Garage Winemaking in South Africa

[Scooter68]

Basic wine making is the same regardless of how much you make or to some degree, the type of fruit you use. So if you have any fruits available you can also try small batches of Peach, Apple, Blueberry, BlackBerry wine. The experience is the same just some different characteristics.
Not everyone enjoys fruit wines but they also offer the advantage that friends and critics are likely to not have much to compare your wine to. And it's a novelty as well. Don't know what the popular and common fruits are there but if you have a few 1 gallon or 4 liter glass jugs around you could give it a try.

I know it sounds like I'm pushing Fruit wines.... yeah I admit it. I make them because I like them and cannot find true fruit wines around. A peach is not all that different from a Riesling and you can make it semi-sweet, sweet, or even off-dry as well. Since I am assuming that it's rolling into your spring time weather, fresh fruits may be more affordable or even wild berries can be found.

Welcome the Wine makers fold.

 

[beano]

Definitely try out making fruit wines. That is all I make. Wild fruit is abundant if you look for it and don't mind picking it. Or fresh or frozen from the markets. Grape is great, but there are so many options available with fruit. Also tea wines are good. Especially chilled on a warm day. Nice light wines. Good luck on your projects and keep us posted on your progress with your wine making endevores.

 

[Wilhelm]

Have been thinking of making a banana wine but it seems to be a hit and miss between people. For the moment my focus and equipment is mostly for grape wines. I would like to know more about tea Wine though. Haven't really delved into it before. I love Rooibos and make a lot of rooibos/greentea iced tea. Mind sharing your process? Do you blend the tea with some berries to get some fruit flavors?

Besides that, I need to get myself in gear and start the second wine which was planned to be a Shiraz Vintners Kit.

 

[Johnd]

Have been thinking of making a banana wine but it seems to be a hit and miss between people. For the moment my focus and equipment is mostly for grape wines. I would like to know more about tea Wine though. Haven't really delved into it before. I love Rooibos and make a lot of rooibos/greentea iced tea. Mind sharing your process? Do you blend the tea with some berries to get some fruit flavors?

Besides that, I need to get myself in gear and start the second wine which was planned to be a Shiraz Vintners Kit.

I wouldn't give up on the banana wine, instead, use a tried and true method. One of our members, @dralarms makes excellent banana wine and would be happy to share recipe and methodology.........

 

[dralarms]

I wouldn't give up on the banana wine, instead, use a tried and true method. One of our members, @dralarms makes excellent banana wine and would be happy to share recipe and methodology.........

Absolutely.

 

[mhopkins]

Absolutely.

@dralarms, I, too, would be pleased to receive your banana wine recipe and methodology. Will you post here? Or, is there a better way? I tried a peach wine when some told me it was going to be too much a pain. It turned out well. But, I've been afraid to tackle banana. Thanks in advance for any help you might provide! Mark

 

[Johnd]

For @mhopkins and @Wilhelm , below is the link to the banana thread by @dralarms that I was thinking of. It's not a long thread, if you'll scroll through it, the info that you're looking for is in there. If you have any questions, I'm sure the answers will be given. Probably the best place to make your comments / questions is in the thread that is linked below.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/new-banana-started.68832/

 

[Wilhelm]

Great thanks everyone. Seems I've got some planning and shopping to do. Will do my best to do the recipe justice.

 

[mhopkins]

For @mhopkins and @Wilhelm , below is the link to the banana thread by @dralarms that I was thinking of. It's not a long thread, if you'll scroll through it, the info that you're looking for is in there. If you have any questions, I'm sure the answers will be given. Probably the best place to make your comments / questions is in the thread that is linked below.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/new-banana-started.68832/

Looking forward to making a batch ... thanks much! Mark

 

[dralarms]

My recipe is simple, get as many bananas as you can (as you can see from the other thread), peel and freeze them. Get a bucket bigger than you think you need and start emptying the bananas into the bucket, layering with plenty of pectic enzyme (I use 3 or 4 tbs per layer). Let thaw and once up to room temperature you can take some apple juice and dissolve your sugar into it and dump into the must and stir well. Then add yeast (I just sprinkle it on top), wait 3 or 4 hrs and stir in.

