JoeReal

I have just bottled up Sherry Wines from California Gold bananas. I have given a bottle to Mike (bananavilla) and to Benny (bencelest). I netted about 4 bottles of California Gold Sherry wine. I was surprised that it turned out very sherry like, full bodied, high alcohol content (17.5%), with just hints of banana aroma. Here's the wine label that I used. The original fruits and pic were given to me by Mike. I added some of my California Gold fruits also. Sorry can't show the final pics of the bottled wines, I don't have a digital camera at the moment. But here's the label:




Each step should be carefully followed as to why, when and how much ingredients are used in various steps have reasons behind them. If there are inconsistencies that could be due to typos, just bring them to my attention and will clarify and correct them for you. So here goes:


Banana Sherry Wine
(5-gallon batch recipe).

20 lbs peeled ripe cavendish bananas (Dole, Chiquita, Delmonte, etc.)
12.5 lbs white granulated sugar
5 tsp citric acid
5 tsp malic acid
5 tsp tartaric acid
1 tsp grape tannin (optional)
10 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet complete enzyme (3-in-1 Enzyme: Pectinase, Amylase, AG)
1 packet Flor Sherry Yeast
Enough clean water (probably 5 gallons at least).


Mash the bananas and mix with 5 tsp tartaric acid and 10 cups water, and cook in pressure cooker for 15 minutes at 15 psi (default settings of most pressure cookers). Cool off pressure cooker quickly by running cool water around it until it is just safe to open it. Dump the still hot contents into a clean primary fermenter. Rinse off the insides of the pressure cooker and dump also into the primary. The color of the cooked banana should be light pink to brownish. Add 7.5 lbs of white sugar into the primary, add warm water to make up to the 5 and 1/2 gallon mark on your primary fermenter, stir until sugar is dissolved. When temperature of the broth has cooled down to 100 deg F and below, add 5 tsp citric acid, 5 tsp malic acid, 1 packet complete enzyme and stir. Let stand until the broth cools down to 80 deg F and below, then pitch in the Flor Sherry Yeast. Stir twice a day for 3 days then let stand for 2 days without stirring. Get a clean 6 gallon pail, place 5 lbs of sugar, 1 tsp grape tannin and 10 tsp yeast nutrient, and then rack off the contents from the primary unto this pail and stirring vigorously to dissolve sugar, provide aeration and shake off the dissolved carbon dioxide gas. Leave off the half gallon sediments in the primary for your second batch (if you intend to). Then after these are mixed well in the clean pail, rack off unto the 6 gallon carboy which is set up specifically for Submerged aeration method of Sherry Wine fermentation as shown below:




The setup could be variable depending upon your air pump, but it is suggested to allow the lowest settings on the air pump as possible, you can use a crimper to control flow rate. You can run the submerged method anywhere from 3 to 30 days, until you achieved the desired color or effects that you want. Running longer produces more acetaldehyde (vinegary) type aromas. At the end of the aeration treatment, simply replace with a simple air lock, or simply remove the air bubbler and plug that other hole. Then it will be the process of sedimentation and normal racking thereafter. Then after one month rack off unto another carboy with oak chips in them, and you can proceed normally as you would when making other wines. Two years with racking every 4 to 6 months is good for this type of sherry wine.

Estimated alcohol content with this method is 16% abv sweet wine to 19.5% abv off-dry, depending on how you control the submerged part. It behaves like a port wine in that the longer they age in the bottle, the better they get.

JoeReal

The California Gold Sherry Wine is from 100% California Grown Banana, the California Gold Banana, making it my rarest to duplicate wine yet. I will try other bananas next time, perhaps if I have left over Brazilian bananas.