Blackberry Almond Pulque - My first stab at it

OK, a few days ago I stumbled on a question in another wine making forum which related to Pulque. Not knowing what Pulque was and being mildly interested, I did a search. It turns out Pulque is the pre-curser to Tequila and is often referred to as Agave Mead (Agave being the suculent used for making tequila).

Not being one to walk away from something interesting I did abit more reading and came up with this little combo recipe. Actually, I was going to make Blackberry Almond Mead, but as I was getting it ready, my shipment of Blue Agave Nectar came in.

So here it is

Blackberry Almond Pulque

2 cups ground almonds
1 tsp Jamaican all-spice

Put in double boiler with 4 cups of water
Boiled for 1 hour
I filtered out the almond muck and



Added

4 Cups previously frozen pressed blackberry juice
6 Cups blue Agave Nectar
1 Cup honey
and remainder of water to make up 2 Imperial Gallons (8 Litres)

Specific gravity was at 1.085

The almond wine recipe said to let the must sit for a day prior to adding the yeast, so that is what I am doing.

See you tomorrow (OK, I must be loosing it now)

1 package of 1118 yeast
1/2 teaspoon nutrient (That is all what was left)

Step by step

Probably one of the better step by step instructional articles I have found. Aside from the use of Campden, I figure this is definately worth a read.

Cheers,

Heinz


by Alison Crowe

Nothing feels as satisfying and authentic as making your first batch of wine from fresh grapes. And there's no better time to try it than in early autumn, when grapes all over the country are ripening in vineyards and backyard gardens.

There are many kinds of grapes to choose from, depending on where you live. Vitis vinifera is the classic choice for flavor, varietal character and historic authenticity. This famous European wine-grape family includes such renowned varieties as Chardonnay, Merlot, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon. In the United States, to make a sweeping generalization, v. vinifera grapes thrive in California and the Pacific Northwest. They also grow well in microclimates scattered from New York to the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic states and beyond.

Those who live in colder, wetter climates may not be able to find v. vinifera grapes grown locally. Don't be discouraged. Fine hybrids and Vitis labrusca grapes, which are less susceptible to cold and disease, may be growing near your home. Other options include ordering grapes through your favorite local winemaking shop or from a produce wholesaler.


Whatever kind of grapes you use, the general techniques, equipment and ingredients are the same. Here's an overview of some key steps along the way.

Basic Winemaking Equipment
Here's everything you need to make your first one-gallon batch of wine from fresh grapes. You should be able to find this equipment at any homebrewing or home winemaking supply shop.

- Large nylon straining bag
- Food-grade pail with lid (2 to 4 gallons)
- Cheesecloth
- Hydrometer
- Thermometer
- Acid titration kit
- Clear, flexible half-inch diameter plastic tubing
- Two one-gallon glass jugs
- Fermentation lock and bung
- Five 750-ml wine bottles
- Corks
- Hand corker

Inspecting the Fruit
Winemaking starts with inspecting the grapes. Make sure they are ripe by squishing up a good double handful, straining the juice and measuring the sugar level with a hydrometer, a handy device you can buy at a winemaking supply shop. The sugar density should be around 22° Brix - this equals 1.0982 specific gravity or 11 percent potential alcohol - and the fruit should taste sweet, ripe and slightly tart.

The grapes also must be clean, sound and relatively free of insects and other vineyard debris. Discard any grapes that look rotten or otherwise suspicious. Also, it's very important that all the stems are removed, since they will make your wine bitter.

Keeping it Clean

Winemaking demands a sanitary environment. Wash all of your equipment thoroughly with hot water, boiling what you can. It's also wise to arm yourself with a strong sulfite solution to rinse any equipment that comes in contact with your wine. To make it, add 3 tablespoons of sulfite powder (potassium metabisulfite) to a gallon of water and mix well.

Adjusting the Juice

Adjusting the juice or "must" of your wine is critical. Luckily, it's also easy. Acid content is measured with a simple titration kit; you can buy one at a supply shop. The ideal acid level is 6 to 7 grams per liter for dry reds and 6.5 to 7.5 grams per liter for dry whites.

