this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider
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Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine
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Nice setup!
My neighbour just got too large grapes crop this year and I took some (about a month ago). Juiced them (never tried this before), the juice was 1040, bumped it with honey to 1120 or so, pitched mead yeast, thus now I'm running a similar experiment!
This brew is only about the fruit. The beer is just simple decoction with Pilsen and Münich malts (~50/50) and just SAAZ hops, I call it leftover ALE just what was left from other brews. After I added the juice it got to 1045 OG so it isn't even that strong.
It is bit strange right now for me because I got new hydrometer that is calibrated to density, but until now I mainly used °Bx/°P units and even got portable refractometer with both units so something I measured in one and some with other... The juice was ~15°Bx
Edit: I mean infusion not decoction
Refractometers start to be really off once you have fruit juice and ongoing fermentation. I use mine only to see if reading is changing over time, absolute value is easily off by 20-30 g/L
I know, it is really handy for checking OG then it gets skewed by alcohol. For bottling I use my hydrometer to be sure, I just don't want bombs.
When you measure often you can correct it, but for me it isn't worth it.