13 replies to this topic

[Wade's Wines]

A friend was cleaning out her freezer and gave me a pile of fruit. She made wine one time and didn't really have the patience for it, so was ready to clean out the freezer and forget about trying it again. I tried to talk her into giving it another try, but no luck.

Here's what she gave me. I didn't weigh it or measure it until it was all combined in one fermenter.

Blueberries, several gallon bags
Wild Blackberries, several bags,
Elderberries, several bags (though I only added about 3# for color, not crazy about e's)
Wild Muscadines (purple)
Wild Scuppernongs (white)

When I added it all to a primary fermenter it was about 9 gallons of fruit. I added:

3 gallons of fresh picked Crab Apples

So I had 12 gallons of fruit.

I then added:
Enough sugar water adjusted to 1.095sg, to cover the fruit (26# of sugar) mixed with K-Meta
10 tsp. acid blend
15 tsp. yeast nutrient
13 tsp. pectic enzyme

Next day I added Lalvin 1118 yeast, using a starter.

None of the fruit was crushed, just leffing it ferment whole. It's going like crazy and has a beautiful deep red-black color.

The reasons I added it all together were, 1. There wasn't really enough of any to make a good sized batch individually, and 2. These were all 2011 fruits that had been frozen in ziplock bags, rather than vacuum freezing, and the quality of the fruit wasn't what I would have liked. I thought they'd cover up each others' flaws a bit if there were any. 3. Some of the most popular wines I've made have been "freezer clean-outs" of lots of fruits fermented together.

It's way heavy on fruit, no guess even how many pounds per gallon.... but if we say fruit averages 6# per gallon (some I'm sure is closer to 7#), then it was 72# in 12 gallons. There's at least 6# per gallon, I think.

I'm stirring it a few times a day, but "turning it" might be a better term, as it's so thick I could break a canoe paddle stirring it.

I'll press it all in a few days, or maybe tomorrow afternoon when my schedule may allow, and let it finish fermenting then.

Wish me luck!

[saramc]

Sounds like a great batch Wade! I think I need to source a small freezer for fruits alone...plan to start scouring CL and Freecycle. Family is tired of seeing more fruit in the freezer than frozen food...or I think they want more room for frozen food--yeah, that's it! While I don't have a freezer cleanout project for wine this year, I know I will next season--but I am off to harvest apples soon. My Mom's neighbor got word to me and her Golden Delicious and Red Delicious are loaded and ripe with baseball sized apples and I am welcome to come get all I want, and then some. A shame I do not own an apple crusher, cannot find one to rent or even borrow (I have asked until blue in the face). My Dad is pretty handy with wood, I might call him and see if he can fashion a "smasher" for me--put apple in a round/cored out area on wood and then smack it with a heavier piece of wood that is fashioned on a hinge. Transfer smashed pulp to fermenter. Throw some just picked crabapples in there for pucker power. But I guess there is nothing wrong with me just coring and quartering and fermenting that way, go heavy handed on pectinase. Here is to next year's freezer cleanout!!

[dralarms]

Saramc,

All I did to mine was core them and then I actually boiled them for a few min. Not enough to cook but enough t soften, I'm sure it wasn't necessary. My golden del. Apple wine was my 1 St fruit wine and absolutely great. And it gets better after about 6 months in the bottle.

[Rebbuxton]

Sounds like a crazy concoction Wade. I'm sure we'll all be drinking it at the next TWINE!

Reb

[Manda @ Our Wolf Den]

My hubby and I do this every year! Every time we make a batch of wine we save the seconds and freeze them. We then at the end of the year thaw them out put them in a big bucket throw in any leftover tin fruit we have, half eaten jams or preserves, frozen fruit that we have had in the freezer all year and not done anything with. And juice! We start stalking up on bottles of juice when every it goes on sale the whole year. Then we give in enough sugar to go up to 1.080 let it ferment, rack it, and then feed it sugar until it stops. Last year’s was bone dry at 22.5% alcohol and boy was it smooth.

[Wade's Wines]

I think I need to source a small freezer for fruits alone...

... a freezer just for fruit? Good idea, but it may be habit forming... I have 5! Not to mention the side-by-side. SHEESH!

[DesertDance]

Wow! Sounds like magic! Let us know how it turns out!
Suzi

[saramc]

... a freezer just for fruit? Good idea, but it may be habit forming... I have 5! Not to mention the side-by-side. SHEESH!

