Calculating volume?

[inchrisin]

I'm still fairly new to wine, but not to fermentation. The hang up I'm having is calculating the batch volume based on how many pounds of fruit and water you put into the fermenter.

Is there a good way to guess how much liquid volume a particular fruit will contribute to the batch volume?

I made a cherry wine and the cherries added very little liquid.
I made a plum wine and I ended up with 30% more wine than I expected.

 

[SmiTe]

that is entirely variable on each fruit and each fruits growing conditions/ ripeness. the best way to figure that out IMO would be to weigh a volume and press/juice them to get the percent liquid of your berry and go from there. You can google the dietary information of the starting berry, should be able to get a rough average for sugars and water.

 

[Yooper]

For me, it's not so much how much liquid the fruit gives, as it's usually a small amount. But it's about the balance of the wine.

What I mean is that most fruits other than grapes have acidity that usually needs some water added, and usually they don't have enough sugar in them to ferment so sugar is added to ferment them.

Some fruits, like crabapples, are light so I use 6 pounds per gallon, topping up to a gallon with water. Some fruits, like raspberries, are very acidic so I use 3 pounds per gallon, and then topping up with water to a gallon. Once the fruit is fermented, it gets much softer (and I generally freeze most fruits first so they break up easier) and I squeeze the bag of fruit and press on it when I stir it several times a day when it's in primary.

 

[inchrisin]

Is it better to guess before adding the yeast? I could see it being beneficial to making a strong wine and backing it down with water.

 

[Yooper]

Is it better to guess before adding the yeast? I could see it being beneficial to making a strong wine and backing it down with water.

You don't normally want to water it down later, as a higher alcohol wine (via a higher sugar starting amount) can stress the yeast.

You want to start with an OG of 1.085-1.100 for wine. Whatever sugar amount you need to add to get there is the correct amount.

 

[podz]

I just made a raspberry wine with my fruit in a mesh bag. I used 7.5 kg of raspberries and found that if you get the water mark up to 26 liters in your fermenter, including displacement by the bag of fruit, then that is enough to top up a 20 liter demijohn for secondary. Removing the bag of spent fruit will drop the volume by 4 liters. The yeast cake at the bottom and the hydrometer samples you will have taken during primary will have removed another 2 liters. So you will be left with pretty much exactly enough to fill a 20 liter demijohn right up to the neck.

 

[inchrisin]

You don't normally want to water it down later, as a higher alcohol wine (via a higher sugar starting amount) can stress the yeast.

You want to start with an OG of 1.085-1.100 for wine. Whatever sugar amount you need to add to get there is the correct amount.

Volume be damned. I like this!