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Dont be suprised that the raw banana flavour has gone.The purpose of bananas is to add "body" to the wine rather than flavour.
Country wines can be based on the most unlikely and revolting ingediants,Yet !! the wine comes out tasting like wine rather than what its made from.

My Father for many many years made country wine from the oddest things,they all ended up tasting like wine.!!!

I have added things like chilli and ginger to my wines,These DO come through with the true flavour,But most other things seem to lose it.
Raisins mature in to a lovely flavour eventually.

I think its about time to consider racking in to the demijohns.
 
Yes I agree, it doesn't taste bad considering more like a rich strong chardonnay. I'll close lid now and do it tomorrow as I have to pick up a couple of demis. I'll take another hydro reading when I do but not sure what abv I've achieved. Thanks John.
 
Dont forget airlocks and bungs for your demijohns !!!
It will be fermenting for a while yet.

Chardonnay is a good resultathumb..
 
Well moved this to demis today and is still fermenting slowly but my hydro just sank below 1000 again!! It's a strong wine this!!!!
 

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Ended up with a few bits in last demi, it's going to ferment right out dry, it tastes dry now.
 
Right, well time to leave this alone now for 6 months and then think about bottling it.
It's going to take a while before it stops becoming paint stripper and something quaffable
 
It's not has bad as you'd think considering it would strip paint but I never thought I may end up back sweetening this.
 
OK so don't particularly want to back sweeten so just boiled 6oz of demarara minimum water and a squeeze of a tangerine I had lying around, divided this equally with turkey baster to each demi. I will leave this to bubble on now..... Mabe.
 
Keep on feeding SMALL amounts of sugar.
I see you have tried to make invert sugar (this is best.)
It will go om n om and om for weeks yet.
When you think its maxed out you may need to add potassium sorbate to bottle safely.

Add glycerine at the rate of 5oml per demijohn at the end of fermentation this will take the edge off the dryness and give a nice mouthfeel.
Maturation will do the rest
 
I'm not sure how many feeds are possible it must be 18. 5%_19% after this, I've got some maltodextrin for my beer is that no good for wine John. I got some wine stabiliser from wilcos, will that do at the end.
 
You could try adding some maltodextrin i have never put it in wine,I dont see it could do any harm in modest doses.
How many times per min is the airlock blooping now.?

Yes stabiliser is pot sorbate,You only need to add it at the very end of fermentation.
After that comes the issue of finings or not,The wine will clear faster with,(your choice)
 
Between 3 and 4 per min at moment so jugging along nicely, well I may get glycerine, as a fair bit of effort and time waiting will be spent on this wine so whatever it needs, I'll make a quick one next John.
 
A bottle will make it too you so I hope its OK. I appreciate your help. Sat up with flu at moment, aaarrrrrgh.
 
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To be honest the reason i stopped doing these super high alc fermentations was the slow seemingly endless fermentation at the end,I now just add cheap brandy after about 15% natural fermentation.
I have kept some ferments going for months.
At 3 to 4 bloops per min its not finished yet !!!

I dont personally know the yeast you used but it must be a "good un".

If you are interested in "fortification" I find brandy much superior than vodka for this purpose.
It may be a grape/grain thing.???
You could once the wine has cleared and been racked fill up the airspace in the demijons with brandy.
It will after all be a "sipping" wine:laugh8:

My main interest in high alc fermentations at the start (about 30yrs ago) was curiosity about how far i could "push it"
plus i do like the taste of port/sherry.
If i ever get round to building an estufa i might have another go in the future at a Madera clone.

A bottle of this would be a nice thought,Thanks !!

Keep in touch as its nearly time for your next one.!!!!!!!!!
 
Yes, I've got this beer to sort out hopefully soon, it's still Going!!!!, I need more bottles for that so be another £30, may go for two quick brews next I can drink before ten years conditioning... So two good options needed, a beer and a wine, oh The wine yeast is gervin g4, its still going. Topping up, I may have 1 original wine one topped with a wine and one brandy, mabe. I'll send one when I bottle John so I will get your postal address when I bottle, no problem. Thanks
 
You dont really need to send me a bottle,But might be nice! Thanks

Another benifit of topping up with brandy is it will help suppress any secondary fermentation,bit like sorbate.

You mentioned g4 in a previous post,most of my work was done with ec1118 a champagne yeast good to about 18% abv
and yes i have made champagne clones in the past and very very nice they were too.
I got quite close to the old Moet & Chandon,Which was a bit of a suprise to be honest.
Problem nowadays is getting hold of the bottles,When I did it at the time I was a high paid Londoner,and could afford the champers just to get my hands on the bottles.Now I am a poor Highlander with barely a beer bottle pocket.

I am also considering doing my own beers,And have been looking at the budget pressure barrels but many users on this site seem to have had a lot of problems with gas leaks on the cheaper barrels,So if I do it I think I will be using bottles instead.

Keep in touch,John.
 
I'm a man of my word and appreciate your help John. The g4 is doing a great job with this so may be worth a try, I have used pbs in past and served a much better drink than bottles with the exception of larger, I will bottle this strong beer as it will need longer conditioning, so I will be getting a new pb for stouts and bitters. I think bottled even commercial bitters or lower carbed don't seem to have head retention the pb gives although the answer may be do both.
It did cross my mind to lightly carb a bottle or two of the wine so I may do when it's at bottling stage. As for country wines I will just add a gallon or so in between shorter stuff, it's costly getting equipment again but intend too keep things small as in a couple of pbs and 1 or two sets of bottles only and not all at once. Demis and country wines will naturally grow slowly. I agree keep the costs down and realistic to how much I need to use. Its hard moving from the London high society back to being a Highland laird John, ha.
Keep in touch, yes.
 
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Still 3 bubbles a min, how long do you think it will keep going this John?
 
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