Agave Wine recipe??

[vanceromance]

I was down in Florida a few weeks ago at a bar on the coast and they were making Margaritas with Agave Wine. I've searched the forums but I haven't found any good recipes for Agave Wine. I thought that might be a nice addition to the Apfelwien, Skeeter Pee and multiple beers for the summer.

Anyone have a recipe for Agave Wine??

 

[ColonelAngus]

I was also wondering about using agave nectar in wine. I was shopping for honey when I noticed that I can get it agave nectar for $3 per pound and it has 3 times the sugar content as honey.

16 grams per tsp vs 16 grams per Tbsp.

I'm thinking about adapting a Skeeter pee recipe...

 

[phished880]

I've made an agave wine. I did have a little trouble with the ferment. I like the flavor but it finished around 1.020. I tend to be a fan of much drier stuff, but when margarita season comes around it will be a dynamite addition. I would suggest using the "dark" version. I can post my recipe when I return home if you like.

 

[vanceromance]

Yes, please post your recipe or send it to me. Hve you made margaritas with it??

 

[ColonelAngus]

I'd love to see your recipe.

 

[malkore]

it makes sense, tequila is just agave juice, fermented, and then distilled.
since margaritas are like 1/4 tequila and then mixer and possibly some added liqueur, an agave wine just lets you use more wine than tequila which is probably an amazing flavor.

BYO magazine had a bit on agave fermentations a few issues back, maybe Decembers. I just read it...it had several recipes from indigenous people I think.

 

[vanceromance]

I have that issue. They describe making a "Agave Beer" called Pulque. Is that the same as Agave Wine??

 

[phished880]

Here is what I did.

1 gallon
1/2 tsp nutrient
1 lb 7.5 oz light agave nectar
11.5oz dark agave nectar
8oz maple agave nectar( trader joes)
Montrachet yeast
SG 1.096
Fg 1.020

I split batch and Oakes 1/2 with 1/4 os Hungarian med toast

2 week primary
4 week secondary then 3 week on oak

 

[rocky6501]

Pulque is a complex wild fermentation of agave syrup, bacterial and yeast. I believe it is also pulled from the flowering stalk rather than from a baked cone. It's kind of a unique product.

 

[phished880]

Maybe this link will help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulque

 

[rocky6501]

I think my approach to agave as an ingredient would be to go down either the mead or the braggot route.

 

[DrJerryrigger]

I'm making a batch this morning. My girlfriend works at a natural food store and scored some free dark agave. I put about 700ml in to 4L to give a SG of about 1.105. I'm hydrating some 1118 yeast and will pitch soon. I'm also going to add some yeast nutrients, 3/4 tsp to start.
I'll update as it goes.

 

[tobysbeersandco]

We made a 3 gallon bath of lager once that we added about 2 cups of agave syrup to. After some extra time aging it's turning out pretty great. I've been wanting to try an agave wine/mead ever since.

 

[DrJerryrigger]

Well so far, so good. It's got a good gurgle going in the air-lock. I think I'll add another 1/4tsp of nutes in a day or two.
I saved a little agave to back sweeten with, and plan on hitting it with a touch of K-meta prior to that.
I've also been working on 2 jugs of skeeter pee today, which is proving to be much more work (but a hell of a lot cheaper).

 

[frteach]

I did this and it tastes amazing. Had a little trouble with the ferment, But I got it to go to dry.
O.G. 1.080
FG 1.000

10# Mudhava Blue agave syrup
5 gal spring water
3 tbsp acid blend
6 tbsp WINE nutrient blend(3 +3after half of O.G.)
1 sachet premier cuvee - rehydrated
1/2 gallon starter wyeast 1728 Scotch ale yeast (yes both!)

