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Crazy for Cranberries

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Tsuchi

NewBee
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Nov 28, 2004
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I have a plan... Involving a 1kg bag of cranberries, honey, yeast and a six gallon jar.... But as a bit of a ba-bee I'm wondering if there's a way to estimate how much sugars a given fruit may add to the must so that I can take that into consideration when making... What I'd ideally like to happen with this my third batch is to choose a yeast that with give up its go when I want it to so that enough residual sugars are left to balance the tart and tang that are fresh cranberries.

Other than that I'm wondering if I should slice, dice, halve, crush or otherwise mutilate in a blender prior to adding to the must or should i chuck them in whole?
 

Whteknght

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Jun 25, 2004
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I don't know how to estimate the sugars, I just use the hydrometer after I add all the ingredients in. Seeping the berries in 150-165 degree water should release the sugars.

Personally, I am current working with using dried cranberries to see what I come up with. Wish me luck.
 

Tsuchi

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Dried Cranberries would probably work ok im just going for the whole food thing... I've also found that things like crazins have sooo much other sugar added plus they coat them with oil and other junk to make them look good so i would have to find the real deal first before I'd get to gung hoe about them. Other than that I have noticed it took about a day or two on the batchs of mel's ive made before the hydrometer spikes at the highest reading but ... im confused as how to calculate that because the yeasts are producing alcohol at the same time the sg's going up so it's just guess work as to how high it was really
 

Whteknght

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Jun 25, 2004
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Try this: When you make a new batch, seal off the must with an airlock for the first 24 hours. It gives the sugars time come out of the fruit. Take the hydrometer reading, and then pitch the yeast. I've done this with most of my melomels, and as long as I sterilize everything prior to making the must, I tend not to have any problems with wild yeast.

Just a thought on getting more accurate readings.
 

JamesP

Senior Member
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Dec 3, 2003
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A data table I grabbed from somewhere lists cranberries at 7.5 Brix.

I think that means it would produce approx 7.5% Alc if the fruit was fermented by itself with no honey added.

So if you normally add 12 lbs honey in 5 gal, and you are going to be adding 6 lbs cranberries, then you would need 9 lbs rather than 12 lbs of honey to get the equivalent.

Note: this is theory not practice.
 

Jmattioli

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
JamesP said:
A data table I grabbed from somewhere lists cranberries at 7.5 Brix.

I think that means it would produce approx 7.5% Alc if the fruit was fermented by itself with no honey added.

(snip)
Note: this is theory not practice.
A small correction,
Actually 7.5 Brix means 7.5% sugar in solution. It translates to ~4.% PA. You can confirm this by looking at the scales on your hydrometer or using .5% PA per each Brix as a rough translation. It is not linear, so that works only up to a BRix of 20 and then it gets off by more than .6% PA.

Cheers,
Joe
 

Pewter_of_Deodar

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Sep 23, 2004
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Ok, I'm confused... (which isn't hard to cause) :eek:

Isn't the end result going to be based on the amount of fruit used (whether cranberries or something else), not just the Brix of that particular fruit. To be extreme, I wouldn't expect 4% ABV if I only put in one cranberry...

So what is the way to calculate the sugar concentration towards the SG contributed by a certain amount/volume of fruit to a certain sized batch? Just asking since melomels are next in my list of batches to start...

Thanks in advance,
Pewter
 

Jmattioli

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Pewter_of_Deodar said:
Ok, I'm confused... (which isn't hard to cause) :eek:

Isn't the end result going to be based on the amount of fruit used (whether cranberries or something else), not just the Brix of that particular fruit. To be extreme, I wouldn't expect 4% ABV if I only put in one cranberry...
Yes

So what is the way to calculate the sugar concentration towards the SG contributed by a certain amount/volume of fruit to a certain sized batch? Just asking since melomels are next in my list of batches to start...

Thanks in advance,
Pewter
Use your hydrometer and keep good notes for future batches. It is very difficult to calculate because the sugar content is not the same per pound season to season and field to field just like grapes. Too many variables. I was just correcting a conversion James had mentioned above. I was not recommending you calculate it. Measure and then adjust as others in this thread have suggested.
Joe
 

Tsuchi

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Nov 28, 2004
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So... What I'm getting from this is to get a good read I should give them a day of so to break down and give up their sugars as its nigh impossible to really guess at this point. Then test... then add enough honey to sweeten up to my must.... so just thinking about it my plan would be to:

1-Sterilize like my mead depends on it
2-diced 1 kg cran
3-add h20 to 3 gal
4-let it sit 24-48
5-test
6-Calc honey Apx 0.0016 pts per pound : 1 gallon honey added
or 0.009 pts for 6 gal total (some one else's numbers I jotted down in my log)
7-Add Honey and water
8-Check And see how good my math is...aka test again
9-start and pitch yeast
10- let the mead/mel god(esses) do thier work


Anything i missed? messed up or mangled
 

Jmattioli

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Tsuchi said:
(snip)

6-Calc honey Apx 0.0016 pts per pound : 1 gallon honey added
or 0.009 pts for 6 gal total (some one else's numbers I jotted down in my log)

Anything i missed? messed up or mangled
#6 Mangled. Each pound of honey in one gallon will add approximately 40 (to 45) gravity points to water expressed as an addition of .040 to water 1.000 = 1.040
One gallon honey = approximately 12lb (11.75)
Your 1 gallon of honey in 6 gallons would add 2 X 40 =80 (to 90) gravity points depending on honey sweetness for a total SG of 1.080 without the berries.
Got it.
Joe
 

Tsuchi

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EEEep! I must have gallons on the brain ... I know I was thinking Lbs honey per gal h20 and then lbs per 6 gal h2o .... I tend to get a bit muddled around with all these funny imperial things... I'm just a simple canadian i like measures that devide nicly into hundreths ( sheepishly )
 

Talon

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Jul 8, 2004
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It's okay... Math is one of them new fangled cloogey sciences these days... *grins*
 
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