DRIED FRUIT/WINE?

[spitfire]

i got one of those dried fruit and nut things as a gift in the summer, it has dried apricots, kiwi's etc in it. could i use the dried fruit and try to make some wine ? or failing that jam? i don't like to eat the dried fruit and don't want to waste it ps. i have never made wine or jam before

[MKG]

You keep coming up with these, Spitfire

Dried fruit is fruit - simple as that. So, of course, you can do anything with it that you could do with any other fruit. You can make wine and jam from dried fruit.

However, you need to work out what the fresh fruit equivalent weight would have been had it not been dried. So, how much dried fruit do you have, and what kind of fruit is it (because you also need to work out how much acid, how much sugar, etc.)?

Having said that, the easiest thing to do would be to rehydrate it. Stick it in a pan and cover it with water, bring it to the boil (to kill off any bacteria), turn off the heat and let it all sit for 24 to 48 hours. Drain the fruit (but keep the licquor) and weigh it, then treat it as normal fruit for wine or jam making. The only difference is that licquor, which you should include as part of any water additions you may normally make (because some of the natural sugar is going to be in it).

How's the weather?

Mike

[spitfire]

weather here is great thanks MKG, thanks for asking. i think there is about 2 pounds of the dried fruit, mostly apricots. but i have another question, i know you will have an answer
i have just ordered all my beer making supplies so some time next week they should be here.
i am going to follow the receipe from the main site. i wa unclear on something, do i add the dry malt and sugar to the boiling wort? or do i add them to the bucket/fermenter and then pour the boiling stuff on top? also, do i need to use filtered water or will regular tap water be ok? I hope my questions are not really stupid but i don't want to mess it up

[Torch404]

One caution about dried fruit is that most are pretty heavily sulphured or have other preservatives in them that will kill your yeast. So read any ingredient list fairly well.

tap water is fine as long as it has been left out overnight or is boiled to get rid of the chlorine. I have only made wine so I can not help with the rest of your beer questions. Good luck, sounds yummy!

[Minnesota]

i am going to follow the receipe from the main site. i wa unclear on something, do i add the dry malt and sugar to the boiling wort?

add to the boiling wort.
you should read a book to get the basics of brewing beer, there are lots of tiny details that could help you be successful. I read the first 50 or 60 pages of "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian. this was a Big help for me.

[spitfire]

thanks for all your info guys,i found a web site just for beer making so i will learn all i can there before i mess up 5 gallon of the good stuff. i had not thought about the sulfer on the dried fruit i will have to get around that.

[MKG]

The boiling will drive off any sulphur dioxide.

Which reminds me - I got the process back to front. Soak the fruit for 24 to 48 hours and THEN boil.

Duhhhhhh


Mike