine is actually much better than theirs , and they have won awards in the BC wine industry.

Sometimes simple can be very good.

shotski

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2013, 12:34:12 PM »
I find that there are few key points to great fruit wines.
1)ripe fruit - unripe fruit will give you very little aromatic intensity. so use tree ripened fruit if possible.
2)acid adjustment - either addition (peach,strawberry,pear) or deacidification (plums, pomegranit, berries) to give a proper balance to the wine.
3)dont add water - dilutes flavors,body and aroma.
4)adjust sugar to about 11.5-12.5% pottential alcohol.
5)ferment cold with appropriate yeast strain to retain aromas and avoid ester formation which masks the fruit aromas.
6)with apples , malolactic fermentation can give nice buttery flavor and complexity - simmilar to chardonay.

Good advice Tommer. I usually add water to my fruit wines, a rule of thumb for me is 3lbs of fruit then add water to bring it up to a gallon. I find that if you use straight juice you mite as well drink the fruit juice. This way it is a little lighter like a wine. I fined with the blueberry if you use juice only it is very rich flavour that will hide a lot of the subtleties of the berry flavours. Only my preference though.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2013, 12:50:59 PM by shotski »

Ananke

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2013, 09:19:16 PM »
Heading out this weekend to pick some elderberries to add to the blackberries I picked the other week.  A mixture of the two make a really tasty wine.  I think i'll have to buy a couple of kits this year though as I've been too busy to get any wine on the go for xmas.

jwalker

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2013, 06:32:44 PM »
Heading out this weekend to pick some elderberries to add to the blackberries I picked the other week.  A mixture of the two make a really tasty wine.  I think i'll have to buy a couple of kits this year though as I've been too busy to get any wine on the go for xmas.

I planted blackberries this year , hopefully will get some berries next year and try some wine from them as well.

As for elderberries , they grow all around my place , will have to try some wine from them , maybe even this coming week.

I did however , pick all my grapes , they were very sweet but not enough of them this year for 5 gallons of wine , so I threw in some frozen rhubarb , and a big ole watermelon that a guy grew here locally , and voila , I have 5 gallons of grapebarbmelon wine a-brewin'. ^-^

Should be interesting.

Will let you know how it turns out.

Ananke

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Re: Seasonal Fruit wines !
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2013, 07:35:37 PM »
Haha, that sounds like a very tasty concoction.