Tropical Daze

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Pumpkinman

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Tropical Daze

Ingredients


• Water to about six gallons
• 20 cups of white granulated sugar (looking for a SG between 1.085-1.090)
• 8 cups Honey use to bring SG up to desired amount
• 2 – 48 oz Cans Dole Pineapple Juice
• 1 tsp. tannin
• 4 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 2 tsp. yeast energizer
• 3 Tsp Acid Blend
• 3 tsp. pectin enzyme
• 12 lbs. of Mixed Fruit Blend (Pineapple/ Peach/Mango/Strawberry/Grape) I put the fruit in a nylon drawstring bag or two if necessary, this will make for a much cleaner brew. I take a spring clamp and hold the drawstring in place so I don’t have to fish for them later.
• Yeast, 1 gram of yeast per gallon of Must. Lalvin 71B-1122 & ICV D47 blend,( you can use any of the following as well. DV10, QA23 - (Saccharomyces cerevisiae bayanus
• Go Ferm – 1.25 Gram per each gram of yeast used
• ½ -1 Oak Infusion spiral stick
• 2 oz untoasted oak.
• Add 1/4 tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite
• Add 3 tsp. Potassium Sorbate
• Sparkolloid
• Sugar or honey for Back sweetening - 4 cups

Preparation: Add to Fermenting bucket

• 20 Cups of Sugar
• 2 gallons of hot water, stir until completely dissolved
• Add Honey, take SG reading, add until you reach 1.090
• 2 - 48oz Cans of Dole Pineapple Juice
• 3 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp. tannin ( I prefer Tannin riche, it imparts a nice sweetness to wine)
• 4 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 2 tsp. yeast energizer
• 3 tsp. pectin enzyme
• Stir well to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.
• 12 lbs of Mixed Fruit Blend (Pineapple/ Peach/Mango/Strawberry/Grape), thawed. I put the fruit in a nylon drawstring bag or two if necessary; this will make for a much cleaner brew. I take a spring clamp and hold the drawstring in place so I don’t have to fish for them later.
• ½ - 1 Oak Infusion Stick
• 2 oz untoasted Oak – helps reduce any vegetal flavors – I add in nylon drawstring bag or grain steeping bag.
• 20 oz chopped and re-hydrated raisins placed in Nylon drawstring bag
• Add the remaining water up to the 6 -6.5 gallon mark, taking into consideration the volume of the mesh bags.
• Take an SG reading, you want the must to be between 1.075 – 1.090

I let this sit overnight, with a heat mat wrapped around the fermenter, a brew belt would do too, just until it reaches 85°.

This yeast can handle 80-85° with no problems.

The following Day:

I take my selected yeast, 1 gram per gallon of must and rehydrate as follows:
I heat a half cup of water to 120° and add 7.5 grams of Goferm (1.25 g per gram of yeast used), add to the water and mix it in. When the water cools to 110-115° add the yeast, just sprinkle on top and let it rehydrate, let sit for 15 minutes or until you see it starting to foam (reproduce), then add ¼ cup of the must. This will give it a source of food to continue to reproduce and multiply, and it will get the yeast acclimated to the temp of the must.
Let sit for 5 mins and add to the primary.

Stir Primary Vigorously!

Every Day:

Check temp
Check specific gravity
Squeeze juices from fruit pack into fermenter---remove fruit pack: Temporarily place in sanitized bowl bucket.
Stir primary to introduce a little oxygen into must, the yeast will need it.
Replace fruit pack
Cover primary
When specific gravity (SG) reaches <1.000, do the following:
Squeeze juices from fruit pack into fermenter---remove fruit pack: Discard fruit.
Rack to cleaned and sanitized six gallon carboy
Add 1/4 tsp. Potassium Metabisulfite (stir)
Add 3 tsp. Potassium Sorbate (stir)
Degas very thoroughly: I cannot emphasize this enough!
Add Sparkolloid* as per package. Add hot mixture to carboy.
Allow to clear undisturbed for about 1 week

When wine is clear:

Carefully rack off of lees into cleaned & sanitized six gallon carboy

Back sweeten, if you are going to use sugar, I would make a simple syrup, 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, heated just shy of a boil, you will see it turn to a syrup, make sure you stir constantly, you will probably need double that amount.
Back sweeten to your own taste

Remember! The sugars will blend with the fruit flavors over time, and the sweetness will come forward.
Do not over-sweeten!
Allow wine to clear free of all sediment: This may or may not require more racking over the next few weeks.



This can be made as a traditional Dragon Blood variant using sugar, or as a Melomel by using honey in place of sugar.

Has anyone tried this yet?
 
Last edited:
I haven't yet but it is definitely on my list. I just need an empty bucket.
 
Mine is in primary. I substituted golden raisins for the regular ones, and added three pounds of kiwi. Best smell ever of all fermentations I have had. This ones gonna be hard to give away.
 
Nice!!!! I love hearing how everyone adjusts these recipes to their own taste and creativity!
I know what you mean, I am looking at a few batches that I really do not want to let go of...LOL
Shelley, this tropical is awesome, you won't be disappointed!
 
jrvernon said:
Mixing and putting in the primary this weekend! Cannot wait!

Ok, in the primary. Slight alterations were the use of 6 cups of brown sugar and added 3 pounds of fresh kiwi and 1 pound if peaches.
 
Excellent variation, Tom. Now I'm going to have to try your recipe and compare it to mine! :try
 
Hey guys, bottled my TH last night. How long should I age this wine as when I tried it, it was good, but obviously young.
 
IF you degass well with the All in One, it will move things along faster, I've had mine in a carboy since Jan. 5th and it is ready to bottle!
 
Pumpkinman said:
IF you degass well with the All in One, it will move things along faster, I've had mine in a carboy since Jan. 5th and it is ready to bottle!

Pumpkin,

I did my final rack about that same time and bottled this past weekend. I was really asking about how long should it be before drinking?
 
oh....lol...in that case....once bottled, I'd wait a few weeks if you can, let everything settle down and get happy...lol
My wife thinks that ours tastes like a hard cider/apple wine.....win win as far as I'm concerned.
 
Pumpkinman said:
oh....lol...in that case....once bottled, I'd wait a few weeks if you can, let everything settle down and get happy...lol
My wife thinks that ours tastes like a hard cider/apple wine.....win win as far as I'm concerned.

Ok it has been a month since I bottled and wow what a difference. May be my favorite so far. Glad I did not over sweeten! I actually bottled five bottled that were not back sweetened at all and now I am anxious to try. I will attempt to age this at least eight to twelve months.
 
Hey Tom I'm getting ready to start a batch of this and I have a question before I go to the grocery store. In the list of ingredients you call for 1 48oz. bottle of Real Lemon but in the instructions I don't see any mention of it. Did you substitute out the lemon with the pineapple juice? Thanks

Bill
 
Billberry, yes that was an error on my part, no lemon, I swapped out Pineapple juice instead.
I just found a 6 gallon carboy with my original tropical daze..lol...I think it's safe to say that it is ready to bottle!
 
Gee Tom, I would like to have the problem of finding "lost" carboys of wine due to me having an abundance of wine laying around bulk aging. Must be nice eh? I'll have to work on that.:D
Thank you for your quick response.

Bill
 
Lmao! I've been making a bunch of 6 gallon batches of All Grain beer as well (I need to get a hobby...lol) I have a ton of filled carboys.
 

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