First timer

[Gregorski]

I have a wine making kit. I have the fruit - guavas, lot's of them. I have the instructions and some experience - helped my grandpa make wine as a kid. So, as you can see I am all set to go . Couple of questions though: Why so much sugar? (Looks like about 1 cup per pound). I know that regular-grape wine makers rarely add sugar (and it's quite frowned upon). Not sure if anybody has any experience with guavas, but would you remove the seeds - read somewhere that they can add bitterness to wine. Anyway, really any advice is welcome.
cheers,
Greg

 

[ChuckD]

I can’t help with guavas, but grapes are perhaps the only fruit with sufficient sugar to make a 12% ABV or higher wine. Most others will require additional sugar… sometimes even grapes require a little help.

If I can make one suggestion… get a hydrometer so you can accurately measure the sugar content of your must and track fermentation progress. Actually get two, they are fragile but relatively inexpensive.

Wine recipes are a good start but there is a lot of variability in fruit. The hydrometer will let you zero in on a desired alcohol content. Post your recipe and process for some helpful advice.

 

[sour_grapes]

I have no knowledge or experience in guava wine in particular.

But, in winemaking, sugar is basically alcohol. That is, you need sugar in the starting must to turn into alcohol at the end of the process. I doubt guavas have that much sugar, so you have to add it. The end product won't be sweet.

Edit: I see that @ChuckD beat me to it and said it better!

 

[cmullin]

Don't worry about adding sugar, they add sugar to wine in both France and Germany. In France they have a minimum brix(percent sugar) you have to hit. If the grapes don't meet that you add sugar(chaptalization). Most fruits need at least some sugar. Unless you stop the fermentation, it is going to be alcohol anyway. Jack Keller literally wrote the book on fruit winemaking and he adds a lot of sugar to his guava wine.

 

[Rice_Guy]

The guava that I have run was: pH 4.23 (I try to put my fruit wines between pH 3.2 and 3.5) with a TA of 1.03% (grape folks aim for 0.5 to 0.7% but back sweetening to 1.015 I will run TA on rhubarb as high as 1.2%). This is a thick paste and I don’t have a sugar number.

Why sugar, if you wanted to have a cider you could run low sugar. If you wanted to have an 18% port you can run high sugar. The convention of 11% alcohol has good stability which let’s one be more sloppy than beer and cider folks, ,,, and a port again allows even more sloppy processing. Really the choice is up to you. Running apple this fall I made my first 6% ABV, normal with my fruit wines is to aim for 10 to 12% ABV. Grape just naturally produces 11 to 12% and it drives much of the market/ product definition. ,,, I create my must to reach a target alcohol and use a hydrometer to decide when I am at 1.080 to 1.090.

Seeds? Do you like the flavor of guava seeds? It is worth removing them if you don’t like the flavor. ,,, BUT if they have no flavor then why bother. Grape seeds have a bitter flavor so we work to minimize contact. Grape skin has an astringent/ tannic flavor which is considered desirable. I like some apples since they have “smooth” tannins/ astringent flavor. I encourage you to use a tannin since it is an anti oxidant and helps shelf life.

My one look at guava had a high pH. Low pH gives better microbiological and chemical stability. ,,, pH is a preservative ,,, Do you have a pH meter so you can adjust and then know what the pH is? ,,, Basically I have only one recipe for country wine; adjust the sugar to meet target alcohol ,, adjust the pH to meet target for stability ,, add tannin and maybe pectase. ,, add metabisulphite then wait a day. ,, add yeast nutrient and a yeast.

 

[BernardSmith]

Making wine from fruit other than wine grapes, typically requires that you need to add sugar to enable the wine to have more alcohol than a strong beer. Country wines (wines made from fruit) typically have the equivalent of about 1 lb of sugar in every gallon of juice you press. If you add water then that amount of sugar per gallon of liquid is less. Wine grapes typically have about 2 lbs of sugar for every gallon of pressed juice. In short, if you want to make a wine (and not a cider-like drink that you can drink by the pint) you want to have a specific gravity of about 1.090 before you pitch (add) the yeast. Your guavas are more likely to have a gravity reading of about 1.045 - 1.050 , and so you likely need to add about 1 lb of sugar for every gallon of guava juice. If most of the liquid is going to come from water you add , then you will almost certainly want/need to add more sugar to hit 1.090.

