Author Topic: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol  (Read 5794 times)

luketrollope

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Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« on: January 17, 2018, 02:52:44 AM »
I am trying to combine two of my passions tropical fruit and home brew. I have made a banana beer a pineapple wine and a mixed fruit mash cider with mango, abiu, pineapple, malay apple, jackfruit  bananas and apples.

Any way I am wondering if any one on this forum has fermented any tropical fruits into booze and if so which ones? And how?  Maybe we could swap recipes / ideas. I would like to hear about any ones endeavours and maybe 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!

Mugenia

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2018, 03:29:53 AM »
Rice wiskey infused with wild banana is very good and potent. Ask them Asian members for the recipe.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2018, 03:32:29 AM by Mugenia »

Tropheus76

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2018, 04:42:18 AM »
Mulberry mead is as close as I have come so far although that was half the reason I started doing this in the first place. Once I swap out some trees I will have better fruit for this. I currently have 5gal chocolate mead and a 1gal Polish Great mead working on their 4th year of aging :)

pineislander

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2018, 08:43:55 AM »
So far have made wine with mombin plum, mango, passionfruit, and starfruit/carambola. Only tasted mango and mombin, liked mombin best.

roblack

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2018, 09:11:19 AM »
I haven't brewed in years, but have noticed that the pomegranate arils that we buy from the supermarket ferment easily and quickly. It smells potent, and you can taste the alcohol when biting into them. Might be a good fruit to try brewing and making wine with. 

bbudd

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2018, 06:38:29 PM »
Tried MANY fruits for fermenting
So far best results are
- roselle for a red wine   (best with fresh fruit)  ferments quickly and produces decent wine in short time
-passionfruit    (prefer the red and yellow )   ages very well and improves with age
-watermellon   (include rind but NOT skin)   had mixed success,seems to depend greatly on temperature fermenting-cooler is better

Tried  many other tropical fruits -but those were the best so far

palmcity

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2018, 08:32:32 PM »
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.pdf

Equipment/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...



Finca La Isla

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2018, 08:32:54 PM »
We’ve done a few, and then distilled them as well making nice fruit brandies.  Mango and pineapple both work well.  Mexicans make a pineapple ferment called 'tapache'.
I do my ferments in a 5 gallon bucket, sometimes adding some sugar and we simply use the regular bread yeast.
Peter

ras954

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2018, 10:01:36 PM »
wondering if any one on this forum has fermented any tropical fruits into booze and if so which ones? And how?  Maybe we could swap recipes / ideas. I would like to hear about any ones endeavours and maybe I won't feel so alone in my quest as there is very little info on fermenting tropical fruit.

I am in the middle of a 5 gallon Lychee mead batch.  Used about 7 lb in primary with Orange Blossom honey base.  Added about 2lb post secondary for about 3 weeks.  Currently aging with 1 Stavin French Oak stave (about 2 months).  Will probably bottle within the next few months (bulk aged about 1 year in total).

 

palmcity

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2018, 10:18:31 PM »
Cheers!

I have not watched all the videos or read all this material as what I do works for me and no need to change unless you end up with vinegar or a bad tasting wine.
http://eckraus.com/wine-making-steps/
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Homemade-Wine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7tauROWh0Y
https://winemakermag.com/your-first-wine-from-fresh-grapes

For people in the U.S. remember that selling wine without a permit/license is illegal as is distilling alcohol Ex. wine to brandy. Also, anyone consuming your brew and injuring self or others may want to take up the matter in court later.

Cheers

luketrollope

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2018, 03:21:57 AM »
Thanks for the input there are some interesting ideas in these posts. The mombin wine sounds great they are fruiting here at the moment so now I have something to do! I have never made a mead but the lychee and mulberry ones sound great.

The thing I have realized is how easy it is to ferment fruit and fruit juice. I have been buying bottled fruit juice fresh and reconstituted unscrewing the lids drinking a sip and adding a pinch of wine or ale yeast and re screwing the lids back on 90% tight so the gas can escape and then leaving them for 5 days to ferment then re screwing the lids putting them in the fridge and drinking them fresh like that as palmcity mentioned they are still "live" like a kombucha.   As they have vitamin C and B vitamins from the yeast there is not much of a hangover. I sometimes put airlocks on the bottles but have not lost any that have not had airlocks.

Now with the tropical fruit brews I have done all I do is get excess fruit (seconds and very ripe fruit is fine) boil them up in a big pot sometimes adding sugar ( to bump up the ABV) if there is not enough fruit. 

Next  strain the fruit mix  wait for the liquid  to cool then put the mix into a 30L fermenting container and adding water to 23L ( I normally have about 8L of fruit mash) and add  the yeast.

