Peach banana port wine and questions

[Brian-1]

Hi everyone. I just joined the forum and this is my first post. I started making wine about 1 year ago and have a few batches in process, but now I just started a batch of port. Following is the recipe (I based it off of Goodfella's recipe from this forum) that I'm using for a 5 gallon batch:

Peaches 24 lbs
Bananas 12 lbs
water (total batch volume appx 6 gal) 3 gal
sugar (to 1.105) appx 11 lbs
yeast nutrient 5t
Acid blend 7t
pectic enzyme 6t
wine tannin 1t
campden tablets 4
Light malt extract 2C
yeast energizer 2t
bentonite (Mix with hot water first) 1t
yeast EC-1118
Everclear (to be added later) TBD (to 20% ABV)

So far I prepared the batch and I'm going to put the yeast starter in tomorrow. I have a few questions:
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• Does my recipe look OK?
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• Regarding specific gravity, I started at 1.105 and I plan to let it drop to 1.040 or so and then add more sugar to 1.060 or so and repeat this several times until the ABV is around 17~18 % and the SG is about 1.030. Then I would add the Everclear and Potassium Sorbate. Is this the correct process?
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• My understanding with port is that you don't want the S.G to go below a certain value (say, 1.030) or you will loose some of the peach flavor. Is this correct?
  -
• Regarding oxidation, should I do it or not? If so, any advice on how to do this?

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Thanks in advance for your help,

Brian

 

[salcoco]

your step feed method is okay. the yeast will finally quit at whatever sugar level you start with when step feeding. since you are starting at 1030 then adding sugar it will stop eventually once toxic level is set. I would lower this start point to 1010 add sugar to 1020 and then repeat. you can achieve 20% step feeding. I double that you will need any Everclear addition as 20% is nominal for a port. you might actually need to sweeten to get the balance you need. adding sweetener would give you more control plus add ot the peach flavor. just a thought maybe use peach flavored vodka rather than Everclear if you do need to add alcohol.

 

[Brian-1]

Thanks for the advice Salcoco. I'm currently at 1.040 sg and haven't made any additions yet.

What about oxidizing it? First of all, is this a good idea and if so, do I just leave a big air gap and put on an empty airlock when I rack it?

 

[salcoco]

keep a loose cover over the fermenting bucket the CO2 generated by the fermentation will protect the wine from oxidizing. just keep adding the sugar at 1010 sg raise it to 1020 and repeat until it stops fermenting, the sg will remain the same, then rack into a carboy with a airlock filled with a k-meta solution.

 

[bein_bein]

It will be interesting to follow this and see how this wine ages. I tried a peach/banana blend years ago. The banana was very prominent early on, by the time the banana settled down (about 2 years of aging) the peach was very thin and hardly present. Keep us posted with updates