Fruit Wines
Fall Bright, The Winemakers Shoppe

Now that it's summer and you're thinking wine, how about making wine from the many fruits available throughout the summer: strawberries, peaches.... Let us help you with your fruit wines!  Most winemaking books will include a chart with recommendations for various fruits.  These charts indicate how much sugar, acid, and yeast nutrient to add per pound of fruit.  It is nice to have a guideline but please take them cautiously.  Approach fruit wine making with a basic understanding of the 2nd most important factors in winemaking: sugar and acid content of the juice.

          For instance in grapes with the many different varieties (30) that we handle, we see readings in acid and sugars vary widely.  The same will be true of say - strawberries, depending on variety and ripeness.  A chart in Enjoy Home Winemaking by Frishman, recommends adding 4.5 cups of sugar and 1 teaspoon of acid blend to 3.5 pounds of strawberries and water to make 1 gallon.  Without knowing the percentage of sugar in the fresh fruit/water combination and the resulting acid, how can one rely on a “recipe” to add sugar and acid?  In general winemaking we adjust acids up or down according to an acid (test kit) reading to around .7or.75(%) TA (total acidity).  For best results, take an acid reading on your fruit and water mix and adjust accordingly, slowly and retest.  One of our favorite winemakers adds half of what acid he calculates he needs and retest.

          Sugar will also vary.  It's easy to test for sugar, before fermenting, with a hydrometer.  This is an inexpensive but necessary tool.  If you add too much sugar, the yeast will ferment until the wine is too high in alcohol and too toxic to support yeast life.  This wine is hot to taste and could still be too sweet.  A normal reading for sugar in winemaking is around 21-23% or Brix.  Once you have your beginning sugar reading it is easy to calculate an increase.  We use corn sugar as it is a simple sugar, readily available as a yeast nutrient and it dissolves instantly.  Sucrose, if used, should be heated in your juice, as the acid and heat converts it to simple sugars.  If using honey instead of sugar, boil and skim to remove impurities.  To use your hydrometer, float it, weighted end down in a sample of juice in the clear plastic packing tube or in a hydrometer jar, and read it at the top.  The numbers will indicate the sugar percentage or balling (brix), or the potential alcohol, or the specific gravity depending on which scale you have and/or read.  Use our sugar chart to add the correct amount of sugar to adjust to 21-23 percent or calculate the amount needed by math.  Compute the increase in brix desired (i.e. 16 to 21=5).  Multiply the increase of brix desired (5) by the number of gallons to be adjusted (5x5 gallons =  25degrees).  As .125 pounds of sugar raises 1 gallon 1brix or degree (or percent), multiply this (25) by .125, which will equal the pounds of sugar to add to the entire batch of must or crushed fruit.  Three (3) cups of corn sugar is approximately 1 pound and 2 1/4 cups of cane sugar is about 1 pound.  Add the required sugar.

          These simple tests with proper adjustments will save you some strange experiences.  Keep notes!  All of your recipes should recommend the use of pectic enzyme.  This enzyme breaks down pectin, which in fruit wines causes a haze, plus it aids in the release of juices during pressing.  Cover any mashed fruits with clear plastic while sitting on pectic enzyme to reduce browning from air exposure (oxidation).

            Use quality fruit!  If your peaches have brown spots on them, your wine will taste oxidized from the start as the brown spots are oxidized!  If you are not using premium fruit, you will not make premium wines!

          We recommend the use of campden tablets (sodium or potassium metabisulfite) or potassium metabisulfite (in a pure powder form). These additives are antioxidant and antibacterial agents.  Oxidation in wine results in browning and off flavor.  As an antibacterial agent it prevents vinegar.  Yeast nutrient is necessary to balance the fruit nutrients for the use of wine yeast.  For fruit wines we encourage the use of Enovit, which is a yeast nutrient with added vitamins, etc.  For yeast, we like Red Star’s Cotes des Blanc yeast, which was previously known as Epernay 2.  This is a slow fermenting, weaker yeast and tends to stick, leaving a sweet wine.  For a sweet finish a nice starting brix or sugar is 23-24 percent (expressed as degrees).

If you don't want a sweet wine, adjust your sugar to around 21 or 22 percent and use Lalvin D-47 or 71B- 1112.  They have a less violent foaming fermentation and will help retain more of the fruitiness than Red Star Champagne or Montrachet yeast.  Lalvin EC 1118, KIV-1116 will ferment dry without excessive foaming, however the fruit may not be as intense as with the other Lalvin yeast mentioned.  Most of the older “recipes” for fruit wine call for Red Star Champagne yeast, as it was available.  Dare to change and use some of the Lalvin yeast or Red Star Cotes Des Blanc. 

If your wine is sweet and you are ready to bottle you may use pressure safe beer or champagne bottles, just incase some yeast is still alive.  If you want to bottle a sweet wine, see the page on bottling sweet.