Cashew Fruit Wine Attempt 1

[KaptKanga]

Today I have started my first attempt at Cashew wine.

I squeezed out 1.25liters or juice from very ripe fruit that I harvested after it had dropped to the ground. Combined this with 2 liters of water that had 500 grams of sugar dissolved. Added the juice of 1 lemon. Plus added 250ml of super strong black tea.

Put this into a small fermenter and added 1118 champagne yeast.

Air lock is on, and I hope the wine gods smile on me and we start getting fermentation in a day or two.

I plan to do a second batch as I will have a lot of fruit in the coming weeks.

Will update this post as I progress.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I find myself wondering; what is the pH , the gravity of the juice, the TA , the color / color stability, the YAN? ,,,, And how will it taste? I will likely never be close to cashew fruit at harvest time.

 

[KaptKanga]

I find myself wondering; what is the pH , the gravity of the juice, the TA , the color / color stability, the YAN? ,,,, And how will it taste? I will likely never be close to cashew fruit at harvest time.

That for me at the moment is way to technical, I am more a wack it together based on basic knowledge (polish fermenting logic) type of wine maker and see if you can drink it at the end ...but I will start to take some measurements as I should start to become a bit more disciplined.

With batch 2 I am planning to have a go at urak and feni to see what happens. The tree produces a heap of fruit so I can experiment.

I also am sourcing some durian mentega (butter durian) from Medan to use for the first batch. It has a chocolaty coffee type flavour with a hint of sourness so may be an interesting wine

 

[KaptKanga]

It has only been a couple of hours since I added the yeast to the fermenter and the fermentation is, to say the least, pretty active. A lot of fluid on top of the fermenter lid. So this may be a good sign

 

[Rice_Guy]

That for me at the moment is way to technical, I am more a wack it together based on basic knowledge (polish fermenting logic)

Two points 1) I can get an idea what cashew tastes like based on numbers and 2) if I am running an unknown fruit I can estimate how successful a preservative system it will be as is ,,, and 3) what chemistry I should add to make the mix fit the risk factor rules.

 

[Rice_Guy]

A fermentation rate temperature study
View attachment 75666

I am not surprised that you have activity already. The general rule in chemistry was a reaction rate doubles for every 10C. This isn’t always true with microbes since at 40C a lot of enzyme pathways are deactivated, ,,, ie the organism dies. , , , Anyway I have seen a fermentation finish in three days.

One risk is that a faster fermentation needs all the YAN (yeast nutrient) right away. There is minimal time for recycling from parent cells. ,,, Are you familiar with reductive off flavors? In the wine club this is called fried chicken flavor, kind of roasted/ cooked note. Reductive flavors can overpower the nice fruity notes we like. Reductive flavors are more likely with high temperature. ,,, That said what temp is the cashew at?

 

[Snafflebit]

@KaptKanga This sounds like a very interesting experiment. I do not know much about cashew fruit but I started reading. In English the fruit is called a cashew apple, in Spanish it is called marañón and is very perishable, so we will never see it in the market. And, there are some liquors made from cashew apples.

I know that some parts of the cashew tree produce chemicals that irritate the skin, and I am highly sensitive to it.

 

[suzyq2]

I had the pleasure of trying cashew fruit wine in Belize. The unusual taste and body seemed similar to a liquor. I am definitely getting another bottle when I return this February.

 

[KaptKanga]

I am not surprised that you have activity already. The general rule in chemistry was a reaction rate doubles for every 10C. This isn’t always true with microbes since at 40C a lot of enzyme pathways are deactivated, ,,, ie the organism dies. , , , Anyway I have seen a fermentation finish in three days.

One risk is that a faster fermentation needs all the YAN (yeast nutrient) right away. There is minimal time for recycling from parent cells. ,,, Are you familiar with reductive off flavors? In the wine club this is called fried chicken flavor, kind of roasted/ cooked note. Reductive flavors can overpower the nice fruity notes we like. Reductive flavors are more likely with high temperature. ,,, That said what temp is the cashew at?

