My father wants to make kiwi wine

My father just got bitten hard by the brew your own bug. I've been brewing my own beer and cider for a while and while I've spoken with him about it I'm not sure what triggered this particular decision of his.

First I think a bit of an explanation is needed. My parents live on a lot of land and have a very large garden. In this garden are some kiwi vines they planted on a lark, which really didn't do anything until the last few years. This year the vines really pulled through, and the kiwis were almost as densely loaded as their grape vines. In June all the vines (except the male one) looked like this:


They have many many pounds (40+) of kiwifruit and really there isn't too much you can do with it besides eating it raw, so my father wants to make wine (or whatever you call fermented kiwi) with them. In order to use as much fruit as possible he'd prefer the recipe to be mainly kiwi. I've found some straight kiwi recipes, and I was thinking about tweaking the strawberry-kiwi wine recipe from here to cut out the strawberries.

From what we can find most recipes use kiwi + a large amount of sugar. Is this to be expected due to the lower sugar content of the kiwis? Would it be better to use dextrose, honey, or grape juice instead of table sugar? Any of those are available easily enough to make a substitution.

I am really at a loss as to where to tell him to start. I think he wants to go big at first, but I kinda want to tell him to start out slow and just do a 6 gallon batch, before attempting anything really large scale. When I visit during the holidays I may carry down some of my equipment and we can get a batch started then.

A friend of his has made blueberry and muscadine (a grape species native to the southeastern US) wine from the fruit in my parent's garden before and it comes out very well. No muscadine wine this year though, raccoons ate all the grapes off the vines in a matter of a few nights, only going after the grapes in the live trap after no more were on the vine.

I think you found a treasure trove. I personally don't care much for the bitter after taste of tannins, or the use of pectic enzymes called for in the recipes. Kiwi has a natural enzyme on the pealing anyway. 40 pounds may sound like alot but when you take the seed out, and juice them, I would be surprised if you get 2 gallon of juice. I would juice the kiwi, and put in your 6.5 gal fermenter, top it off with some good white-grape or apple juice and go from there. Do you like dry wines or sweet wines?

They mainly go for a sweeter wine. I believe what they plan to let it ferment to completion, then backsweeten to where they wanted it.

What's the best way to get juice out of so much fruit at once, short of investing in a dedicated press?

Derigiberble said:

They mainly go for a sweeter wine. I believe what they plan to let it ferment to completion, then backsweeten to where they wanted it.

What's the best way to get juice out of so much fruit at once, short of investing in a dedicated press?

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I freeze the cleaned fruit, and then put it in a large mesh (sanitized) bag to thaw in the primary. That works great, as it seems to encourage "bursting" of the fruit cells and you get more juice out. I wouldn't remove seeds (I don't with blackberries or chokecherries) as it's not needed. When you remove the pulp bag, squeeze the fruit with sanitized hands- that will sort of be your "press".

When I make blackberry wine, I generally use 4 pounds of fruit per gallon. That would be a good place to start, in my estimation. My wine making idol, Jack Keller, has these recipes on his site:

KIWI FRUIT


Kiwi fruit form on the vines of Actinida chinensis. The fuzzy fruit come in two varieties. The common KiwiGreen is an acidic fruit while the KiwiGold is a much sweeter and less acidic variety. The latter tastes like a cross between a banana and a mellon. Each makes an excellent white table wine. A recipe for each is found below. each recipe is for one U.S. gallon.



Kiwi Fruit Wine (1)
3-4 lbs fresh green kiwi fruit
2-1/4 lbs finely granulated sugar
7-1/2 pts water
1 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/8 tsp tannin
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pkt Lalvin AC or 71B-1122 (Narbonne) wine yeast
Mix sugar into the water and put on stove to boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve. Meanwhile, thinly peel and coarsely chop fruit and place in nylon straining bag. Tie bag closed and put in primary. Crush fruit with hands. Add acid blend, tannin and yeast nutrients to primary and pour boiling water over fruit when all sugar is dissolved. Cover with clean cloth and set aside to cool. When room temperature, add pectic enzyme and stir. Recover primary and wait 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover primary. Stir daily, lifting and dunking bag of fruit pulp several times (do NOT squeeze bag) before stirring. After 7 days, remove bag and drip drain without squeezing for about an hour. Return drained juices to primary and discard pulp. When specific gravity drops below 1.015, rack into secondary and fit airlock. Rack after 3 months, top up and refit airlock, and repeat after additional 3 months. Wine should be clear and completely dry. If wine is too dry for your taste, stabilize, sweeten to your liking, refit airlock and set aside. After 10 days, rack into bottles and set aside to age another 6 months. Serve lightly chilled. [Adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]



Kiwi Fruit Wine (2)
3-4 lbs fresh golden kiwi fruit
2 lbs finely granulated sugar
7-1/2 pts water
1-1/2 tsp acid blend
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/8 tsp tannin
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pkt Lalvin D-47 (Côtes-du-Rhône) or any Champagne wine yeast
Mix sugar into the water and put on stove to boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve. Meanwhile, thinly peel and coarsely chop fruit and place in nylon straining bag. Tie bag closed and put in primary. Crush fruit with hands. Add acid blend, tannin and yeast nutrients to primary and pour boiling water over fruit when all sugar is dissolved. Cover with clean cloth and set aside to cool. When room temperature, check specific gravity to ensure it is between 1.080-1.090 (correct if required) and then add pectic enzyme and stir. Recover primary and wait 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover primary. Stir daily, lifting and dunking bag of fruit pulp several times (do NOT squeeze bag) before stirring. After 7 days, remove bag and drip drain without squeezing for about an hour. Return drained juices to primary and discard pulp. When specific gravity drops below 1.015, rack into secondary and fit airlock. Rack after 3 months, top up and refit airlock, and repeat after additional 3 months. Wine should be clear and completely dry. If wine is too dry for your taste, stabilize, sweeten to your liking, refit airlock and set aside. After 10 days, rack into bottles and set aside to age another 6 months. Serve lightly chilled. [Adapted from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]