Here's an example: If your must measures 5.5 grams per liter, then you need to add 1 gram per liter of tartaric acid to bring it up to 6.5 g/L. Since 0.2642 gallons equals 1 liter, 1 g/L is equivalent to adding 3.8 grams of tartaric acid to your one-gallon batch. Add this powder in one-eighth teaspoon intervals, checking acidity carefully after each addition, until the desired level is reached. You can buy tartaric acid at your supply shop.

You also need to monitor the sugar level with your hydrometer. The must should be about 22° Brix for both reds and whites. To bring the sugar concentration up, make a sugar syrup by dissolving one cup sugar into one-third cup of water. Bring it to a boil in a saucepan and immediately remove from heat. Cool before adding in small amounts, one tablespoon at a time, until the desired degrees Brix and specific gravity is reached. To lower the sugar level, simply dilute your must or juice with water.

The temperature of your must can also be adjusted to provide the perfect environment for yeast cells. Warming up the juice gently (don't cook or boil it!) is an easy way to bring it to pitching temperature without damaging the quality of the wine. Fermentation can sometimes reach into the 80° to 90° F range, though the 70° F range is standard for reds (whites often are fermented at cooler temperatures).



If your grapes have been refrigerated or are too cold, use this unorthodox but quick trick: Heat up a small portion of the juice in the microwave, mix it back into the fermentation pail and re-test the temperature. An electric blanket wrapped around the fermentation pail also works, but takes longer. For cooling, add a re-usable ice pack and stir for a few minutes. Pitch the yeast when the temperature reaches 70° to 75° F for reds and 55° to 65° for whites.

Racking the Wine

"Racking" means transferring the fermenting wine away from sediment. You insert a clear, half-inch diameter plastic hose into the fermenter and siphon the clear wine into another sanitized jug. Then top it off and fit it with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. This can be a delicate operation and it's important to go slowly. You don't want to stir up the sediment, but you don't want to lose your siphon suction.



Bottling the Batch

Bottling may sound complicated, but it's really not. To bottle your wine, you simply siphon your finished product into the bottles (leaving about 2 inches of headspace below the rim), insert a cork into the hand corker, position the bottle under the corker and pull the lever. It's always wise to buy some extra corks and practice with an empty bottle before you do it for real.








Wine bottles can be purchased at home winemaking stores, or you can simply wash and recycle your own bottles. These supply stores also rent hand-corkers and sell corks. You should only buy corks that are tightly sealed in plastic bags because exposure to dust and microbes can spoil your wine. Corks can be sterilized just before bottling, with hot water and a teaspoon of sulfite crystals.

A one-gallon batch will yield about five standard-size (750 ml) bottles of wine. If the fifth bottle isn't quite full, then either drink that bottle or use smaller bottles to keep the wine. The key is to have full, sealed containers that are capable of aging.

Now you're ready to make your first batch of fresh-grape wine. Below you'll find step-by-step recipes for a dry red and a dry white table wine. The recipes have similar steps and techniques, with one important difference. Red wines always are fermented with the skins and pulp in the plastic pail; the solids are pressed after fermentation is complete. White wines are always pressed before fermentation, so only the grape juice winds up in the fermenting pail.





Dry Red Table Wine
Ingredients

18 lbs. ripe red grapes
1 campden tablet (or 0.33g of potassium metabisulfite powder)
Tartaric acid, if necessary
Table sugar, if necessary
1 packet wine yeast (like Prise de Mousse or Montrachet)
- Harvest grapes once they have reached 22 to 24 percent sugar (22° to 24° Brix).
- Sanitize all equipment. Place the grape clusters into the nylon straining bag and deposit the bag into the bottom of the food-grade pail. Using very clean hands or a sanitized tool like a potato masher, firmly crush the grapes inside the bag. Crush the campden tablet (or measure out 1 teaspoon of sulfite crystals) and sprinkle over the must in the nylon bag. Cover pail with cheesecloth and let sit for one hour.
- Measure the temperature of the must. It should be between 70° and 75° F. Take a sample of the juice in the pail and measure the acid with your titration kit. If it's not between 6 to 7 grams per liter then adjust with tartaric acid.
- Check the degrees Brix or specific gravity of the must. If it isn't around 22° Brix (1.0982 SG), add a little bit of sugar dissolved in water.
- Dissolve the yeast in 1 pint warm (80° to 90° F) water and let stand until bubbly (it should take no more than 10 minutes). When it's bubbling, pour yeast solution directly on must inside the nylon bag. Agitate bag up and down a few times to mix yeast. Cover pail with cheesecloth, set in a warm (65° to 75° F) area and check that fermentation has begun in at least 24 hours. Monitor fermentation progression and temperature regularly. Keep the skins under the juice at all times and mix twice daily.


