steam juicer

[Mindscape100]

Ive convinced the better half that a steam juicer would be the way to go long term So a few questions, if I may regards to the juicer.....

1) Where would be the best place to get one and
2) When making the juices can you use tinned fruit and
3) are there certain fruits which you would avoid using.
4) is there anywhere in this forum I could find more information/guidance (ive looked around allready but havent found much too specific)?


Any help appreciated
Thankyou

[lockwood1956]

I refer you to the answers I gave you Via PM

[lockwood1956]

namely:

Hi John
1)try here
http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/hous...er_9_litre.htm

2)yes you can, but the steamers are better for red fruits, and i would be very careful steaming stoned fruit or the resultant wine may never clear due to extra pectin releasedue to heat

3)see answer to 2, look for gladys blacklocks book "modern winemaking technioques...out of print but comes up on ebay and amazon 2nd hand...big table in there for which fruit is best for which method

4)do a search for steam juicers, there are recipes and lots of info around

hope that helps
regards
Bob

[TStarr]

Hi - got mine from Westfalia - gd bit of kit, would have liked glass lid, but wtf, not a lot to see! Ordered a spare tube from them at same time - would appear to be only thing that could go missing, perish, break etc - and I couldn't find one anywhere else. (bet u they just a bit of Auto car tubing!!)

Found a forum over in States but has disappeared since last was on!

http://www-podunk.com/info.html - is a site from guy selling the Finnish versions in the States.

So far mine has juiced anything I have thrown at it - apples, rosehips, elderberries, quinces, damsons. I have yet to get the resultant wines to a drinkable stage, but they all fermented fast, with minimum sediments, and seem to be clearing nicely. However, I must say the 'musts' tasted fantastic, and I am sorely tempted to make and try just the juices themselves.

Due to lack of info, I wasn't sure about how to prepare the musts tbh - went with "add yeast from starter jar as soon as cool" - didn't camden or pectolase them - thought they were sterilized from juicer and just didn't know if pectolase needed.

They aren't the fastest things on the block, and cost wise, I would think they would suit an Aga better than my electric stove. Takes me 5-6 hrs to get full 8 pints of juice - but then u have the whole problem of whether to use 100% juice or a 1-1 or 1-2 ratio. I am working on 1-1 with these first trys - and 100% for the cider.

[Mindscape100]

Thanks for the help guys

[fatbloke]

Hi - got mine from Westfalia - gd bit of kit, would have liked glass lid, but wtf, not a lot to see! Ordered a spare tube from them at same time - would appear to be only thing that could go missing, perish, break etc - and I couldn't find one anywhere else. (bet u they just a bit of Auto car tubing!!)

Found a forum over in States but has disappeared since last was on!

http://www-podunk.com/info.html - is a site from guy selling the Finnish versions in the States.

So far mine has juiced anything I have thrown at it - apples, rosehips, elderberries, quinces, damsons. I have yet to get the resultant wines to a drinkable stage, but they all fermented fast, with minimum sediments, and seem to be clearing nicely. However, I must say the 'musts' tasted fantastic, and I am sorely tempted to make and try just the juices themselves.

Due to lack of info, I wasn't sure about how to prepare the musts tbh - went with "add yeast from starter jar as soon as cool" - didn't camden or pectolase them - thought they were sterilized from juicer and just didn't know if pectolase needed.

They aren't the fastest things on the block, and cost wise, I would think they would suit an Aga better than my electric stove. Takes me 5-6 hrs to get full 8 pints of juice - but then u have the whole problem of whether to use 100% juice or a 1-1 or 1-2 ratio. I am working on 1-1 with these first trys - and 100% for the cider.

For juice ratio, you can experiment i.e. if the recipe says use X amount of fruit, then steam extract that amount of fruit, mix with the sugar/water etc and see how it comes out. Yes, I've seen where Bob explains about not exceeding the suggested amount of fruit in a recipe, but I've found otherwise with some fruits, it depends on what it is. I wouldn't go more than about 25% over the suggested amount of fruit for elderberry as it does also extract quite a fair amount of the tannins and that makes for a wine that needs ageing for a long time.

I don't extract "white" (for that, also presume green) fruit. I prefer the natural flavours of the like of apples, kiwi fruit etc, to the heat processed taste that comes out "cooked".

As for how long it takes to get the actual juice, well it depends on just how "juicy" the fruit is (the water content). This years elderberries where brilliant. About 15lb gave me a gallon of juice, but there still seemed to be some juice coming out so half a gallon of water onto the fruit, gave me an apparently good quality juice (about half the gravity of the pure juice) of about 6 pints. That did the job for a nice elderberry melomel

Oh, and yes, my one is the original "Finnish" one (£9 plus postage off ebay). It's a good piece of kit, but don't forget, you only need to think about sulphite or even ascorbic acid if you're gonna keep the juice for any length of time as the steam temps should have effectively pasteurised it for you.

But, you will, definitely, need pectolase - and I'd suggest that you use it at the same strength recommended for finished ferments i.e. about the 2tsp per gallon, because as Bob pointed out, with some fruit (especially those known to be a PITA - plums etc) the heat will have caused more of it to be affected than if you'd just fermented on the fruit/pulp......

Just my 2 pence worth....

regards

jtfb

[kebabby]

Just bought my Mehu Liisa steam juicer so will let you know how I get on once ive used it

[fatbloke]

Just bought my Mehu Liisa steam juicer so will let you know how I get on once ive used it

Ha ha! Same as mine........