I am sure you probably could use another one couldn't you? But you see, you have acres and a bountiful harvests, or know where to get your goodies (auction, Amish neighbors, etc). I have just a little over one acre and have to be quite selective on what I can grow, since I do live in a classic 70s subdivision with neighbors on each side and right across the street...but I can make it work. The guys tell me if I get my own freezer they are getting a beer refrigerator--and I show them the photo of the $79 refrig at COSTCO/SAM'S and remind them they drink 2 brands of beer between the two of them and they are out of their minds because if we are getting a second full-size refrigerator it will be for FOOD considering the youngest son will turn 16 in March and is 6ft 5in and weighs 230#, while oldest son is 22 and is 6ft 3in and is lucky to weigh 165# soaking wet, and their father is 6ft 2in and "weight withheld based on age discrimation--so he says!!"---and they eat the food as quickly as I can put it in the refrigerator or freezer. I am sure those with growing boys know what I am talking about--they are eating machines!!
I will continue to search for my free or on-sale freezer and may just get "the boys" a little refrig for the basement since that is where they choose to drink their beer--in their "man cave". I would just LOVE to have access to your freezers Wade!!!
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@Manda---that is a fabulous idea! I try to buy shelf-stable juices and frozen concentrates when they are at ridiculously low sale prices...had bought 6 gallons of OS 100% BluePom for less than $3/gallon but it disappeared! The issue is/was: Two weeks ago, my 22 yr old and his friends discovered it and drank it all. I did not know they were drinking my juice because there were containers in place on my shelves. I thought nothing of it until I went to pull my BluePom to make wine and discovered there was not ONE container on the shelf, it was all grape juice cocktail--not even 100% grape juice, a "cocktail". I confronted son and he admitted to drinking it with a little help from his friends (mixed with vodka, really good MOM!! you should try it)...and he then said "but we replaced it, what is your problem?". WRONG ANSWER. My response: #1: It was not his & he was quite aware where my wine supplies were-area was even clearly marked to keep people from trespassing on my space! #2: Advised him you cannot find that juice around here any longer, and #3: they could have at least replaced it with a 100% juice--he has helped me enough times to know my requirement for 100% juice. Needless to say I had an interesting talk with my son and his friends (a particular group that has been coming to my house for 14+ years) and they admitted they knew they were robbing my winemaking supplies and even said my son told them I would "kill" him and them--but they really wanted my BluePom to help celebrate my son's birthday weekend. They were given an instructional on wine making & I told them I need 5# of blueberries per gallon, and they owed me 6 gallons of juice. They could actually do the math in their heads and told me they would bring me 30# of blueberries. I told them I wanted FROZEN blueberries and at least 128 ounces of 100% POM juice. One of the girls in the group said "I've got this Miss Sara, I have a COSTCO card and I know what to do!". They showed up the next day with 32# of frozen wild blueberries and a gallon of 100% POM...and I officially ran out of freezer space that day!!!
And when I met my Mom for lunch later that week she opened her trunk--and she had 3 gallons of OS BluePOM that her local Kroger had put on clearance a few months ago and she told me she thought it would make a good wine. Boy, did I have a story for her....she laughed so hard and said "only your son!" She asked for a few bottles of "her" OS BluePOM wine.

--- anyway, your "recipe" reminds me that perhaps I can include that grape juice cocktail as PART of the base, and I always have an entire family of jams/jellies/preserves in the refrig or pantry, and canned fruits, small quantities of wild harvested fruits that I stumbled upon---I can see an "Everything but the kitchen sink" wine in the making here. Definitely my own: Crazy Fruit Batch
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@dralarms: I don't want to heat the fruit because apples are so loaded with pectin anyway the heat will just set the pectin even more, plus I feel pretty confident that the action of the ferment will soften the fruit right up. If I had the freezer space (LOL) I would actually wash the apples and freeze them whole (less oxidization), then bring them out and let them defrost enough so I can core/quarter them and into the primary they go. The source of my apples has asked for one gallon of Jack Keller's apple brandy, so I reviewed that recipe this morning and will make a few gallons of that along with a simple cider. It will be my first attempt at working with apples, other than crabapples, and I really enjoy hard cider (Oliver now sells a Peach "apple cider" that I am in love with--it is packaged in a trendy aluminum bottle with the classic cartooney old woman artwork---is marketed as a cider but fine print says it is "apple wine", cannot recall ACV, maybe 6%--but boy would I love to be able to mimic that product).

So--here is to freezer content ferments, cabinet cleanouts, caught them "blue-handed" [may name it just that for the inside joke] BluePOM, and apples!!

[Wade's Wines]

Pulled the wine off the pulp yestereve and it's a gorgeous deep red color, incredible flavor! I'd enjoy it just like it is right now, but it's still rumbling... and I'm sure it would be rumbling as it passed on through!

[rpage53]

Tim has a "recipe" for Bumbleberry Wine somewhere on here after his freezer lost power. It was just every fruit that he had it was a great success. Most commercially sold fruit juices are blended for good reason - they taste better. Some labels are "cranberry and apple juice, and/or grape, and/or pear and/or ..."

Rick.

[Tomer1]

The crazy stuff always tastes the best and years later you still talk of the batch which cannot be replicated

[Wade's Wines]

The Crazy Fruit advanced to carboys and, boy does it taste good!

[saramc]

I am pleased to announce that a neighbor that is moving gave me the contents of their freezer--fruit they put up last year & this year. I have a good assortment of vacuum packed gallon size bags of: strawberries, pineapple chunks, mango pieces, peaches, bananas, blackberries, raspberries, rhubarb, persimmons, blueberries, and European + Asian pears. I have not weighed everything to figure out how much I have just yet...but whatever it is will be turned into a Crazy Fruit Batch that I will amend by adding some white grape juice concentrate and perhaps some apple juice concentrate, might use K1-V1116 or Côtes de Blanc. Guess it was a good thing I just cleaned my freezer out! BUT, now I must decide what to bottle (and I have 40+ gallons that can be bottled, I am just procrastinating) so I can have a carboy or two empty. Another carboy is not within my budget, I promised DH no additional carboys this year unless they were given to me for free!

So--I have this wine plus my stone fruit wine to get started, and I have bananas thawing so I can start my banana wine.

@Wade, I know that wine will be awesome!! What is your current volume in carboys?

[Wade's Wines]

10 gallons in carboys, Sara.
Nice score! If there's enough fruit you might try to make 2 different batches.