- Once the must has reached "dryness" (at least 0.5° Brix or 0.998 SG), lift the nylon straining bag out of the pail and squeeze any remaining liquid into the pail.
- Cover the pail loosely and let the wine settle for 24 hours. Rack off the sediment into a sanitized one-gallon jug, topping up with a little boiled, cooled water to entirely fill the container. Fit with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. Keep the container topped with grape juice or any dry red wine of a similar style. After 10 days, rack the wine into another sanitized one-gallon jug. Top up with dry red wine of a similar style.
- After six months, siphon the clarified, settled wine off the sediment and into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork with the hand-corker.
- Store bottles in cool, dark place and wait at least six months before drinking.


Red wine is fermented with the pulp and skins. This "cap" will rise to the top, so you need to "punch it down" frequently with a sanitized utensil.






Dry White Table Wine
Ingredients

18 lbs. ripe white grapes
1 campden tablet (or 0.33g of potassium metabisulfite powder)
Tartaric acid, if necessary
Table sugar, if necessary
1 packet wine yeast (like Champagne or Montrachet)

- Harvest grapes once they have reached 19 to 22 percent sugar (19° to 22° Brix). Pick over grapes, removing any moldy clusters, insects, leaves or stems.
- Place the grape clusters into the nylon straining bag and put into the bottom of the food-grade plastic pail. Using very clean hands or a sanitized tool like a potato masher, firmly crush up the grapes inside the nylon bag.
- Crush the campden tablet (or measure out one teaspoon of sulfite crystals) and sprinkle over the crushed fruit in the bag. Cover pail and bag with cheesecloth and let sit for one hour.
- Lift the nylon straining bag out of the pail. Wring the bag to extract as much juice as possible. You should have about one gallon of juice in the pail.
- Measure the temperature of the juice. It should be between 55° to 65° F. Adjust temperature as necessary. Take a sample of the juice in the pail and use your titration kit to measure the acid level. If it is not between 6.5 and 7.5 grams per liter, then adjust with tartaric acid as described above.
- Check the degrees Brix or specific gravity of the juice. If it isn't around 22° Brix (1.0982 SG) adjust accordingly.
- Dissolve the packet of yeast in 1 pint warm (80° to 90° F) water and let stand until bubbly (no more than 10 minutes). When it's bubbling, pour yeast solution directly into the juice. Cover pail with cheesecloth, set in a cool (55° to 65° F) area and check that fermentation has begun in at least 24 hours. Monitor fermentation progression and temperature at least once daily.
- Once the must has reached dryness (at least 0.5 degrees Brix or 0.998 SG), rack the wine off the sediment into a sanitized one-gallon jug, topping up with dry white wine of a similar style. Fit with a sanitized bung and fermentation lock. Keep the container topped with white wine. Be sure the fermentation lock always has sulfite solution in it. After 10 days, rack the wine into another sanitized one-gallon jug. Top up with wine again.
- After three months, siphon the clarified wine off the sediment and into clean, sanitized bottles and cork them.
- Store bottles in cool, dark place and wait at least three months before drinking.
Alison Crowe is an enologist at the Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, California and a graduate of the enology and viticulture department at University of California at Davis.

Wine Making - The Flavors Of Wine

Just another mooched article from the net.

Although the four main flavors sweet, salty, sour, and bitter are all your tongue is really capable of tasting, the long lasting impression that wine leaves in your mouth is far more complex. When you drink or taste wine, your taste buds and your sense of smell are involved, adding to the way you interpret wine overall. The flavors, aromas, and sensations that wine is comprised of provide the interaction that you taste when you sample wine.

