Why not press the fruit?

[Dave_E]

Hi Wine Makers,

Not until recently have a discovered a whole new world of wine that changed the way I look at “wine”. Other than buying a wine kit, or ordering frozen grapes from who knows when, or you have your own vineyard, grape winemaking is tough to do. My fledgling vineyard has a year or two yet before I’ll get the quantity of grapes required for even a token 5 gallon year.

So I’ve discovered fruit wines. Fresh fruit is always more desirable over juice, I get that. But what I don’t get is the YouTube videos out there that show the use of strainer bags for the fruit. We press grapes, why not press the fruit and do the same process as grape made wine? All I see when they lift the bag of fruit out of the fermenter and thrown away is all that fruit juice that could be press out! Why not put the fruit right in the fermenter like we do for grapes, then pour it right into the press (into a paint strainer mesh bag of course) after primary is complete, get the free run juice then press the rest? The serious hard cider guys press apples, why not peaches, pears, mangoes and others?

Dave

 

[Bobby_M]

People do but I suspect those casually making a batch or two of fruit wine can't justify spending a few hundred on a press.

 

[Raptor99]

When I lift the bag of fruit out of the primary bucket, I usually suspend it over the bucket for a hour two and then squeeze the heck out of it. I want to recover as much juice as possible. I have some large nylon mesh bags that I use to line my 5-gal fermenter buckets. When fermentation is mostly complete, I drain and press the bags.

Different types of fruit give up their juice more easily than others. With blackberries, I can squeeze the bag and get most of the juice, leaving very little pulp in the bag.. Peach wine is more stubborn, so I usually put the bag in my fruit press to press out the extra juice.

Smaller batches are pretty easy to squeeze out by hand, but for large batches it might be worth pressing the fruit, if you have a press.

 

[hungupdown]

The only two fruit wines I still do occasionally, are apple wine, and elderberry wine. Also do elderflower wine, with a medium-budget white wine kit base.
I used to do more. But, taking much longer to clear than kit wines, they tie up kit (and space) for longer.

Elderberry wine, which has lots of tannins, takes a minimum of one year, it improves greatly, with age. Last year, I bottled the last gallon of a 30 year old batch, for younger sons 30th. Five gallon was made, just before he was born.

Apples, I juice first, so little pulp gets in. But fermenting chopped/scarified fruit, then pressing after ferment, would probably achieve a much better yield.

With Elderberries, I break the skins with a potato masher, before adding liquid. After 5-7 days fermentation, I scoop the berries, now floating, out with a 7 inch sieve. Pressing each sieve full fairly dry, with a spoon.

 

[Agent]

I mean, that's youtuberz for you.

I'm currently working through a couple batches of Rhubarb wine right now. I squeeze the snot out of the sack and rinse the pulp a few times. Despite using 30lbs in a batch, I still want every tart juicy drop out of it.

A press would be nice, but most of us part-time winemakers just have to make due with what we have.

 

[Raptor99]

I have a small press, but it is kind of a pain to use. I put an eye bolt in a stud in the ceiling so that I could suspend the pulp bag over the bucket for an hour or two. Then I squeeze it out by hand. I can get a lot of the liquid out that way.