please note, I have used a refractometer on the must before adding sugar and if you use good and ripe bananas then it’s going to be at 1.080 to 1.100 once converted to sg, don’t worry about it. Something about the starches in the bananas allows the yeast to go way beyond what’s normally the limit of the yeast. I’ve got a refractometer that measures alcohol content as long as it’s a dry wine (tested it on some vodka and it was spot on) and have gotten as much as 25% abv. Seems impossible but you can tell a big difference between this and anything else made with fruit.

also I know you normally leave fruit 7 days, you can leave this for 14 with no ill effects.

don’t be afraid to squeeze every last bit of liquid out of the fruit that’s left.

 

[Wilhelm]

So did the final transfer this afternoon. Wine has been sitting at room temp which at times probably was a bit higher than what is ideal but was hoping that it would assist with getting the gas out. Seems to have worked perfectly fine and wine is perfectly flat. I therefore am satisfied now that degassing is not a necessary step if you are a bit patient. Will now go back to fermentation chamber at 20degrees C till bottling day.

Wine is perfectly clear. Just need to go and buy bottles. Colour in the glass is deep straw/yellow, so the amber colour in the carboy is not a true reflection of what it looks like in the glass. Tasted the sample and I'm pretty darn happy with it but will keep tasting notes for later when product is totally final and comes from the bottle rather than carboy.

Thanks for all the input everyone has given thus far on this thread in helping me make my first wine a success.

 

[Wilhelm]

Bottled the Riesling last night, which means it took me almost 5 months to make this wine. Unfortunately can't say it was my best bottling session ever. Had issues with my bottle filler (one with a spring) and the wine bottles stood open for about an hour in-between sanitizing and actually being corked. I added some extra campden just before bottling and hoping that will keep it fresh. Will get used to using the corker, it tends to leave an indentation on the top of the cork which isn't the most pleasing on the eye but probably doesn't really matter and I could always put shrink caps on if I really feel the need.

Wine seems to have a slight haze in the bottle but hope it's just the bottle and that it will be clear when in the glass. Not sure how long I should leave the wine in the bottle before it's enjoyed but have one bottle in the fridge which was only about 90% filled, so will probably give it a try tonight and will leave the rest for a couple of weeks.

Have received my Merlot kit so hope to kick that fermentation off this weekend in my new 27l glass carboy. Need to decide if I want to ferment it relatively cool or hot. At the moment I'm leaning towards a temp of about 22 degrees C (72 Fahrenheit) which is on the cooler side, hoping to keep a bit more fruit flavour behind considering it's a Merlot. Got a really nice wine fridge as a gift from the in-laws so need to pick that up as well and then will need to start planning some sort of a wine rack as I'm not exactly setup to house so much wine at the moment...

 

[Wilhelm]

Further projects in the planning is a barley wine. Biggest reason for this is that I have about 30kg of South African Pale Malt which I don't want to be brewing beer with.. And beyond that, I need to try my hand at that Banana Wine and have some grapes lined up for early 2020.

Wondering if any of you have used beetroot to colour banana wine into a Red Wine. Thought I can add some raisin, tannin and age on oak, which could give it some resemblance to a Red Wine. Any thoughts or am I planning a mess?

 

[bshef]

I think you are better off staying with a white wine from banana. If you want to make it a rose, you could make a fruit blend of strawberry/banana. I don't think it would be great to try to turn a banana based wine into a aged red wine. Go with grapes or heavy dark fruits for the aged reds. Though if you have the time and inclination, give it a try and keep us posted.

 

[Wilhelm]

Thanks for the input!

 

[Wilhelm]

Ok, so it's taken me way longer than planned but my second wine is finally under way. Vintners Merlot kit. Currently fermenting happily at 28 degrees C with Lalvin Ec-1118. Kit instructions said to add the oak chips at start of fermentation so just stuck with it.

Next wine project would have to get fruit from the Cape harvest in the next two months. Hoping to get some good quality Shiraz which I will need to courier 1400km up to Johannesburg.

 

[Wilhelm]

Just for record purposes, the OG was 1.092.