Fruit Wine Making 101

By Joe Real

Festival Of Fruit. Pitahaya

August 14, 2010
 Why Make Fruit Wine?
• Fermented food is generally good for you
• Abundance of Fruits: To Preserve
• We simply love wine
• Unique Flavor and Aroma not found
anywhere else
• Other reasons …
 History
• Predates mankind, as old as plants.
• Animals have been making wine
• Independently Developed all over the world
• Fruit Wines First, before grape wines
• Wines of Today
• Future Wines, LLC.
Pen-tailed Tree Shrew
Primate forefather
55 Million Years ago
Doesn’t get tipsy
Several times legal

Bertram Palm
Inflorescence
 Biblical and Cultural
• First Miracle Sign: Jesus Turns Water Into
Wine [John 2:1-11]
• 1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water,
and use a little wine because of your
stomach and your frequent illnesses.
• Other religious ceremony
 Wine = Grape Wines
• More than 9,000 years of grape wine making
• Why grapes is the number 1 fruit produced
• US: 5,800 Wineries purely grape wines
• Less than 100 produces non-grape wines
• Fruit wine making relegated to the hobby.
• At least one winery in every state are making
fruit wines.
Fruit Winemaking 101
Fruit + Yeast, Time = Wine
Sugars = Carbon Dioxide + Alcohol
1. Fruit Preparation
2. Crushing Fruits
3. Additives 1: Sterilization, Enzymatic reaction
4. Additives 2: Sugar and Nutrients
5. Yeast Fermentation
6. Decanting/Racking off of sediments
7. Additives 3: Fining, Wine Balance
8. Bottling, bulk storage
9. Aging and the journey of wine
10. Sharing: Wine Tasting, Competitions
11. Experimentation
Fruit Preparation
 Crushing Fruits
• Pressing
• By Hand
• By Foot
• Slicing, Dicing
• Grinding, Blending
• Juicing
 Additives: Enzymatic Reaction
Acids: According to Fruit Types: 1 tsp/gallon
• Tartaric Acid: Grapes
• Malic Acid: Pomes and Stones
• Citric Acid: Citrus, Berries
• Acid Blend: Unknown Fruit Types

Enzymes: Pectinases 1 tsp/gallon

• Increases wine yield
• Breaks down cell walls
• Release flavors
• Removes wine haze

Amylases: 1/4 tsp/gal to Break down starchy compounds

2 Campden Tablets (K-Metabisulfite)

Overnight Enzymatic Reaction, up to 72 hrs max!

• Pectic Enzyme
• 80% activity at 80 deg F
• 100% activity at 113 deg F
• Degrades at 131 deg F
• optimum pH at 4.5
• Works best in low sugar concentration
• Different kinds depending on sources
• 0.1% is the highest recommended level
for maximum reaction
• Maintain sterile conditions
Sugars
Brix target: 22 – 25, PA : 12% - 14%
White Sugar for neutral flavor effect
To increase brix use rough estimate:
Add 0.125 lb sugar/gal per 1° increase
Biological stability: >10.8% ABV, brix>19.5 °

Yeast Nutrients
• Diammonium Phosphate
• Nutravit
• Fermaid
• Others
Joe Real’a unpublished personal equations:
S.G. = 1 + 0.0037528*Brix + 0.00001684*Brix^2 +
0.0002796*Sqrt(Brix)
PA (% ABV)= 0.5251*Brix*S.G.
Std. Error = +/- 0.00004, R-sqr = 99.999959%

Or simply use: 0.125 lb sugar/gal per 1° increase

Refractometer for measuring Brix.
Automatic Temperature Compensation (ATC)
Excellent, just use drops of juices
Measure after enzymatic reaction step
Triple Scale Hydrometer
• Brix Reading
• Potential Alcohol (PA)
• Specific Gravity
 Yeasts
• Lalvin EC-1118 (Prise de Mousse), Premiere Cuvee: Neutral,
all around, dry, high brix, excellent for first-time untried fruits, fermenting
with skin on and heavy pulps, restarting stuck fermentation.
• Lalvin ICV-D47 (Côtes-du-Rhône): non-grape whites -
persimmon, peach, nectarine, paw-paw, mead, and mango, as well as
aromatic wines such as rose petal, elderflower, anise and lemongrass.
• Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin): non-grape reds - maximizes color
extraction – dark plums, cherries, prickly pear cactus fruit, pomegranates
and various berries (black/blue/rasp/drew/mul/marion -berries).
• Flor Sherry – Sherry and Port style wines.

Add 2 - 4 hours if sugar was added and if fermenting with pulps and skin.
Primary to Secondary Fermenter
Racking almost every month
Compost, reuse, or supplement
Some Secrets Just Before Bottling
Balance of Alcohol, Sweetness, Acids while accentuating Fruit Flavor

Alcohol: Higher alcohol wines are "hot" but are excellently balanced with
sweetness. Increase by adding brandy for fruit styles, vodka and gin to citrus wines.
Secret to wine stability: at least 10.8% ABV

Sweetness: Table Sugars, Honey, other syrup, Zero Calorie Sweeteners, Inverted
Sugars. Beware of non-fermentable sugar content, other microorganisms can ferment
them: Brettanomyces

Secrets of Food Grade Acids

Grapes: Tartaric acid, for judges unfamiliar with fruit wines
Rose family - Pomes and Stones: Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Nectarine: Malic acid
Citruses and Berries: Citric Acid
Acid Blend: Playing it safe with first-time fruits.
Your own blend: Prepare samples and taste each acid.

Balance: Very sweet syrupy wines becomes outstanding with the addition of
appropriate acids.
 Basic Internet Wine Recipe: watered down version
• 3 lbs of fruit, 2 lbs of sugar, 1 gal water
• 1 tsp each: acid blend, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme
• Good tasting light fruit wine

Joe Real’s Top Award Winning Wine Recipe

• 2 - 4 lbs of fruit per bottle of wine.
• Appropriate acids, timing of enzymes
• Post fermentation balance adjustments

Most Important Secret

 DON’T GET DRUNK!

Take time to Appreciate the Flavor and Aroma

Drink in Moderation.