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OT?: Winemaking
Janet Galpin wrote: The message .com from "Mike Lyle" contains these words: Larry Stoter wrote: [...] Mixed summer fruits works well, too - basically, anything that is around, boil it all up and add sugar to get the OG right. You do need a proper wine yeast. I'd never boil, though: for my taste, it spoils the flavour. I've never bothered with measuring OG, either: I just work on the principle that every quarter-pound of sugar in a gallon, if fermented right out, raises the alcohol by [[WRONG]] 1%. [[WRONG]] So for most fruits, [[WRONG]] three pounds or so [[WRONG]], added in two or three stages, plus some grape juice or concentrate, is about right. Will soaked raisins do as well as grape juice? Yes, but they have a characteristic flavour, which you may not want in ordinary wines, though it can be nice in a stronger dessert one. Sultanas may be a better everyday choice: more expensive ones are usually better, I'm afraid. A p.i.t.b. is that dried fruit is often lightly treated with preservative or liquid paraffin or both: a swish round in boiling water should get rid well enough. Once soaked, they need to be broken up: squdging with clean hands or a potato masher will do it. And _please_ note that my remark above about sugar is a bad bloomer. As David points out, you get 1.5% for each quarter of a pound of white sugar. For 12%, 2 lb sugar. Of course, you're doing well if you achieve that (and the theoretical maximum is a little higher). In a book, I've scribbled that sultanas and raisins contain between 50 and 75% sugar; so an average to work by is about 60%. Allow for that when adding sugar; but I really don't think precision is necessary. In the real world you won't get all the sugar out of the dried fruit anyway. -- Mike. |
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