Figs

[ws7293]

Have approx. 3 gallons of fresh brown figs. I am looking to make a three gallon batch but know this I really short on figs. I was thinking a fig & ??? mix. Can anyone tell me a good fruit to add with the figs and/or a fig receipe they have tried. I have never made fig wine.

 

[e-wine]

We've only make fig wine using Keller's recipe. His recipe calls of 4 pounds of figs per gallon. My farther-in-law enjoyed the wine but we think it can be improved. We want to increase the amount of fruit. We have also been offered some pears and plan to start a batch of pear wine. Our intent is to look at the pear/fig combination after the wines are complete. Sorry, but we don't have a proven recipe with figs and another fruit . . . yet.

e-wine

 

[ws7293]

This seems funny but I will also be making a pear wine this fall and had thought the same thing. I do know know what the Fig wine will taste like. Can you tell me alittle more on the flavor.

I have also rolled around the idea to use Honey in place of the sugar, a mead, because I like both by themselves and think it will be good.

Any thoughts?

 

[e-wine]

We've thought about a mead for both the pear and the fig. I want my wife to make the pear so it will not be a mead, unless . . we get enough pears. The amount of figs we harvest will determine if we make a mead or not. We have a friend coming by tomorrow morning to pick some figs. This is his second visit to our tree and he got over 13 pounds last time. Based on our fig harvest today, he should get about the same amount. His plans are to make a 100% fig port.

If I was to give any advise on wine making it would be that the fruit is out there, just open up the communication channels. Most people will give away the fruit you need to make wine but you will have to work for it. Most likely, that is why they will give it away. I gave away figs last year and this year because we ran out of things to do with figs so I tried making wine.

ws,

Just because you asked, I'll uncork a bottle this weekend and give a complete report. (It's a tough job but somebody has to do it!) As I said, we have ideals on how to improve it so we could give you a better answer on January one. We know what we did and we see room for improvement.

e-wine

 

[ws7293]

Come on Guys & Gals you cannot tell me as much wine as ya'll make no one but E-wine has made some with figs.

I am started to get a complex that ya'll don't want to talk to me.

 

[Sacalait]

Oh yeah, I've made plenty. Fig by itself, fig/muscadine but to tell the truth, none of that really rocked my boat. I'd suggest making the fig wine alone using Keller's recipe and then try blending it with different wines until you hit on what you like.

 

[e-wine]

We did pick the pears today and got about 25 pounds but will not start the wine until later. We also got just over 10 pounds of plums and started that tonight. I'm sure we'll find some blends along the way but nothing you can use right now.

We have a Blanc du Bois harvest on Saturday and on Sunday. The one on Saturday is at a winery so it is an event. The one on Sunday is for a vineyard so they may have some grapes available in the future.

We got 12.5 pounds of figs off my tree today and the figs will go toward a port but not one I'm making. I can keep you up-dated if you want.

I have the bottle of fig wine chill'n and will have it tomorrow night. I can give you an assessment on Sunday or Monday.

e-wine

 

[ws7293]

I would appreciate that. Pears here are still a week or so away.
Have my figs frozen (man those things are hard) so will wait awhile and see how yours does.

Off this subject but have a peach that fermented to 1.00 but will not move any lower. Starting sg was 1.74. The blueberry I started on the same day was the exact same sg but is now at .994 and I am sure it will ferment dry.
Any thoughts cause I am still green and all others have hit .990.

Thanks for your responses,

Ws

 

[e-wine]

ws7293,

We've been a little busy the last few days and we have not been able to open the fig wine. We should be able to tonight but we wanted to let you know we have not forgotten.

e-wine

 

[e-wine]

ws7293,

We just opened the dry fig wine. The main flavor is grapefruit but not like grapefruit wine, more like fresh grapefruit with a touch of pear. It has decent legs and a very smooth feel. It does not taste anything like the figs we picked today. Finally, I must comment on the nose. When we first opened the wine at the first of the year, it had a very earthy nose. I read about beet root wine having a very earthy nose until it is aged so we stored the wine. Currently, if does not have any of the earthiness. Now, it smells like apricot. In our opinion, it is a good wine right now however, we plan to age it until the start of winter to find out how it matures. Okay, maybe the start of fall. We are making this wine again but I would not pay H.E.B. the $9.99 a pound for figs to make this wine. This wine's recipe calls for 4# per gallon.

e-wine

 

[ws7293]

Thanks again for the info and hope mine turns out as good.

 

[Train]

Details

ws7293,

We just opened the dry fig wine. The main flavor is grapefruit but not like grapefruit wine, more like fresh grapefruit with a touch of pear. It has decent legs and a very smooth feel.

e-wine

E-Wine:

Sounds like a great wine! Questions for you since I just crushed my first 5-gal batch of fig wine today using green figs. What variety of figs did you have for the dry fig wine? What type of yeast did you use? What was your starting brix? I am adding the yeast tomorrow and might make a couple adjustments to sugar and acid before "launch." Thanks.

 

[e-wine]

Train,

Sorry for the delay. I have two types of figs but for last year, I used Texas Everbearer. I increased the s.g. to between 1.085 - 1.090 and added Montrachet yeast. I have a picture of the figs under the "Madeira using Figs and Banana" thread. I hope that helps.

e-wine

 

[Train]

Thanks, e-wine. Nice looking figs! I am also using an all-purpose yeast (Premier Cuvee). I am cutting the acid by a smidge and am using 5lbs. of fruit per gallon. It will be a fun experiment.

 

[e-wine]

Train,

Thanks for the comment. I still have figs in the freezer and I need to take inventory before I proceed with my fig wine for this year. Besides the madeiras, I want to make the fig wine two different ways depending on how many pounds I still have. My guess is that the trees produced over 250 pounds this year. I used over forty in the madeira (21 pounds peeled) and I shared over thirty pounds with a fellow home winemaker. For some reason, his tree dropped all the leaves and the fruit just as harvest began. My trees are too big to net so the birds got about a third of the fruit. The trees are still producing but have slowed down so the birds are getting everything.

Please up date me on your fig wine results. Take care.

e-wine

 

[e-wine]

I started my two batches of fig wine. For one, I used 2.5 gallons of partially peeled figs in the five gallon batch and for the other, I used 4 gallons of partially peeled figs in the same sized batch. It's been over a week and I have them in the secondaries. The 2.5 gallon batch is in the Silver Seal bottle. The test results came out good. I used two different types of figs and I modified my initial process to try to improve the nose over my last batch. The last batch was good but I had to "age-out" an earthy nose. I have some peeled figs in the freezer and I want to try making an f-pac for the 2.5 gallon batch.

e-wine

 

[Train]

Sounds good. I racked my 5-gal batch this week and it is already clearing up. SG is at 0.999. I aerated during racking to try and get rid of the yeast smell, but we will see what happens.