Blackcurrant Wine from frozen fruit

[Scrattajack]

Hi all,

spouse has kindly offered me 3lb of blackcurrants from the freezer to make a gallon of wine. Would it be better to thaw them out before pouring the boiling water over them or can I just crack on?

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi all,

spouse has kindly offered me 3lb of blackcurrants from the freezer to make a gallon of wine. Would it be better to thaw them out before pouring the boiling water over them or can I just crack on?

I normally puree any frozen fruit killing of any wild yeast and breaking down the fruit in the process.

 

[Patrick_Newing]

Crack on with boiling water to thaw them out
I always use fruit from the freezer because of picking when its ripe and keep putting the picked fruit in the freezer until have enough to make wine.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

I always add a campden tablet and leave 24 hours for fruit and flower wine so frozen or not makes no difference. The boiling water to dissolve the sugar will melt the frozen fruit and the campden tablet annihilates any lurking wild yeast anyway.
Then I pitch next day. Love that time. Makes me feel like Victor Frankenstein lol

also if you get them a bit defrosted I like to mash that sort of thing a bit with a sterilised implement before bungIng in the campden tablet

 

[Scrattajack]

Nice one, thanks. All systems go tomorrow morning.

 

[Scrattajack]

Well, it's in the bucket. Smells good!

The recipes I've looked at quite often include an acid addition. I always thought that blackcurrant wine was naturally acidic enough, in fact often too much so. What do others do?

 

[Patrick_Newing]

I didnt add any, it turned out quite nice and dont think it missed it. But I didnt bother checking the acidity either to see if it needed to be adjusted.

Just checking my recipe, made 29 bottles in the end from 6kg of fruit and some red grape juice concentrate, used Lalvin 71B yeast, added potassium sorbate and campden tablets with 100g sugar before bottling.

 

[Scrattajack]

fruit and some red grape juice concentrate, used Lalvin 71B yeast, added potassium sorbate and campden tablets with 100g sugar

Thanks. Did it not need any tannin?

 

[Patrick_Newing]

No tannin either!
I've only made it once so not sure if it would be better with tannin. I wouldn't think so though.

 

[johncrobinson]

Freezing fresh fruit is simply the best way to extract unlike boiling which can lead to cooked flavours

 

[Scrattajack]

Freezing fresh fruit is simply the best way to extract unlike boiling which can lead to cooked flavours

Spouse has freed up another 3lbs from her freezer stash so I'll do the next batch without any boiling water. To be honest, the boiling water on the last lot only served to defrost it a bit quicker.

 

[Scrattajack]

It's time to strain it off the pulp tomorrow. The plan is to try for a light table wine with the remains and some supermarket grape juice. Is it worth the bother?

 

[Patrick_Newing]

Might be worth a go to make a light 'rose' with additions of white grape juice / concentrate, sultanas, somethingvlike that.
I've not done it, sounds like a nice experiment to try.
I think the blackcurrants would give colour still, no idea how it would taste!
Love to hear how it turns out if you do it.

 

[Scrattajack]

The original is now in demijohn and fermenting well, SG was 1018 at transfer.

The local shop didn't have any white grape juice so my remaining litre of red went over the pulp along with some sugar syrup and yeast nutrient. No tannin. Fermentation started almost immediately. Looking good so far...