I sometimes don't even bottle it just drink it fresh from the keg (what a sad boozer I am!) other wise bottle it  and age it.

Sometimes I add carbonation drops to the bottles for a carbonated brew other times no carbonation drops  for a still drink. It is easy to scale it down if there is not enough fruit for a 23 l batch sometimes I just boil up a few pineapple or what is in season  add a bit of sugar and put the cooled strained mix into a 2 l juice bottle fill the empty spacein the bottle with water  and add the yeast to the 2 l bottle with an air lock on or the lid unscrewed a bit.

My next batch is going to be a ripe bread fruit brew (anyone done a bread fruit wine?) unless I get to those mombins first!

I have  fermented vegetables as well but hay this is not the tropical vegetable forum...

I will try to get around to posting some pictures soon if anyone is interested.

Thanks

 

luketrollope

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2018, 03:25:28 AM »
Mulberry mead is as close as I have come so far although that was half the reason I started doing this in the first place. Once I swap out some trees I will have better fruit for this. I currently have 5gal chocolate mead and a 1gal Polish Great mead working on their 4th year of aging :)
Friend how did you make the chocolate mead? Thanks

luketrollope

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2018, 03:28:06 AM »
Tried MANY fruits for fermenting
So far best results are
- roselle for a red wine   (best with fresh fruit)  ferments quickly and produces decent wine in short time
-passionfruit    (prefer the red and yellow )   ages very well and improves with age
-watermellon   (include rind but NOT skin)   had mixed success,seems to depend greatly on temperature fermenting-cooler is better

Tried  many other tropical fruits -but those were the best so far
bbud do  you have a recipe for the passion fruit wine and how about the watermelon?  Thanks
« Last Edit: January 18, 2018, 03:30:52 AM by luketrollope »

bbudd

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2018, 05:51:56 AM »
Roselle wine-for 5 gallon
 3-4 kilo fresh roselle blossoms (without the cores) -there's a big difference between the taste with dried and fresh roselly
8-10 kilo sugar
lalvin yeast is prefered
Put roselle in bucket with 3 gallons boiling water-add sugar and fill with additional boiled water
Let stand till cool and add yeast
I generally start removing the blossoms after the 3rd day-otherwise they float and can mold
Length of ferment depends on temperature

Passion-fruit wine-for 5 gallon
6-10 kilo passion-fruit -depends on there size
10-12 kilo sugar
yeast of choice
Just empty the passion-fruit pulp into the bucket
Add HOT or boiling water and sugar
Cool and add yeast
The pulp and seed are removed when yeast has stopped working
Honey makes a nice addition-2 quarts

Watermelon wine
2-3 melon -depends on size-remove as much rind as possible
8-10 kilo sugar and 1 quart honey
yeast of choice
fill bucket with boiling water
let cool and add yeast
ferment till done-finished bubbling
I use airlocks on the buckets-keeps out unwanted bacteria and makes it easy to see when yeast has finished working and everything is sanitized before use

I strain any fruit residue then let sit to settle any sediment and rack at least twice before bottling
The watermelon and roselle are fine after a couple weeks-but both the watermelon and passion-fruit improve greatly with age

You can even take things 1 step further and make your own specialty vinegar
red wine vinegar from the roselle
malt vinegar from beer
even have a batch of balsamic vinegar ageing in oak
all you need is a vinegar "mother"


bbudd

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #14 on: January 18, 2018, 05:53:05 AM »
Roselle wine-for 5 gallon
 3-4 kilo fresh roselle blossoms (without the cores) -there's a big difference between the taste with dried and fresh Roselle
8-10 kilo sugar
lalvin yeast is preferred
Put roselle in bucket with 3 gallons boiling water-add sugar and fill with additional boiled water
Let stand till cool and add yeast
I generally start removing the blossoms after the 3rd day-otherwise they float and can mold
Length of ferment depends on temperature

Passion-fruit wine-for 5 gallon
6-10 kilo passion-fruit -depends on there size
10-12 kilo sugar
yeast of choice
Just empty the passion-fruit pulp into the bucket
Add HOT or boiling water and sugar
Cool and add yeast
The pulp and seed are removed when yeast has stopped working
Honey makes a nice addition-2 quarts

Watermelon wine
2-3 melon -depends on size-remove as much rind as possible
8-10 kilo sugar and 1 quart honey
yeast of choice
fill bucket with boiling water
let cool and add yeast
ferment till done-finished bubbling
I use airlocks on the buckets-keeps out unwanted bacteria and makes it easy to see when yeast has finished working and everything is sanitized before use

