sg dropped too fast?

Hi Cindie

There is nothing wrong with a quick fermentation time. Your wine will be just fine.

Regards

Frank

Cindie, You added 1/4 what, cup? You started with a pretty high SG, keep in mind the higher the alcohol, the harsher it will taste (for lack of a better way of putting it).

Most country wines are lower in alcohol and have a fruity taste, this batch may approximate a brandy. Not that that is a bad thing, it just may taste a bit hot. As Frank said, fast fermentation is ok for the most part.

Joe

Yes, sorry. 1/4 cup extra sugar. About 3 tablespoons extra in the gallon and 1 tablespoon in the 1 1/2 liter. It seems that 2 Tbs in a gallon raises the SG about .004 or so -- I'll have to keep experimenting to define the ratio...

Banana brandy huh? Ah well, we'll see how it goes... I'm in learning mode and having fun so far. I guess I can always mix it with fruit juice later. :)

What starting SG should I set for a goal for country wines?

Thanks for the advice!

Cindie

Cindie, I'm actually not the best person to answer this since most of my wines are grape. 1.085 ends up between 11 and 12 ABV%. Anything over 10% will usually keep longer as a rule. There are many styles of wine; the Germans make a lot of sweeter inexpensive wine at around 8% because the acid is higher and it's all good.

Let taste be your guide. As a rule a little sugar can round out a finished wine, so anytime you are not sure you like something just add a bit of sugar and see if it improves. If you bottle sweet wine you should use sorbate. Some bottle it dry and add the sugar when they open it to avoid adding sorbate. Chilled wine also softens any rough edges also.

I'm not saying you need to do any of this, this wine may come out exactly the way you like it. These are just a few of the tricks winemakers end up using. It really does evolve over time, it's not uncommon for something you considered pitching out comes out perfect.

A good winemaker told me that in any given 5 years you will get 1 great crop, 1 horrible and 3 so so. You can't just shut the doors when the fruit won't make life easy on you, so winemakers are always adapting to what is on hand.

Jack Keller has a ton of info on fruit wines. He has made them for years. You can trust his site to get you in the right range.

Joe

tovaryn wrote:

learning

Hi Cindy,

banana ferments like greased lightning, because of all the goodies present in the "juice". Yeast just loves banana. Other country wines, especially apple and a few flower wines, love banana too. It highly improves tast and mouth-feeling and gives your wine a "bite". You will not tast banana however, unless you cook the peel too. In fact, banana ferments so d.... quickly and producing so much foam, that you must be very careful not to fill your carboy too much, for else (it happened to me, the first time) the floor and sometimes even the ceiling will bear the marks of bananafermentation (aaahhhhh my wife.........) Ed

No flowers, no bees, no leaves on the trees, no wonder: november

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Thanks Joe!

I decided to try several small batches just to learn how to make wine. Once I'm confident that I understand the process, I'll try grape. I'd hate to spend $$ on a good wine kit just to ruin it. A few bananas, peaches and Welch's concentrate are easier to toss if all goes wrong.

:)

Yep, this foamed really well! The cap that developed while it was fermenting was also kind of solid each time I stirred it down. It even generated some mild heat. I should have measured to see how much it increased from room temp... :( I'll do that next time....

I did cook the peels and the banana smell was awesome while it was in the primary for the first three days. Then the smell grew overpoweringly bad for the next two days. Not rotting banana-type stink--just really bad. I'm glad it's in the secondary. The smell has cleared out. :)

It continued to ferment like mad for a day or so in the jug, but now it is still and settling. The color looks good -- kind of a golden-cream.

And I'm planning my next little batch! What to do what to do...

Thanks!

Cindie

Well, just a suggestion then. Don't cook the peel next time and compare the two. Bananawine without peel cooking can be used to vastly improve other country wines without ruining the taste and flavor of that wine. Bananajuice can be used as yeast nutrient and can speed up fermentation (like s... through a goose). Great berry, banana. Yep, it's a berry.

Ed

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Actually, the wine kits that are out there are almost 100% fool proof. Most of us would recommend that you use them to learn how to make wine and the branch out into country and fresh fruit wines. The instructions with the kits make them a great way to make wine with almost no chance at failure. The draw back is that they are not cheap. But at $85 for a kit, you end up with a lot of $3/bottle wine -- which still is not bad.

