# Banana Wine Recipe # 2



## St Allie

Ingredients
3 pounds bananas 
1 1/2 cups light raisins 
5 cups granulated sugar 
2 lemons 
2 campden tablets 
1 teaspoon nutrients 
water 
1 package wine yeast 



Peel and slice bananas. Chop 1/10 to 1/2 of the banana peels. Place both in a large saucepan with 6 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out pulp. 

Put sugar, raisins, campden tablets and the juice of the lemons into primary fermentor. Pour hot banana liquid over sugar mixture and stir to dissolve. Make up to 1 gallon with cold water. Let sit overnight. 

The next day, add nutrients and yeast. Leave for 5 days, stirring daily. There will be heavy foaming during fermentation. 

On the fifth day, siphon into secondary fermentor before stirring, being careful not to disturb the sediment on the bottom. If necessary, make up to volume with water. Attach airlock. Siphon the wine off the sediment after three weeks. Return wine to fermentor. 

For a dry wine, Rack every three months for a year. 

For a sweet wine, add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine at each racking until fermentation does not start again when sugar is added. 

Continue racking wine every two to three months until it is clear. Bottle. 

Variation
Use brown sugar (or demerara sugar) in place of the granulated sugar. 
For a spiced wine, add one or all of the following: 
1 ounce bruised ginger root 
1 ounce whole cloves 
1 - 4 inch cinnamon stick 
If you want to leave out the banana peels, add 1/4 teaspoon tannin.


Recipe from Roxannes Wine Cellar

website here

http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~goodwine/index.htm


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## arcticsid

Thats sounds pretty good G. I hope you will post that with the other banana recipes in our recipe forum.


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## St Allie

This recipe came out really well.. more of a chardonnay style white.

Allie


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## BettyJ

*Procedure question - banana wine*

Hi Allie
Am I interpreting the recipe to be that you do not add the fruit to the primary after boiling (just the juice)? 

I have just racked my first batch of mango / banana / white grape concentrate (SunCal Liebfraumilch) in which I left the fruit in a bag for 5 days. There is quite a bit of banana type sediment that had to be strained (am sure I will be dealing with this for the duration). The wine is fermenting nicely - tastes great, am just worried about clearing at this point....

I am preparing another type batch, but would like to try using just the juice of the fruit to the SunCal (and ? maybe add pineapple) to speed the clearing up.

Any thoughts / words of advice?
Thanks!
-Betty


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## St Allie

Betty,

There are no actual banana solids in that one, you strain it all after boiling and only add the banana juice. You still get a lil sediment from it but it will clear perfectly well on its own.. just rack it occasionally til it does.

I haven't used fruit concentrates at all .. and never made anything with mango.. pineapple comes out nice though.. I have used tinned pineapple and pineapple juice before, it makes a nice white table wine.

Allie


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## VineRipe

St Allie said:


> Betty,
> 
> There are no actual banana solids in that one, you strain it all after boiling and only add the banana juice. You still get a lil sediment from it but it will clear perfectly well on its own.. just rack it occasionally til it does.



Allie, you may have answered one of the two questions I attempted to post last night. The first was on a one gallon effort at a recipe I found for banana wine. That recipe was nearly identical to the one that you posted, with three exceptions. A: The addition of cinnamon sticks ten minutes before the end of a forty minute boil, B: The recipe called for four pounds of bananas, and C: during the first week's primary fermentation, the recipe called for leaving the bananas and raisins in a straining bag in the must.

I followed everything except for the cinnamon, and things looked right nasty for a bit, but smelled pretty good. The wine has cleared nicely, and the aroma is very good. HOWEVER (always one of them, what?) when tasting the wine between rackings, I realized the hydrometer readings really *were* what they said they were. Since my wife likes a semi-sweet wine (I myself prefer beer - or better yet, the taste one gets from the blue agave as long as I limit myself to amounts that don't cause me to want to do stupid things - say about one shot. lol)

The O.G. was (in accordance with the instructions that came with the hydrometer) adjusted up to 1.333 in order to come up with a semi-sweet wine that would be at the top end of "semi" and the low end of "sweet".

After going through the fermentation phase, the F.G. was 0.99 - a dry wine with plenty of delicious aromas and some real promise. When I did the math, (IF my math is correct), then with an O.G. of 1.333 and a F.G. of 0.99, I have in my hands a wine with an ABV of nearly 19%.

