A Practical Guide for Late Summer and Early Fall Harvests

As the late-summer harvest arrives, many home winemakers look beyond grapes to apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and berries. While these fruits can produce outstanding wines, they present unique challenges and require more extensive preparation. Furthermore if you want to avoid adding purees or bases, there is a lot to consider and most of that comes with unique problems.

Perhaps you’ve already encountered some of them? Maybe last year you tried making the jump from using ready-made purees and ended up with poor results — or even lost entire batches. If you are harvesting yourself, that’s a lot of work to waste. And if you’re buying fruit, the cost can be high, especially since you’ll need more fruit per liter of finished wine compared to grapes.

This article is a guide to help you properly prepare your must and avoid those all-too-common pitfalls. Proper water additions and effective techniques to release sugars and acids are crucial. You not only need a must that will ferment well, you need one you can test. After all, you literally want to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Unlike grapes — which are naturally ~75% juice and perfectly balanced for fermentation — most other fruits are pulp-heavy, lower in juice, and often less acidic. Without proper preparation, wines can suffer from:

• Excess alcohol and harsh flavors — because much of the sugar can remain locked in pulp, hydrometer readings can understate the true sugar load. If you add too much sugar, you will have a hot wine.

• Sluggish or stuck fermentations — when acids remain trapped in solids instead of being dissolved evenly in the must, your pH can be too high for proper yeast function because of water additions.

• Flabby, unstable wines — because many fruits either have naturally lower acidity than grapes or the acidity is diluted from the addition of water. This can lead to spoilage or poor aging.

Preparing must from these fruits just requires extra steps. With grapes, you can crush them and let them ferment. Nature did the work for you. Other fruits are not as user friendly. This is why you either see very small fruit wine sections at liquor stores or you don't see them at all. They are more labor intensive and more expensive. The good news? With the right preparation, you can transform any fruit into a must that behaves like crushed grapes — measurable, fermentable, and balanced.

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Before going into detail about different types of fruits, a very tested technique is to freeze your fruit prior to preparing your must. The pectic enzyme and yeast will work better extracting and processing the sugar.

Pome Fruits (Apples & Pears)

Apples and pears are some of the most popular non-grape fruits for winemaking. They’re abundant, aromatic, and naturally sweet — but they’re also among the most difficult to work with. Their flesh is dense and pectin-rich, and juice yields are far lower than grapes. Simply crushing them leaves much of the sugar locked away, making it impossible to get accurate hydrometer readings and often leading to wines that are thin, hot, or hazy. Home winemakers often do not have the heavy equipment needed to press these fruits prior to fermentation. Here are some easy steps to follow.

Best Practices:

1. Wash & chop fruit into small pieces (peeling and core removal optional).

2. Add water — 2 qt per 10 lb ripe fruit, or 1 qt if overripe.

3. Heat gently to 150–160°F for 10–15 minutes to soften flesh. (Omit if fruit frozen prior to must prep)

4. Cool, then add pectic enzyme.

5. Give brief handheld blender pulses (avoid puree and do not use if you included cores).

Result: Enough liquid for accurate sugar/acid testing, grape-like juice yield (~75%), and clearer fermentation.

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Stone Fruits (Plums, Peaches, Cherries)

Stone fruits are beloved for their rich flavors and aromas, but they also come with challenges. Each fruit has a large pit, which must be removed, and their flesh — while juicy — still holds a lot of pectin. Stone-fruit wines can turn out harsh or imbalanced if pits are left in, or they can ferment unevenly if the must isn’t properly diluted.

Best Practices:

1. Remove pits (skins optional except with peaches).

2. Chop or crush flesh into mash.

3. Add water — 3 qt per 10 lb ripe fruit, or 2 qt if overripe.

4. Add pectic enzyme and rest 12–24 hrs before yeast.

5. Optional: 2–3 sec handheld blender pulses for extra juice release.

Result: Balanced musts with better juice availability, clean ferments, and preserved stone-fruit aromatics.

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Berries (Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries)

Berries are some of the easiest fruits to gather and crush, but they’re also the least grape-like. They contain very little free juice (often only 40–50% by weight), and their seeds can release bitterness if over-processed. Without proper preparation, berry wines often end up overly alcoholic (from hidden sugars), bitter, or prone to spoilage because of low acidity.

Best Practices:

1. Lightly crush berries (don’t puree). A good technique is to put the fruit in a large thick plastic bag. Use the smooth side of a meat tenderizer mallet to crush your fruit.

2. Add water — 5–6 qt per 10 lb ripe fruit, or 3–5 qt if overripe.

3. Add pectic enzyme; rest 12–24 hrs.

4. Optional: Quick 1–2 sec blender pulses for blueberries only.

5. Ferment “on the pulp” for 5–7 days, then press/strain.

Result: Musts that ferment like grape juice, with reduced risk of bitterness or spoilage.

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Fruit Must Prep Cheat Sheet

Goal: Mimic grape-like must (~75% juice) for accurate readings, clean fermentations, and balanced wines.

Fruit Type	Characteristics	Water Addition (Ripe)	Water Addition (Overripe)	Prep Method
Apples & Pears	Hard flesh, pectin-heavy	2 qt / 10 lb fruit	1 qt / 10 lb fruit	Chop → gentle heat → enzyme → brief blend
Stone Fruits	Pits, juicy but delicate	3 qt / 10 lb fruit	2 qt / 10 lb fruit	Pit → crush → enzyme (+ optional brief blend)
Berries	Low juice, many seeds	5–6 qt / 10 lb fruit	3–5 qt / 10 lb fruit	Crush → enzyme (+ 1–2 sec pulse for blueberries)

Always:

• Add pectic enzyme after heating or crushing.

• Ensure must is liquid enough for a hydrometer reading.

• Test acidity and adjust before pitching yeast.

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After Fermentation: Extracting More Wine Without a Press

If you’re making small batches and don’t own a wine press, there’s still a simple way to maximize your yield and keep the process clean. As fermentation nears completion — when your hydrometer reading is around 1.020 — snap your fermenter closed, fit it with an airlock and let it sit undisturbed. The remaining CO₂ will continue to push the fruit pulp upward, forming a natural must cap on top of the liquid.

When you’re ready to transfer, scoop out the pulp, place it in strainer bags, and squeeze to recover as much wine as possible. With the pulp removed, you can siphon the rest of the liquid without constantly clogging your hoses. The result is a cleaner transfer into your carboy and a wine that will clear more quickly during aging.

Final Thoughts

Fruit wines often get a reputation for being tricky — but they don’t have to be. The difference usually comes down to how well the must is prepared before fermentation even begins. When you take the time to add the right amount of water, remove pits or cores, soften or lightly blend the fruit, and use pectic enzyme, you set yourself up for success. These steps make sure the sugars and acids are evenly dissolved in the liquid, so your hydrometer readings are accurate, the yeast has a healthy environment, and the wine develops with clarity and balance.

Handled this way, your apple, peach, cherry, or berry wine won’t feel like a gamble. Instead, it will ferment steadily and cleanly — much like a grape wine — and the finished result will showcase the fruit you started with, in a wine you’ll actually be proud to pour and share.