But if you want something that is really cheap and almost a fool proof, go to Jack Keller's site and make his Welch's Niagara. It will come out less than a dollar a bottle and generally is ready to drink in 2 months.

Ray

Hi Cindie,

I'm making some banana wine now,too. I am only making a gal since its my first time making it and I didn't want to be drinking 5 gal of a batch gone bad. I too got a quick primary ferment to dryness. After the second racking it tasted OK and showed some good potential. The banana taste really came out, however next time I don't think I'll include the peelings. I think I'll let it age a couple of months before I bottle.

I mostly do kits, but I'm just getting started into some country wines. It is quite fun ;-) Good luck on your batch!

Steve Lynchburg, VA

Hi Steve,

Did it smell bad when you put it in the secondary?

I'm hoping that smell passes. I'm concerned that the kitchen was too warm during the fermentation and I ruined it.

Only time will tell. I'm not throwing it out any time soon.

Cindie

Thanks Ray!

Jack Keller's Niagara was the first batch. It's still sitting in a 3 litre bottle under an air lock (the rest has gone to racking and tasting). It'll probably never make it into bottles because we'll just keep sampling and moving it to smaller jugs. ;)

I'm building up to a wine kit. When I brought up the subject of winemaking back in January, the DH and I chose to go with the little batches of country wine to start.

I want to make dandelion next (because my granddad loved dandelion). Then strawberry because we have ours in the garden. Then chokecherry (because my great aunt made wonderful chokecherry wine) and apricot (because my great gran made kicking apricot wine).

This is currently an obsession; it will calm... :) I hope we stay with it though.

Sometime in the late fall or so maybe I'll get a couple of bigger carboys and I'll get a grape wine kit. By then, we should be tired of fussing with the little batches.

Probably a good thing we're not doing a larger kit now. We'd surely ruin it with fussing over it. :)

Dandelion is a lot of work as a heads up. You just use the flower petals, so it takes a while to get enough. It's very good wine though. Tomato is another you might consider, it comes out like a white wine.

Joe

Cindie,

Good news! It won't! It won't calm down. And it's no obsession. It's worse, much worse. Do you have children? Planning to get children? DO IT NOW, while you still have the time. After another few batches of countrywine your hobby will be soaking up your sparetime like a V-8 does petrol. ;-). A hint for an easy and very very tasteful wine:

25 liters of wine: 5 liters of elderberry flowers 25 liters of water 2,5 kilo unsulfited raisins 6 kg sugar 2,5 grams sulfite 3 grams vitamin C 3 teaspoons yeast nutrients 1 teaspoon tannin 40 grams tartaric acid 120 grams citric acid 5 grams pecto-enzyme yeast

Cut off the flowerpetals, toss into primary; dissolve 5 kg sugar in 5 liters of water; pour the water over the flowers; add 19 liters of cold water after half an hour; dissolve in 1 liter of water sulfite, yeast nutrient, acids, pecto-enzyme, vitamin C and add that; dissolve tannin into a little wodka or other form of alcohol (is easier to dissolve) and add to primary. Toss in raisins and leave for a day. Add yeast. Stirr twice a day. After six days sieve out the solids. Press lightly and dissolve 1 kilo of sugar in presswine. Toss into primary. When fermentation is over, siphon into secondary; add kieselsol and two hours later gelatin; prepare bentonite and as soon as ready, add bentonite. Stirr vigourously. When the wine is clear, rack into smaller DJ and add 2,5 grams of sulkfite and 2,5 grams of vitamin C. Use rest to clear again and tasting. Ready for Christmas. And one thing is certain: spring is early that year!

Ed in Holland

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No, it didn't smell bad. It had a strong smell of bananas, but nothing bad. You may want to take a taste of your wine between rackings. Sometimes that will tell how things are going. Generally, if it tastes bad to start with, it won't taste better later. But you are right... only time will tell.

As far as the kitchen being too warm, I wouldn't be too concerned. Even as 70 - 80 degrees, the yeast will love it!

Steve Lyncburg

I will try this recipe! Spring is early here. I'll take a hike this weekend and scout the elderberries.

Cindie