Apple Raspberry Ferment

By : Yogurt Hydro | 4 Comments | On : January 29, 2015 | Category : Alcohol, Fermentation, Food, Recipes

I don’t know about everyone else, but for me, I LOVE even just the scent of raspberries.
There are about a million (roughly, lol) wild raspberry bushes in my area. I pureed and froze a bunch in serving size bags last summer and today I used the last one!

There are also tonnes (and I don’t think I’m even exaggerating on this one) of apples growing locally that are not harvested…well, not until I moved here.:)

I also used the last of those.:\ Good thing spring is on the way!

I mixed up a small (2 gallon) ferment for the next wine with them. I can hardly wait for this one. The combination smells so alluring, and guess what? No ginger! LOL. I realize I normally use a ton of ginger, and I decided for once I’ll do a ferment without any. I almost gave in several times, but it’s put away fermenting now. I made it! LOL.

So, here’s what I did use and how I did it…

First, all the fruit was frozen. Frozen fruit gives a cleaner taste and adding frozen fruit to boiling water kills off any wild yeasts. Fruit should be frozen for at least 3 days to facilitate this.
The berries were pureed, and the apples were already cored, peeled and cut in wedges. (The scraps were used in ACV.)

I put some water in a pot to boil and added:
1 cup raspberries
3 cups apples, mixed varieties
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds
1 dried chilli pepper
20 peppercorns
1/2 tsp. sea salt
zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon

I brought it to a boil then let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then I used a potato masher to crush everything up.

While it was hot, I added:

2.5 cups brown sugar
7.5 cups white sugar

…and stirred it in. I added water to make it 2 gallons water total but didn’t strain the fruit yet.

I took a hydrometer reading of 1.10.

This is being left to sit overnight as is. Tomorrow, I’ll strain everything out and add a packet of yeast before letting it ferment.

UPDATES:

Day 2 and I’ve strained out the pulp and pitched my yeast. I mixed it well and divided it between 2 – 1 gallon jugs. I’ve covered the tops using cloth held on with elastic bands.

I’ll stir once or twice every day for the first few days. Once the hydrometer reads 1.03, I’ll rack it and replace the cloth covers with airlocks.

I can’t wait to try this one!

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