[FlTropical]

After learning as much as I could from my father in law and reading a few books I am ready to make my first wine. I have access to the best fresh lychees in the world an would like to use them.

I need a good recipe, hoping to create a very sweet wine. Not quite dessert sweet, but good and fruity.

Any recipes for lychee wine, tips or sugestions greatly appreciated. I ready some articles saying I have to use tannin because lychees are not acidic. I am not sure I want to use tannin if it is going to take away from the sweetness.

[sly22guy]

Off the web. Id say double the fruit to get a good fruity wine. Keep in mind this is a 1 gallon recipe. Also add sugar to 1.085sg and use Cotes De Blanc yeast

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques96.asp

[docanddeb]

You might want to have extra juice frozen to sweeten and bring the flavor back up at the end as well.

Jack Keller's Wine site has a recipe for almost anything. Start a "Favorites" on your computer and everytime someone mentions something... stash it there for future reference.

Good Luck!!

Debbie

[FlTropical]

Thank you both so much. Do you mean sugar back it after the 2nd fermentation is complete?

I Had picked up champagne yeast per my father in law, any drawback?

Many thanks since this is my first batch.

[FlTropical]

Ok one more Q. That recipe says 5 lbs of lychees, is that pre processing? I took 12 lbs.of sweet and juicy variety and came up with about 7 lbs of juice/pulp.

Also will acid blend make a wine more dry? I realize lychees are not acidic and don't want the wine too flat.

[docanddeb]

The fruit measure is after pits, etc removed, usually.
Acid blend doesn't make wine dry... just gives it interest instead of tasting "flat". Tannin is used for body and I guess it also helps in clearing. You could use 5# for a gallon... save the other 2# to add along with the sugar after it is all finished and stabalized. Do you have Campden tablets (or Potassium Metabisulfite) along with Sorbate to add after it is all finished?
Do you have a hydrometer? You'll need that to determine your Starting Gravity (SG). An acid test kit is good too... cheap, but you can probably go by what the recipe says if you don't have one.
You'll need to sanitize all your equipment before adding anything. You can do that with a solution of Campden (Kmeta).

We all wish you great success!

Debbie

[FlTropical]

Thanks,

In that case I will pull 30 lbs more lychees out and get to preparing.

I got the entire kit locally, I cannot paste links yet (too new). I have all of those items and then some. It came with a basic book, although I understand most of the process so far (all the hydrometer scales need some more work for me though in how many ways they are interpreted).

In that recipe, if I wanted to skip the tannin what do I substitute it with? More acid blend, and if so how much?

Umm, I can determine starting gravity when it is still in primary fermentation? I thought I had to do it once I move it over to the carboy. Please be gentle I am new to this great hobby.

The funny part is I picked 8 gallons of elderberry today, since that is my second batch waiting in line after the lychee is on its way. Many many many thanks.

[1ChuckGauthier]

The more pounds of fruit you add to the receipi, the better the wine will taste, I try to use 8 lbs per gal. 1.085 will give you more fruit taste than 1.090 or more. You get your specific gravity # by testing your must in initial set up. Add fruit, sugar water etc then measure.........good luck

this year I am going to try blackberry by freezing my berries, crushing them when thawed and use only juice approx 6 gal to make my wine. Will save the crushed berries to make another batch which will likley have less flavor.

[Luc]

I have made lychee wine from canned lychees.

You can find my recipe here:
http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/08/lycheewijn-litchiwine.html

I made it twice and both times it was deliscious.

Fresh lychees will even be better.

Use about 5 kilo lychees per 10 liter, this will give a full flavored wine with body
5 Kilo Means peeled and no piths.

Luc

[roadwarriorsvt]

Of course I'll argue that Hawaii has the best lychee! I've got a kaimana and two Emperor trees that are first generation from China. Here is the recipe, found on the net, that I used to make a 5 gallon batch. Its a very simple written recipe though. I'd suggest a bare minimun of 5# of peeled, de-seeded lychee meat per gallon of wine. I didn't know about F-pacs when I made this and is still has a great lychee flavor.

1

Begin heating the water. Peel the lychees and remove the stone. Chop the remaining fruit and add it to the sugar in the primary container. Pour in enough boiling water to make one gallon of liquid and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.

2

Add the remaining ingredients. Note the requirement for additional tannin for lychee wine because this fruit is not acidic enough by itself. Cover the primary container with a cloth.

3

Allow the mixture to stand undisturbed until it is fermenting vigorously. Stir it each day for five days.

4


Strain the liquid through a nylon sieve into the secondary container and fit an airlock. The pulp now may be discarded. Rack every 30 days until the wine clears and does not drop any sediment. This step is especially important for lychee wine.

5

Stabilize the wine and sweeten to taste if needed. Wait 10 days to ensure that fermentation has stopped before racking into bottles.

Things You'll Need
1 gallon water
5 lbs fresh lychees
2 1/2 lbs fine sugar
1/4 oz citric acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/4 tsp tannin
Chablis wine yeast


Read more: How to Make Lychee Wine | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2121513_make-lychee-wine.html#ixzz1PESQrHju

The champagne yeast is a good choice although I've learned that the Cotes Des Blanc is a great fruit wine yeast. I's also suggest freezing the peeled de-seeded lychee for a few days, let it fully thaw, then proceed with the recipe.

Also, how sweet the wine is will depend on you. It will ferment dry. You will need to add sorbate, them backsweeten to your taste. If the wine will age for any length of time, it will get a little sweeter with age, so don't over-do it when you backsweeten.