My first question is this: Is this the correct way to calculate ABV? (O.G. - F.G.)*131?

And my second is this: I know rice wines are prone to produce higher ABV's than others due to starches in the rice being converted into alcohol as well as any sugars added. Could the starch in the bananas be a contributing factor in a wine that tastes more like a banana flavored vodka? (An exaggeration, I know, but not a huge one).

Thanks in advance to anyone who can shed some light on this for me.


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## St Allie

My hydrometer doesn't calculate that high.. I'm guessing you are pretty much on the money with the final abv though... which yeast did you use? also factor in the raisins.. there's a bit of sugar in those too. It's possibly the starches, because yeast just loves bananas anyway. The only wine I've ever done with an off the scale OG was a kit port and that finished really sweet even with chapitalisation.. It doesn't seem that you even needed to feed the wine with sugar in increments to get it to ferment dry with a high abv..

generally if you want a semi sweet wine.. you adjust the OG for a finished abv..( say 12%) ferment to dry, stabilise ( sulphites and sorbate) then backsweeten.

You can backsweeten this wine.. however it's still going to have a massive alcohol kick in the back of your throat. some time in the bottle will soften this ( possibly up to two years)

If you want to keep it as it is.. you may want to use it as a mixer with juice.. alternatively make another batch with a much lower abv ( say 8%) and when it's finished, blend the two.

hopefully I've covered your questions?

I've never tried blue agave, however have done a few stupid things myself after a couple of red wines..!

Allie


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## VineRipe

Hey, Allie 

I used a champagne yeast (I don't think another post I made got through either, in which I discovered the ravages of waking up and finding out that I had become "elderly" and didn't know it. lol. Seems the CDC issued a study for some political purpose or other the other day and in order to make their numbers have more impact, said that so and so disease is in a dramatic increase in the elderly - and went on to describe that age group as "50 and above". Now I *KNOW* the World Health Organization defines "elderly" as beyond the age of 65, and was somewhat peeved. For a moment. Then it hit me - NOW I HAVE AN EXCUSE! lol) BTW, I read the above ON my 50th bd. No more bd surfing for me. Did I mention that the elderly are prone to ramblings and digressions? So where was I? Oh yeah.... I had just gone to verify the yeast I used...lol

Even in my dotage, I did get something right! It's a Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast - which I understand has a pretty high alcohol tolerance.

I did keep the initial gallon aside, as I recall making our own "smoothies" before anyone ever thought up the name with a blender, a couple of ripe bananas and pineapple juice.

I also used all the immense "knowledge" I had obtained to start a five gallon batch in which I lowered the added sugar to a O.G. of 1.17. I haven't tasted it yet, but even that gives a fairly healthy ABV calculation of about 15% if my math isn't failing me.

Never tried blue agave? No cactus juice for you? lol... nothing mellower than Jose Cuervo 1800 Gold on the back of your throat. Honestly, if I could find an alcohol free recipe that would give me that taste, I'd be quite happy. I'd also actually drink the stuff from time to time, instead of wistfully thinking about how much I'd *like* to taste the stuff again.


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## VineRipe

So sorry, Allie. 

I was typing in the dark again. The original post should have read "beginning SG of 1.133" and NOT 1.333. I guess my "elderly" state got me again.


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## arcticsid

Not trying to hijack your original thought in here, but I am willing to bet there is a beer recipe out there that uses bananas, that may be interesting.

I have actually looked at this banana wine idea a few times, and they say it actually makes a great wine. Looking forward to following your progress and see how it all turns out.


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## St Allie

heheh I read it as 1.133.. it's still around 20%.. surprised you can taste anything but alcohol.

1.3+ would be even higher!

and no I've never even tried tequila.. the smell puts me off it.

Allie


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## VineRipe

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a banana beer recipe out there to be had, sid.

I have a good chat friend couple in South Africa, and from what they tell me, that is the drink of choice (mainly because it's what they have to work with) for many of the indigenous folk there. I also understand *THAT* brew is pretty bad, but they make it in the most primitive methods I've ever heard of. Dig a hole, place the fermentation container in there, and when they run the other holes they've dug dry, that dig that one up and call it "beer". lol

I'll look around for something a *wee* bit more to modern standards, as I plan to try my hand at brewing beer myself in the very near future. Let me know if you try it before I get a roundtuit.


