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Fantastical

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I've been home brewing for a while and now swmbo got into a wine kit and I had the idea to make some fruit wines. In the okanagan here fruit is incredibly plentiful.

Anyways... Do you have to boil the fruit mixture (wort?) in order to sterilize it?
 
No. Boiling fruit will most likley set the pectin in the fruit making the wine hazy. I freeze my fruit to burst the cell walls in the fruit and aid juice extraction, then campden tablets(1 per gallon) for 24 hours to kill any wild yeasts or other bugs and add the good yeast and wait. wine takes a long time compared to beer.
Hope this helps:mug:

What kind of fruit do you have?
 
Everything you can think of! I'm thinking that I will do peach, pear and maybe blackberry if I end up going to my girlfriend's parents house on the coast by the end of the summer.

So those campden tablets don't harm the yeast at all? What kind of fruit to water ratio should I aim for?
 
Fantastical said:
So those campden tablets don't harm the yeast at all? What kind of fruit to water ratio should I aim for?
Click to expand...

They harm added yeasts slightly, but natural occurring yeasts are much more affected.

Depends on what kind of SG you're looking for (sorry for not being more helpful, don't do much fruit wines).
 
Fantastical said:
So those campden tablets don't harm the yeast at all? What kind of fruit to water ratio should I aim for?
Click to expand...

No the campden won't harm your wine yeast. It will dissapate over time. Thats why you want to wait 24 hours before pitching your yeast.
I use about 4 lbs of fruit for every gallon of wine that I want to end up with. I wish I could be more help but I kinda guess at the actual water I use.
 
I have a few recipes posted, to give you an idea of the amount of fruit to use in a batch. For many berries, 3-4 pounds a gallon is fine but for crabapple wine I use about 6 pounds per gallon.
 
I highly suggest a weaker Perry if you have fresh pears available. Make it about 6% - it'll ferment out dry - and age it for 6 months, and it'll be absolutely delicious.
 

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