Sweetness is something that wines are well known for. With most types of wine, grapes are responsible for the sweet taste. Grapes contain a lot of sugar, which breaks the yeast down into alcohol. The grapes and yeast that were used to produce the wine will leave behind various sugars, which your tongue will be able to quickly detect. Once your tongue detects these various sugars, the stimulation of sweetness from the wine will be ever so present in your mouth.

Alcohol is also present in wine, although your tongue doesn’t really know how to decipher the taste of alcohol. Even though the tongue doesn’t really taste alcohol, the alcohol is present in the mouth. The alcohol found in wine will dilate blood vessels and therefore intensify all of the other flavors found in the wine. After you have samples a few types of wine, the alcohol level can easily have an effect on your taste buds, making it hard to distinguish other drinks that you may have.

Another flavor is acidity, which will effect the sugars. With the proper balance of acidity, the overall flavor of wine can be very overwhelming. Once you taste wine that contains it, the flavor of the acidity will be well known to your tongue. Although acidity is great with wine, too much of it will leave a very sharp taste. With the right levels, acidity will bring the flavors of the grape and fruits alive in your mouth providing you with the perfect taste.

Yet another effect of flavor are tannins, which are the proteins found in the skins of grapes and other fruits. If a wine has the right amount of tannins, it will give your tongue a great feel, and bring in the sensations of the other flavors. Once a wine starts to age, the tannins will begin to breakdown in the bottle, giving you a softer feel to the taste. Tannins are essential for the taste of wine providing the wine has been properly aged.

The last flavor associated with wine is oak. Although oak isn’t put into the wine during the manufacturing process, it is actually transferred during the aging process, as most wines will spend quite a bit of time in oak barrels. Depending on how long the wine is left in the oak barrel or cask, the ability to extract the flavor will vary. Most often times, wine will be aged just enough to where the oak taste is visibly there and adds the perfect sentiment to the taste.





Although there are other flavors involved with the taste of wine, they aren’t as present as those listed above. The above flavors are the most present in wine, and also the flavors that you need to get more familiar with. Before you try to taste wine or distinguish flavors, you should always learn as much you can about the components responsible for the flavors. This way you will know more about what you are tasting and you’ll truly be able to

Agave Mead

I stumbled on this one and instantly thought it would be something Nico would be interested in. I think I will give it a try if I can find the nectar.

Pulque is fermented agave that is traditionally made in mexico, It is also the first step in making tequila. the finished product is sweet with a very unique flavor, the color is very light with, smells like honey



Ingredients:
11 lb Agave Nector ( Dark unfiltered)
5 gal Water
1 Pkg Sweet Mead yeast

FG: 11%
Primary Ferment: 4 days
Secondary Ferment: 5 months
Procedure:
bring 2 gal water to full boil add Agave nector bring liquid back to boil for 10 min.add 3 gallonsof water, cool to 80 F add yeast. put in primary fermenter for 5 days or until first part of fermentation is complete, place in secondary for up to 5 months.

Raise a glass of barley wine

Toast 2008 at midnight with a delightful honeyed sipper that's meant for sharing

Dec 26, 2007 04:30 AM
Josh Rubin
Beer reporter

On New Year's Eve, a lot of folks head out to an overcrowded bar or restaurant where the highlight of the evening is a free glass of cheap sparkling wine at midnight.

As appealing as that sounds, it's not for everyone. If a quiet idea at home with a loved one is closer to your idea of a good way to ring in the New Year, you still might like something to sip. Picking up a bottle of Mill Street Barley Wine would be a good idea.

For one thing, it's clearly meant for sharing and sipping slowly, as it comes in a 500-millilitre ceramic bottle, and checks in at a hefty 10 per cent alcohol.

The rich, sweet, golden-coloured brew is made in the tradition of strong English ales first brewed by butlers for wealthy clients who wanted to impress friends. When you flip the top on the bottle, you'll be hit with a whiff of honey and caramelized fruit. The taste follows through on the promise of the beer's aroma. After notes of honey, caramel and even pineapple, there's a decent amount of hoppy bitterness on the finish.

