freezing and thawing fruits?

[spiffystump76]

So freezing and thawing your fruits release more flavor correct? and I want to freeze and thaw about 3 times? should I freeze and thaw things like orange peels and nuts? should things like apples and bananas be peeled or sliced open for better results?

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Freezing cracks and burst cell walls holding back juices, combined with pectic enzyme helps to extract more juice from the fruit for fermenting. Don't know about nuts but peel fruit if you can and really only need to freeze once in my opinion.

 

[Dan O]

Food, in general, should only be frozen once & thawed once. Exceptions would be if you had a frozen steak, thawed & cooked it, then refrozen....yuk!....as in maybe beef stew. Bacteria is a funny thing , one I would rather not temp when it comes to my meads. Honey isn't cheap.

 

[jtratcliff]

really only need to freeze once in my opinion.

I agree with this. During the initial freeze, the water inside the cells of the fruit will expand and burst the cell walls. Like they would also do if you were squishing them manually or running them through a juicer. Once that's done, there's no need for any more freeze/thaw cycles. The cell walls are already broken.

Small berries I freeze whole... large fruit I peel and cut into managable sizes before freezing.

I don't think you'll get the same benefit from freezing your nuts (Bazinga!) since the water content is much lower. Course chop or crush with rolling pin is probably the way to go here. Maybe one or two pulses in a food processor if you're doing a lot at once.

 

[InspectorJon]

We have a friend that owns an almond orchard. They gave us a big bag of shelled nuts once and told us to be sure and freeze them. We did not realize until to late that the freezing was to kill the moth eggs. It took years to eliminated those pesky moths from our kitchen.

 

[spiffystump76]

We have a friend that owns an almond orchard. They gave us a big bag of shelled nuts once and told us to be sure and freeze them. We did not realize until to late that the freezing was to kill the moth eggs. It took years to eliminated those pesky moths from our kitchen.

wow thanks for sharing that, I think there will be no eggs on these nuts as I go them from a vendor online and they are already shelled (pecans that is) but still I wonder if they would give better flavor if frozen and thawed I guess I can try it out if no one has had any experience with freezing nuts. Some replied to my Rye beer post about how it would be a bad idea to add pecans to my beer brew, they said the oils would mess with the fermentation, thoughts?

 

[spiffystump76]

, one I would rather not temp when it comes to my meads. Honey isn't cheap.

temp? like heat the honey up?

 

[Kyzaboy89]

temp? like heat the honey up?

I think he meant "tempt" he would rather not tempt when it comes to honey. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[jtratcliff]

wow thanks for sharing that, I think there will be no eggs on these nuts as I go them from a vendor online and they are already shelled (pecans that is) but still I wonder if they would give better flavor if frozen and thawed I guess I can try it out if no one has had any experience with freezing nuts. Some replied to my Rye beer post about how it would be a bad idea to add pecans to my beer brew, they said the oils would mess with the fermentation, thoughts?

Oils mess with head retention... I don't think they necessarily inhibit fermentation...

With mead you don't need to worry about getting head ...

(Freezing your nuts, now getting head .. what am I 12?)

I don't see freezing offering any benefit to the pecans, but I don't see it harming anything either.

Nuts just aren't the same as water filled fruit, so the purpose of freezing (breaking the cell walls to make more juice available to the yeast) doesn't really apply...

 

[Dan O]

temp? like heat the honey up?

Sorry...tempt...like....don't tempt the fate of your must

 

[Dan O]

I think he meant "tempt" he would rather not tempt when it comes to honey. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, you're right. Tempt. That's what I get for hitting send without proof reading my post

 

[Paul Swanson]

I'm both a winemaker and a brewer, but thought I would weigh in on the nuts. The issue with keeping the nuts is lipid oxidation. Stored for long periods @ room temp, they will get an "off", bitter flavor. I've found this is worse with oiler nuts (walnuts, macademia, brazil), and less so with pecans, almonds. We tend to buy nuts in bulk and then subdivide into 8 or 16 oz. packages, shrink wrap, and then pop in the freezer...I do the same with hops. I make lots of wine from small fruits in my yard (currants, raspberries), and tend to freeze everything before using. The trick to getting the max flavor and juice out is to dump frozen fruit in your primary, and then let thaw completely before adding boiling water, cover & cool. If I'm making a fruit beer, I'll decant the pulp off and add directly to the primary before pitching yeast. Anyway, enough advice & good luck

 

[spiffystump76]

I'll decant the pulp off and add directly to the primary before pitching yeast. Anyway, enough advice & good luck

why remove pulp? does it make it easier to siphon? do you just let the pulp settle to bottom and carefully pour?

 

[Paul Swanson]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. For winemaking I would leave the pulp in the primary fermentation in order to extract tannins and other goodies from the skins. I would also add pectinase to further break down the pulp, provide more fermentables, and make the residue more compact and easier to rack when primary is done. For fruit beer, I usually want only the flavor, aroma & acidity of the fruit in the juice, not the tannins. And as you pointed out, you wouldn't have to deal with the pulp (along with the hops) at the end of your primary. That being said, I would imagine there might be some new beer styles (eg. sour beers) where the tannins & other polyphenolics in the fruit skins might add to the "pucker". Probably depends on the kind of fruit. Happy experimenting!