Banana Wine

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jflongo said:
So what do you guys think I should do now? I let this ferment for 6 days down to about 1.040. I transferred it into a 6 gallon better bottle, let it sit for 29 days, when I checked the gravity it was all the way down to 0.898!!

Today, which was day 32 in secondary, I just transferred it into a 5 gallon better bottle, all the way to the top pretty much. Do you think I should let it sit a couple more weeks, add some metabisulfate and sorbate, then bottle? Or do I also need to de-gas it?
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If you get a chance, I'd double check that gravity reading. Your hydrometer might be different, but mine bottoms out at 0.990.

I doubt degassing is really necessary, unless you got some sulphury aromas during fermentation.
 
Leadgolem said:
If you get a chance, I'd double check that gravity reading. Your hydrometer might be different, but mine bottoms out at 0.990.

I doubt degassing is really necessary, unless you got some sulphury aromas during fermentation.
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My last number showing is 0.990, but then there is 4 more ticks above it. And the 0.990 was just below the liquid level. That's why I mentioned 0.898.

This wine tasted fantastic at 1.040. I had another taste at 0.898, it obviously had a pretty good alcoholic bite to it, but wasn't too bad. The reason I ask about degassing is, every wine kit I have done in the past always mentions that. Also, I don't want to age this for a long time in a carboy.
 
What is the golden raisins for after the second racking in the secondary fermentation?

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Home Brew mobile app
 
jflongo said:
My last number showing is 0.990, but then there is 4 more ticks above it. And the 0.990 was just below the liquid level. That's why I mentioned 0.898.

This wine tasted fantastic at 1.040. I had another taste at 0.898, it obviously had a pretty good alcoholic bite to it, but wasn't too bad. The reason I ask about degassing is, every wine kit I have done in the past always mentions that. Also, I don't want to age this for a long time in a carboy.
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The tic above .990 would be .988, not .898 :p
 
Dose it matter if the raisins are added to the primary or after the second racking in the secondary sorry for the newbie questions

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collinsjames1988 said:
Dose it matter if the raisins are added to the primary or after the second racking in the secondary sorry for the newbie questions

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Home Brew mobile app
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I don't know to be honest with you, I think it's their to help with secondary fermentation. However, I put mine in primary, and not in secondary, mine still went all the way to 0.988.
 
I think I'm going to let mine sit for 3 - 4 weeks now, and then check to see if there is much sediment at the bottom of the carboy. If there is very little, then I'm going to go ahead and rack this into a new carboy with a 1/4 tsp of metabisulfate plus sorbate, and then bottle a week later.
 
I dont have a gallon primary but banana wine a week ago

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1393628218399.jpg
 
collinsjames1988 said:
19 hours after first racking
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Have you thought about using a clarifying agent such as bentonite clay or irish moss? I happen to think the moss is best. It'll drag that sediment down to the bottom and allow you to rebottle sooner without all that micromaterial hanging about.
 
Irish moss is kelp, if you didn't know. Don't go scraping moss of nearby trees to save a couple bucks :D
 
Oh my gosh, it's like 19 hours after racking? It's not even done yet. Don't add finings or any other crap to it. Just let it finish fermenting first before even looking at it.
 
O no no no I just racked it to the secondary it has only been a week sence I started this batch it has 2 months before I rack it again and 4 months after that with the raisins added before I need to bottle it if you go by the original post

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BeeVomit said:
Have you thought about using a clarifying agent such as bentonite clay or irish moss? I happen to think the moss is best. It'll drag that sediment down to the bottom and allow you to rebottle sooner without all that micromaterial hanging about.
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After doing a lot of reading, the bentonite is best added at the very first stage with some warm water, before you even add fruit/fermentables. Bentonite molecules swell to 7 times their size with a negative charge and attract particles that cling to them. With the bentonite added at the beginning, the CO2 in the fermentation keeps lifting it up to grab more stuff. As the ferment slows, the bentonite, laden with particles, sink to the bottom. Adding it after the ferment, the bentonite basically gets one shot at grabbing stuff on its way to the bottom.
 
trbig said:
After doing a lot of reading, the bentonite is best added at the very first stage with some warm water, before you even add fruit/fermentables. Bentonite molecules swell to 7 times their size with a negative charge and attract particles that cling to them. With the bentonite added at the beginning, the CO2 in the fermentation keeps lifting it up to grab more stuff. As the ferment slows, the bentonite, laden with particles, sink to the bottom. Adding it after the ferment, the bentonite basically gets one shot at grabbing stuff on its way to the bottom.
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Yes Bentonite is like clay, you have to stir it in very warm water at the start to get it to mix well then you add everyone on top of that in the fermenter. If you need a clarifier at the end, you can use something like isinglass, that is what a ton of white wines use.

