Ah I normally don't bother checking the % unless I have an issue with it. My dad says 'what you doing that for? Sticks to the glass doesn't it?' lol
I can report however that after a bottle of it you do feel noticeably different...
Anyway recipe:
Banana Wine
1.3kg of ripe bananas, still in their skin.
900g sugar
1 cup of strong black tea
220g golden raisins
Juice of 1 lemon
Yeast nutrient
Pectolase
Yeast
Method:
The most important thing to remember, is that whatever bananas you choose, they have to be RIPE. Like, really ripe. Practically brown.
PRO TIP: If your bananas just won’t ripen quickly enough, place them in a brown paper bag with an apple or a tomato and leave them to sit overnight. The fruits will produce ethylene, which triggers the ripening hormone in bananas, so they should be perfectly ripe by the morning.
Give them a quick wash with the skins on and chop them up as they are.
Put the bananas in a large saucepan, add the sugar and stir. Pour in approx. one gallon of hot (not boiling) water and cook on a medium heat for around 45 minutes, never letting the mixture reach the boil (sugar burns very easily). Stir the mixture pretty much constantly while it cooks and use a potato masher to mush up the bananas as much as possible.
Meanwhile, roughly chop up your raisins and toss them into the brew bin.
Remove the banana mixture from the heat and allow it to cool down for around ten minutes before straining it and squeezing every last drop of banana juice out.
Pour the liquid over the raisins, then add the lemon, pectolase, black tea, wine yeast and the yeast nutrient. I would also add two scoops of the banana mush for extra flavour. Cover the bin, and leave to ferment for five days, stirring daily. After five days strain the mixture and squeeze it tightly. I would strain the mixture at least twice at this point. Use a new straining bag each time, so you get the cleanest liquid possible.
Pour liquid into your demijohn. If it doesn’t fill the demijohn, just add a little splash of bottled or filtered water. Store your demijohn in a cool dark place and leave it for at least a month. Rack. If your freshly racked wine comes in at under one gallon, you can add a tablespoonful of sugar syrup at this stage, and a splash of filtered or bottled water. Leave for 3 months. Rack. Leave 2 months, bottle. Leave 6 – 12 months before drinking.
And I add finings at the end when I stabilise. Also I top up with apple juice not water when I rack.