Wacky Tropical Wine - WHEW! It's strong...

[Brewgrrrl]

I'm curious about everyone's experience fermenting with brown sugar, bananas and ginger. I made a three gallon batch of something called "Tropical Ginger Wine" from "Making Wild Wines and Meads" and - WHEW! It is STRONG. The description said it would be "like a grown-up ginger ale" and that really isn't what I'm experiencing. This stuff actually reminded me of bourbon when I was bottling it (not necessarily a bad thing but really not what I'd expected either).

One month after bottling, it seems to be softening up a bit but I'm curious about what I might expect in the long term. The main ingredients were brown sugar, bananas and ginger so... any thoughts on this?

Well, I am tasting a 187 ml sample bottle right now so this should knock me out for the night (yes, this is seriously strong)... nice chatting with you all...

 

[grapeman]

That sounds like a really interesting brew there- and strong to boot!

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I've just never had a wine that I wanted to mix with coca-cola, yo'm say'n?

 

[Brewgrrrl]

(boot - ha ha ha...)

 

[vcasey]

Having a good evening? Brown sugar will usually give you a molasses type flavor. I have used dark brown sugar and muscovado sugars in some meads and it does give you a bourbon taste and needs lots of time to mature.
VC

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I have survived the 187 ml of bourbon wine, thank you, and may recover in time to work tomorrow. It does kind of taste like molasses now that you mention it. So... what is it like after it matures? This is just the strangest wine I've ever made.

 

[vcasey]

I am just going by what I have read regarding the Fall's Bounty and the ABC mead that I made with those sugars. Both have hints of molasses when I taste them. The Falls Bounty much less so but it had lots less to start with as well and this is from my 2 year old batch, the new one I have not tasted yet and I think I used a bit more. The ABC is still very young but the taste is still there. I'll have to look up that wine it sounds interesting, I may have avoided looking at it because of the ginger.
VC

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I love ginger but I can barely taste it in this wine - same thing for the bananas (sadly). I think the dark brown sugar is really dominating the flavor profile right now. If that changes in the future I'll repost.