First batch of lychee wine

[Brett_Bellmore]

Had some lychee wine in Germany last summer, and I've wanted to make ever since. Picked up my canned lychees this morning at the local asian market. 5 cans, 20 oz each. Figured I'd need 8, but my wife put three of them back; "You can't possibly need that many lychees!"

So, after draining off the syrup, and running the lychees themselves through my juicer, I ended up with a combined volume of 10 cups, (Yeah, 8 would have hit one gallon on the nose!) at a S.G. of 1.08. I calculated that out at 16.25 oz of sugar.

I've got a packet of Lalvin K1-V1116 (Montpellier), which seemed a suitable yeast. I'm targeting 15% alcohol, which requires 35 oz of sugar. So I dumped another 19 oz of sugar in, swirled it until it dissolved, and topped off with tap water. In went a crushed campden tablet, and the gallon jug is in the closet overnight, with a coffee filter tied over the top.

This is my first batch of wine since I crawled around in the lawn picking dandelions for my mom's dandelion wine back in the 70's. Did I screw anything up yet?

I plan to pitch it late tomorrow, so I've still got some time to adjust things if I did.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

I wouldn't have added the campden, this is usually added to wines made from fresh fruit or fresh grapes to suppress the wild yeast found naturally on the skins from starting to ferment.
Let us know how it comes out.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

Ah, skip the campden next time. Gotcha.

Yup, I'll keep you guys updated.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

Ok, got it pitched. The lychee wine I'd had in Germany was a nice golden color, and the lychee juice I got out of the canned lychees was colorless, so I made up a saffron tea, and used it to hydrate the yeast. Seems to have colored the whole gallon nicely.

 

[Michelle Smith]

Ok, got it pitched. The lychee wine I'd had in Germany was a nice golden color, and the lychee juice I got out of the canned lychees was colorless, so I made up a saffron tea, and used it to hydrate the yeast. Seems to have colored the whole gallon nicely.

so what happened?! How long did you age after bottling?

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

Didn't bottle it, it wasn't all that great. But I did manage to use it up in Chinese cooking.

Wasn't horrible, but wasn't nearly as good as what I had in Germany.

I think maybe the problem was that I kept the fermenter in the closet next to the hot water heater....

 

[AkTom]

Living in Alaska... fresh lychee is hard to come by. Next time I’m in Los Anchorage I’ll hit a couple of Asian stores and see if I can find canned. I won’t let SWMBO stop me from getting what I need.
Cheers and thanks for the idea.