While it's not as complex as the world classic Thomas Hardy's Ale, which is also part of the LCBO's Winter Ales program, Mill Street Barley Wine is still an excellent sipper. It also happens to be one of only two regularly made barley wines from Ontario, and the only one available bottled.

Last year, it wasn't available, as the brewery was transforming its original space in the Distillery District into a brewpub, says brewmaster Joel Manning.

"There was plaster dust everywhere. It really wouldn't have been a good idea to do any brewing," Manning says with a chuckle. At the same time, Mill Street was brewing its other beers at a new, bigger location in Scarborough.

While a good barley wine can be one of the beer world's great delights, Manning says other brewers can be forgiven for not making their own. It's a timely, costly beer to make. Unlike most ales, which are aged for just a few weeks, Mill Street's barley wine is brewed in January, then aged in tanks until November, when it's bottled. Having beer taking up valuable tank space for so long isn't cheap.

"We brew this beer because we love it. We don't make a whole lot of money on it," says Manning.

A beer made with love, to drink with your loved one. Not a bad way to ring in the New Year.

Tej - Ethiopian Honey wine

I was at an Ethiopian restaurant last night (Insert joke here) and had this wonderful drink called "Tej". The description said honey wine, however on speaking with the owner, I found this was far more than a basic Mead. First of all, it also has hops. Upon further reading, I discovered their definition of Hops is quite different. Here is what I found. Comments would be appreciated.


I think the first problem with all attempts to translate Tej recipes is that
"hops" is a translation by analogy. Gesho is a species of buckthorn. DON'T
substitute the ornamental buckthorn or the native Californian species as
they are hazardously potent laxatives.

"Woody hops" versus "leafy hops" refers to both the bark and leaves being
used. The leaves are used alone to make beer (Suwa or Tella) but Tej (or
Mies) uses some combination of bark and leaves.

Obtaining Gesho requires a trip to Washington DC or Toronto. LA probably is
good, too, but I don't know. In Toronto, the address is in Kensington
Market:
Ethiopian Spices
60 Kensington Ave (at Baldwin)
Toronto ON M5T 2K1
416-598-3014
The owner also has another store in the market selling non-food items. I
think it was on Augusta. Another store has some African items, but no
Gesho.



If in Washington, look for stores with names starting with "Merkato". A bit
of searching on the web for "Ethiopian or Eritrean food" should turn up a
list. I tried arranging a mail-order once, but the US-Canadian border
created extra hassle in that it would have taken a lot of exchanged faxes to
sort out the price and delivery. I finally managed to pass through Toronto
on holiday and stocked up.

One member of this group turned up a web link to a store in Denver, but they
didn't reply to emails and I knew that the stores in Washington do a lot of
mail-order.

Gesho is expensive, even in its own habitat.

The flavour of the leaf is quite unlike hops. I used some in place of hops
in a bitter recipe just to characterize the flavour. If I had to
substitute, I would try a small amount of aged hops (like for a lambic) for
the antibacterial action and a handful of yellow birch twigs for a vague
wintergreen-citrus flavour.

For comparison, here's my recipe, obtained in a mixture of sign language,
Tigrinya and Italian (none of which I speak):

(for 16-18 L)
Start:
4 cups powdered Gesho leaves (replace part with bark if
available)
1 1/2 cups malt (whole grains)
1 cup sugar
pkg dry bakers' yeast
5-6 L water
Leave 2 days for fermentation to start

Add:
4 lbs pale honey, including whole combs if possible
2 kg dried dates, chopped
2 kg raisins
Water to make 18 L
Ferment 13 days.

Strain out solids. Add some sugar or honey to taste if too sour. Bulk
condition in a pressure-resistant container (like an olive barrel) 15 days.
Decant and serve while yeast still slowly active.

This recipe gives a result very much like champagne & OJ. It's very easy
drinking and very alcoholic. The sourness is from the lactobacillus
introduced on the malt selected by the antibacterial action of the Gesho.
The flora make quite an impressive sight under the microscope but don't let
that frighten you!

