using frozen fruits

[cabbie]

has anyone got any tips or pros and cons about using frozen fruits, just noticed that farm foods are selling frozen rhubarb at £1 for a 750g bag and was thinking of trying a gallon

thanks

tim

 

[oldbloke]

AFAIK frozen fruit is fine, in fact in many it breaks the skin up a bit and so helps get all the loveliness into your brew.
I've got a couple of demis going now with hedgerow stuff we picked last autumn and froze.
Next time I go to Costco I'm getting a bag of frozen strawbs, makes great wine - with stunning snowglobe effect in the demi.

 

[Moley]

Freezing fruit is a Good Thing :thumb:

It goes further than oldbloke said because it breaks the fruits up at a cellular level, they turn to mush when you defrost and you get more juice out.

Particularly with rhubarb and pears, freezing and squeezing is the preferred method of juice extraction.

 

[oldbloke]

I didn't want to mention cell walls in case I was wrong.
Is it right that the freezing kills a few undesirables, too? Still wise to Campden though, I guess.

 

[Baz Chaz]

I don't brew wine at all, but there's a couple of chaps in the village who've been at it for years and their wines are excellent :thumb:

I was nattering to them at the village show, where they both got either first or second as always :!: and I remember them saying they both store all their fruits etc in the deep freeze before use and rarely use anything from fresh, that was one of the tips they were giving out :thumb:

 

[Moley]

Is it right that the freezing kills a few undesirables, too?

Don't count on it.

Bugs, as in insects, grubs and other creepy-crawlies - curtains time, but a bit of added protein.

Bugs, as in bacteria and other undesirables like wild yeasties will most probably survive freezing.

 

[cabbie]

brilliant, thanks, i'm off to farm foods then :

 

[RobWalker]

Bacteria is still there, its just dormant. Campden 24 hrs before brewing will kill it, ad will pouring over boiling water. That can activate the pectins, but in my experience, it really hasn't.

 

[tonyhibbett]

In my limited experience, frozen fruit is brilliant for winemaking, especially if added late to a wine concentrate base. The freezing and thawing breaks it down so that the flavour and colour are more rapidly released into the already alcohol rich brew, giving a fresh fruit flavour and bouquet that would otherwise be diminished if introduced early in fresh format. It's wine Jim, but not as we know it.

 

[bluebell]

In my limited experience, frozen fruit is brilliant for winemaking, especially if added late to a wine concentrate base. The freezing and thawing breaks it down so that the flavour and colour are more rapidly released into the already alcohol rich brew, giving a fresh fruit flavour and bouquet that would otherwise be diminished if introduced early in fresh format. It's wine Jim, but not as we know it.

Now that is a thought as my straberry wine tastes great but I can never really get it as dry as I like - so I can see a WOW brewed very dry with straeberries added at the end may be the answer

 

[tonyhibbett]

The effect can be quite dramatic. A mere 300 g of raspberries added to 20 litres was quite astonishing. You must use good strawberries though. Too often, out of season forced fruit is very acidic and devoid of flavour and could easily spoil an otherwise good wine.

 

[pondlife]

I like this idea of concentrating flavours, but I need some help.

I currently have 23 litres of Young's Winebuddy Merlot on the go - it was started 5 days ago. Today, I spotted a 350g carton of frozen blackberries in ASDA and bought them on impulse.

What do I do with the fruit? Do I just punt it straight into the FV, or do I defrost it first? Presumably, I wouldn't need to worry about bugs as the fruit has been sealed in the carton under hygenic conditions.

I usually make apple wines from juice, but I quite liked the Young's Chardonnay, so I thought I'd try their other stuff.

PS. I bought some frozen melon which I'll try with the Chardonnay if this experiment works out!

Any advice gratefully received.

 

[brizleciderarmy]

Possibly a bit of a dopey question but here goes. If i was to say freeze a few cartons of pressed grape juice (not concentrate), would it improve the flavour as it would actual fruit? I hazarded a guess that it would seems as the ice crystals break it up at cellular level, as mentioned above. BUT, i am a rank amateur when it comes to fruit so thought i would ask.

 

[Moley]

It wouldn't do it any harm, but it would be completely pointless.

Liquids expand when they freeze, so the cell walls and soft tissues get ruptured. This is why people have struggled for so long to find a successful method of freezing strawberries and other soft fruits, because when they are defrosted the tissues have all been smashed and there's nothing to hold them together anymore.

Your juice has already been extracted.

 

[pondlife]

OK. So I re-read the thread and realised that tonyhibbert had already addressed my query at Post #9.

In my limited experience, frozen fruit is brilliant for winemaking, especially if added late to a wine concentrate base...

So, 7 days into fermentation, I've added 350g ASDA frozen blackberries directly into the FV of Young's Winebuddy Merlot. I usually give my wines at least 14 days before checking the interim gravity (I know Youngs reckon it's a 7-day wine), so I suppose I've added the frozen fruit midway through the anticipated fermentation cycle.

I've never actually used this Merlot kit before, so I'm not sure how it SHOULD turn out without the added fruit, but hey ho!

I'll update the thread with the results, although I'll be leaving this wine to mature in the bottle for at least 2 months.

 

[Welshwitch]

We bought some farmfoods frozen rhubarb last year to top up our own rhubarb.

We always freeze our fruit before using now, we have just this week done our bramble (blackberry) wine it is currently bubbling in fermenting bucket. It saves the mad rush in the autumn and produces superb wine.

 

[Crastney]

@pondlife - yes you should defrost the fruit first, it should be at least at room temp, as if you add it straight the brew while frozen, it'll reduce the overall temp of the brew, and you risk a stuck fermentation.

 

[tonyhibbett]

350 g frozen blackberries in a 20 litre Youngs merlot sounds good. Ideally defrosted and mashed with a little pectic enzyme beforehand. If not, take them out and mash them. 14 days is far too long unless in a cold place. My experience with the raspberries suggests that the real benefit kicks in a couple of weeks after clearing and continues to get more subtle thereafter. Blackberries will also deepen the colour somewhat.
I'm not an Azda man, but if they are selling frozen blackberries at a reasonable price...

 

[pondlife]

Thanks for the advice! :thumb:

I chucked the frozen blackberries directly into the FV last Friday. Thankfully, the frozen fruit doesn't seem to have adversely affected the fermentation process as, 6 days later, fermentation is still well under way. This might have something to do with the additional 1kg of sugar I added to the mix in order to achieve a respectable final ABV of 12.5%, assuming the final gravity is around the recommended 0.996.

I'm probably still on schedule to check the interim gravity in a couple of days, but I won't have any idea what the wine is going to be like until I filter and bottle it. I'll try a taster before sticking it into my cool room for a couple of months.

PS: Asda sells frozen blackberries, blueberries, cherries and raspberries in 350g packs, and frozen rhubarb and summer fruits in 500g packs all at £2.00 each. They can probably be bought cheaper elsewhere (especially the rhubarb!), but I just happened upon them by chance and, thinking of tonyhibbett's initial comments, thought I'd give fruit a bash as an additive.

 

[cabbie]

rhubarb wine is bubbling away nicely and i have just started 6 litres of mixed frozen fruits from aldi. using 2 500g frozen tubs of summer fruits, 1 500g tub of black forest fruits and 300g of frozen raspberies. its fermenting away in a bucket and smells lovely :