Warm nectar bottles in a pot with hottest tap water to loosen, You can heat some of the spring water in a pan to get every drop if you want. add nectar and water to the bucket, then mix in the acid blend and 1/2 the nutrient. Aerate or stir up alot of air. Rehydrate wine yeast and pitch.( Agave can be a tough ferment with wine yeast i've discovered. some disagree but after 5 rehydrated champagne yeasts, It only dropped to 1.056 in 6 weeks. So, I tried a 1/2 gal starter of scotch ale yeast and it was at 1.010 in 4 days! I think both worked together because it did go to 1.000, where i stabilized with Kmeta and Ksorbate and sparkalloid. A week later I back-sweetened to 3 Brix with more agave nectar. Wow

 

[Beer_me_plz]

Here is a recipe for 1 gallon of strawberry agave wine I'm going to try this weekend.

3 1/2 lbs fresh ripe strawberries
3 1/3 cups raw agave nectar
1 gal water
1 tsp acid blend
1/4 tannin
1 tbl bentonite
1 tsp pectin enzyme
Nutrient/energizer
1 Campden tablet
Wine yeast

With strawberries in a mesh bag crush thoroughly while in primary fermenting bucket. Boil two cups of water add bentonite, acid blend, tannin, & nutrient/energizer to water. Let dissolve and remove from heat and add agave nectar. Pour entire pot over strawberries and top up with water to desired OG(about 1 gallon). Add crushed Campden tablet and allow to set for 10-12 hours. Next add pectic enzyme and allow to set another 10-12 hours. Pitch yeast and cover.

Submerge strawberries once a day while in primary for seven days. On the seventh day allow strawberries to drain for two hours over your bucket. Do not squeeze the bag. Transfer to secondary and rack every 30 days till clear. Bottle and let age one year.

It's a pretty standard strawberry wine recipe I just substituted the sugar with agave. I've never done anything with agave so I'm hoping it will be enough to give me an OG of about 1.090 and ferment to dryness. Although, it sounds like I may have some trouble with fermenting that low. I'll use a yeast starter and extra nutrient and energizer. Any thoughts?

EDIT: I did this batch up and it's fermenting nicely. I doubled the agave though. I really under shot the estimates. My OG will give me about 10%ABV if I ferment to dryness. One I'm there I will add a little more sugar to get 12% ABV. I froze the strawberries and let them thaw and they turned to pure mush perfect for wine making. I went with Lalvin D47 yeast. No regrets there it's fermenting like crazy. It almost bubbled out of the airlock!

 

[frteach]

Update
I received a bronze for this agave recipe. Tastes very much like a clean cider with a soda syrup final kick. Next time gonna make it sparkling and take it down to 2-2.5%RSA.

96oz blue organic agave nectar
6 tsp beer yeast nutrient blend(wyeast) 3 at start and 3 a few days later
1 tsp acid blend(to cut back DME)
1/2 gallon starter of Wyeast 1728 Scotch Ale blend
Stabilized with Kmeta & K-sorbate and clarified with sparkalloid
Backsweetened to 3% RSA with agave nectar(amount depending on gravity)
OG 1.078
FG 1.000

to explain
I first started this recipe with 2 packets of Narbonne wine yeast. After 1 month it only dropped .020. Repitched with 2 more packets of Premier cuvee, only .014 more. So after 6 weeks, 4 packs of yeast it only dropped .034. Measured pH was 4.3-high for wine and low for beer. On the advice of LHBS, the owner makes alot of meads with beer yeast and thought I should try that as a last resort. 1/2 gallon starter(1.04) pitched and the agave wine went to completion 1.000 in 5 days! I think after reading alot of posts that when you add fruit it adds acid and so wine yeast can work, but straight, I think beer yeast is the way to go.

 

[underdogadam]

I'm in the dark right now, but i also did one a few months back- finally found this thread of like-minded agave-wine curious people.

in a five gallon batch, i used 1 Gal of dark blue agave nectar, and 24# of strawberries in secondary. unbeknownst to me, my hydrometer was broken, so i didn't get an OG.

If anyone else has done this much before, can anyone guestimate what an OG range would be for 1 Gal agave, 4 Gal water?

Also- it currently smells like funk and gasoline. the funk is a familiar one that i get with strawberries, that dissipates after they've been taken out for a month ish. the gasoline makes me think 1 Gal/4Gal ratio might have been a lot. i dunno. thoughts?

