Raisins & Bananas

[wineforfun]

Getting ready to start another batch of Dragon Blood and others. My question is, when using bananas and raisins for body, do you press them daily too, like with the fruit or just leave them alone and let them soak in?
I will put my fruit in one bag and the bananas/raisins in the other.
Or what is the best way to achieve body with the bananas/raisins?
Thanks.

 

[ShawnDTurner]

press them down. in a few days depending on how ripe the naners are they will dissolve.

 

[bcroll88]

I yet to make wine without using a kit yet I think I will try the dragon blood receipt soon. My question is when you say you press the fruit daily how do you perform this task?

 

[Tripplett]

I stir up the floaters (floating yeast), spray my hands with Star San, wait a minute, and squeeze the fruit bag for a few minutes. It's a little messy but it gets the job done.

 

[CBell]

grab you fruit bag and squeeze. make sure to sanitize your hands. Wash your hands really well afterward, but they will still look like you murdered someone with your bare hands. Probably for days. Can't get that color out of your cuticles. I had to start wearing gloves when I pressed my dragon blood fruit

 

[Chiumanfu]

I use sterile latex gloves. You can get a big box for cheap at your local drug store.

Just throw everything including bananas and raisins in the mesh bag and squeeze it out everyday. It will start out the size of a watermelon and by the time fermentation is over, it should squeeze down to the size of an orange. Nothing but skins and seeds left.

 

[wineforfun]

Sounds good, that is what I did, just add them to the fruit bag. Thanks for the help, first time using bananas.

bcroll88,
I just use my spoon that I am stirring with daily, and smash the fruit bag up against the wall of the primary. Has worked well for me.

 

[dangerdave]

I have always used my cleaned/sanitized hands and squeeze the bag once a day until nothing else will come out. It's part of the fun of making DB! I call it the presser method (I did not invent it!), and I use it on all my fruit wines.

 

[Midwest Vintner]

I don't ever press the fruit. I cut the raisins in half and the yeast will do the rest. Squeezing fruit puts extra solids into the wine. I just pick the bag up and let it drip off right before pulling out the fruit only. The weight of the fruit/raisins/nanners will softly squeeze out the juice. Squeezing a harder type fruit (such as cut apples) after fermentation shouldn't hurt, but berries have seeds and unwanted pulp that I'd rather not press or squeeze very hard. Squeezing too hard can release more pectin, too. I wouldn't use surgical gloves because many have coatings on the inside and I rather not risk wine going into and then out of the glove as you squeeze.

We freeze the fruit prior to use, so it mostly is eaten by the yeast. Pineapple, which we don't freeze, we cut very thin. When we are done, we put it into our large press and just get the juice off it without pressing it. We have tried pressing before, but it makes the wine more cloudy and harder to clear, but again that's with a press, not just squeezing.

So, my final thought is this, as long as you don't press too hard, you'll probably be fine. May not clear as fast, but if you have enough wine on hand, it's not a problem. If you are looking for full body, start with enough fruit and you won't be squeezing the life out of the fruit to get enough flavor. lol

 

[dangerdave]

With the utmost resepct, MV. I know---you owning a winery and all---that you have far more experience making wine than I. Particularly fruit wines, which your winery specializes in, I see. However, I can only say what I have done to great success. I want the extra solids in the must from the fruit. Is that not the very reason for putting the raisins in there in the first place---more body? Using this method, I have been able to produce delightfully flavored fruit wines using less fruit. With the use of pectic enzyme in the primary, the pectin from the fruit is no problem at all. I have produced wonderful batches of wine from primary to clear in two weeks. I have not found where squeezing the fruit bag causes any of the problems you noted. Quite the contrary, actually.

Again, I offer you all the respect your experience has earned. I have tried making my fruit wines both ways (squeezing and not). The result has been universally on the side of the presser method, hands down. If I might ask, how many pounds of fruit per gallon do you typically use?

 

[Elmer]

I clean the fruit
Then I use a slap chopper to cut up banannas/raisons/peppers/etc.....
I wrap it in a cheese cloth and drop it in.
during the primary when I stir I use the paddle or spoon to press the clothed bundle and squeeze the juices.

When I am done I have the bundled cloth which gets tossed into my compost pile!

But that is just my process and I am a noob!