Hi Cindie,

I'm making some banana wine now,too. I am only making a gal since its
my first time making it and I didn't want to be drinking 5 gal of a
batch gone bad. I too got a quick primary ferment to dryness. After
the second racking it tasted OK and showed some good potential. The
banana taste really came out, however next time I don't think I'll
include the peelings. I think I'll let it age a couple of months
before I bottle.

I mostly do kits, but I'm just getting started into some country
wines. It is quite fun ;-) Good luck on your batch!

Steve
Lynchburg, VA

On 7 Apr 2005 19:25:07 -0700, "tovaryn" > wrote:

>Hi all!
>
>You seem to be having so much fun that I decided to join in! So about
>8 weeks ago I started making wine. I've got 5 batches (in gallon jugs)
>in different stages of fermentation in my kitchen .
>
>So far, I've been sticking to the recipes on Jack Keller's web site.
>
>I have a question about my latest attempt. I made a spiced banana
>wine, the recipe is here, second from the top:
>http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipe2.asp.
>
>I increased the recipe 1 1/2 so I'd have something for topping up
>during racking. The increase also used up the whole can of white
>grape concentrate. I used the Lalvin EC 1118 yeast.
>
>My starting SG on April 3 was 1.097. I stirred daily for 5 days, just
>as the recipe said. Tonight, April 7, I strained out the chunkies and
>racked to the secondary -- one gallon jug and a 1.5 liter jug. I
>measured the SG and it was 0.998.
>
>Is it okay that the fermentation went so quickly? I added another 1/4
>sugar (divided between the two jugs) so that the yeast doesn't stop
>working yet. I didn't think that would hurt. I didn't measure the SG
>again, but I'm estimating that I raised it to around 1.006 or so.
>
>Before I started this batch, I googled this group for info on banana
>wine. You who said this smells like vomit are right! But I haven't
>thrown it out yet. I doubt I taste it for a year or so though.
>
>
>
>TIA!
>
>Cindie