 

[Gregorski]

Thanks everyone for the input. I have a Master Vintner Fresh Harvest kit, and I believe it comes with a hydrometer. Don't know how or when to use it, but I can figure it out. I'm planning to use 3-4 lb of guavas - they are very ripe and sweet, 1 cup of sugar per pound, a gallon of water, plus the yeast that came with the kit. Since it's my first time, I don't have very high expectations.... Any suggestions are welcome.
cheers,
Greg

 

[winemaker81]

Thanks everyone for the input. I have a Master Vintner Fresh Harvest kit, and I believe it comes with a hydrometer. Don't know how or when to use it, but I can figure it out. I'm planning to use 3-4 lb of guavas - they are very ripe and sweet, 1 cup of sugar per pound, a gallon of water, plus the yeast that came with the kit. Since it's my first time, I don't have very high expectations.... Any suggestions are welcome.

There's a post that explains how to use a hydrometer, but I was unable to locate it. However, YouTube has numerous videos, and while quality of YT videos is always questionable, you should get the basic idea.

When?

• When the must is assembled, take an initial reading so you'll have an idea what the ABV will be, and be able to calculate ABV when done.
• Periodically during fermentation so you can gauge the progress.
• When fermentation is complete, so you'll know it's done and so you can calculate ABV.
• After backsweetening, if you do that.

 

[sour_grapes]

Take a look at this video:

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Thread 'how to use a hydrometer for newbies'
how to use a hydrometer for newbies

 

[Gregorski]

Okay, after watching a couple of youtube videos and doing some reading my understanding is that hydrometer basically measures sugar content in liquid. So, I should do my initial reading before I start the fermentation process, and it should be around 1.090. This will give me the final ABV of around 12%. Then after the fermentation is over the reading should be down to 1.000. Great! What I still don't understand is how to measure it because my must will not be liquid, but rather a mixture of sweetened water and cut-up fruit. Should I just measure the sugar content in the sweetened water?

 

[winemaker81]

Okay, after watching a couple of youtube videos and doing some reading my understanding is that hydrometer basically measures sugar content in liquid. So, I should do my initial reading before I start the fermentation process, and it should be around 1.090. This will give me the final ABV of around 12%. Then after the fermentation is over the reading should be down to 1.000. Great! What I still don't understand is how to measure it because my must will not be liquid, but rather a mixture of sweetened water and cut-up fruit. Should I just measure the sugar content in the sweetened water?

Cut the fruit up and macerate (soak) it for 24+ hours. Sugar will leach out of the fruit into the water. It's not a perfect reading, but it's the best that can be done.

Most wines finish with the SG <= 0.998, but not all. Fermentation is considered complete when the SG <= 0.998 and remains constant for 3 days.

I've had a few wine finish above 1.000, but not many. You'll want to bulk age at least 3 months, so if there's any sugar remaining, it normally ferments out during that time.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I'm planning to use 3-4 lb of guavas - 1 cup of sugar per pound, a gallon of water, plus the yeast that came with the kit. .... Any suggestions are welcome

? How much fruit do you have? with work the accounting folks might let me do 5/gallon, BUT it tastes better with more. On easy juices like cherry or rhubarb I do 100%, this is a thick pulp so my starting point would be 50% water. Again how much do you have, I make the container fit what was picked.
* my biggest learning in wine was to assume free SO2 was at zero ppm and routinely add 0.2gm/ gallon. Oxygen is the enemy of alcohol ,,, acetaldehyde kills natural fruit flavors.

 

[Gregorski]

I have unlimited amount of fruit. A friend of mine has several guava trees in his backyard. They're producing basically year round: 10-20 pounds a day. I am limited by the size of the secondary fermentor - 3 gal. The primary "bubbler" is quite a bit bigger, and I'm planning to fill it up to about 3/4-4/5 if its volume.

 

[hounddawg]

I use a barrel or brute trash can for my primary ferment, with a open top you can just cover with a towel or sheet as long as your ferment is going, only after ferment starts stopping do you need to rack to a airlocked carboy an/or carboys, i ferment 6 gallon or 20 gallon in a brute trash can, they are food grade plastic,
good luck and have fun
Dawg

 

[Jovimaple]

Also remember that as home winemakers, we don't need to be exact as far as ABV. For instance, I personally don't care what my final ABV is after I backsweeten (since adding additional sugar changes the total volume and therefore lowers the ABV). My main concerns are making sure I am in the 10% or higher ballpark, but I am not going to spend money to send a sample to a lab to find the exact ABV of the finished wine.

If you decide to sell your wine, that's a whole different set of standards, but I just want to reach "wine" level of about 10% or higher and then also to be aware if something ends up in the 15-17% range so I can warn people I share with that they should go easy with the strong alcohol wines!