First time wine brewer-banana wine?

Ky-Ale · 06-08-2009, 01:18 AM

Just want to make a 1 gallon jug of some sweet wine, im thinking banana-peach or i have a pear tree in my back yard that should start producing soon. How long do these kinds of wines take to become drinkable? What is racking, i hear that term a lot among brewers. After it is put in to bottles do i have to wait still to drink it? And When recipes call to put juice, sugar, yeast in the primary for 7-10 days and stir daily should it have an airlock on it or just like some plastic wrap?

Thanks much.

**Yooper** · 06-08-2009, 01:45 AM

Depending on the alcohol content of the wine, it might take 6 months to a year or more to be really good.

Racking means siphoning. Once the wine has been moved to secondary, you want to absolutely minimize any oxygen exposure. This means keeping an airlock on it, and to siphon when it's time to move the wine off of the sediment ("lees"). You'll do that a couple of times to get the wine off the dead yeast so you don't get off-flavors from the decaying yeast and/or fruit.

When I have wine in the primary, I just have it covered with a clean towel to keep bugs out of it. When it's time to move it to secondary, then I carefully rack it and then use an airlock.

Winemaking isn't hard at all- especially if you have the correct tools. You'll need some sanitizer to make sure that you don't get any unwanted bacteria or yeast in the wine, and a hydrometer. A hydrometer is useful because it tells you the alcohol content of the finished wine just by doing easy math, and it will tell you when the wine is done fermenting. You'll need a few other items, too, but if you look over the recipes you're thinking of using, you'll know what you'll need. Welcome to the hobby!

malkore · 06-08-2009, 10:42 PM

I've seen several banana wine recipes lately. They all stated the wine didn't hit peak flavor until 3 years. Prior to that it will be like unripe bananas with lighter fluid aftertaste.

Pbh187 · 06-09-2009, 03:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malkore

unripe bananas with lighter fluid aftertaste.

exactly what my 3 month old banana wine tastes like. 15% of fire water goodness.