How Much Sugar Is In Fruit?

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

After spending $130 on 2 cartons of vodka cruisers for SWMBO last weekend, I'm seriously tempted to brew a couple of strong fruity drinks. Have done a search on the forum, found a couple of informative threads on girly drinks and fruit beers, and have thought about making a hard lemonade (as a base brew) with a recipie off the net.

The recipie:

2KG Dext
800g Lactose
24 whole lemons (more or less for your flavour) chopped finely peel and all
50g grated ginger (I will leave this out)
Yeast nutrient
US-05
Top up to 22Litres

Considering all the girly drinks are berry/fruit flavoured have been thinking of racking the drink onto a reduced berry/fruit & sugar syrup (aiming for the fruit or berry to be the final taste)

The Syrup
1Kg mixed berries, cover with water, simmer and reduce to syrup, strain pulp.


Being a complete guess here, would the sugar from the fruit be enough for bulk priming? My goal is for the berry/fruit flavour to nearly over-power the lemonade flavour without any nasty flavours from primary fermentation you could get from the fermentation of other fruits.

Am i on a winner??

 

[daemon]

There's plenty of sugar in fruit but the problem is going to be the residual sugar and therefore the sweetness overall. Berries etc end up adding a very tart flavour which is nice in some styles of beer but I doubt it'll help to make a UDL type lolly water. Even with 800g of Lactose I'm not sure how sweet it'll be.

You'd be better off buying a bottle of vodka and adding soft drink / cordial / lemon / lime / bitters etc, it'll taste better and far less hassle. This is all the UDL can is anyway, the difference is you're just paying Krudd a big premium for someone else to mix it.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

the difference is you're just paying Krudd a big premium for someone else to mix it.

Well i thought that homebrewing (apart from being a craft) was a way to make a nice drink without that hefty premium.....

 

[manticle]

I would have a go. You could try using potassium sorbate to stop fermentation when it's sweet enough. Not something I've used though so I can't tell you much more. Do you keg or bottle?

If it does end up tart, keep some syrup aside and mix into the glass or backsweeten with more lactose. Nothing ventured, nothing gained etc.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

I would have a go. You could try using potassium sorbate to stop fermentation when it's sweet enough. Not something I've used though so I can't tell you much more. Do you keg or bottle?

If it does end up tart, keep some syrup aside and mix into the glass or backsweeten with more lactose. Nothing ventured, nothing gained etc.

Due to funds, I only Bottle
This is work in progress. I dont expect to give SWMBO the first glass and have her say "this is the best drink in the world, lets have ***" (would be nice though) but after the 3rd or 4th brew i would like to hit the nail on the head and try with different fruits to give the different flavours.

will keep the potassium sorbate idea in my mind, but i thought the idea of using lactose would eliminate the need for it, but like i said its work in progress.

 

[manticle]

Try it without the PS first. The less additives, the better

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

After spending $130 on 2 cartons of vodka cruisers for SWMBO last weekend, I'm seriously tempted to brew a couple of strong fruity drinks. Have done a search on the forum, found a couple of informative threads on girly drinks and fruit beers, and have thought about making a hard lemonade (as a base brew) with a recipie off the net.

The recipie:

2KG Dext
800g Lactose
24 whole lemons (more or less for your flavour) chopped finely peel and all
50g grated ginger (I will leave this out)
Yeast nutrient
US-05
Top up to 22Litres

Considering all the girly drinks are berry/fruit flavoured have been thinking of racking the drink onto a reduced berry/fruit & sugar syrup (aiming for the fruit or berry to be the final taste)

The Syrup
1Kg mixed berries, cover with water, simmer and reduce to syrup, strain pulp.


Being a complete guess here, would the sugar from the fruit be enough for bulk priming? My goal is for the berry/fruit flavour to nearly over-power the lemonade flavour without any nasty flavours from primary fermentation you could get from the fermentation of other fruits.

Am i on a winner??

Hey all, just to let u guys know whom have read this thread. Having a bottle now (bottled 4/7), and so is swmbo.......... Joving it! although a little over carbed, very nice. made a few drunken changes to the recipie (and wrote it down aswell!!!!) during fermentation:

Reduced 3KG's White sugar, 1kg of mixed berries 1x bottle of "playful Passion" Flavour Burst RTD Concentrate (I think this is the bread winner IMHO) and 100ml water in a saucepan, strained through a sterilised funnel into 2 sterilised 1.5L Coke Bottles (lemonade and fanta bottles work just as well too ) and into the fridge until cold. When cold dumped the whole lot into the already 1010FG mix and stirred the FU*K out of it with a steriolised spoon and added another packet of US-05 ONLY and put the lid on the fermenter. Left for another week and put in the fridge for a further week to clear out - will not do again.... still looks like im drinking cloudy ammonia..... LOL.

she still ended back up at 1010, tasted ********* on week 1 (I couldnt help myself) but now i'm more than impressed! will be doing this exactly the same but with "Blueberry Blitz" Flavour Burst RTD Concentrate instead.

If anyone decides to make this, please dont save all the 255ML cruiser bottle after SWMBO drinks them like i did cos u'll be up till 2am sterilising and bottling the little MF'ers!

_wallace_

 

[Wolfy]

Am i on a winner??

Not according to my mrs, it would still be "beer" and she'd still not drink it.
Almost got her into cider, just need to make it a bit sweeter, so it does not taste like "beer", and she does drink mead, but again it has to be sweet, so that's a bit of a struggle.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Not according to my mrs, it would still be "beer" and she'd still not drink it.
Almost got her into cider, just need to make it a bit sweeter, so it does not taste like "beer", and she does drink mead, but again it has to be sweet, so that's a bit of a struggle.

wolfy, before this brew i have never used lactose in anything. Maybe give a bit of lactose a go next time u do a cider? My missus is the same! The first thing she asked was "will it taste like beer?". So now i have to buy another couple of fermenters so i can keep her happy(er ) now.

 

[crozdog]

To answer your original question, if you google for Artisan Distilling Berglund PDF you will find a table in the downloaded pdf with the details on fruit sugar content.

Forgot to say, for a less "beer" like product try a wine yeast instead of the us05

 

[barls]

for a sweeter style try ether the sweet mead yeast from ether whitelabs or wyeast or maybe even d47 or the such which is a wine yeast.