Loquat Wine Recipe

Here in Texas there is a fruit that is very plentiful this time a year and makes a very nice wine. It is the Loquat or sometimes called "Japanese Plums". It is a yellow fruit that grows on a tree with very vascular leaves and kind of looks like a small apricot. It is very sweet, juicy, and has 3 seeds in the middle. Give it a try...

• 4 lbs loquats
• 2 lbs sugar
• 1 tsp acid blend
• 1 gallon of water
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 1/2 tsp peptic enzyme
• 1/2 tsp grape tannin
• wine yeast and nutrient

Wash fruit and remove seeds. Chop the fruit up finely. Pour the fruit mixture over half of your sugar, crushed Campden tablet, tannin, yeast nutrient, and enough water to the 1 gallon mark on your primary fermenter. Stir well until the sugar is dissolved and cover. after 12 hours add the peptic enzyme and recover. After another 12 hrs add the yeast and recover. Stir daily, adding 1/2 of the remaining sugar after 3 days. Ferment for another 4 days stirring daily. After this 4 days stain the liquid very well, through cheese cloth or a nylon jelly bag to extract all juice. pour the juice into the secondary fermenter also adding the remaining sugar, and install an airlock. Let set for 30 days and rack into a clean secondary. rack again every 30 days until the liquid become clear, about 3 to 4 additional rackings usually does the trick. When it is clear check for taste if it is ok then bottle it. If it is to dry add stablilizer and sweeten to taste, adding 1/4 cup dissolved sugar in a 1/4 cup of water. For best results let it age for 1 year, but this can be drank young.

Give it a try, it is a very easy wine to make, don't watch those fruits go to waste on your trees....... or your neighbor's trees.