I made a cranberry wine to serve at this year's Thanksgiving dinner. Used a
recipe from Jack Keller's site that called for 2# cranberries and 1#
currants (plus Jack's other ingredients) per gallon. I used raisins instead
of currants and fermented with Cote Des Blancs yeast. The wine finished up
at pH 3.38 and TA 1.0%. It was tart, like I think cranberry wine should be,
but it was a bit too sweet for my tastes.

I'm going to try a new cranberry wine for next Thanksgiving. I think I'll
eliminate the raisins in this new batch to see if I can bring out more of
the cranberry flavor and finish dryer. I'll use a starting specific gravity
that will result in an alcohol content similar to German Rhine Wines.
Without raisins I believe the wine will be too thin and I'm considering ways
to build body in a fruit wine. I read where bananas are used for this
purpose. For those who know, how many pounds of bananas should you use for
a five gallon recipe of wine? Any other ideas on ways to build body into
fruit wines will be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas

Bill,
I just had a chance to taste my first try at cranberry wine at Thanksgiving.
It was very cranberryish - slightly tart, very fruity, and slightly sweet
(which I like). We all thought it was very good. I added 1 can of 100%
Welch's white grape juice for body, Montrachet yeast, and it was about 12%
alcohol by volume. I did not test for PH or TA.
Darlene

"William Frazier" wrote in message
...
I made a cranberry wine to serve at this year's Thanksgiving dinner. Used
a
recipe from Jack Keller's site that called for 2# cranberries and 1#
currants (plus Jack's other ingredients) per gallon. I used raisins
instead
of currants and fermented with Cote Des Blancs yeast. The wine finished
up
at pH 3.38 and TA 1.0%. It was tart, like I think cranberry wine should
be,
but it was a bit too sweet for my tastes.

I'm going to try a new cranberry wine for next Thanksgiving. I think I'll
eliminate the raisins in this new batch to see if I can bring out more of
the cranberry flavor and finish dryer. I'll use a starting specific
gravity
that will result in an alcohol content similar to German Rhine Wines.
Without raisins I believe the wine will be too thin and I'm considering
ways
to build body in a fruit wine. I read where bananas are used for this
purpose. For those who know, how many pounds of bananas should you use
for
a five gallon recipe of wine? Any other ideas on ways to build body into
fruit wines will be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas

.... how many pounds of bananas should you use for
a five gallon recipe of wine?

I use 20 pounds of cranberries (or other berry fruit) and five
bananas. You can use more bananas if you wish.

vince norris

Hey Bill,
I won't be much help re bananas or fruit wines in general as I haven't done
any work in that area. I have read that bananas are frequently used to add
body, particularly for the heavier wine, e.g. port style.

Another source of info regarding cranberry wine would be our friend Del
Unruh. He has made some that my wife & I thought was very nice. It was,
admittedly, a light wine which made it a fun wine for us. Del has also done
a fine Chokecherry wine and some other fruit wines..

Fred

"William Frazier" wrote in message
...
I made a cranberry wine to serve at this year's Thanksgiving dinner. Used
a
recipe from Jack Keller's site that called for 2# cranberries and 1#
currants (plus Jack's other ingredients) per gallon. I used raisins
instead
of currants and fermented with Cote Des Blancs yeast. The wine finished
up
at pH 3.38 and TA 1.0%. It was tart, like I think cranberry wine should
be,
but it was a bit too sweet for my tastes.

I'm going to try a new cranberry wine for next Thanksgiving. I think I'll
eliminate the raisins in this new batch to see if I can bring out more of
the cranberry flavor and finish dryer. I'll use a starting specific
gravity
that will result in an alcohol content similar to German Rhine Wines.
Without raisins I believe the wine will be too thin and I'm considering
ways
to build body in a fruit wine. I read where bananas are used for this
purpose. For those who know, how many pounds of bananas should you use
for
a five gallon recipe of wine? Any other ideas on ways to build body into
fruit wines will be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas

Bill, I've been occasionally using a powdered banana product for
several years now at the rate of 2.5 oz. per gallon. I believe (but
am not sure) that that works out to about a pound of ripe babanas.

Your cranberry wine -- did you use commercial or wild cranberries? I
ask because the commercial usually come out tarter than wild because
they are picked under-ripe for shipment and are just too acidic. On
the other hand, if you buy them from a grower who picks them at the
peak of ripeness and sells direct or ships them cold, they can be even
better than wild.

Good luck with the bananas, and please do report back to us next year.
That's how we all learn.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

"William Frazier" wrote in message
...
I made a cranberry wine to serve at this year's Thanksgiving dinner. Used
a
recipe from Jack Keller's site that called for 2# cranberries and 1#
currants (plus Jack's other ingredients) per gallon. I used raisins
instead
of currants and fermented with Cote Des Blancs yeast. The wine finished
up
at pH 3.38 and TA 1.0%. It was tart, like I think cranberry wine should
be,
but it was a bit too sweet for my tastes.

