A quick juicing question...

[wrighty]

Afternoon All,

I've been reading up on how juice can be extracted from rhubarb by the freezing/defrosting method which appears to work really well.

It got me wondering if this method would work on other fruit or is it most effective with rhubarb only? I'd be interested if others have used this method on other fruits with reasonable success.

Cheers,

Steve

 

[Moley]

You will always get better juice extraction from fruit which has been frozen and defrosted, as water freezes it expands slightly and the growing ice crystals rupture the cell walls.

 

[user 1290]

I've been reading up on how juice can be extracted from rhubarb by the freezing/defrosting method which appears to work really well.

It got me wondering if this method would work on other fruit or is it most effective with rhubarb only? I'd be interested if others have used this method on other fruits with reasonable success.

I'm assuming you mean the freeze/thaw/drip juice method, rather than freeze/defrost stuff prior to either fermenting on the pulp or pressing defrosted fruit.

Rhubarb is the only thing I've used this method on, and when I defrosted 15.8 kg of frozen rhubarb chunks in a large colander over a bucket I got 8 litres of juice, so over 50% extraction and I probably stopped a little early.

I then went on to press the remaining pulp to get another 5.4 litres of juice, taking the total juice extraction to approx 85%. Both juices were sulphited, frozen and subsequently pasteurised (the clear one is the run of juice from thawing rhubarb, and the golden from pressing remaining pulp):

Freezing & defrosting other fruits has never yielded anything like this amount of juice, but if you are defrosting a very large batch of whatever fruit for fermenting on the pulp, it may be worthwhile considering saving some of the pure juice that runs out for use in juice only wines.

 

[wrighty]

Hi David,

Yes thats the method I meant (freeze/thaw/drip). I see what you mean about the volumes acquired with rhubarb - 2kg of the stuff gave me approximately 1.5 litres but that was just by collecting the drips.

I was thinking that this methd might be useful for something like pineapple as well? I've tried pineapple wine in the past using the fruit itself in a fermenting bucket but there was a lot of sediment with that wine which i could never really remove so i figured that this method would help reduce this problem. There's only one way to find out and thats to give it a shot :drink: .

Cheers, Steve

 

[user 1290]

This method probably works so well with rhubarb because it has such a low solid content (5.5%).

Pineapples are 15% solids, very much the same as most other fruits, so I expect it may not work so well with them, but they are extremely low in pectin so that might help with freezing breaking down the cell structure.

Melons however with a solid content of only 6% appear to be an ideal candidate for a trial. I'd never thought of doing the freeze/thaw/drip with them until I looked at my tables today and I've always had a fairly heavy sediment when fermeting them on the pulp. Think I'll give them a go next time I see some reduced to a knock down price.

 

[wrighty]

freeze/thaw/drip with them until I looked at my tables today

Can you find the solid content online because I'm trying to look at alternative fruits and coming up blank :hmm: ? If so, could you direct me in the right direction?

Cheers

Steve

 

[user 1290]

Can you find the solid content online because I'm trying to look at alternative fruits and coming up blank :hmm: ? If so, could you direct me in the right direction?

Here's a couple:

http://www.thefruitpages.com/contents.shtml (clicking on individual fruits will give you a load of info.)

http://www.ca.uky.edu/enri/pubs/enri129.pdf

It's easier to find them by approaching it from another direction and searching for "water content". Watch out for whether tables are for whole fruit (including peel, pips, stones, etc., or 'edible portions' such as on thefruitpages above).

 

[wrighty]

Cheers David - much appreciated :thumb: , I'll have a gander this morning

Cheers

Steve