We are new at this as you will have gathered from our other posts but one shining success was Parsnip & Banana. It was simply one of the best things we've drunk and sadly all 6 bottles lasted not long enough. Am about to make more and try to keep it a bit longer, may even get to Christmas this time
So, it was something we put together from 3 recipes and it went like this...
2 Kg Parsnips
3 big ripe (very) bananas
250ml grape concentrate or 500g Sultaners (which is what we used)
1.5kg sugar
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1tsp yeast nutrient
Yeast - 1 teaspoon of Youngs
Scrub the parsnips, slice thinly and boil (mandolin thing is perfect) then boil in 3 pints of water for about 20-30 mins until just going soft.
Strain into a clean bucket and add sugar and chopped bananas. Leave to cool. Strain into into a clean sterilised demi john using a muslin to wring out the last juice from the bananas (don't worry it did clear later).
Top up to seven pints with cold water. Add rest of ingredients and leave to ferment.
After the vigourous fermenting slows down top up with cold water to the shoulders of the demi john.
Leave to ferment out for about 3 weeks.
Taste or check the gravity with a hydrometer, it should be dry , under 1000 sg on the hydrometer. If it's too sweet leave longer.
Add a campden tablet and a stabiliser tablet and leave to clear...... or use finings if you are desperate like we were (it was our first batch of anything)........... we racked it when it finished and was stabilised, looked at it for another few days and decided it was 'good to go'! So that was it, up on the stand, down through the filter, into the bottle, slap the wine bottle cooler thing round it and 10 min later it's on the pallet......... devine!!