So good luck obtaining Gesho in either form, and I think either recipe would
work. Do you know anyone from that part of the world? You would find them
quite willing to taste test for you.

THE WINE DOCTOR: Are sulfites bad for my health?

Just another mooched article on sulphites I found.

By Matt Nugent
Thursday December 13 2007


Q I hear people talking about sulfites in wine. Are they bad for my health?


A Sulfites have been used since ancient times for many purposes, including the cleansing of wine receptacles by both Romans and Egyptians.

As food additives, they have been used since the 17th century. They are currently used for their preservative characteristics.

It is their antioxidant and anti-microbial properties that have gained them an important role in wine making.

The sulfites either inhibit or kill bacteria or wild yeast, thus encouraging rapid and clean fermentation of wine grapes.

The US Food and Drug Administration estimates that one in 100 people are sulfite sensitive to some degree – but among asthmatics, up to five per cent are at risk of having an adverse reaction to the substance.

The symptoms of a sulfite sensitivity reaction vary from mild to, in extreme cases, life-threatening. The most common symptoms are mild and involve a skin rash accompanied by redness, hives, itching, flushing, tingling and swelling.

Respiratory symptoms include difficulty breathing and wheezing, while gastrointestinal reactions involve nausea and stomach cramps.

LAVENDER WINE

Mooched froom Jack Keller, anyone familiar with online wine recipe's will surely know of his work. If I end up doing this one, I would probably use honey instead f sugar and blackberry juice instead of Welches.


There are many varieties of lavender, plants of the genus Lavandula -- especially Lavandula officinalis. They all contain clusters of small, fragrant, purplish flowers. The small flowers must be picked off the stems to make the wine. Flowers can be picked and frozen in ZipLoc bags for later use. This wine is not only delicious, but its bouquet will be appreciated as soon as you open a bottle.

1 to 1-1/2 pints lavender flowers
2 lb granulated sugar
10.5 oz can of Welch's 100% white grape juice frozen concentrate
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/8 tsp tannin powder
7-1/2 pts water
1 tsp yeast nutrient
Champagne yeast

Boil 1/2 gal water and add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Stir in frozen grape concentrate and return to boil. Immediately pour boiling water over all dry ingredients except yeast in primary. When water cools to lukewarm, add remaining water and sprinkle yeast on top. Cover with cloth and ferment 7 days. Strain out flowers and transfer liquid to secondary. Fit airlock. Ferment 60 days and rack, top up, refit airlock, and allow to sit another 60 days. Rack into bottles and allow to age one year.

Goji Mead # 2 - Let's try this again

Well, the last experiment was rather interesting. I particularly liked the subtle rasberry like taste partway through the fermentation. The one major thing I learned from the last batch of Goji Mead was to check the specific gravity of the juice prior to adding Honey. The result in the previous batch of Goji Mead was a very high starting Specific gravity and a high alcohol content end product. Consequently, my wife was not too fond of the burn.

Today I am doing things quite abit differently. First of all, I checked the specific gravity of the Goji Berry juice and found it to be around 1.050. Once I added the blackberry juice and water it dropped substantially but it was still at 1.021. Here is the recipe:

2 - Litres re-consitited Goji berries Blended in a blender
6 - Cups steamed unsweetened blackberry juice
3 - Litres water
3 - Cups Clover Honey
1 - Pack of 1118 yeast

Innoculated at 8PM on Friday Decemeber 7th
Specific gravity = 1.071

I will ferment this batch of Goji Berry Mead to dry. Once complete, it will be mixed with the previous batch of Goji Berry Mead which will hopefully result in a more palitable Mead. By fermenting it to dry with a lower specific gravity, I will also gain a better understanding on the effect of complete fermentation. I will still pasteurize the Mead upon completion.

I did an experiment and found 1 cup of honey to equal an increase of about 0.015 on the specific gravity scale.

Banana Wine

Another tropical type wine. This one definately has some promise.

