Fermenting fresh fruit salads...collected over a few weeks..

[Fidget]

So imagine that you have a steady supply of fruit salad, each day you get enough to fill a one person desert bowl, not enough for a full meal but a fair portion.

If these are collected up over a period of a few weeks it would start amounting to a quantity worth fermenting.

So the dilemma is, what to do with the stuff on hand now, so that it's still good fruity sugar to use in 4 weeks time once enough has been collected to combine it all and run a couple of gallon brew, to make a mixed fruit wine.


Long term this wi could eventually be stilled up into a to brandy of course....but mean while - any tips? Can I freeze each day until I have sufficient kilos or should I just start fermenting and adding to a single pot every day, like a Dunder pit ...then eventually on day boil and cool and pitch? I'm guessing that idea would just rot


Nb these salads are an ad hoc mix of grapes, Mellon, pineapple, strawberries, kiwis, sometimes some small citrus like clementine,....

[LBHD]

Lots of people freeze fruit prior to fermentation anyhow to bust up the cell walls a bit.

My vote would be to freeze it until you get enough to ferment, then thaw, blend, add some campden tablets, wait a couple days, then add yeast

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

Maybe have a bucket in the freezer. Every day add to it. When you have enough just defrost, blend and pitch yeast. Might pay to check the SG. Might need to add some water. Shouldn't be any need for campden tabs.

[cranky]

I do that every year. I accumulate fruit and freeze or juice then freeze the juice, eventually I get enough to make wine or brandy. I often have small leftover amounts of various fruits which usually comes to about 5 gallons worth by April and I just throw it all together and do mixed fruit. I never use compten some people do for wine but recommend not doing it for stilling. Sounds like eventually you could cet plenty together for a nice brandy but wine can be good too, you might think about taking the citrus out though.

[Bushman]

I did something similar as we have a juicer and I was freezing all the pulp from the fruit we were making. My problem is I went north to Canada fishing and brought back around 200 lbs of salmon so I had to dump it to make freezer space. Never got enough to ferment to see how it would work.

[T-Pee]

Good tradeoff, Bushman!

tp

[cranky]

I did something similar as we have a juicer and I was freezing all the pulp from the fruit we were making. My problem is I went north to Canada fishing and brought back around 200 lbs of salmon so I had to dump it to make freezer space. Never got enough to ferment to see how it would work.

Obviously a second freezer is in order or maybe a fish smoker Actually I probably would have done the same.

[Fidget]

I did something similar as we have a juicer and I was freezing all the pulp from the fruit we were making. My problem is I went north to Canada fishing and brought back around 200 lbs of salmon so I had to dump it to make freezer space. Never got enough to ferment to see how it would work.

Obviously a second freezer is in order or maybe a fish smoker Actually I probably would have done the same.

Fish vs spirit is one contest....fish vs crappy fruits...no contest!

Thanks for the tips all...going to keep building up this stock pile.

[yakattack]

I did something similar as we have a juicer and I was freezing all the pulp from the fruit we were making. My problem is I went north to Canada fishing and brought back around 200 lbs of salmon so I had to dump it to make freezer space. Never got enough to ferment to see how it would work.

How did you manage to get 200 lbs of salmon? Which coast or were you fishing the great lakes. I fish for salmon and rainbow trout every spring and fall here, so I'm very curious how you were able to procure such a large harvest..

[cranky]

How did you manage to get 200 lbs of salmon? Which coast or were you fishing the great lakes. I fish for salmon and rainbow trout every spring and fall here, so I'm very curious how you were able to procure such a large harvest..

When I was in Alaska I once threw back a 25 pound king salmon because it was too small. Where I was fishing you were only allowed to keep one a day so I wouldn't keep anything less than 40LBS. It's not that hard to get 200LBS with fish that big.

[yakattack]

How did you manage to get 200 lbs of salmon? Which coast or were you fishing the great lakes. I fish for salmon and rainbow trout every spring and fall here, so I'm very curious how you were able to procure such a large harvest..

When I was in Alaska I once threw back a 25 pound king salmon because it was too small. Where I was fishing you were only allowed to keep one a day so I wouldn't keep anything less than 40LBS. It's not that hard to get 200LBS with fish that big.

Were you of the coast of BC?

I know here in Ontario its possession limit not daily catch limit. I'm not sure of how bc's fisheries are set up so I can't and won't cry foul there. Glad to see another fisher on here as well. What kind of fishing were you doing? Deep or stream / river while they were running? I'm strictly s river Fisher myself for them.

[Fidget]

Ready!

Now have Loads of frozen fruit salad, already in chunks, assume I cannot blender it frozen and must it thaw out first?

I assume to just add it's own weight in water roughly?

I'm not adding sugar, want this to be pure fruit.

I have champaign yeast and cider yeast, maybe use a mix of both.?



The fruit is a mix of

Pear
Sweet melons
Grapes
Pineapple
Strawberries
Kiwi
Apple



No citrus!

[cranky]

sounds like the mixed fruit I did last spring. My personal thought is if possible thaw and press, but I have a small fruit press which makes it easy to say, if not I would thaw and use my immersion blender or a sharpened paint mixer to pulverize the fruit, add enough water (or maybe apple juice) to cover and then strain after fermenting.

[LBHD]

Unexpert opinion here, but I blended up canned peaches with an immersion blender, and i was able to strain it out with some bags after fermentation pretty easily in the grand scheme of things. Strained once into carboys, and cold crashed 2 days, was able to rack off 90% of volume

I think you ought to be able to do it without a press.

[NZChris]

I smash frozens with a 2*4, ferment on the pulp, then press. I have a basket that fits in my still that would keep the pulp off the elements if I wanted, but I haven't used it with fruit yet.

[cranky]

Unexpert opinion here, but I blended up canned peaches with an immersion blender, and i was able to strain it out with some bags after fermentation pretty easily in the grand scheme of things. Strained once into carboys, and cold crashed 2 days, was able to rack off 90% of volume

I think you ought to be able to do it without a press.

My wife decided to try to help me with blackberries by using an immersion blender once and it made the pulp so fine and thick it was a real pain to strain out.