Does anyone have experience with trying out a jujube cider? My girlfriend’s grandma has two trees and she sends me out to harvest them this time of year. She gives me a good portion of them and I ended with up with way more than I could possibly eat. So, I tried mashing them up in a mortar and putting them in a large jar with some sugar and water. So far it’s been about 2 or 3 weeks and I’m still getting a lot of CO2 bubbles. The taste is still pretty sweet with a little alcohol and a nice jujube-y flavor.
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Those suspiciously look like former kimchi containers.
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I swear they’ve been washed out really good and there is no smell left 
. These are a few years old and the smell washes out of the glass easy enough. It sticks to the lid though so I used some spare lids that had no trace of kimchi.
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i never would have thought to try something like this given how low the juice content of jujubes are. I can’t wait to hear how this turns out! I am hoping that next year i will have enough to process into the dried candy that they make in China and India, but this may take priority.
there is actually a juju winery somewhere in usa, will post the website when find it.
And below is another us-based business selling juju ‘elixir’. Never heard of it until found myself reading this thread
High Grade Organic Jujube Products - Grown and Made in USA - JUJUME (jujumeshop.com)
Elixir - A Liquid Extract Made from Jujubes - JUJUME (jujumeshop.com)
and the last poster on this wine-makers’ forum apparently enjoys his home made juju brew, which include ingredients and measurements
Texas jujubes used to make Sherry
I used a steam juicer and got enough juice from them to make jelly.
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that is the one!
You might try mashing them up a bit, putting them in a hop bag (sold in home brewing stores) and using a fermentation bucket with an air lock. Inoculate them with a good strain of commercial yeast like champagne. (That will out-compete most wild yeasts and ferment out to about 10-12% alcohol.) I think you’d need about 2lbs of fruit per gallon.
Sounds good. Did this with Goumi earlier in the summer. Added a tiny bit of kombucha to get it going and called it a kvass.
As long as the end result is not slimy you can drink it. But I think you have a wild yeast and all its going to do is make CO2 and little alcohol. Good news is the flavor is still there you could throw everything in a pressure cooker and pasteurize the mash. Let it cool down naturaly rather then opening the vent. Then add some commercial wine yeast.
I don’t see why the wild yeast wouldn’t be able to ferment it to dryness, or at least near-dryness. Is it because you think it will have less nutrients than if the fruit was juiced? Seems it is mostly sugar and water infused with jujube.
I did run into that issue originally. The jujubes just didn’t have enough water so I ended up adding about 1L of water to each jar (they’re 1 gallon/~4L jars). If you make dried jujube candy definitely post some pictures. I’d be interested in trying that with anything left over from this year or for next year.
I did run across that thread on the winemaking forum before I started this. I haven’t tried any formal winemaking but whether this works or not I may make a trip to my local brewing supply store and try for real next year.
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Very cool!
Thanks! I think I will try this next year
Interesting… did you order the goumi plant?
That sent me down a rabbit hole of wine making… I will probably give it a real attempt with next year’s fruit. At this point it seems like it may be more trouble to try to pasteurize the whole batch.
From what I’m reading it looks like it’s the low alcohol tolerance of wild yeast (plus an increased risk of spoiling from low alcohol content and leftover sugar). But it may be possible to ferment to dryness if there are sufficient numbers of alcohol-tolerant species which will take over once the alcohol-intolerant species start to die off… basically it’s a crapshoot whether or not you pick up these alcohol-tolerant species in wild yeast.
I have had wild yeast problems with pumpkin wine several times. Ferments completely dry with no alcohol.
I think wild yeast wouldn’t be a problem, but you may run into some other issues with this method. In it’s basic form a wild fermentation (without added yeast) is the most simple form of brewing. However the process and underlying biochemistry behind the process is very complex. Traditional cider makers, lambic beer brewers and some vinters use wild yeast.
Most organic fruit has more than enough yeast on the skin to get a good fermentation going. However, it’s impossible to tell the exact nature of the yeast you have. Even within cultivated strains of yeast there is a range in maximum achievable ABV levels (compare bread yeast to English ale yeast to champagne yeast). If given long enough time you should be able to ferment to dryness as long as your predicted final alcohol level (which is based on your initial specific gravity i.e. sugar content) is below 8-10% ABV or so.
Where you can run into issues is when bacteria and other pathogens take hold before the yeast can do their job. Low pH and high alcohol both inhibit bacteria. Ideally you want a quick and vigorous fermentation. As long as you got some nice bubbles being produced and it smells good/fruity you should be fine
Another issue you may run into with wild yeast is a delayed or prolonged fermentation process which could last months if not a year or more. This is more of an issue if you are eventually bottling into glass because it can lead to the bottles exploding if the fermentation picks back up again while in a confined space.
Regarding your specific setup with the kimchi jars. You would rather have an airlock on those jars than just the lid. Kimchi fermentation is a lactic acid fermentation which is done mostly by bacteria. This is a completely different process to ethanol fermentation by yeast. If the lids only allow gas to escape and not air to enter you might be ok.
Also the fruit above the level of the liquid is prone to grow mold and spoil the whole batch because it is not protected by the alcohol and lower pH in the liquid. You would want to get that completely submerged.
Finally, with wild yeast you will likely run into some off flavors and sourness (esters, lactic acid, etc).
The longer you let the fermentation go the more this flavor profile will evolve and change. In some cases this unpredictability may lead to a unique and tasty end result.
You could always add wine/cider yeast at this stage just to be on the safe side if you want. I personally like the “magic” of spontaneous fermentations and would just let it go to see what you end up with.
My recommendation when it comes to finally drink:
if it smells bad toss it. If it smells good, give it a taste. If you want the final product to be a little sweeter and/or carbonated you can add some sugar 1-2tsp or so per 500ml and bottle it into plastic bottles which formally held carbonated liquid. Sparkling water bottles are great. Give the bottles a squeeze daily and when they are very firm put in the fridge for a few days before consuming.
Sorry for the long reply but I’ve spent the past several years doing multiple spontaneous fermentation home brews with numerous different fruits using 100% wild yeast.
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