Part 4. Extracting juice from fruits

Juice extraction is carried out in two stages. First, the fruits and berries are chopped, ground or crushed. At home, the fruits are crushed using a knife, shredder, grater, meat grinder or juicer. A large number of fruits are crushed and crushed using special crushers. And the finer we chop the fruits, the easier it will be to extract juice from them. The berries are usually crushed with a wooden pestle in an enamel or stainless steel pan or crushed using crushers. It is convenient to obtain juice using a meat grinder with a special attachment for separating juice.

Such crushed or crushed fruits, which are a mushy mass, are called pulp.

The second stage is the direct extraction of juice from the pulp.

Extracting juice from pulp is done using different methods. But they all come down to preparing the pulp and its subsequent pressing.

Preparation for pressing the pulp can be carried out in the following ways:

1 way

In the pulp of those fruits whose juice consistency is liquid (cherries, white and red currants), immediately after crushing, add water in the amount of 200-300 ml per 1 kg of pulp, mix and press to juice extraction. The amount of water added to the pulp is recorded in a diary (journal).

2 way

The pulp of those fruits that have a thick juice consistency (black currants, raspberries, chokeberries, blueberries, plums), to facilitate pressing and more complete extraction of juice, is heated before pressing at a temperature of 60⁰C for 30 minutes. Water heated to a temperature of 70⁰C is first added to the container with pulp at the rate of 300 ml of water per 1 kg of pulp. After heating, the pulp is pressed while hot. The amount of water added to the pulp is recorded in a diary(journal). The disadvantage of this method is the prolonged heating of processed products, during which some of the beneficial substances are lost.

3rd way

The third method is to ferment the pulp before pressing.

With this method, the pulp is poured into a container of appropriate size. Warm water is also added there at the rate of 250 ml of water per 1 kg of pulp and a four-day starter of wine yeast.

The amount of water added to the pulp is recorded in a diary (log).

The dishes are filled with pulp no more than 3/4 of the volume.

The pulp is mixed, the dishes are covered with a clean towel and left in a room with a temperature of about 20-22⁰C for fermentation, which should begin the next day.

The pulp released by carbon dioxide will rise upward, forming a cap over the wort. This cap of pulp must be stirred several times a day. If this is not done, the pulp may sour and all the wine will turn into vinegar.

After 2-3 days the pulp is pressed.

There is another way to extract juice from fruits - this is the method I use, but I will talk about it separately, in the My Wine section.