Using home pressed fruit juices. HELP

[NewbyBrew]

Hello,
I recently moved to a small holding which has 2 orchards of pears, apples & damson. Different varieties. Never brewed wine/cider before, but couldn't leave the masses of fruit to just the wildlife. So, borrowing a pulper & a press I have begun extracting the juice from the fruit, which has then been frozen. There is enough equipment & chemical ingredients to make a 25 litre batch of wine to start with, and this is the part I am calling for HELP from. I cannot find any recipes that will tell me what quantities of home pressed juice to ratio of other ingredients I need. Sorry if this sounds such a simple thing to find out. Being a tech dinosaur hasn't helped, as the same sites keep coming up, and my mind has just been boggled with so much info that i struggled to understand. Basically then, please can anyone give me a step by step, quantities needed to turn all this juice into wine? I need to get it as right as possible on this my first years harvest. If there are recipes posted on your forums, forgive me as this is the first site i have joined regarding brewing, and have been unable till today to ask my first question, on my first post. Thank you for any help anybody can give me, I ask that you don't blind me by science or ask the names of the various fruit varieties i have. Till now i have been a complete carnivore, where fruit & veg only make an appearance in my house when guests are coming! Any answers to my question will be picked up when I next use my laptop, as my phone is nearly as old as me, with tech so out of date I don't think it can carry that as a description. Once again Thank You.

 

[Stevieboy]

The first step will be to ascertain the amount of sugar in your juice, so you can then add the right amount of sugar to it to produce a wine rather than a fruit cider. Do you have a Hydrometer?

 

[NewbyBrew]

Yes I do.

 

[DocAnna]

It's an old book but a good reference for using home fruit to make wines, including apple wine: Making Wild Wines & Meads: 125 Unusual Recipes Using Herbs, Fruits, Flowers & More: Amazon.co.uk: Vargas, Pattie, Gullins, Rich: 9781580171823: Books

PM me if you'd like any specific recipes.

Anna

 

[Stevieboy]

Excellent. As Anna's post - so many recipes posted on here and available elsewhere - but is as simple as juice plus some sugar (probably) add yeast, ferment and clear, mature and drink!

 

[Bando]

Yes I do.

If you have 25l of pressed juice it probably reads about 1.060 to 1.050 on a hydrometer, so probably around 2 to 2.5 kilo of sugar needs adding until ready about 1.090, along with 5 Campden tablets because its fresh its full of bacteria and 4 teaspoon nutrient 24h prior to adding yeast then just let it do its thing covered with tight cloth if you don't have homebrew equipment

 

[Bando]

Yes I do.

Also to 25l around 5 grams of yeast is the amount needed

 

[NewbyBrew]

Thank you again. It makes more sense to me now. Will be starting today. All the advice has given me the motivation.

 

[Bando]

Thank you again. It makes more sense to me now. Will be starting today. All the advice has given me the motivation.

Good luck mate, any more questions just reply here, plenty of people will surely jump in to advise

 

[user 42889]

Additional question on this theme - given the wine will be made from all juice how will this differ from wines where recipes is, for example, 3lbs fruit 6 pints water per gallon?
Is there any advantage or disadvantage of using greater quantities of fruit?

 

[Bando]

Additional question on this theme - given the wine will be made from all juice how will this differ from wines where recipes is, for example, 3lbs fruit 6 pints water per gallon?
Is there any advantage or disadvantage of using greater quantities of fruit?

I try to use at least 90% all juice for wine as us grape wine, some juices are too strong in flavour for this though, you have to go off your own initiative, for instance apple is good all juice, so is pear because its flavour is mild, but I wouldn't press blackberries and only use that juice as its pretty strong when fermented and quite acidic

 

[user 42889]

Thank you very much.
What would you think about plums?
Also, I have some blackberry juice (100%) in first fermentation, should I (can I) dilute this before moving to a demijohn for second fermentation?

 

[Stevieboy]

A greater qty of fruit will give you a better depth of wine, and you'll benefit from the nutrients and tannins contained within them. As Bando
says - you wouldn't make a wine from 100% Raspberry/Blackberry/Pineapple juice for instance, as it's so concentrated a flavour.

 

[Bando]

Thank you very much.
What would you think about plums?
Also, I have some blackberry juice (100%) in first fermentation, should I (can I) dilute this before moving to a demijohn for second fermentation?

Taste the blackberry wine first, everyone is different, I use about 3.5 kilo plums fir a gallon

 

[Bando]

A greater qty of fruit will give you a better depth of wine, and you'll benefit from the nutrients and tannins contained within them. As Bando
says - you wouldn't make a wine from 100% Raspberry/Blackberry/Pineapple juice for instance, as it's so concentrated a flavour.

If you notice on cold pressed juices in shops, you'll see things like raspberry juice but the ingredients is actually about 15% raspberry juice as it is strong enough to be so diluted

 

[Bando]

I make this stuff with about 2.5 kilo mixed fruit per gallon raspberries strawberries blueberries blackberries blackcurrants , and its got more body taste and acidity then you'd hope for in a nice 100% grape wine with fruity notes coming through well, 2.5 kilo probably works out to just less than a third juice if u pressed it but I may be wrong

 

[user 42889]

hey, that's a nice looking bottle of wine, so clear,

 

[Bando]

hey, that's a nice looking bottle of wine, so clear,

I am what some may call a cheat, I use finings