Lychee Wine Recipe?

[roadwarriorsvt]

All this talk of lychee wine, I had to bust out a bottle of mine. Even though its my first batch, I gotta say I love it! The lychee flavor is unique and delicious! Talk about thick and full bodied!

 

[FlTropical]

Did you use an F-pack or back sweeten it? Sounds great.

 

[roadwarriorsvt]

I just backsweetened to taste. As this was my first batch, I only followed the directions I posted. Didn't even own a hydrometer yet! so I think I got a little lucky with this batch. The sugar will really bring out the flavor (I think this is true of most any fruit wine).

 

[Tropical]

I know I'm getting in this a little late! Finally another Floridian shows up! I just cleaned and froze 20 pounds of skinned and seeded lychee (the cultivar is 'No Mai Tung'). And have my second batch in the third racking and my first batch a wonderful memory. Some tips, as for the yeast I stick with EC-1118, it handles the warmer tempertures down here better than anything else I've tried. Freeze the fruit, it help to break it down better. Not just lychee, but everything. Add your sugar as simple syrup or inverted sugar. The extra steps to make it are nothing compared to peeling and seeding lychee. So these folks understand - it takes about one hour to seed and and skin enough lychee to get one pound cleaned, so these small steps help a lot. Lychee are high in acid already (as you found out), don't bother with acid blend. When it is time to backsweeten, do so with simple syrup, but do it in small increments, especially since you are only doing a gallon. You will be surprised how a little oversweeten will throw off the end product. Good Luck

 

[mrpoland]

How is the lychee wine going on??? If you want to know how much acid is in the juice first you need to find out what kind of acid contains lychee fruit. PH test doest tell you about acid level! You can have 5g in 1 liter of malic acid and PH will be for example 5 and you can have 5g of sulfuric acid in 1 liter and PH will be much lower! Each acid will give you different ph because there are stronger and weaker acids. More sweet wine you are looking for more acid per liter wine should contain. To add acid just add lemon juice.

This is how I make it…. I calculate how much sugar I need to make 14% wine. Then deduct sugar what is in the fruit [here you use SG test] and this way you know how much sugar you need to get 14% wine. At the end of all fermentation process you will get very dry wine [if the yeast use all sugar] then stabilize. Wine is stable and you can add sugar to get wine you are looking for, half-sweet, sweet and put it in to the bottles.

 

[abigtroutt]

Longan Berrys are in season and I missed the boat on lychee nuts. I have 3.5 lbs of Longans peeled, pitted and frozen. By next week I hope to have another 3 to 4 lbs for a gallon batch. I'm assuming I'll be following the recipie for lychees since they are couisns.

I also was thinking of other fruits like Jack Fruit, Star Fruit, Dragon Fruit, Hog Plum, Mango, papaya, coconut and other exotics since I have access to all this type of fruits.

 

[Tropical]

I have completed about one year using nothing but tropicals. These include lychee, mango, carambola, bignay (Antidesma bunius), loquat, Barbados Cherry (Malpighia glabra), Dovyalis X (common name is tropical apricot), and karanda (Carissa karadus). Some are still in racking, but the lychee, loquat, bignay, and dovyalis had a great reviews from all the wine snobs I gave bottles to. It seems that fruits with a lot of latex ( like jak fruit, avocado, and from experience karanda) will ‘gum up’ your primary fermenter. Even soap with a green scrubby does more damage than good. The scrubby fibers adhere to the sides of the fermenter. I am using that one (I have two) for any new fruit trials I haven’t gotten to yet. I also think that “true” berries are better. Fruits, such as mango and carambola need a lot of adjusting with acid or are already real high in acid. I use the Dovyalis as a blend with most of the fruit. An old time tropical fruit wine maker told me this trick. Really helps, if you can find it. I also only make five gallons at a time. I don’t think it is worth the effort for a gallon. Hog plum and papaya would be interesting. But coconut would be challenging and jack fruit might really mess up your feremnter. And how much dragon fruit can you get? That might really be interesting (even just a gallon)!

 

[docanddeb]

Great experiments. Have you tried Hibiscus? I had some made from whole, dried Hibiscus flowers from the local Natural Food Store... it was yummy! Have you tried any other flowers? I would think you have access to some that might be tasty!

