Tropical punch

[Old_timer]

Yesterday at Thanksgiving my in-laws mentioned they wanted me to make a tropical punch wine for the beach in about 6 months. I have enough to make a 5 gallon batch but will tropical fruit wine be aged enough to be enjoyable in 6 months? Here is what I am using most was on hand.

4 bananas
3 kiwi
1 pineapple
1 mango
1 pomegranate

Juices
Apple
Pineapple
Tart cherry
White grape

Acid
I have a lemon and a few limes I am going to zest and maybe squeeze to get the pH right.

10-12 pounds of sugar.


I have no experience with any of the tropical fruit and I have no clue on how long they should age. Can I use orange juice I have always heard oranges can be rough to age

 

[winemaker81]

How many total pounds of fruit do you have? How much juice are you using?

You can make something drinkable in the 6 month range. It will be better with another few months of aging, but for beach wine? It should be fine.

Do not go by "pounds of sugar" -- use your hydrometer and figure how much sugar is required to hit your target. To make a faster aging wine you want the ABV lower. 10% - 11%. Put the fruit and juices together and let meld overnight. Check the SG and then add enough sugar to bump the SG to 1.075 - 1.080.

1 lb sugar will bump 1 US gallon water from 1.000 to 1.045. If you have 5 gallons of must with an OG of 1.045 and you want to bump it to 1.075, you only need 3.3 lbs sugar.

 

[Old_timer]

I had calculated the approximate sugar in juice and fruit and then calculated the amount of sugar for approximately 15%abv.

5 pounds 13oz or 2640 grams of fruit. I hadn't thought about higher abv and aging other than doing a cider vs wine. I have a habit with higher abv in wine for preservation purposes. I prefer not to add to many chemicals.

 

[winemaker81]

You might make a 3 gallon batch so you use it up sooner.

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

6 months will work. I would stick with one or 2 kinds of juice. Look for juice concentrate with water and very few If any other ingredients. Bananas, mangos , etc good. More volume of fruit than wha you have listed there. Look for frozen fruit in the freezer section. And as noted use a hydrometer when starting your ferment.

 

[ratflinger]

I'd drop the ABV to 11% for a quicker finish

 

[BigDaveK]

I generally use 6 lbs of fruit for a 1 gallon batch. A generous use of juice will hopefully take up the slack.

Bananas need to be ripe, as in "black as sin". Freezing makes handling them easier. If they're organic I'd use the skins also.

I think lemon/limes are a good choice for a fruit punch. If it's not enough I'd go with citric acid.

Good luck!

 

[Rice_Guy]

You have an interesting mix;
I would separate the list into what tastes acidic vs what is mainly sweet. Using grandpa’s method a good must (starting mixture) should have a noticeable acid note that washes through the mouth after the sweet notes. ,,, There is something called Pearson’s Square which can be used to estimate a pH/ total acidity if you wanted to get scientific.
Kits with bentonite are 90 day products, the wine will be drinkable. You may not be as pretty as a filtered winery product unless you add clarifiers like a kit. BUT it still tastes good if cloudy.

My last couple of years I have put soft tannins (astringent flavors) in everything. Natural could be crab apple, but commercial tannins are available in the LD Carlson bottles.