 

[frteach]

there is an issue with fermentability of agave nectar, probably dependant on manufaturer. Many places online generally quote it at 34pppg. 1 gallon is approx 8lbs. According to the online sources 8lbs*34pppg = 272pppg/4gal = 1.068.

As an anecdote, I used 8.8lbs in a 5 gallon batch and it was measured 1.076 at 68F(6 of the 23.5oz bottles= 8.8lbs: calcualtes to 43pppg).
So yours may be as high as 1.086 @43pppg. Did you happen to get a new hydrometer and see what the gravity was before secondary?


Smell, I think it will go away, maybe just a young wine smell. What else is in there? tannins, acid blend, etc.

 

[Beer_me_plz]

The funky smell probably came from stressed out yeast. It's best to add nutrient and energizer at different stages during primary fermentation. If you do it all at the beginning you get a ton of not so healthy yeast. They will die off quickly and the cell walls deteriorate and yeast guts get all in your wine. Not to mention a pungent sulfur smell. It will eventually go away and there are ways to speed up the process. Same goes for mead.

 

[jusware]

I'd recommend treating agave wine like mead with staggered nutrient additions. Also, 8lbs/gallon is not correct. Water is 8lbs/gallon .. and Honey is 12lbs/gallon. I would suspect that agave is atleast 12lbs/gallon if not even more due to the higher sugar content mentioned above. I used wine Lavlin D47 and had no problems. I've got a couple jugs of agave now and am planning on using Dry Mead Yeast. PS: I also always use approx an Oz of light dried malt extract in all my meads for a nutrient addition.

 

[frteach]

@jusware, you are correct about the undissolved weight, i think its 11.5lbs/gallon. Wholesome foods bottles by weight not volume, my bad. I had 6 of the 23.5oz(as packaged nt. wt.) bottles of blue=8.8 lbs. Based on that 8.8 *34 pppg = 299p. 299p/ 5gal = 60. My gravity at 68F was 1.076. Going backwards 76*5= 380 / 8.8 = 43pppg. I agree also to treat it like mead, I happen to add 2 tsp of nutrient blend the first 4 days. because I add beer & wine yeast the beer yeast has a DME starter. It's something I do and it happens to work great.

 

[aaronodonahue]

Agave wine from nectar alone will be difficult. The fermentation process for tequilla starts the same way, and they use a mash made from the shredded agave plant. This provides nutrients for the agave wine. I live up north, so that's not an option. All I have is the agave nectar. I had difficulty getting the agave nectar to ferment so I just took some strawberry mash from some strawberry wine that was fermenting well and plopped that down on it. It brought active yeast and nutrients with it. Works great. No idea how it will taste. I'm told that starting the yeast in some orange juice works well, also, after you hydrate the yeast normally. It might be a better flavor match, too. Teguilla makers do orange and agave distilled booze; not sure how that connects.

 

[Jogomez951]

Pulque is a complex wild fermentation of agave syrup, bacterial and yeast. I believe it is also pulled from the flowering stalk rather than from a baked cone. It's kind of a unique product.

Pulque is made from a different plant (same family, but different), it’s called maguey. Tequila is NOT made from maguey, it won’t taste the same.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I've made agave mead several times as well as a margarita mead, that has turned out awesome

 

[Jogomez951]

I've made agave mead several times as well as a margarita mead, that has turned out awesome

Am having trouble with my ferment.... I used the hearts of the plant and agave syrup sg at 1.096 temp 72 degrees, no fermentation going... not sure what to do next

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I've never used the agave hearts, just agave nectar.
I use K1V-1116 yeast and have good results with it.
It does take a while to get started and it also takes a long time to finish.
The TOSNA method is usually a good path to follow.

 

[Jogomez951]

Am going to see if the local shop has this yeast right now...

 

[Jogomez951]

It turns out that’s what am using

I have several small batches trying different things to see if I can get one going and use it as a starter. I am even trying heat turbo yeast and raising the temp to 86 degrees