Ingredients

4 1/2 lbs. bananas
1/2 lbs. chopped golden raisins
3 lbs. granulated sugar
1 lemon (juice only)
1 orange (juice only)
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient


Peel and chop bananas and their peels, placing both in grain-bag and tie closed. Place grain-bag in large pan or boiler with water and bring to boil, then gently simmer for 30 minutes. Pour the hot liquor over sugar and lemon/orange juice in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool enough to handle, squeeze grain-bag to extract as much liquid as possible and add to vessel. When liquor cools to 70 degrees F., add yeast and nutrient. Cover and set aside in warm place one week, stirring daily. Move to a cooler place (60-65 degrees F.) and allow to sit undisturbed for two months. Siphon liquor off sediment into secondary fermentation vessel, add chopped raisins, and fit airlock. Rack after four months and again in another four months. Bottle after six months. Improves with age.

Banana Wine (Heavy Bodied)

3-1/2 lbs. bananas
1 lbs. chopped golden raisins
2 lbs. granulated sugar
1-1/4 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp. grape tannin
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient


Slice bananas into thin slices, leaving skins on fruit. Put into grain-bag, tie top, and place in 6 pints water. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove grain-bag to bowl to catch drippings while pouring liquor over sugar in primary fermentation vessel and stirring well to dissolve sugar. Add acid blend, pectic enzyme and tannin, stirring again. When grain-bag cools, squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible and add liquid and drippings to liquor, discarding pulp. When liquor cools to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, add yeast and nutrient. Cover and set in warm place for seven days, stirring daily. Pour into secondary fermentation vessel, fit airlock, and move to cooler place, leaving undisturbed for two months. Siphon off sediment, add chopped raisins, and add water to bring to one gallon. Ferment another four months. Rack and allow to clear. Rack again and bottle. May taste after six months, but matures at two years.

Banana Wine (Medium Bodied)

12-16 oz. dried bananas
1/2 lbs. chopped raisins
2 tsp. citric acid
2-1/4 lbs. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 gallon water
Sherry yeast and nutrient


Simmer dried bananas in pressure cooker with 1/2 the water for 10 minutes. Pour over sugar, chopped raisins and citric acid in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool (70 degrees F.) add pectic enzyme, remaining water, and cover well. Set aside for 24 hours and add yeast and nutrient. Stir daily for one week, keeping well covered. Strain into secondary fermentation vessel, top to one gallon with water, fit airlock, and move to cooler (60 degrees F.) place. Rack after 30 days and again after another 60 days. When clear, rack and bottle. May taste after six months, but requires one year to mature.

Banana Wine (Medium Bodied 2)

3 1/2 lbs. bananas
1/4 lbs. chopped golden raisins
2 lbs. granulated sugar
1 lemon
1 orange
1/2 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 gallon water
wine yeast and nutrient


Peel and chop bananas and their peels, placing both in grain-bag with zest from lemon and orange. Tie closed and place in large pan or boiler with 5-1/2 pints water and bring to boil, then gently simmer for 30 minutes. Pour hot liquor over sugar and lemon/orange juice in primary fermentation vessel and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool enough to handle, squeeze grain-bag to extract as much liquid as possible and add to vessel. When liquor cools to 70 degrees F., add pectic enzyme, yeast and nutrient. Cover well and leave in warm place for one week, stirring daily. Move to a cooler place (60-65 degrees F.) and allow to sit undisturbed for two months. Siphon liquor off sediment into secondary fermentation vessel, add chopped raisins, top up to one gallon with water, and fit airlock. Rack after four months and again in another four months. Bottle and sample after six months. Improves with age.

Kiwi Wine

I haven't tried this one, but I'm thinking I would probably turn it into a mead.


Ingredients

2 kg Kiwi Fruit
1.5 kg Sugar
1 tsp Citric Acid
1 gallon Water
0.5 tsp Tannin
Yeast
Yeast Nutrient


Peel and chop fruit and place in bucket with sugar. Add boiling water and mash fruit. Leave overnight. Add tannin, pectic enzyme, yeast and nutrient. Leave about a week, covered and stirring daily. Strain into demijohn up to shoulder level, and fit air lock. After fermentation is less vigorous, top up with water to neck. Rack off lees at monthly intervals.