Guava Wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Boatboy24

No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Joined
Mar 18, 2012
Messages
17,136
Reaction score
29,800
Location
DC Suburbs
Started a guava wine today. 3 gallon batch.

2.5 gallons of guava nectar, 1 gallon of organic white grape juice.
2g of FT Blanc Soft
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp Fermaid O
SG adjusted to 1.080
pH tested @ 3.38, so I left it alone
D47 yeast

We'll see how she goes...
 
Where did you get the nectar in gallons?
How much sugar you needed to adjust the SG to 1.080?

I love guava but never thought about it in a wine.. [emoji4]
 
Where did you get the nectar in gallons?
How much sugar you needed to adjust the SG to 1.080?

I love guava but never thought about it in a wine.. [emoji4]

Bought it in ~33oz cartons. They were on sale for $0.99 a piece. Ten of those, along w/ two half gallons of organic white grape juice.

Ended up adding a pound of corn sugar, and maybe another half pound of white table sugar.

The D47 took off slowly, but was cooking nicely as of last night. I couldn't believe it, but it smells even more guava-y than it did before pitching the yeast.
 
She's taking her sweet time. Not quite down to 1.050 as of last night. In contrast, the Vermentino I started with QA23 the same day was at 1.000 and an SG of 1.087. There is no sign of stress though - no off odors. In fact, it smells great. I'll just be patient and if I have to finish it off with EC-1118, I will.
 
I gotta tell ya, it smells awesome. Down to 1.050 tonight. Slow and steady wins the race. In the meantime, I just racked the Vermentino to secondary at 0.997.
 
Sorry for the threadjack, but I thought I would share my other guava wine story as an FYI

I make my guava wines from fresh fruit. The guavas that are easiest for me to grow are strawberry guava and lemon guava. The last time I made guava wine I tried a straight strawberry guava. My thought with this batch was to try to capture the beautiful red color of a ripe strawberry guava. 5#/gallon. I simmered the fruit and gave it a 3 day cold soak.

Do not simmer and cold soak.

The color is a beautiful pink rosé, but this wine is irreparably, irredeemably bitter. Too much time on the seeds I believe. In retrospect I should have tried some Noblesse, it might have helped. As it stands, I pop open a bottle about once every 6 months, take a sip, try to convince myself the bitterness has subsided, take a second sip and learn otherwise, and dump it out.
 
Geez, still at 1.022 as of last night. Ten days in. No off odors or other signs of stress, but I'm getting anxious over here.

giphy.gif
 
OK, finally got to secondary tonight. 2 weeks after pitching the yeast, I was at 1.004. Its still smelling and tasting great. Think I'll have a winner here - just under $20 for 3 gallons.
 
It's been a while since I updated this. My notes say I racked from secondary on 5/19, but I didn't write down the SG. As I recall, it still wasn't below 1.000, but hadn't moved in a while - notes say I added ~1/8tsp of KMETA. Today I racked and measured SG at 0.994. The nose is something to behold. A big old fist full of guava to the face. It sets you up thinking you're going to have a great big, sweet, fruity wine. On the tongue, it is not quite that - much more subdued with good guava, but a hint of bitterness that I think was coming from CO2 (I tasted prior to racking). Acid feels like it is right on. I've got a bit of haze, so added some pectic enzyme and will let it sit for a while. I'm thinking it needs just a little sugar. I'll test some samples at 0.998, 1.000 and maybe 1.002 (or 004), if needed. Bottom line: I think I'm going to have a really, really enjoyable 'white' wine here that will showcase the tropical flavors of guava that I just love. And at less than $20 for 3 gallons, who can complain?
 
Took a taste tonight. WOW!! Awesome sauce. Great acidity, amazing - in your face - guava flavor. Awesome without any back sweetening, but I think a hint of additional sugar will bring it to 'sublime'. Haze is gone. I'll rack and bench test with a little additional sugar soon. Hoping the sorbate that I'll have to add doesn't throw the flavor off too much. This is insanely good.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top