Fruit Composition Table

To help brewers and winemakers formulate their fruit beers and country wines, here’s a table listing the percentage of water, sugar and acid found in many common fruits. The types of acids in the fruit are also listed.

Fruit Composition

fruit             water(%)    sugar(%)     acid(%)     acids (most abundant in italics)

apple           84                 10                 0.8             malic, quinic, alpha-ketoglutaric, oxalacetic, citric, pyruvic, fumaric, lactic and succinic

apricot        86                  8                  1.7              malic, citric

banana       74                  18                0.3              malic, citric, tartaric

blueberry    85                 11                 0.3             citric, malic, glyceric, citrmalic, glycolic, succinic, glucuroni, galacturonic, shikimic, quinic, glutamic and aspartic

cantaloupe  90                8                 0.2              ?

cherry          81                 12                0.5             malic, citric tartaric, succinic, quinic, shikimic, glyceric and glycolic

cranberry    87                 4                  3               citric, malic and benzoic

grapefruit   91                  6                  2              citric, tartaric, malic and oxalic

lemon           ?                   2                  5              citric, malic, tartaric and oxalic

lime              ?                   1                   7              citric, malic, tartaric and oxalic

orange        87                  10                1.2            citric, malic and oxalic

peach         88                  10                 0.4           malic and citric

pear            84                 10                 0.2           malic, citric, tartaric and oxalic

pineapple  87                  12                  2             citric and malic

plum          85                  10                 0.6          malic, tartaric and oxalic

raspberry  87                   6                 1.6            citric

strawberry 92                  6                  1              citric, malic, shikimic, succinic, glyceric, glycolic and aspartic

tomato       94                   3                 0.5           citric, malic, oxalic, succinic, glycolic, tartaric, phosphoric, hydrochloric, sulfuric, fumaric, pyrrolidinonecarboxylic and galacturonic

watermelon 92                9                  0.2            malic

Table compiled from several sources. Numbers will vary depending on varieties or cultivars, growth conditions and ripeness. Information on the varieties of acid is more complete for some fruits than others.