I'm going to try a new cranberry wine for next Thanksgiving. I think I'll
eliminate the raisins in this new batch to see if I can bring out more of
the cranberry flavor and finish dryer. I'll use a starting specific
gravity
that will result in an alcohol content similar to German Rhine Wines.
Without raisins I believe the wine will be too thin and I'm considering
ways
to build body in a fruit wine. I read where bananas are used for this
purpose. For those who know, how many pounds of bananas should you use
for
a five gallon recipe of wine? Any other ideas on ways to build body into
fruit wines will be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas

Bill,

Two years ago I made a cranberry mead to my (soon to be) mother-in-law's
Thanksgiving cranberry relish recipe, and I didn't find it to be thin at
all. The recipe was very simple, 2 12 oz bags of fresh cranberries, 2 navel
oranges, 3/4 cup sugar, and spices. My conversion of this to a beverage was
to make it a mead, using the 2 12oz bags of fresh cranberries, the fruit and
zest of 2 navel oranges (eliminating the pith, which adds a bitter component
to a wine or mead), and the spices. I used honey to bring it up to wine
strength, fermented it dry, and I thought it was a very nice mead. It
wasn't a heavy bodied mead, but it wasn't thin at all either.

The above doesn't precisely address your question, and so I offer the
following: If you start with a wine or mead of 1.090-1.100 SG, and use
nearly any commercial wine yeast, you should end up with a dry wine or mead.
This may eliminate the issue you had with your wine, which you say was too
sweet for your tastes.

Alternatively, you may use grape juice to add body, or you may blend with a
full bodied wine or mead to bring the cranberry wine to the body that you
will enjoy. I've made many gallons of both golden and black raisin mead for
the purpose of blending, as this mead has an incredible body to it that
blends well with a lesser bodied wine or mead to hide that deficiency.


--
Cheers,
Ken

Jack - I used grocery store, unfrozen cranberries that I bought after
Thanksgiving. This wine is quite tart at 1.0% acid. I'm going to tinker
with the acidity...measure the acid in Ocean Spray Cranberry Cocktail and
use that as a target. I find the OSCC a very pleasant cranberry drink. My
wine was better mixed with OSCC at the time of serving. While too sweet for
my taster I got some nice comments from those I gave the wine to and
requests for another bottle.
Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas

"Jack Keller" wrote in message
om...
Bill, I've been occasionally using a powdered banana product for
several years now at the rate of 2.5 oz. per gallon. I believe (but
am not sure) that that works out to about a pound of ripe babanas.

Your cranberry wine -- did you use commercial or wild cranberries?

Jack,

What you said about commercial cranberries being tart makes sense to
me now. Last Jan2 I bought a whole bunch of these from the store and
froze them until the summer when I made my wine based on a recipe from
your sight. My pH meter was acting up so I didn't check the must. It
finished up with a pH of nearly 3.0, far too acidic. Is
cold-stabilizing likely to help raise the pH?

Thanks,
Richard

(Jack Keller) wrote in message . com...
Bill, I've been occasionally using a powdered banana product for
several years now at the rate of 2.5 oz. per gallon. I believe (but
am not sure) that that works out to about a pound of ripe babanas.

Your cranberry wine -- did you use commercial or wild cranberries? I
ask because the commercial usually come out tarter than wild because
they are picked under-ripe for shipment and are just too acidic. On
the other hand, if you buy them from a grower who picks them at the
peak of ripeness and sells direct or ships them cold, they can be even
better than wild.

Good luck with the bananas, and please do report back to us next year.
That's how we all learn.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/

Last year I used Jack's highbush cranberry wine recipe:
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/highbush.asp
It came out super dry and has a glorious floral aroma. But I used store
bought cranberries and it was very acidic. (1.2 if I remember right.) I
just sweetened it to 2% RS to offset the acid. It might be more to your
liking but use a hydrometer to set the sugar level instead of following any
recipe. Next time I may cut the cranberries form 3 to 2 lbs and increase
the raisins or use some Welch's frozen grape juice. A pound of banana's
will not hurt anything but what I made has plenty of body. Probably from
the raisins.

Ray

"William Frazier" wrote in message
...
I made a cranberry wine to serve at this year's Thanksgiving dinner. Used
a
recipe from Jack Keller's site that called for 2# cranberries and 1#
currants (plus Jack's other ingredients) per gallon. I used raisins
instead
of currants and fermented with Cote Des Blancs yeast. The wine finished
up
at pH 3.38 and TA 1.0%. It was tart, like I think cranberry wine should
be,
but it was a bit too sweet for my tastes.

I'm going to try a new cranberry wine for next Thanksgiving. I think I'll
eliminate the raisins in this new batch to see if I can bring out more of
the cranberry flavor and finish dryer. I'll use a starting specific
gravity
that will result in an alcohol content similar to German Rhine Wines.
Without raisins I believe the wine will be too thin and I'm considering
ways
to build body in a fruit wine. I read where bananas are used for this
purpose. For those who know, how many pounds of bananas should you use
for
a five gallon recipe of wine? Any other ideas on ways to build body into
fruit wines will be appreciated. Thanks.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas

Richard, if you drop any acid in the process, it might. I've never
used this approach for pH, only TA. Others might have some insight.
If not, try it and see, then let us know.

Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/