Also be patient, this can take months to clear up on it's own. Mine sat it primary for 6 days, when it was a little below 1.040 I racked in into secondary, it sat there, and about 30 days, I just racked it into another carboy, and it has been in there for 7 days now. It looks a ton nicer than when it was in primary of course, but is not clear yet. If this doesn't drop a bunch of lees this time around, I'm going to probably bottle it in a few weeks.
 
Hi all, I'm new to winemaking and I just brewed up a one gallon batch of this last week. It's doing great so far. I used organic bananas to minimize pesticides on the peels and I let them ripen until they were just about black. They must have had a lot of sugar because the SG ended up being way too high when I added the recommended amount of sugar in the recipe. Oops. I wasn't intending to make Banana Rocket Fuel. I diluted it down with water and now I'm hoping I didn't also dilute out the banana flavor too much.

Here's a pic. I just racked it and it has a nice banana smell. The color is a cloudy beige at the moment. Looking forward to tasting it one day!

image-1.jpg
 
wooky said:
Hi all, I'm new to winemaking and I just brewed up a one gallon batch of this last week. It's doing great so far. I used organic bananas to minimize pesticides on the peels and I let them ripen until they were just about black. They must have had a lot of sugar because the SG ended up being way too high when I added the recommended amount of sugar in the recipe. Oops. I wasn't intending to make Banana Rocket Fuel. I diluted it down with water and now I'm hoping I didn't also dilute out the banana flavor too much.

Here's a pic. I just racked it and it has a nice banana smell. The color is a cloudy beige at the moment. Looking forward to tasting it one day!

image-1.jpg
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Do you know what your starting gravity was? It's normal for wines to start in the 1.090 range. Also, if you let this age for awhile, the alcohol bite should mellow out some.
 
jflongo said:
Do you know what your starting gravity was? It's normal for wines to start in the 1.090 range. Also, if you let this age for awhile, the alcohol bite should mellow out some.
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Yes, it was originally around 1.110-1.115, which was going to give me around 15% ABV. I didn't want it that strong so I diluted it down to 1.090. Hoping there's still plenty of banana flavor after adding the extra water. I've learned my lesson now to check the SG as I go instead of adding all the sugar at once. :p
 
wooky said:
Yes, it was originally around 1.110-1.115, which was going to give me around 15% ABV. I didn't want it that strong so I diluted it down to 1.090. Hoping there's still plenty of banana flavor after adding the extra water. I've learned my lesson now to check the SG as I go instead of adding all the sugar at once. :p
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I agree that is too high, so diluting it is fine. 1.090 is a good starting range.
 
I agree.. That was too high. Who wants to drink stuff 15%+ alcohol...




Now where's that sarcastic icon at? ;)


I have some rice wine that I tested at 18% alcohol. I gave a buddy of mine a bottle of the rice wine and a bottle of my banana wine to try. He went home and stuck them in the freezer to chill, but forgot about them. When he remembered, he grabbed it and said the rice wine was slushy, but the banana wine wasn't at all. Not exactly scientific, but that sort of tells me the banana wine is higher...and it stil tastes great and getting better all the time.
 
So I plan on making a 6 gal batch of this. Could I use 6lbs of frozen muscadines I have in my freezer instead of the golden raisins? And if I did this would I add them during the boil to pasteurize them?
 
coleandrobin said:
So I plan on making a 6 gal batch of this. Could I use 6lbs of frozen muscadines I have in my freezer instead of the golden raisins? And if I did this would I add them during the boil to pasteurize them?
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The muscadines aren't anything like the raisins. The reason for the raisins is to build body and add some fermentables- the muscadines would be tart and acidic and not at all fit in with the recipe as written.

I'd skip the raisins if you don't want to use them, but not put muscadines in at all.
 
trbig said:
I agree.. That was too high. Who wants to drink stuff 15%+ alcohol...




Now where's that sarcastic icon at? ;)


I have some rice wine that I tested at 18% alcohol. I gave a buddy of mine a bottle of the rice wine and a bottle of my banana wine to try. He went home and stuck them in the freezer to chill, but forgot about them. When he remembered, he grabbed it and said the rice wine was slushy, but the banana wine wasn't at all. Not exactly scientific, but that sort of tells me the banana wine is higher...and it stil tastes great and getting better all the time.
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Maybe not as much as you'd think. Carbohydrates and sugars in solution also block crystallization. I use corn starch to make fudge sickles all the time. The starch keeps the ice crystals from becoming to large and ruining the texture.
 
Welp, I made me some amazing mud wine, I mean banana wine yesterday. Unfortunately I did not realize until after that I had accidentally picked up Distilled water for this instead of spring water. It is only 12 hours in after pitching but I see no signs of ferment yet. I'll keep an eye on it but wanted to seek some advice here.
 
I've seen a lot of recipes that call for distilled water.. the purest there is. It'll be fine.

Just 12 hrs? Patience, Grasshopper. If you're sure the mix wasn't too hot before you pitched the yeast, it'll be fine. When yeast are growing the colony and eating oxygen, you won't get much, if any, CO2 production through the air lock. If after 72 hrs, you still have nothing, then I'd start wondering.