I strain any fruit residue then let sit to settle any sediment and rack at least twice before bottling
The watermelon and roselle are fine after a couple weeks-but both the watermelon and passion-fruit improve greatly with age

You can even take things 1 step further and make your own specialty vinegar
red wine vinegar from the roselle
malt vinegar from beer
even have a batch of balsamic vinegar ageing in oak
all you need is a vinegar "mother"

bbudd

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #15 on: January 18, 2018, 05:54:30 AM »
Hey-sorry for the double post
It said the first didn't post

Tropheus76

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2018, 08:55:01 AM »
Mead is stupidly easy to make at its base level. Spring water, honey, boil them together while stirring. Sift out the impurities if you want(some people say not to) after boiling add the ingredients or during depending, after it cools down considerably add yeast. Let it age. I would never let a mead age for less than a year and mine are usually for two or more. Chocolate meads need a good couple years. Polish great meads literally require minimum of 3 years. Reminds me I need to start an elderberry one before I deploy so the active phase is done with.

Honey obviously affects sweetness. The more honey, the sweeter it is. Polish great meads are half water to half honey all the way up to  1/4 water and 3/4 honey in the initial ferment.

fruitlovers

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2018, 04:55:30 PM »
I've only tried making a jaboticaba liqueur. It was super easy as it just involved letting the jaboticabas sit in pure grain alcohol for a long time. It was extra ordinarily good. I'm not real big on alcoholic drinks, but would definitely try that one again!
Oscar

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #18 on: January 19, 2018, 05:04:13 PM »
Mead is stupidly easy to make at its base level. Spring water, honey, boil them together while stirring. Sift out the impurities if you want(some people say not to) after boiling add the ingredients or during depending, after it cools down considerably add yeast. Let it age. I would never let a mead age for less than a year and mine are usually for two or more. Chocolate meads need a good couple years. Polish great meads literally require minimum of 3 years. Reminds me I need to start an elderberry one before I deploy so the active phase is done with.

Honey obviously affects sweetness. The more honey, the sweeter it is. Polish great meads are half water to half honey all the way up to  1/4 water and 3/4 honey in the initial ferment.

Do you have to add yeast? I thought it would ferment on its own. Perhaps not if you boil it (though you boil Taro before making Poi and it still ferments).

Zafra

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #19 on: January 19, 2018, 05:36:07 PM »
Definitely ferments on its own if you don't boil it. Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation are treasure troves of info about this.

Triloba Tracker

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #20 on: January 19, 2018, 06:15:33 PM »
Definitely ferments on its own if you don't boil it. Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation are treasure troves of info about this.

Love me some Sandor Katz! Though I found Art of Fermentation somewhat obtuse.

Tropheus76

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #21 on: January 19, 2018, 07:05:46 PM »
With mead unless you live near a bread factory it probably wont ferment on its own. A friend of mine experimented with this exact thing and failed until he set up his must at his friend who lived near a bakery. The result was horrible though. Plus buying yeast specifically grown for specific types of brewing gives a far superior product in both taste and alcohol content. Besides, they are like 3 bucks or less a packet for a consistent product.

ras954

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #22 on: January 19, 2018, 08:59:39 PM »
With mead unless you live near a bread factory it probably wont ferment on its own. A friend of mine experimented with this exact thing and failed until he set up his must at his friend who lived near a bakery. The result was horrible though. Plus buying yeast specifically grown for specific types of brewing gives a far superior product in both taste and alcohol content. Besides, they are like 3 bucks or less a packet for a consistent product.

I've made a bunch of Mead and the 58W3 yeast will produce amazing results http://www.scottlab.com/product-30.aspx
Totally worth buying some if you want something that you will enjoy every sip and be proud to share.

Triloba Tracker

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2018, 10:54:13 AM »
I bake all my own bread and use wild cultures so maybe that would help! Hehehe
But no, good info on the yeast. Thanks!

Kada

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Re: Fermenting tropical fruits into alcohol
« Reply #24 on: January 23, 2018, 06:11:43 AM »
second the roselle wine.  i really enjoy it!  a friend distilled some for me from our ferment but it wasn't the same, seems better to use roselle for flavor after distillation.  also did a miracle fruit with roselle which was nice but only because i had a massive harvest of miracle fruit and needed seed haha.

Going to try a annona squamosa ferment now, see how it goes.

here aboriginals commonly use rice, quinoa, millet, sorghum, lychee, longan, annona, mango, passion fruit and some others i am probably forgetting.  but seems many dont consider the creation of wood alcohol and the dangers it may pose.  would at minimum take skins and seeds off.