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## VineRipe

St Allie said:


> heheh I read it as 1.133.. it's still around 20%.. surprised you can taste anything but alcohol.
> 
> 1.3+ would be even higher!
> 
> and no I've never even tried tequila.. the smell puts me off it.
> 
> Allie



Yep, that *would* be some PO-tent stuff indeed! lol

As to To Keel Ya, I love the taste of that stuff. Alas, as I said, it leads to things like shopping cart races with thirty participants (fifteen cart monkeys and fifteen pilots) at the local 24/7 supermarket and bribes to the manager to not call the po-lice and such. <sigh> Don't ask. It was part of the agreement I signed with the management. LOL


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## BrewPahl

I just started this recipe, skipped the 2 campden tablets as I react to sulfates and do not use them. I am very clean in my starting material and equipment. I also left out the 1 teaspoon nutrients as there is plenty there for the yeast to munch on. I was amazed by what this wine starts out looking like. Reminds me of the paste we used when we were in kindergarten!!! But looking at photos of how it clears I am sure it will be nice. I loved the taste prior to fermentation and it smells great in the primary!


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## BrewPahl

Pretty much clear now, there is some large sedement floating still, looks like parts of the rasins, I might have to filter this little bit out. After Racking I think I lost about a bottle in one gallon. This one makes a lot of sediment! I am going on vacation in three weeks. I might just let it sit until I get back.


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## jackendonald

4 1 / 2 pounds banana 1 / 2 pound chopped raisins 3 pounds granulated sugar 1 lemon (juice) 1 orange (juice) 1 gallon water wine yeast and nutrient Peel and chop bananas and their peels, placing both stock and grain tie closed. Place the bag of grain in a large pan or pot with water and bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 30 minutes. Pour hot liquor over sugar and lemon / orange juice in primary fermentation container and stir to dissolve sugar. When cool enough to handle, squeeze the bag of grain to extract as much liquid as possible and add the container. When liquor cools to 70 degrees F., add yeast and nutrients. Cover and set aside in a warm place for one week, stirring daily. Move to a cool (60-65 degrees F.) and let the property for two months. Siphon liquor off sediment into secondary fermentation vessel, add chopped raisins and fit airlock. Rack after four months and again in another four months. Bottle and sample after six months. Improves with ag


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## jableon

St Allie said:


> Ingredients
> 3 pounds bananas
> 1 1/2 cups light raisins
> 5 cups granulated sugar
> 2 lemons
> 2 campden tablets
> 1 teaspoon nutrients
> water
> 1 package wine yeast
> 
> 
> 
> Peel and slice bananas. Chop 1/10 to 1/2 of the banana peels. Place both in a large saucepan with 6 cups water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain out pulp.
> 
> Put sugar, raisins, campden tablets and the juice of the lemons into primary fermentor. Pour hot banana liquid over sugar mixture and stir to dissolve. Make up to 1 gallon with cold water. Let sit overnight.
> 
> The next day, add nutrients and yeast. Leave for 5 days, stirring daily. There will be heavy foaming during fermentation.
> 
> On the fifth day, siphon into secondary fermentor before stirring, being careful not to disturb the sediment on the bottom. If necessary, make up to volume with water. Attach airlock. Siphon the wine off the sediment after three weeks. Return wine to fermentor.
> 
> For a dry wine, Rack every three months for a year.
> 
> For a sweet wine, add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine at each racking until fermentation does not start again when sugar is added.
> 
> Continue racking wine every two to three months until it is clear. Bottle.
> 
> Variation
> Use brown sugar (or demerara sugar) in place of the granulated sugar.
> For a spiced wine, add one or all of the following:
> 1 ounce bruised ginger root
> 1 ounce whole cloves
> 1 - 4 inch cinnamon stick
> If you want to leave out the banana peels, add 1/4 teaspoon tannin.
> 
> 
> Recipe from Roxannes Wine Cellar
> 
> website here
> 
> http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~goodwine/index.htm


Yum Yum Yum I can't wait to make and try this !!!! Thanks for sharing


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## ErmaMoreno

Sounds awesome! I'm new to this forum and wine making in general, my previous experiments weren't very good though. I've never even heard of banana wine before but I'm gonna give this recipe a try soon! Thanks for sharing.


