Lychee Wine

[robwrx]

Made 2 batches of this lychee wine today but I also made a silly newbie mistake. I have to ferment in djs so I put the lychees in a food processor. The resulting soup was rather thick and gave a false hydrometer reading that I didn't spot until after I had added the sugar and pitched in the yeast.

Once checked with a refractometer the true sg is only 1.070. I am planning on fermenting down to about 1.010 and then racking, topping up and continuing fermenting to dry. Due to the amount of pulp I'm going to have to add a lot of water which will make a very weak wine. How can I work out how much sugar to add to create a syrup that will correct the problem when I top up?

Rob

[Rich]

Let the pulp drain for a while, then give it a little squeeze. Topping up should then be reduced.

I did a test on some lychee a little while ago, of drained lychees vs squeezed ones. The difference was so slight it was hard to tell.

But, THIS should help

[robwrx]

Thanks for the link Rich.

[Rich]

Being 3 years today that I first posted this recipe, I've made quite a few over the years, I've made another gallon today.

This one is being made with some Vintners harvest A4 yeast.

[lockwood1956]

Happy third birthhday lychee recipe!


I have made tons of it, it never dissapoints

[dpile1]

Just set a gallon of this going. Looks good thanks.

[dpile1]

Starting SG was 1.092 (a bit high I know) and stabilised today at .994 = 13%APV.

I'll rack in a couple of weeks after fining the wine and leave it alone for a few months to age a little. Looking forward to trying this around November time.

[Richard S]

It will be good to drink almost straight away.

[mrmojorisin]

quick question, is there a definitive yeast to use yet, i ask as i have a K1V in stock although i'm going to the LHBS tomorrow so could pick up anything (in stock) else that was the preferred as i have the rest of the ingredients and will probably get my first batch on the go on friday or over the weekend.

also, WRT WGC, is there a cheap way to buy litres of the stuff, my LHBS only stocks smaller amounts and a litre would be prohibitively expensive.

cheers

[Rich]

I used concentrate in the first batches, but have since switched to using 2 litres of grape juice from Tesco/Asda they both do a not from concentrate version.

Yeast, I've made it with K1v, D47 and champagne yeast. Just trying a Vintners harvest AW4 yeast, but tasting is at least a month away. They all produce slightly different results, all good so far.

I've taken to sweetening it up slightly so it's 'off dry' maybe to 1.000 sometimes 1.005. Even a teaspoon of glycerine in there makes a difference.

[mrmojorisin]

Cheers Rich,

I'll go with the K1V for now then as that's becoming my stock yeast. I've bought the tin of WGC now so will use that but switch to juice for future batches.

Will definitely bear in mind the back-sweetening when it's at that point and go for a bit of trial and error

[dpile1]

It will be good to drink almost straight away.

Superb

I'll let it clear for a bit then filter it when I've got some other wines ready to filter.

I'll report back on how the family found it.

Thanks again.

[RonaldJB]

Having drunk a few Gewürztraminer wines, the first been given to me by Bob, I set about making one that was a reasonable copy.

Shameless cut/paste..

The dark pink color of gewürztraminer grapes results in wines coloured from light to dark golden yellow with a copper tone, depending upon the fruit ripeness. Gewürztraminer is quite full-bodied, more so than most any other white wine type. In fact, the combination of its strong, heady, perfumey scent, exotic lychee-nut flavour and heavy-oily texture can be overwhelming and tiring to many palates.

The recipe went like this..

2x tins lychees from Tesco in LIGHT syrup
1x small tin WGC
900g Sugar (or thereabouts, 1.080 is what I aimed for)
2 tsp pectolase
1/8th tsp tannin
3tsp Tartaric acid. (measured to 4ml with a Ritchies acid test kit)

Made 1 gallon with gervin champagne yeast, as it was all I had in, I could have sworn I'd got a pack of 71b left..

Then a few weeks later I started one the same with a pack of 71b 1122.

Both lots were started with a starter with a b1 tablet and 1tsp nutrient in.

Started in bucket at 1.080 ish transfered to Demijon at 1.020, fermented to dry, Degassed, Finned, then racked twice more over 2 months to remove sediment. Didn't bother filtering it, it looked clear enough for me.

The first lot with the gervin yeast was very good, and didn't last long in the bottle! I still have 3 bottles of the second batch left, might try to hold on to 2 of them for a while longer.

BOB's REVIEW

If anyone tries this, post your feedback please!

Rich

That sounds like a really good recipe - would you say that it is a tough call for a beginner trying to brew my own Lychee Wine? (emphasis on the word trying of course^^). I am so in love with Lychee wine to be honest... I could drink so many bottles of the Chinese Lychee wine at my favorite Chinese Restaurant. They always give me one glass more for free because they know how much I appreciate this wine and how much I simply enjoy to drink it! I have often tried to find a decent Lychee Wine at any supermarket but it somehow does not taste the same... only one time I had really pure luck ordering wine by post in uk and it was so good that I still order there... though I have to say I would rather try out making my own wine finding out that it actually is delicious and not poisoned.

[goldseal]

I don't think it would be too tough a call. It is pretty straightforward. As soon as I get chance, I'll post a step-by-step guide - if you have already done, say, a wine no.1 and a wine no.2 the instructions and methods should be largely familiar.

If I haven't posted in the next couple of days, please remind me

[Richard S]

Check out your local branch of Lidl, Lychees are on sale from tomorrow (1st Sep) at 79p for a 567g tin