Question about long term clearing of Banana wine

[BrewPahl]

I am really into the country wine thing. Surprised to see everything that you can turn into a wine. That being said I decided on brewing a small batch of Banana wine. Recipe below

Banana wine
3 lbs Bananas
1 1/2 cups light raisins
5 cups sugar
2 campden tabs
1 teaspoon nutrients
water to one gallon
1 package yeast I used leven EC 1118

I also added some starch enzyme to help break down some starches

1/15/10 Primary Ferm OG 1.128 with a PA 18%
1/23/10 already in the secondary Fermenter SG 1.064
2/7/10 already down to .990!! and very cloudy

I know that this wine can take a year to clear. Tom I planned the 3 Ps on this one but can not believe it is done with fermentation already! My question is I plan on moving this to the basement to clear out of the way. I was wondering if it is ok to change the bung to a solid one or leave the air lock on it. As this is going to take a while I thought it would be like bottling it let the rest of the sedement drop, open it up and transfer it to their real bottles after clearing. What are your thoughts?

PS tastes like jet fuel but I know that will age out too!

 

[St Allie]

You don't list your method for handling the bananas.. My banana wine cleared really fast on its own.. however I boiled and strained the bananas and skins before fermentation commenced. Also there is no citric acid in your recipe.. mine was identical except for the addition of lemons ( my recipe) and the starch enzyme ( your recipe).

My SG was 1.080 as I wanted something drinkable in a year.. your SG is rather high, however we all make wines to our own taste, it may take a long time for that to calm down.. alternatively you could make a second batch with a lower abv and blend the two if the higher abv proves to be too unpalatable for you...

what method did you use?

Allie

 

[Luc]

First I would certainly not put a solid bung on it. Always use a bung with an airlock for safety.

Next I miss Pectic enzymes in the recipe. That might help clearing.
You could add them now if you did not do so.

Luc

 

[BrewPahl]

I missed the lemons in the recipe

Juice of 2 lemons was used

I sliced and boiled the bananas in water to make a tea over about an hour then strained them. Upon racking the first time I also strained the raisins and pressed the juices out of them as well.

 

[BrewPahl]

.....and it is clearing a lot faster than I expected. I give this a month and it will be clear!!

 

[BrewPahl]

So I bottled this one today.....it cleared way faster than I expected. Very alcoholic smelling and tasting. Man, no banana flavor at all. This one will have to age for sure. This one is probably a true 18% ABV. I think I will make another batch and blend the two or I might age it a year in bottle and see what I get. It was interesting to watch the color change from what looked like paste from first grade to a clear yellow. It is perfectly clear with the exception of some pulp from the lemons floating on the top so I strained that off. Could have used a fining agent but it is such a small volume. The one gallon recipe only filled 3 1/2 bottles with so much drop off. Was thinking I might make a pineapple wine and blend the two together. We will see. I have that 1/2 bottle that I will open in a year and see what to do. I also have a batch of coffee wine that is starting to clear, a small taste of that one reminds me more of chocolate than coffee! Humm, chocolate covered banana sounds pretty dang good if you ask me!