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## samwisegamgeese

Well I have made an uber mistake......making banana wine and the thing is going to foam over soon.....need soemthing to put it in exta and I do not have and it is only 24 hours old!


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## rockinsoul

*Siphoning Question*

Hi there,

St Allie, you said after 5 days to siphon the liquid out taking care not to disturb the sediment. However after 5 days mine is still very actively fermenting so much that the sediment is all mixed in with the liquid from top to bnottom and continuously cycling round and round in the convection current. Should I still attempt to siphon or should I leave it a while to settle? Will the mulch start to decompose and turn my wine off if I leave it too long? I need an answer to this quite urgently! 

Anyone's expert opinion on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!


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## dralarms

I'll answer that. No leave it alone until it slows down.


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## Dend78

dralarms said:


> I'll answer that. No leave it alone until it slows down.



ditto, what was your gravity like at starting and what is it at now? once it slows down it should start to settle out more, yours may be fermenting slightly slower than Allie's where her's took 5 days yours may take 10


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## rockinsoul

Thanks guys, I'll heed your advice. Much appreciated!! No idea what the gravity was but the brew is doing a fine display of antigravity at the moment  I will have to procure a hydrometer in the next few days. Looking forward to trying this. I have had to resort to keeping my bedroom window shut as it seems to be acting like a beacon to hungry wasps!!


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## Dend78

rockinsoul said:


> Thanks guys, I'll heed your advice. Much appreciated!! No idea what the gravity was but the brew is doing a fine display of antigravity at the moment  I will have to procure a hydrometer in the next few days. Looking forward to trying this. I have had to resort to keeping my bedroom window shut as it seems to be acting like a beacon to hungry wasps!!



good call, they do love the smell of fermenting bananas, for sure get a hydrometer it makes it easier to follow whats happening.


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## rockinsoul

*Mistake?*

I think I have just learnt a lesson the hard way. My house is cold so I think the initial fermentation process was taking longer. It was still bubbling happily but had slowed enough after 1 week to siphon the liquid from the pulp. However, now there is no fermentation at all. I think I should have left it until it had stopped bubbling. I think I have cut the fermentation period short and now it is going to have much lower ABV. I followed the recipe above as closely as I could, but I think I should have adjusted the times accordingly. I hope it isn't ruined. What can I do at this stage? Should I add more yeast/sugar? Or just leave it now and see what I get?


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## Dend78

do you have a hydrometer? yet? if so check the gravity and see where you are sitting. i wouldnt try doing anything to it until you get ahold of one. 

whats the temp in the house? 

what is the temp of the must?


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## vernsgal

This is going to be my 1st attempt at a non-kit wine. I have been making (and tweeking) kits for about 3 years now and feel it's time to delve into fresh.My question on this wine is- if I wanted to get a hint of peach in the taste, what would I add, how much, and when?


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## Dend78

well being as peach requires a lot and flavor gets killed during fermentation I would add it at the end as an fpac


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## vernsgal

If I'm going to add tannin powder instead of using the peels, do I add it to the heated banana mixture or into the primary?And, if I'm making 5 gallons would I go with 1 1/4 tsp? That seems a bit much


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## Dend78

as for the tannin go with what the label reccomends or less, as far as when to add in i would toss it in the heated mix just before you put it in the primary


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## JohnnyB78

I realize this is an old post but hopefully someone will answer. I have been kicking around the idea of making this wine for a while. I have made the bananna dishwater and added it to a fruit mix i had during primary fementation. I believe it greatly improved my wines body and added a pretty unique flavor. I now just want to try it alone. I just had a few questions: 1- what was your beginning S.G, I may have missed it in your post. 2- what exactly is the purpose of the lemon, I have noticed it in a few recipes but not all. 3- what do you think about the sugar substitution, I mean have you tried both variations of white, or brown, or even both. Finally I have a recipe here that calls for both the peels and tannin, would you recomend using only one or the other. Well hope to hear back, I am looking forward to trying this out finally. Thanks


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## Dend78

1) 1.085 i would assume is the SG
2) not totally sure on this one
3) different sugars will give you different outcomes/flavors, brown if done right will give you that maple like flavor but it also changes the color, gives it a dirty brown caramel color.
4) how much tannin do you like? its up to you in what i made i just added peel's, if you like lots of tannin add both, its a personal thing


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## JohnnyB78

i followed this recipe, and after i put in yeast I have seen no activity at all i am getting worried. I just put it in yesterday morning but with every other wine I have made I have seen activity within 12 hours were going on almost 48 with nothing, as a matter of fact the s.g. has went up. How is that even possible. I used montrachet red star yeast and followed the direction on the back as well. not sure whats wrong. any advice, any idea why no fermenting is happening? and what can I do.


