The Carambola are starting to ripen in SW FL. I'm going to attempt making some Carambola wine. The fruit is sweet so it will most likely will be a desert wine. I'm not sure since nobody I know has every attempted it before. I tell my friends if it comes out good you will receive a bottle from me, but if it comes out terribly they will get a case. I have found several receipts and I'm picking the one that sounds the best. If anybody has ever made Carambola wine let me know if it is worth my time.

I have never tried Crambol wine but the fruit is great. And even if someone else hass made it beore and it not t urned out well then you should still try and see how it comes out for you. Please let me know how it turns out
Eric

You mention the sweetness of the fruit causing the wine to be a dessert wine. I think that is a common misconception among new wine makers. The yeast will ferment the sweetness away. The sweetness of the finished wine will be determined by the final gravity. High final gravity makes sweeter (dessert) wine. If you start at a gravity that the yeast can ferment out, you will get a dry wine with the character of the fruit you use to make it. If your starting gravity is higher than what the yeast can handle, they will ferment all the sugars that they can, then poop out and leave the wine sweet with all the residual sugars.
I would start with four to five pounds of fruit per gallon, and add sugar to the desired gravity. Freezing the fruit before making it into wine will help increase extraction from the fruit, and buy you some time to get everything in order, or pick another flush if there isn't enough ripe at once.
If it is not good at bottling, wait a few years, I have been very surprised at how things can change for the better.

Just got on this forum, looking for something on carambola wine. I've made it twice now and it's excellent, but...seems to defy clearing up. Probably I need to add more pectic enzyme? Right now I'm decanting by the bottle, as I use it, through paper toweling.

I tried making some carambola wine 2 days ago. I had no recipe so I followed my dad's sugestions. He has successfully made good papaya wine in the past. Now it looks like something is not going well.
I funneled 4-1/2 gallons of pure strained carambola juice in a large 5 gal. glass bottle, added one single (of three) package of feishmanns yeast and used a trap to keep the O2 out. I did not add any sugar as I wanted a dry wine. It fermented for about 36 hours but it then stopped. It looks pretty much like when it started (like orange juice). My dad thinks the fermentation process should have lasted longer. What happened? Not enough yeast? Should I have added sugar? Does yeast die after a while? Please help. It was a lot of work to get the juice out of the fruit by hand and I don't want it to go to waste.
Thanks

Do you know what the SG was? Depending on how much sugar was in it yes it could be done. I would take a gravity reading and find out what it is now. I have had a beer with a SG of 1.055 ferment out in about 36 hours. So there is a good chance it could be done.

Rob

For the brewer with 5 gal. of carambola juice - First off, you would be fine with 1 package of wine yeast (better not to use baking yeast) & next before adding the yeast take a hydrometer reading to see how much sugar to use. It will pretty much all ferment out to a dry wine if the PA is under 13%. I'm not sure as I've only fermented on the sliced fruit in a net bag. My last batch was 19.75 lbs. star fruits, plus about 1 quart of juiced carambola, the juice of 5 lemons, 10 lbs. honey & 2 lb. sugar, 1.75 teas. pectic enzyme. I got a PA reading of 12%. The acid tested low (.4) so I added juice of 1.5 more lemons. I would highly recommend, The Joy of Home Winemaking by Terry Garey for general methods & materials, etc. Also, as I mentioned previously, I'm going to add more pectic enzyme as it wasn't enough for the size of my batch. And, I believe carambola wine needs to be racked more times than some others.
Your question about the yeast, yes, it dies when there's no more sugar to eat (ferment to alcohol) and drops to the bottom to be racked off of.