Spiced Banana wine..

[waggoner]

I want to have a go at making some wine with "real" fruit, rather than tins and juices..
I got a book its from CJJ Berry and dated 1978 (my dads), having a look thru it and i like the look of the Spiced Banana wine!!

Has anyone tried this??

3lb bananas.
1 oz cloves.
1 oz ginger.
31/2 lbs sugar.
1/2 oz citric acid (3 lemons, no pith).
11/2 pints strong tea (tbs of grape tannin).
6 pints water.
yeast and nutrient.

Normal thing of adding it all together and leaving it for 10 days, then straining it into a demijohn.

One question,, the amount of cloves,, would this seem right?? or might they be a bit overpowering??

Any thoughts on this would be much apprecated..

Thanks..

[lockwood1956]

It looks like (forgive me here)

olde worlde crap that will take 7 years to become drinkable

[lockwood1956]

Here is a modern take on it


1 litre white grape juice
1 litre apple juice
1lb bananas boiled in 2 pints water, than add the water...discard the pulp
sugar to SG 1.080 (likely 700grams)
1 tsp citric acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp pectolase
1/4 tsp ground ginger (if you like ginger)
NO TANNIN (not required, and if it was it wouldn't be in the form of tea!)
water to 1 gallon
good quality yeast (I would recommend lalvin D47)

once ferment reaches SG 1.010 add 2 or 3 cloves (you can add more later) and the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange (no pith)

let it age for 1 month, and taste, you may then wish to add more cloves if you have a liking for them.....


or bottle it into 6 bottles and add different things to each bottle


perhaps some star anise, cinnamon, ginger?


didn't wish to be rude about the recipe you posted, but (in my humble opinion) its a rubbish recipe



regards
bob

[lockwood1956]

A Word for anyone reading this....

I am a big fan of First steps in winemaking...the methodology in it is great

the recipes are just total and utter rubbish

Sugar is refined to a much greater level these days, so if you are reading a recipe from before 1990 take at least 1lb of sugar per gallon off

yeast technology and adjunct quality are 9,000% improved, and so methods need to move on too

we have access to fantastic quality pressed grape juice in supermarkets, and top quality grape concentrates from home brew shops.

People made wines using bananas and parsnips etc, because the hobby was born in the days of rationing just after the war, so these things were a cheap substitute for sugar!!

here's a radical thought....use sugar.....there is NO substitute


here endeth the party political broadcast on behalf of the anti parsnip party

[Mamgiowl]

Well, I suppose in the interest of fairness we should have party political broadcast from the opposition, so here goes.

Some of us don't have access to boxes of grapes, and find that sticking to juice wines is fine as far as it goes, but it's much more interesting to experiment with the more esoteric ingredient. Sometimes it works (my peapod was surprisingly one of the best wines I've ever made) and sometimes it doesn't, (don't mention marrow in my hearing), but it was fun finding out, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from taking something improbable, fermenting it and finding I like the taste when it's finished.

I have made the spiced banana from CJJ Berry, but updated it to take into account the improvements Bob mentioned. It wasn't 'fine wine' but none the less enjoyable for all that, but I will say, Waggoner, definitely DON'T use that many cloves.

Here endeth the P.P.B on behalf of the "Why Not Parsnip?" party

[lockwood1956]

lol
fair enough Jan


but really?

3 1/2 sugar to a gallon of wine?.....absolute and utter tosh of the highest order

[Rich]

I have his book somewhere.

Maybe, we could do a recipe as a fixed recipe for the next VWC comp?

(I like desert wine though..)

[ms67]

love country wine
love making country wines that make the nay-sayers jaws drop
love dessert wine
have enormous respect for Berry, but use his recipes for inspiration rather than copy them ... after all if the builders of bi-planes knew what we know today and had today's materials ....
Never tried banana wine, but have tried cloves .... go easy 1 per gallon is plenty unless you can't get enough of their flavour. Mace flowers or star anise work great in some wines.
enjoy your winemaking and your niche - i can't get enough of bringing old time country wine recipes up to date, experimenting, taking on challenges etc. but i do like wine from grape juice for something quick-brewing to drink while the country wines age properly .

[fatbloke]

Pay attention to the PPB of Bob's, especially the bit about the amount of cloves.....

They're vvv powerful little swines and as the oils/flavourings in cloves are alcohol soluble, you can pretty much bet that it would have a very strong flavour of them in the original recipe (given that 2 or 3 as per Bob's suggestion, is a hell of a lot less than 1oz)........

regards

jtfb

[Mamgiowl]

lol
fair enough Jan


but really?

3 1/2 sugar to a gallon of wine?.....absolute and utter tosh of the highest order

I agree wholeheartedly, Bob, but I did say I tweak the recipes to bring them up to date. As always your hydrometer is your friend!

[lockwood1956]

[waggoner]

Wow,, Thanks everyone for the replies and Bob thank you for going into so much detail,, thats really brilliant of you.

Well,,as not to offend the anti-parsnip and pro-parsnip parties, , i've done a bit of a comparison.

I've made a batch using Bobs recipe,, but i never had the yeast you suggested, i bough a few packets of Gervin's GV1 off ebay in the week, so i used one of them. I added the sugar, a liitle too much, and it came out to SG1090. so that one is bubbling away nicely already...

I made a second batch, using the sightly modifield CCJ Berry recipe,, it worked out to roughly 21/2 pounds of sugar,, which bought it to SG1090 aswell..I used fresh root ginger and lemons instead of critic acid..and only 2 cloves,, not the ounce!

They both smell brilliant,, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out??

I guess in future it might be a bit wise to stick to the recipes that people have added here,, at least they are tried and tested!!

Thanks again everyone for the replies..

[spritzer]

Well,,as not to offend the anti-parsnip and pro-parsnip parties, , i've done a bit of a comparison.

,, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out??

Fantastic
Let us know how they both go

[lockwood1956]

Experimentation is great fun.

The amounts of sugar in the CJJJJJJ Berry recipes has always troubled me, sugar is better refined these days so you don't need as much.

I did an amended recipe PDF here that you might find useful

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3985

hope that helps
regards
Bob

[waggoner]

[QUOTE=lockwood1956;76634]

I did an amended recipe PDF here that you might find useful

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3985

Thats interesting,, thanks Bob. i will file that away for the future..

Yes,, if 2 1/2 pounds of sugar brought it to 1090, then i would hate to think what 3 1/2 would take it to!!

My book by cjj Berry is ''130 new winemaking recipes''. Maybe not so new now i guess!! i will have to hide it away on the bookshelf now...

Yes, will do, i 'll post on here how they both turn out..

Thanks again.

Mark.