I am keeping it at around 27C. I am toying with the idea to make a fermenting cabinet out of cool room panel to keep the fermenters at around 20C, On the previous wines I did not detect any reductive flavors.

 

[KaptKanga]

@KaptKanga This sounds like a very interesting experiment. I do not know much about cashew fruit but I started reading. In English the fruit is called a cashew apple, in Spanish it is called marañón and is very perishable, so we will never see it in the market. And, there are some liquors made from cashew apples.

I know that some parts of the cashew tree produce chemicals that irritate the skin, and I am highly sensitive to it.

Yeah the fruits do not last long at all. I will try urak and feni from batch 2. I did not put the fruit in to do the fermentation, like I do with other fruit wines, as it has an oily coating on it, as I did not want that in the fermenter so crushed them to extract the juice. The caustic oil is in the nut case between the outer and inner skins, and it can cause very bad irritation.

 

[KaptKanga]

I had the pleasure of trying cashew fruit wine in Belize. The unusual taste and body seemed similar to a liquor. I am definitely getting another bottle when I return this February.

I have seen some cashew apple wine now being sold here, as well as sirsak wine. Sirsak is like a custard apple. I have grown a few sirsak trees here so want to give that a go on the next fruiting season.

I am interested on how this current cashew apple wine will turn out.

 

[KaptKanga]

Day two and this is what is happening at the air lock .....so far so good

 

[Snafflebit]

Day two and this is what is happening at the air lock

I had a cherimoya (custard apple) for the first time last year and it is delicious. Hopefully the wine is as good.

 

[KaptKanga]

I had a cherimoya (custard apple) for the first time last year and it is delicious. Hopefully the wine is as good.

Based on the tase of the fruit I am assuming it should be good. I think though that clarifying the wine will be a bit of a problem as they are similar to a mango. I also want to make a wine from Matoa (Pometia pinnata) https://happiestplants.com/products/purple-matoa-live-plants-pometia-pinnata and rambutan. Then try a few blends.

 

[KaptKanga]

After a bit of searching, I found a commercial version of cashew apple wine, so I have a reference . I will sample it tonight. Plus, as a bonus they also had Salak wine. The English is snakeskin fruit, it is a palm fruit. I have 9 growing at the back of my house that i grew from seed https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Snake_Fruit_10790.php so this will be an interesting taste test as well.

 

[KaptKanga]

Taste tested the Snakeskin fruit wine, and it is more like a dessert wine. Very full on the palette and very sweet. Maybe a good wine to have with cheese.

 

[Fitz]

I am keeping it at around 27C. I am toying with the idea to make a fermenting cabinet out of cool room panel to keep the fermenters at around 20C, On the previous wines I did not detect any reductive flavors.

If you do make that cabinet, I would be interested in knowing how you made it as I’ve been toying with the idea too.

 

[KaptKanga]

If you do make that cabinet, I would be interested in knowing how you made it as I’ve been toying with the idea too.

My plan is to use old cool room panels and simply make a container that is 1.5m wide and deep and 2m tall. The door will be a single cool room panel and just a push on fit so no hinges. Cool room panel for the top and bottom. Initially the cooling will be from wine cask bladders filled with water and frozen and placed at the top of the container. Later I will add a cooling system from an old mini refrigerator and a small micro controller to manage the temperature side. I will use a simple probe type temperature sensor with the display mounted outside of the panel to monitor the temperature. So initially nothing high tech.

I saw one today that a guy here maud out of plywood and lined it with medical Styrofoam he got from broken transfer containers and it also looked to be doing the job.

Once I start I will post how I am doing it.

 

[KaptKanga]

Looks like the fermenting has almost stopped so today I will do the first racking and see how clear the must is. Leave it for a day and then pack my frozen wine bladders around it to drop out the rest of the suspended matter.

 

[Christopher Anderson]

Enjoy reading about wine making from all over the world. Good foe all