Volume of fruit and water

[>==°>]

Hello,

I am new to fruit winemaking and I wanted to experiment with a micro-batch (for one 0.75cl/25oz bottle, convinced by this article). I used a mason jar (a basic 1 quart jar) with some pineapples chunks.
After some fun US -> metric conversion, using Ekraus wine recipes quantities (from a 5 gallons US to a 75cl bottle), I ended up with 210gr of pineapples and 160gr sugar.
The issue is that after putting 60cl/20oz of water, my jar was full. I stopped there thinking I will top up once the primary will be done, after removing the pineapple. Now I am wondering if the 60cl/20oz was not too much actually. I guess the pineapple will release some juice that needs to be accounted for? Or on the contrary, I should just keep adding water and divide my batch in two 1 quart jar as the juice are negligible ?
Is there some general rule for the amount of water based on the kind of fruit or is it a bit of try/fail/repeat kind of way?

I plan to make bigger batches of a few gallons once the summer fruits are available but use micro-batch as a way to experiment homebrewing and not have to toss too much.

Thanks

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi >==< - and I hope I spelled your name correctly. Welcome. Most folk typically use about 3-4 lbs of fruit (about a scant 2kg) in about 1 US gallon of water. Some prefer a richer fruity flavor but as a start that quantity of fruit is not bad.

 

[>==°>]

Hi >==< - and I hope I spelled your name correctly. Welcome.

Almost but thanks

Most folk typically use about 3-4 lbs of fruit (about a scant 2kg) in about 1 US gallon of water. Some prefer a richer fruity flavor but as a start that quantity of fruit is not bad.

Thanks for confirming that.

Regarding the water, to produce 1 US Gallon of wine, do you use 1 Gallon of water? Sorry if it is a silly question but I am not sure how to account the juice of the fruit while it's still in small pieces in my fermenter.

 

[bernardsmith]

Technically, You want to focus less on the volume and more on the starting gravity. For wine, despite what many folk on Youtube seem to imagine, the sweet spot for fruit wines is around 1.090. My working assumption is that most fruit have the sugar equivalent to about 1.050 if you can press out enough juice to make a gallon of juice. If you are dealing with the fruit itself you need to have some way to estimate the volume of juice (about 14 -16 lbs of grapes will give you a gallon of juice). OK
Given that you are working with pineapple chunks and given the very small amount of fruit, I personally, would discount the sugars in the fruit and so I would simply add about 2 kg of sugar to a container and mix in enough water to create a gravity of 1.090 which is a TOTAL volume of about 1 US gallon (you are not adding 1 US gallon of water but enough water when added to the sugar to make a gallon)... BUT two points
1. Normally, when you rack you lose a quantity of wine to sediment and so if you begin with 1 gallon you may have 7 pints in your secondary and so now you need to find a way to remove that headspace. The "secret" is to begin with say 1.25 gallons and so you are adding at least 1 US gallon of water BUT the amount of sugar you need to begin with is going to be more than 2 kg.
2. - and this is obvious, perhaps, but if you are making nano-amounts of wine (1 L or a quart) then you need to base your measurements on those volumes but your focus should really be not so much on volumes but on starting gravities and on potential ABVs. (1.090 gives you , potentially, a wine of about 12% ABV., Using 3 - 4 lbs of fruit in each gallon will give you a flavorful wine. Using more fruit and less water will give you a richer flavored wine but some fruit juices DO need to be diluted with water to offset the acidity (cranberry, for example, or orange, in my opinion).

 

[>==°>]

I see. I did made a gravity measurement after mixing water + sugar + pineapple after 24h (just before adding the yeast) and it was only 1060. I assumed it was because the fruit did not released its sugar content yet and it was solely from the added sugar. With what you are saying, I have to add more sugar than that.

After how long can I assume the fruit has released it's juice/sugar content? I guess it obviously depends of the fruit and size of the pieces but are we talking in hours or days ?

 

[bernardsmith]

Good question, but I am sorry. I don't have a good answer except I would suggest that if you freeze the fruit and allow it to thaw before mixing it with water or if you have a method of juicing the fruit (either by pressing or with a juicer) then all the sugar will be released in that juice. (the freezing forms ice crystals in the fruit cells and those crystals puncture the cells and allow juice to flow relatively easily). If you simply mix the fruit with sugar and then add water and pitch the yeast it is going to take much longer for the yeast to get at the sugar in the fruit: water is a solvent but is not a great solvent.
All that said, if you have a refractometer and can squeeze a drop or two of the fruit juice onto the glass plate that will give you a very good idea of the sugar content of the fruit and I would use that together with a calculation of the starting gravity based on the sugar you are adding to calculate the nominal SG of your must. How long it takes for the sugars to be extracted from the fruit is then moot. You KNOW the total sugar content of your must and so you monitor it until the gravity hits 1.000 or lower when you know that there is no sugar left for the yeast to convert to alcohol.

 

[>==°>]

I followed your advice and did some adjustments today to focus on gravity. The gravity was down to 1054 (from 1060 two days ago). I added the remaining 100gr of pineapple I had in the freezer and 60gr of sugar and the gravity is now 1080. Looks way better. I had to split in two jars but I guess there is worse problems in the world than too much wine.