Feijoa wine/cider with no added sugar

[misanthropic_curmudgeon]

Gentlefolk,

All the recipes for feijoa wine of cider that I can find seem to have
buckets of sugar and water added to them, which is not something that
sits too well with me: does anybody know of a recipe for feijoa wine
or cider that does not have any added sugar (or why they all seem to
'pad out' the recipe with sugar and water?)

(I'm considering emulating my apple cider recipe (juice them, ferment
them, bottle them, leave them, and drink them!) but I dont know how
that would work out with feijoas!)

Advice? Recipes? Answers?

Cheers!

[Elizabeth Evans]

I'm making a guess here, based on my general understanding of the process.

If you want a drink that has a certain alcohol level (comparable, say, to the hard cider you would buy in the grocery store, a little less than beer), you need to give the yeast enough sugar for it to get to that level without being killed off by a combination of alcohol and acidity (from the fruit) as it develops. 

And if you also want the drink to be sweet, you need to add even more sugar. 

Going with just the natural sugar in the fruit might give you a very acidic drink with little sweetness and little alcohol. 

But it might be very tasty in its own right. If you have a shop in your town that sells brewing supplies, you might go in and ask questions. (And they can sell you handy gizmos like airlocks too.)

Elizabeth

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[Gypsy A]

I used feijoas last year in kefir grains, which you also add sugar to, to feed the cultures. With cider making and kefir 'soda' making, Elizabeth is right- you need to feed the yeasts/cultures. they eat up the sugar and expel carbonation an alcohol, to simplify. The end result if you let it ferment long enough is not full of sugar. You can taste it along the way to get it to the point where you want it, ie. less sweet, more dry.... too long and you'll end up with feijoa cider vinegar (do this on purpose by throwing in a piece of kombucha culture). Hope my 2 cents helps.

-Gypsy 

[manumanu]

If you want your drink to preserve well you need at least 7% alcool.
Beer uses hop and soft cider need to be acid to preserve at low %alc..
I never used feijoa but i made similar thing with prickely cactus
pear, choke cherries, dandilion, etc. You need to add sugar to boost
the % of alcool. The sugar will be eaten by yeast and transformed (if
your worry is about ingesting pure saccharose) into alcool.

So:
1. add the desired amount of sugar to reach the proper density to get
the target % of alcool. (with the use of hydrometer)
2. Use yeast strain that is appropriate for your fermentation. Sacc.
bayanus is neutral and efficient and can tolerate high alcool or just
go WILD!!!!!
3. Add yeast nutrients for a healthy fermentation (yeast shell, epson
salt, vit. B, or premade mix), this will help to eat out all the sugar
quickly and make sure you don't have off-flavor.

hope this help!

emmanuel

On 21 déc, 04:18, misanthropic_curmudgeon