So what recipe did you use for your "Mud wine"? ;)
 
trbig said:
I've seen a lot of recipes that call for distilled water.. the purest there is. It'll be fine.

Just 12 hrs? Patience, Grasshopper. If you're sure the mix wasn't too hot before you pitched the yeast, it'll be fine. When yeast are growing the colony and eating oxygen, you won't get much, if any, CO2 production through the air lock. If after 72 hrs, you still have nothing, then I'd start wondering.

So what recipe did you use for your "Mud wine"? ;)
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I used this recipe here exactly, just thought mud wine was more fitting name given the starting color after making the banana liqueur. It has started now, I pulled the lid off for the daily stir and its definitely going. I have a leak somewhere, thinking at the bung as its not as tight as I'd like. No matter, it'll be moved to a carboy in 6 days now anyway. Thanks!! I'll post some pics of the (hopefully) lovely 5 gallon banana golden goodness. :tank:
 
Atek said:
I used this recipe here exactly, just thought mud wine was more fitting name given the starting color after making the banana liqueur. It has started now, I pulled the lid off for the daily stir and its definitely going. I have a leak somewhere, thinking at the bung as its not as tight as I'd like. No matter, it'll be moved to a carboy in 6 days now anyway. Thanks!! I'll post some pics of the (hopefully) lovely 5 gallon banana golden goodness. :tank:
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I hope it turns out at least as good as my first batch did. Everybody has loved it, so I had to start two more 6 gallon batches a couple days ago. In right at two months, I went from mud to this...





Very tasty even at that point and I think it will get much better with age, if I can ever figure out how to make it quit disappearing so fast. ;)
 
I made mine Jan 16, 2014, it was muddy looking, racked into secondary Jan 24, 2014, still looked muddy for a long time. Racked into another carboy 02/25/2014, right now, it is so clear I can read through it. Haven't decided yet when I'm going to bottle it, I may let it age longer. I'll taste test it every week or two, and then decide. Cheers.
 
Just bottled mine at the beginning of the week.. it's not perfectly clear but 90% settled. Flavour-wise its odd.. I added a couple of organic lemons (peel and all) to the batch, which are really standing out. I'm hoping the flavour settles and cooperates with the banana in time. Thinking of recombining the 4 gallons of nearly-clear stuff, adding a very little bit of spice and letting it mull quietly for another couple of weeks (always gotta take it easy on the spice!).

Looking forward to a banana-rum grog outcome, something my sailing family can appreciate. :D
 
Now that I've found a use for all the banana and apple cast-offs of my rambunctious nephews, I've been stashing all the leavings in the freezer.. in the time it took to brew this one, I've nearly enough saved to do another. This time I'll just put a couple little limes in there instead :D I always prefer those, anyway.
 
Im wondering why use the peel? sorry if this has been answered i havent had time to read threw all of it
 
Gar said:
Im wondering why use the peel? sorry if this has been answered i havent had time to read threw all of it
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I didn't use the peel in mine and the banana flavour is not very strong. I'll be making another batch soon, this time with the peel. I don't know if there will be a huge difference, except maybe that it will be more bitter.

I also used apple and lemon in the batch, which took up some of the volume of fruit in the recipe. Though the bananas made up most of it overall, that might be why it isn't stronger than I thought it would be.

Anyway, I'll let the thread know my findings when the next one's done. I asked this question a while ago as well, and nobody answered. I hope you get one.

Cheers!
 
Distilled water is preferred for diluting liquors because spring water or even finely filtered water contains minerals that can destroy liquor. Distilled water is pure, contains no minerals or chemicals.
 
BeeVomit said:
I didn't use the peel in mine and the banana flavour is not very strong. I'll be making another batch soon, this time with the peel. I don't know if there will be a huge difference, except maybe that it will be more bitter.

Cheers!
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I'm thinking now that maybe more of the banana flavour is kept up in the peel.. ever dig an old banana peel out of your compost bin? Yeah, it's got some strength to it, even after the fruit is long gone.

I'm thinking to put a little spice in the wine I just did, let it ferment a little more with some more sugar (since I'm a "boozer" as my family puts it) and then bottle it up for a good while (a year or so?) until the spices mellow out. I was surprised that though I didn't really like the outcome of this brew, my buddy thought it was great. I guess I didn't mess up as much as I'd thought. He even listed the three main ingredients to me (bananas, apples, lemons) and said they each had a part in the overall taste. Banana first, then the lemon, a bit of apple, finished with a stronger banana as it made its way home.

While I hope the brew mellows to a more combined flavour, its cool to know each fruit made its unique mark, enough to tell what went in. I'm also fond of the corn that I added for more complex carbs. I think it made the brews flavour stronger, as well as more earthy overall. Might become a more common ingredient in my pom brews to come.
 

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