Banana Wine

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Looking forward to the pics, hope there aren't any slip ups :grin:
 
Hey! Sorry its taken so long to get these pics up.

I tried to follow Berrys recipe as much as possible! Page 136 I think (depends what revision of the book you've got)

Got rest of ingredients ready:
>> 1.8kg Banana (less than Berry's 2.0kg suggestion)
>> 250g Banana skins (tried to avoid the tops though)
>> 1tsp Citric Acid (to replace the juice of one lemon that Berry suggests)
>> Juice of 1 Orange
> >150ml white grape concentrate (slightly more than Berry suggests, purely by accident :lol:)
>> 1.1kg of sugar (again less than Berry, it seems to oversweeten the wine). 800g initially, then another 300g added.
>> 1tsp Amylase (to break down starch to help yeast ferment it, and apparently helps wine to clear later on - presumably because of the lack of starch)
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Peeled the black/spotted bananas. Weighed them all up after peeling and came to 1.8kg (0.2kg off what Berry suggested). But nevermind!
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Made sure everything was sanitized!
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Got a straining bag to boil the bananas, and banana skins in.
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There they are all bagged up!
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It was then boiled for 30 minutes. Problem is, my saucepan is only 5litres, and the damn thing kept overflowing! The must still smells bananary though, I dont think I lost much water.
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Whilst it was boiling (and overflowing) I added the orange juice, 800g of sugar and citric acid.
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I added the boiled (and now banana flavoured) water to the mix. (It was at this point I realised that Berry says to put the white grape concentrate in the wine after a few months :lol: , not before fermentation - but I'm sure it wont hurt anything)
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After the boiled banana mush had cooled, I squeezed any remaining juices out of it for at least 10 minutes.
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I was then left with this lovely mixture: :lol: . I added water to make up 1gallon, then the amylase.
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SG turned out to be 1.072. I added another 300g of sugar, this brought it up to 1.100 which (hopefully) should provide a 13% wine - who knows. May add sugar at a later date if it is too dry.

Oh, and after the amylase did its work after 24hours, I added the yeast and nutrient. 1tsp of each.

--- and thats about it!
 
looks like you are having fun and enjoying winemaking crE.
You are way more adventurous than i was when i started.
nice piccies too, i'll be following your banana wine thread with interest and perhaps get one on the go myself sometime later in the year.

:cheers:
 
The reason I'm making so many in a short space of time - is that I'm hoping at least one or two of them will taste half decent this time next year :lol:
 
its a good plan anyway crE as wine takes so much longer than beer. .... then the trick is to keep brewing while you are drinking and appreciating your patience! makes me think if i had a time machine i may go backwards, get some brews on the go and then zip forwards again ;-)
 
Just racked (poured) this into a demijohn after its been fermenting in the FV.

Took a reading and its now 0.982 :eek: :eek:

Just worked it out on the calculator section and that makes it 15.6%ABV - and it bloody tastes that way too :mrgreen:

Still smells as if some fermenting is going on too.

Tastes a little odd and funky at the moment, obviously.. but you can almost taste the "potential" if you see what I mean?

God knows what % it will get to if it ferments anymore.. Berry recommends covering the demi with cling film to aid with overflowing/frothing, but I left it in the FV for 2 rather than 1 week, so it looks as if the frothing has stopped, so I'll razz a bung and airlock on it. -- Still bubbling, very very slowly.

By the way, apologies for lack of activity on the forum as of late, been very busy!
 
sounds good crE. The taste is get when i first rack a wine only really tells me that nothing has gone wrong, so i know what you mean about potential. Second racking is when i start to get an idea of its actual flavour. Sounds like a rocket fuel of a brew! perhaps you could sell your recipe to NASA :D

i think the calculator page on this site is set up for beer, i'm not sure that it won't underestimate ABV for wines, i'm sure someone will correct me if thats wrong tho.
 
It's been in a cold place (15'c) for a few days now, doesnt seem to be any activity at all. The water has evened out in both parts of the airlock and no signs of fermentation. Strange,

My pinneapple and parsnip brews are still bubbling away somewhat - and I brewed those way earlier than this banana brew.
 
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