Banana wine help

[cartet]

Our 5 gallons of banana wine has finished fermenting, but after tasting it, it's not really very good. It tastes a little flat and kind of sour. Would adding a can of white grape juice help it? We haven't back sweetened it yet. We know we need to add campten tablets and the sorbate. But just concerned this wine is not going to be fit to drink. From reading other posts we know that banana wine must age before it gets better. Any advice?

 

[Arne]

Draw a glass. Try adding a little sugar to it, stir it in well. If that doesn't do it, try adding a very small pinch of acid blend to it. Should wake it up a bit. Arne.

 

[cartet]

We did end up pulling a bit into a glass and adding sugar water but it didn't see, to improve it. I can try the acid blend. Thank you!

 

[Dale1978]

I have 2 different batches of banana going right now. My first batch was with a recipe where you simmer the bananas for 15 mins, used regular sugar and then combine everything. It is 6 months old now and still not sure if it is salvageable. Most threads I have read says it takes at least a year before it is good. I can tell this one is going through changes, but still does not taste like i would like it to. The second one, i froze the bananas and used brown sugar, it is about 3 months old and it has a lot better taste to it. It is still young tasting, but has a real good banana smell and taste. I think in 3 to 6 months, it ought to be real good. The 1st one has a higher ABV than the 2nd one, and I think that is one major difference. I followed a recipe on the 1st one and the starting SG was at 1.100 and I think the alcohol is overpowering the banana and making it taste rough. I am going to give it 6 more months and if it still is not to my liking, it will become drain cleaner. Both of mine are still in carboys bulk aging, but I have stabilized and back sweetened them both.

 

[dralarms]

Dale,

Even if it's not good one it's own, it will still make a good mixing wine. I love my strawberry banana.

 

[Deezil]

A lot of folks seem to have issues with banana; I think it comes down to the ripeness of the bananas.. I'll be making another batch at some point, to make sure my procedure is repeatable, but I covered it all quite thoroughly in my Banana Bochet Port thread..

The variety or source could play a role as well, but most don't have access to more than one variety and it'd be a lot of batches and time to determine how the sources play a role

 

[Dale1978]

Thanks dralarms I will try that strawberry banana sounds good

 

[x_diver]

Mine was terrible for the first six months. Then it started getting better. It is now at 9 months. Tastes like a silky smooth Chardonnay. Almost all banana in the nose is gone. Gonna let it sit for 3 more months. Let it sit.


Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[cartet]

Update: It's now been three months since we started the banana wine. It is as cleared up nicely and is a nice golden color. It's been racked about 5 times as the lees at the bottom were pretty thick. I've noticed since the last racking that there is very little falling now, so that good, I think! We haven't tasted it since the beginning of August so it's about time to sample and see where it stands. So far we haven't added any sugar as we kind of wanted to wait 6 months and see what it tastes like at that point. No real reason, just a thought.

It's okay to just leave it in the carboy to age with a air lock on it, isn't it? Is there any maximum amount of time that you should do this?