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## vernsgal

I too didn't get any action with mine,so after 48 hours I made a starter in a pitcher( 1 cup warm water, yeast,about 1/8 tsp sugar and a sprinkle of yeast nutrient.) When it started bubbling I added a cup of must and waited a bit for it to get going ( about 10 min.) then added a cup more, did this 3 or 4 times, then slowly poured it all into my must and bam! next morning she was foaming well. I also noted that the temp of my must was only at 70, didn't have one of those heat belts so I wrapped a heating pad to bucket and turned it on low. It brought my temp. up to a stead 76.


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## Dend78

yeah check your temp, it should take off pretty easy i would think, mine took off with no issues, if you dont have a heating pad and stuff put it in a sink full of hot water that will help boost the temp, if it doesn't take off then shoot for a starter as versgal stated


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## JohnnyB78

I think it was a temp thing put in front of the heater vent and wala....holy crap, very big foaming, bubbling, sizzling the whole works. so all is well, looks nasty lol, smells pretty good though. I am excited about this one, I am not sure which way to go with it though dry or sweet. to be honest I have never had bananna wine, one main reason I wanted to make it always thought it sounded good. I am wondering why the recipe say to add the sugar every racking and why not just backsweeten at end any Idea?


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## Dend78

it wont taste much like banana when its done from what i understand, it becomes a run of the mill white wine, im not sure on the sugar thing though it may not be very good dry lol, for back sweetening i have heard white grape is a good way to go


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## JohnnyB78

ok I have just racked it out of the primary, which by the way was pretty difficult due to the thickness of the must and the raisins kept clogging the racking cane. now I have it in the secondary and it is already settling a bit. It is looking like half the wine will be lost due to the amount of sediment has any one else that made this had a massive amount of sediment, and does any one have any suggestions how to make up the volume, I am thinking I need to start another batch just to compesate for the lost amount. I was trying to make 3 gallons but it seems I will end up with about a gallon and a half after it clears.


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## Dend78

yeah i ran into the same thing with my Sherry im making, i lost almost 1 gallon, next time strainer bag all the way. i even went through and put a bunch of the banana bits in a cheese cloth bag and still had nearly 3 inches of sediment when i was trying to rack it from pirmary


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## ilurk

I just started a batch and I was wondering if other folk found their wine thick. It's only day two, fermentation is rigorous and foaming has subsided, but its thick. I'm wondering if the thick maple syrup consistency will go away in the final product. Is it caused by starch? Do I need to get some amylase?


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## Thig

I made a batch with bananas and blueberries, I have been surprised at how fast and how well it cleared. I thought it would have taken forever as thick as the pulp was.


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## crazymadfish

Just got my kit and thinking of trying my first ever batch of wibe soone fo you think banana pear and barley wine will work well


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## jamesngalveston

thanks for the link...


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## TheWineBrewer

I got a great video here [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmu5lKF90Gg[/ame]
for banana wine


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## TheWineBrewer

i got great recipe here: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmu5lKF90Gg[/ame]


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## TheWineBrewer

Plz delete my previous posts
I have replaced that video with these 2:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62nJGdEZjHo[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibm8blcu5Yw[/ame]


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## winemanden

Hi Allie, it may seem like nit-picking, but when recipes have mixed weights etc, it makes it difficult. I know a lot of Americans still use cups, but could you put the weight in pounds or ounces alongside, or maybe even grams.
Regards to all, Winemanden.


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## cintipam

Winemanden

This thread is a couple years old. If Allie is winebrewer, she hasn't posted since about the time of that prior post. Thought I'd mention it in case you are trying the recipe and waiting for an answer here.

Pam in cinti


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## winemanden

Pam
Thanks for the heads up. I haven't been on the forum for quite a while, never even looked at the date, I just thought i'd throw in my twopennorth.
Thanks again, winemanden.


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