Banana And Dried Fig Wine

BANANA AND DRIED FIG WINE

Bananas and dried figs sound like a snack plate, not a wine — but together they produce something genuinely surprising: a rich, amber-hued wine with a honeyed sweetness, a jammy fig backbone, and a depth that punches well above its grocery-store budget. The banana skins ferment right alongside the flesh, contributing body and a subtle earthiness that keeps this from tasting like dessert syrup. Give it time. This wine is slow to show its best side, but patience pays off in a glass that’s complex, smooth, and nothing like what you’d expect.

The beginner trap: Skipping the 24-hour pectic enzyme rest before pitching yeast — figs are loaded with pectin, and rushing past this step will leave you with a permanently hazy wine that won’t clear no matter how long you wait.

Ingredients

• 2½ lb. bananas (fresh, skins on)
• 2½ lb. dried figs, chopped (any grocery-store variety works; Medjool or Calimyrna are both fine)
• 3 lb. granulated white sugar
• ½ oz. citric acid (find it in homebrew shops or online; lemon juice is not a reliable substitute here)
• ⅛ tsp. grape tannin (or 1 cup cold-brewed, unsweetened black tea)
• ½ tsp. pectic enzyme
• 1 gallon water
• 1 packet wine yeast (Lalvin EC-1118 or Red Star Côte des Blancs work well)
• 1 tsp. yeast nutrient

Method

1. Slice the bananas thinly — skins and all — and place them in your primary fermenter along with the chopped dried figs and sugar.
2. Pour boiling water over everything and stir until the sugar fully dissolves.
3. Let the mixture cool to room temperature (below 75°F), then stir in the citric acid, grape tannin, and pectic enzyme.
4. Cover the fermenter loosely with a cloth or lid and leave it alone for 24 hours to let the pectic enzyme do its work.
5. Add the wine yeast and yeast nutrient, stir well, then cover the fermenter again.
6. Ferment on the pulp for 10 days, stirring the must once daily to keep the fruit cap submerged and the yeast happy.
7. Strain the liquid into a 1-gallon glass secondary fermenter (a carboy or jug), pressing the pulp gently to extract what you can; top up to the base of the neck and fit an airlock.
8. After 2 months, rack into a clean vessel, top up again, and refit the airlock.
9. Rack one more time after another 2 months, then let the wine rest undisturbed for 6 more months.
10. Rack a final time, then bottle; you can taste it after 6 months in bottle, but another year will reward you.

Why this works

Bananas are high in starch and pectin, which convert to fermentable sugars and body-building compounds as the must develops. Fermenting the skins along with the flesh extracts potassium and complex carbohydrates that give the finished wine a silky mouthfeel without added glycerin. Dried figs bring concentrated natural sugars and a jammy acidity that balances the banana’s sweetness. The pectic enzyme breaks down the pectin chains from both fruits — chains that would otherwise bond together into a permanent haze. Citric acid sharpens the whole profile and keeps fermentation conditions hostile to spoilage organisms. The result is a wine that’s chemically balanced from day one and just needs time to knit itself together.

Notes

If your dried figs are very hard, soak them in warm water for 30 minutes before chopping — they’ll release their sugars more readily into the must. Frozen bananas work well here and can actually be easier to slice; thaw them first but keep the skins on. If grape tannin is hard to find locally, one cup of strong, plain black tea (steeped and cooled) is a practical stand-in.