Feijoa wine is one of the most exotic drinks that you’ll never find in stores. Homemade feijoa wine has a characteristic mild aroma and original incomparable flavor. If you have enough raw material I suggest you prepare at least a small test batch. This recipe will give you knowledge about the full technological process.
Ripe feijoa of any variety is suitable for winemaking. It’s important to remove any moldy, spoilt or blackened parts because even a small amount of tainted raw materials can ruin the whole drink batch. In order to prevent the must getting infected with mold or other dangerous microorganisms you’ll have to sterilize any used vessels with boiling water and wipe them dry with a dry piece of cloth.
Ingredients:
- Feijoa – 2 kilos
- Sugar – 1 kilo
- Water – 3 liters
- Citric acid – 6 grams per 1 liter of must
- Wine yeast
Citric acid is required to stabilize acidity and taste of wine. It makes fermentation run better and prolong wine’s shelf life. It’s better to use freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of powder—one average-sized lemon contains about 5-6 grams of citric acid.
Warning! If you use usual pressed distiller’s yeast instead of wine yeast you’ll end up with homebrew instead of wine.
Feijoa Wine Recipe
- If you don’t have wine yeast then 3-4 days before treating the persimmons you should prepare a ferment from unwashed raisins, grapes or other berries.
- Put washed and dried feijoas into a plastic bag and then leave it in a freezer for 2-3 hours. Afterward, take them out and defrost. This is optional but freezing conditions make pulp accumulate additional sugars which promote fermentation and taste forming.
- Peel the fruits. Mash the pulp in any way suitable then put it into a plastic container with a wide neck (a cooking pot or bucket work just fine). Add water along with 300 grams of sugar (one-third of the whole amount). Add wine yeast or ferment and stir.
- Cover the container with cheesecloth or fabric to protect the contents from insects and transfer it to a dark place with a temperature of 18-28°C. Leave it for 3 days. After 4-12 hours you should notice foam on the surface, hissing sound, bubbling, and sour scent. This means that everything goes according to the plan.
Stir the mixture with clean hands or wooden stick every 8-10 hours after adding ferment or yeast to drown the pulp in the juice. Without stirring the mixture might go sour.
- Strain the must through cheesecloth or thick fabric. Squeeze the pulp till dry and throw it out.
- Add citric acid (6 grams per liter of must) and 300 grams of sugar to pure juice and stir.
- Pour the juice into a fermentation vessel. Fill it up to a maximum of 75% of the volume so that there is enough space left for sugar and foam. Install an airlock of any design on the neck of the container. Leave the filled container in a dark place with a temperature of 20-28°C until the fermentation process is finished.
An airlock of simple design made from a dropper and plastic bottle
Make sure to seal the glove
- 7-8 days after the airlock has been installed, add the remaining 400 grams of sugar. To do this, separately drain 200 ml fermenting juice, dissolve sugar in it, stir, and pour the obtained syrup back into the fermenting wine vessel. Then close the container with the air lock once again.
Depending on the temperature and yeast used, the fermentation process of homemade feijoa wine lasts 35-60 days. You can tell that the fermentation process has stopped if the airlock has stopped emitting gas (or the glove deflated), there’s no more foam but a layer of sediment at the bottom, and the wine becomes lighter.
If the fermentation process lasts for more than 50 days after the airlock installation, the wine should be decanted and then put under the airlock again to ferment at the same temperature in order to prevent it from becoming bitter.
- After the fermentation has finished, gently decant the fermented wine into another container. Taste it and add more sugar to sweeten the taste if needed (optional). You can also increase ABV by adding vodka or alcohol in amounts of 2-15% of the wine volume.
- Fill the aging vessels with wine preferably to the brim to eliminate the risk of contact with oxygen. Seal them tightly (if you added sugar keep the vessels under airlocks for the first 7-10 days).
- Transfer the wine to a fridge or cellar for aging. Leave it for at least 4-6 months. In case of 3-5 cm sediment layer forming (once every few weeks at first, then less often) you should filter the beverage by pouring it through a tube into another vessel. The wine is considered ready when there’s no more sediment build-up for several months.
- Optionally bottle the feijoa wine for storage and cork it. Its shelf life in a fridge or cellar is up to 3 years. 10-12% ABV.
