Any way I am wondering if any one on this forum has fermented any tropical fruits into booze and if so which ones?
I won't feel so alone in my quest as there is very little info on fermenting tropical fruit.
As a side note it is a great way to preserve excess fruit and a good way to "value add" to fruit.
Cheers!
I have 1 & 1/2 gallon mulberry wine and 1 gallon mango/key lime wine in refrigerator. I have 5+ gallons mango wine with fermenter lock in place that is needing to be bottled etc or put in refrigerator from last fall.... I'm not drinking it as fast as expected.... A lot of fun.... I buy no wine or alcoholic beverages... no need...
Since you have made a beer, I consider you far ahead as wine making is simpler with less ingredients (hops etc.) needing to be purchased. As you know, the main thing in wine making is keep out bacteria that can break the alcohol down to vinegar.
For the novice wanting to give it a shot, I use potassium metabisulphite to produce sulfur to kill the bacteria before starting the fermintation and during it when racking. Other products including heat can be used but don't use heat unless you follow pasteurization procedures only (cooked material does not taste good in wines).
Sugar about 2 & 1/2 lbs per gallon or less, Yeast like Lalvin EC1118... many other choices will work but specialty yeasts survive in higher percent of their waste (ethyl alcohol) before dying off.
Choice of product is up to you.
Usually have to add citric acid or other lemon/lime juices for acid component for taste.
I enjoy drinking mine from the 1st 7 days of mash stage and drinking the sweet taste along with the live yeast & alcohol (most of the alcohol is produced within the 1st 14 days of active yeast growth in the musk mix.
As I previously mentioned, after making it you do not have to bottle it if you keep it in the refrigerator in like a big gallon jug cleaned out. Thus you can save on bottling costs with a spare refrigerator.
Recipes are abundant on the web. I will google a few.
I have not purchased wine equipment from this site but it has over 30 free wine recipes for download without spam popups when I just checked it...
http://eckraus.com/wine-recipes/ Ex.
http://eckraus.com/content/mulberrywine.pdfEquipment/yeast/airlocks/tubing/citric acid are available also on ebay.
Food grade 5 gallons buckets are in most wal mart paint sections for less than $4 last I checked and work good for 1st stage. (buy more than 1 as you will need two as you will throw away a lot of material like mango pulp and drink/sample some and you want to get your bottle full in the next stage).
If I want to make 5 gallons of wine, I start with two 5 gallon buckets and end up with 5 gallon in air lock later after about 2 weeks.
5 gallon water bottles used & cleaned work good for me with an air lock added.
Sugar from any grocery store.
And cheers to you too...