I juice fruit with one of these, and I am pretty sure it will do kiwi, but the white-grape or apple juice I buy in 1/2 gallon bottles from the store. If you can invest the $49, it will pay off in future mix and match recipes, frest fruit and bottle fruit flavors, in the future if you get in to it. You can juice small quantities of almost any fruit (1 to 2 gallon) and top off with 4 gallon of store bought juice. So far this whole idea has worked great for me.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Juice-Extractor/12311470

I can find you a good recipe but you will need to match the sugar to the tolerance of the yeast. I have only used 1 kind of yeast and lack knowledge in the different strains.

Thanks a bunch! I was confused about Kiwi and thought that the Actinidin in kiwi dissolved pectin, so I was really confused as to the need for pectic enzyme.

I think the freezer route is going to be the best way for getting the juice out. When you say freeze the cleaned fruit though, do you mean cleaned, peeled, and chopped or just washed off well?

Derigiberble said:

Thanks a bunch! I was confused about Kiwi and thought that the Actinidin in kiwi dissolved pectin, so I was really confused as to the need for pectic enzyme.

I think the freezer route is going to be the best way for getting the juice out. When you say freeze the cleaned fruit though, do you mean cleaned, peeled, and chopped or just washed off well?

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For kiwi, I'd probably just peel. They'll "smoosh" up just fine. I don't peel some fruits- like apples- but a thicker skinned fruit should be peeled.

I found this recipe this morning. It says you can just cut the kiwi in half and not have to peel. You could substitute the oranges for citric acid and drop the pectic enzyme all together. Slightly overripe fruit will contain the highest sugar content.

Winemaking Ingredients: Kiwi Wine - Wine Making Guides
3 pints chopped kiwi fruits
1/2 lb / 225 grams raisins
2 1/2 lbs / 1,100 grams granulated sugar
Juice of 2 oranges
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
Wine yeast
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient / energiser
8 pints / 1 gallon cooled, boiled water
1 campden tablet

Winemaking Method: Kiwi Wine - Wine Making Guides
Wash and chop kiwi fruits, leaving the skins on. Roughly chop raisins and add to winemaking fermenting container, together with all of the other ingredients, except for the wine yeast. Mix thoroughly, ensuring that the sugar is dissolved and then stand for around 12 hours.

Add activated wine yeast and stir twice daily for five days. Strain kiwi wine liquor and transfer into winemaking demijohn, fitting airlock. Rack for the first time at six weeks, and then every three months until the kiwi wine is one year old and clear. Bottle the kiwi wine and allow to stand for several months before drinking.

http://www.wine-making-guides.com/kiwi_wine.html

I guess I am a contrarian. Unless the pH of kiwi fruit is off the scale (close to 3.0 and heading south) then I would go for straight juice and avoid water. Here's my test: press some juice and dilute it with water. If it tastes like a rich fruit juice then ignore my post. If it tastes like water with a hint of fruit then that is what your wine will taste like. Me? If I am going to the bother of pressing fruit to make juice then I am not going to waste that effort and time by diluting the juice with water.

I grow the hardy kiwi variety and the plant will grow up to 100 lb of fruit in a year. I've heard the fuzzy's will do about the same when fully established so you may want to figure out what you will do with the fruit a head of time.

That being said I've made wine from both.
My basic recipe for the hardy kiwi (more practice and I don't have to buy) is:
1 gallon ziplock bag of frozen kiwi berry put in a mesh bag. Put in a 8 gallon ferment bucket and pour on 5-6 gallon of water. Mix in about 10 lb sugar. A couple of campden tablet and yeast nutrient. Next day put in rehydrated yeast, put on lid and shake the crap out of it. I put an airlock on almost right away. In about 5-7 days squeeze out the liquid out of the mesh bag. close lid and wait till gravity is down to about 1.00 or you can try cold crash a little higher so you don't need to back sweeten. Rack off the lees and wait about a month. Check again, if it suits you enjoy or let it mature a while longer.

I've also done some batches in a 55 gallon plastic drum that turned out great.

scarekrow said:

I grow the hardy kiwi variety and the plant will grow up to 100 lb of fruit in a year. I've heard the fuzzy's will do about the same when fully established so you may want to figure out what you will do with the fruit a head of time.

That being said I've made wine from both.
My basic recipe for the hardy kiwi (more practice and I don't have to buy) is:
1 gallon ziplock bag of frozen kiwi berry put in a mesh bag. Put in a 8 gallon ferment bucket and pour on 5-6 gallon of water. Mix in about 10 lb sugar. A couple of campden tablet and yeast nutrient. Next day put in rehydrated yeast, put on lid and shake the crap out of it. I put an airlock on almost right away. In about 5-7 days squeeze out the liquid out of the mesh bag. close lid and wait till gravity is down to about 1.00 or you can try cold crash a little higher so you don't need to back sweeten. Rack off the lees and wait about a month. Check again, if it suits you enjoy or let it mature a while longer.

I've also done some batches in a 55 gallon plastic drum that turned out great.

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Do you have record/notes of timing, temperature, brix level, ph level of each steps?
And what about pectin enzyme, wine nutrient and what’s the name of the yeast you used?