Apple and Banana Dry Sherry

• 2 lb. apples
• 1 lb. bananas
• 1-1/4 lb. granulated sugar
• 1 pt. white grape concentrate
• 1 oz. gypsum
• 1/2 oz. cream of tartar
• 1/2 oz. pectic enzyme
• 1/4 tsp. tannic acid
• 1 gallon water
• Sherry wine yeast and nutrient

Before beginning, core and chop apples and dissolve sugar in 1-1/2 cups boiling water. Allow to cool and store in jar for future use. Slice bananas with skins and boil in 4 pt. water for 30 minutes. Put apple pieces in primary fermentation vessel and strain liquid from bananas over apples. Add grape concentrate, cover, and allow to cool. When cool, add gypsum, cream of tartar, pectic enzyme, tannic acid, activated yeast, and nutrient, stirring well. Cover and allow to ferment three days, stirring twice daily. Strain off apples, add 1/2 cup sugar syrup, and continue fermentation. Add 1/2 cup sugar syrup each day until all has been used, then add sufficient water to bring to one gallon. When fermentation is complete (additional 10-14 days), rack into large enough secondary fermentation vessel (1-1/2 to 2 gallon) to allow fair amount of air above wine. Plug opening with cotton. Normally, that is the only racking in sherry production, but if pulp particles appear in sediment, rack again after two weeks and plug again with cotton. Store secondary fermentation vessel in cool (55-60 degrees F.) place and leave undisturbed. Flor may form in 3-4 weeks or as late as 4 months. If flor forms, leave undisturbed until all flor has sunk to bottom. Carefully siphon off lees through double layer of fine muslin into bottles. If flor does not form, allow to sit six months, carefully siphon into clean gallon bottle, sweeten with sufficient white grape concentrate or sugar water (1/3 lb. sugar dissolved in one cup water) to top up to one gallon, and then bottle. Allow two or more years to mature. [Adapted from Bryan Acton and Peter Duncan’s Making Wines Like Those You Buy]