Hello,

I bought a gervin high alcohol tolerant yeast which, in conjunction with their nutrients is stated to allow alchohol
production over 20%. I bought it on a whim and thought I'd make a 5 gallon of country wine when I had the right idea.

A friend recommended a strong apple wine, but it isn't one of my favourite fruit to make into wine. Has anyone other
any fruit or vegetable recommendations for a still wine at 20% ish strength which tastes particularly good?

Many thanks for any ideas.

Jim

we've gotten a peach and pear/raisin wines into the 15-18% range with lalvin
ec1118; 2 batches of the wines stalled at the end of primary & (fortunately)
never restarted in the bottles. both had a sweet edge to them that was
pleasant. one batch of peach (17%) finished @ .999 & was bone dry like an
entre deux mer and had a noticable peach aroma. all were great & packed a
wallop! wish i had more! hope this helps. regards, bob

jim" > wrote in message
...
> Hello,
>
> I bought a gervin high alcohol tolerant yeast which, in conjunction with
> their nutrients is stated to allow alchohol production over 20%. I bought
> it on a whim and thought I'd make a 5 gallon of country wine when I had
> the right idea.
>
> A friend recommended a strong apple wine, but it isn't one of my favourite
> fruit to make into wine. Has anyone other any fruit or vegetable
> recommendations for a still wine at 20% ish strength which tastes
> particularly good?
>
> Many thanks for any ideas.
>
> Jim
>

Yes thats a good start thanks Bob, it sounds divine!

Jim

"bobdrob" > wrote in message . ..
> we've gotten a peach and pear/raisin wines into the 15-18% range with lalvin ec1118; 2 batches of the wines stalled at
> the end of primary & (fortunately) never restarted in the bottles. both had a sweet edge to them that was pleasant.
> one batch of peach (17%) finished @ .999 & was bone dry like an entre deux mer and had a noticable peach aroma. all
> were great & packed a wallop! wish i had more! hope this helps. regards, bob
>
> jim" > wrote in message ...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I bought a gervin high alcohol tolerant yeast which, in conjunction with their nutrients is stated to allow alchohol
>> production over 20%. I bought it on a whim and thought I'd make a 5 gallon of country wine when I had the right
>> idea.
>>
>> A friend recommended a strong apple wine, but it isn't one of my favourite fruit to make into wine. Has anyone other
>> any fruit or vegetable recommendations for a still wine at 20% ish strength which tastes particularly good?
>>
>> Many thanks for any ideas.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>
>

> >> A friend recommended a strong apple wine, but it isn't one of my favourite fruit to make into wine. Has anyone other
> >> any fruit or vegetable recommendations for a still wine at 20% ish strength which tastes particularly good?

At that alcohol you are approaching a brandy style so if you like a
particular fruit brandy you might want to go that way. I made a 12%
apple and thought it was awful as a dry wine, i wouldn't suggest
that. most country wines are 10% or less to preserve the fruitiness.
The best way to get high alcohol is to feed the sugar, start with
enough to do 12% and once it's most of the way fermented add in more
sugar 1% at a time.

Joe

Thanks for the tip Joe.

Yeah it's has to be down to personal taste. He likes apple wine a lot more than I do so far. The tip about thinking
about what fruit brandy you like is useful as it gives me a direction to consider. I had wondered about making a wine
which might be like a sherry in nature but still a wine.. I have just started a banana wine which has a high OG and was
thinking that if I liked that, I could try to do a heavy banana / sultana / raisin wine, though I won't know - till I
have tried the banana wine whether that's even vaguely sensible.

The only time I tried adding extra sugar after the fermentation had begun was with my beetroot wine. I added in the
extra sugar, stirring to dissolve (as instructed after 3 weeks) instead of feeding it progressively after that point.
As it was, I dropped the extra sugar into the fermenting wine and it stuck fast despite 4 or 5 attempts to restart it.
I think had I fed it progressively, the wine would have worked well...

I will feed the high alcohol wine I make progressively next time rather than all at once!

Jim

"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message oups.com...
>> >> A friend recommended a strong apple wine, but it isn't one of my favourite fruit to make into wine. Has anyone
>> >> other
>> >> any fruit or vegetable recommendations for a still wine at 20% ish strength which tastes particularly good?
>
> At that alcohol you are approaching a brandy style so if you like a
> particular fruit brandy you might want to go that way. I made a 12%
> apple and thought it was awful as a dry wine, i wouldn't suggest
> that. most country wines are 10% or less to preserve the fruitiness.
> The best way to get high alcohol is to feed the sugar, start with
> enough to do 12% and once it's most of the way fermented add in more
> sugar 1% at a time.
>
> Joe
>

Yes you are down to personal taste. I would recomend trying to make a port.
Plums with raisons for vinuosity and bananas for body might be nice. If you
can come ome with a copy of one of C.J.J. Berry's books he has a recipe for
Peach Perfection where you use some brown sugar and aim for 18%. I made it
years ago and it was very nice.

Ray

"jim" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for the tip Joe.
>
> Yeah it's has to be down to personal taste. He likes apple wine a lot
> more than I do so far. The tip about thinking about what fruit brandy you
> like is useful as it gives me a direction to consider. I had wondered
> about making a wine which might be like a sherry in nature but still a
> wine.. I have just started a banana wine which has a high OG and was
> thinking that if I liked that, I could try to do a heavy banana / sultana
> / raisin wine, though I won't know - till I have tried the banana wine
> whether that's even vaguely sensible.
>
> The only time I tried adding extra sugar after the fermentation had begun
> was with my beetroot wine. I added in the extra sugar, stirring to
> dissolve (as instructed after 3 weeks) instead of feeding it progressively
> after that point. As it was, I dropped the extra sugar into the fermenting
> wine and it stuck fast despite 4 or 5 attempts to restart it. I think had
> I fed it progressively, the wine would have worked well...
>
> I will feed the high alcohol wine I make progressively next time rather
> than all at once!
>
> Jim
>
> "Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
>>> >> A friend recommended a strong apple wine, but it isn't one of my
>>> >> favourite fruit to make into wine. Has anyone other
>>> >> any fruit or vegetable recommendations for a still wine at 20% ish
>>> >> strength which tastes particularly good?
>>
>> At that alcohol you are approaching a brandy style so if you like a
>> particular fruit brandy you might want to go that way. I made a 12%
>> apple and thought it was awful as a dry wine, i wouldn't suggest
>> that. most country wines are 10% or less to preserve the fruitiness.
>> The best way to get high alcohol is to feed the sugar, start with
>> enough to do 12% and once it's most of the way fermented add in more
>> sugar 1% at a time.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>
>

Actually, I've almost decided to make a 5UK gallon of 19% rice wine as (if it is anything like saké) the flavour should
seem natural enough at that volume. The amount of sugar required is horrific, but it's an interesting idea.

Presumably it would be a good idea to feed this fermentation with sugar rather than starting it off with all up to 12 KG
of sugar in one go?! I am using Gervin GV26 yeast, but it sounds prudent. I'm still guessing what OG to aim for if I
work this way...

Jim