Debbie

 

[abigtroutt]

I will be getting several lbs of muscadine grapes, longans, star fruit and hopfully dragon fruit depending on the cost this week. I will be freezing all of it until I'm ready to make wine. I love the taste of dragon fruit and can't wait to make it into wine. I will need expert advice on a recipe for the dragon fruit since I'm a novice. I hope to get 6 to 10 lbs depending on the cost. Grapes, Longans and Star Fruit will be free I may need to buy a chest freezer...lol My wife is going to kill me....lol

 

[docanddeb]

Better make wine the wife likes... then you'll be good.

Addicting... naw....

Debbie

 

[mrpoland]

i am working on hibiscus right now and it is very good so far!

 

[docanddeb]

Is it your first batch? Where did you get the hibiscus? Ours around here don't smell like anything, so I don't know what type is used for the dried version.

Debbie

 

[GringaRoja]

What would happen if the pits were not removed? Thanks.

 

[GringaRoja]

What would happen if pits were not removed?

What would happen if the pits were not removed? Thanks.

 

[Stressbaby]

What would happen if the pits were not removed? Thanks.

You risk making the wine bitter if you don't remove the pits.

 

[V shaw]

Hi everybody, this is my first post so be gentle with me.
I currently live in Thailand where it's hot, but Lychees and other exotic fruits are as cheap as chips. I currently make my own beer, but I would like to have a go at making my own Lychee wine, I bought about 3kgs (unpeeled) today for about £4.00, I have about half a kilo of rambutan to throw in with them.
I have read through the posts and there is no mention of temperature control, the temps in Thailand must average out at about 30c, I have a cheast freezer with adjustable control on hand, but when I tried to make pineapple wine it, it fermented very well in primary at about 16c, but when I moved to secondary it stopped fermenting and I had to remove the bottles to get them bubbling again. It was in primary for 6 days and I don't have a hydrometer, but took a refractometer reading of og 22 brix and when I put in secondary it was 15 brix. Any advice on hot country wine making would be most appreciated. Thanks.

 

[sour_grapes]

Hi everybody, this is my first post so be gentle with me.
I currently live in Thailand where it's hot, but Lychees and other exotic fruits are as cheap as chips. I currently make my own beer, but I would like to have a go at making my own Lychee wine, I bought about 3kgs (unpeeled) today for about £4.00, I have about half a kilo of rambutan to throw in with them.
I have read through the posts and there is no mention of temperature control, the temps in Thailand must average out at about 30c, I have a cheast freezer with adjustable control on hand, but when I tried to make pineapple wine it, it fermented very well in primary at about 16c, but when I moved to secondary it stopped fermenting and I had to remove the bottles to get them bubbling again. It was in primary for 6 days and I don't have a hydrometer, but took a refractometer reading of og 22 brix and when I put in secondary it was 15 brix. Any advice on hot country wine making would be most appreciated. Thanks.

I don't have a lot of info to help you, but one thing jumped out at me. Using a refractometer to monitor a fermentation is tricky. In addition to sugar, alcohol also changes the refractive index of the liquid. Take a look here: http://valleyvintner.com/Refrac_Hydro/Refract_Hydro.htm

 

[V shaw]

I don't have a lot of info to help you, but one thing jumped out at me. Using a refractometer to monitor a fermentation is tricky. In addition to sugar, alcohol also changes the refractive index of the liquid. Take a look here: http://valleyvintner.com/Refrac_Hydro/Refract_Hydro.htm

Thanks for the reply, my main concern is if I don't control the temperature in secondary, will I get 'off smells/tastes?' And if that is going to be the case would I be better leaving it in primary for longer, but there would still be a chance of it picking up bad smells from the lees.

 

[V shaw]

When I made the lychee wine it meant leaving the fruit in the fermenter for 5 days, presumably to get the sugar out of the fruit. So if I take a sg reading on day one surely it would not be accurate would it, I did take a reading and it was 17 brix. But surely over the next 5 days more suger would be released from the fruit so the original reading would not give me an accurate reading, would it not? Confused.

 

[Stressbaby]

I've made lychee wine once and it was good even to medal. It was mostly canned and a handful of about 15 fresh.

As @sour_grapes said, you can't trust the refractometer once fermentation starts. If the initial reading before fermentation was 17 that is a little low. You may want to consider adding a little sugar to get that up a bit before it gets too far along.

As far as temp goes, lychee would be best if fermented at a lower temp. I would aim for 15C or less actually. That's not to say it won't turn out fine at higher temp, but it think you are likely to blow off more of the aromatics at higher temps. Consider reserving some straight juice to add back after primary fermentation is complete, but be sure you use SO2 and sorbate first. Rambutan should work well with lychee, did you end up adding those?