This mango wine recipe was contributed by Winemaker’s Academy member Kerry. The recipe, she tells me, was passed to her by an organic mango farmer she knows.
Kerry does not use sulfites in her wine so you won’t see any references to potassium metabisulfite or campden tablets. This is part of the reason why she recommends using “cooled boiled water” in several of the steps below.
Should you decide to add sulfites to your wine simply follow the instructions included with the potassium metabisulfite or campden tablets of your choice. If you need some guidance on sulfite additions check out the following article which includes a calculator: Adding Potassium Metabisulfite to Wine. However, it would be an interesting experiment to go without sulfites if you’ve never tried it.
Kerry’s Magnificent Mango Wine recipe:
Ingredients
- 2kg mango pulp (4.5 lbs)
- Cooled boiled water (enough to bring total volume of liquids to approximately 1 US gallon)
- 1 tablespoon pectinase
- 1 teaspoon Lalvin EC1118 yeast
- 1 heaped teaspoon Lallemand Fermaid A yeast nutrient
- 1.5kg sugar added in 500gm portions over time. May not use all of the last portion. *(that’s 3.3 lbs of sugar in 2.5 cup increments)
Instructions
- Peel the mangos and cut all flesh away from the seed. Taking the “meat” of the mango squeeze it through your fingers to make a pulp.
- Pour boiling water over the mangos in a large pot then cover and allow it to cool. (Note from Matt: I recommend using a nylon mesh bag to contain the fruit).
- Mix 1 tablespoon pectinase in cooled boiled water and stir into the mango must.
- Leave covered 24 hrs. *For those of you wishing to use sulfites, now would be a good time for an initial dose.
- Dissolve 500 grams of sugar (2.5 cups) in a small amount of cooled boiled water and add it to your mango must.
- Stir in yeast and yeast nutrient mixed with a small amount of cooled boiled water.
- Cover and set aside.
- Stir at least once every 24 hrs for 5-7 days. When the frothy activity subsides it’s time to strain.
- Strain into a demijohn (aka carboy) and seal it with an airlock.
- When the fermentation activity dies down (could be between several weeks to several months) rack into a clean carboy and add the next 500 gram dose of sugar in a small amount of mango must or in cooled boiled water.
- Repeat step 10 untill fermentation ceases.
- After fermentation has stopped completely even after adding more sugar rack and add any remaining sugar required to sweeten it to suit your taste.
- When the mango wine has cleared and is inactive – taste and bottle.
Please let us know if you try this mango wine recipe out down in the comments. Let us know how it goes and if you did anything differently.
Update!!!
Here is a photograph of Kerry’s Mango Wine as of August 5th, 2014. Looking good! (See the comment section below for the full details on how this wine is progressing)
The recipe presented on this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
I’d love to see the colour when it’s all cleared and bottled
Hi Matt, Thanks for posting Kerry’s recipe. My dad lives in Puerto Rico in an area where the mangos falls from the trees in bushels during a certain time of year. So much so that there is a festival every year where the locals sell everything mango! I’d love to try this out someday but I’m worried about keeping the solution cool because it is hot and humid during these months. Oh, and there are no basements or garages!
Hi Kevin, I’m glad you’re interested in the recipe. Mango is one of my favorite fruits and I think a mango festival would be awesome to attend!
One thing you could do to deal with the warmer temperatures is press the mangos and freeze the juice. This may not be feasible for making huge batches of wine but perhaps a few gallons would be doable? Also, a warmer fermentation is ok but you don’t want it to get above 85 F / 30 C. If you were to use sorbate and back sweeten with unfermented mango juice you would restore the nice fruity flavors that a warm fermentation can sometimes burn off.
What sort of temperatures do you expect to see?
-Matt
Thanks for the feedback Matt. The last time I visited (when the mangos were falling off the trees) was in July. Temperatures go from high 80s to mid 90s and the humidity is unbearable. Its the tropics, duh. LOL. I am very new to winemaking, even though I live near the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York. We have great Rieslings BTW! I’m going to ask my dad to set some juice for me because you cannot ship whole fruit, especially mangoes, to the states. Any suggestion on preserving during shipment?
I plan on purchasing my wine kit from Fulkerson Winery. Its a great local source for me and they offer free seminars. However, I will supplement my kit with your source at Midwest and continue my discussions here. Thanks for making this site available. Let me know if I can contribute in anyway.
Kevin
We had a very warm autumn here and temps of 22-25°C persisted through to mid winter. Consequently my mango wine began fermenting again after I thought it had finished. I waited till all bubbling ceased and racked on 4th August. I have back lit the demijon so the colour is more obvious. All is as it’s supposed to be at this stage.
Kevin – during summer here I have to keep my demijons in the coolest room in the house and sometimes wrap them in wet towels. I have even been know to put the air con on for my wine! (Friends think I’m a bit crazy). You have to watch that the temp doesn’t drop too much if you do this.
We have mango trees along the roads where I work and anyone can collect the fruit. I have a few of my own but have to beat the bats and the possums to the fruit!
Kerry
Kerry, thanks for the update!! It really looks great.
I’ve added your picture to the bottom of the article (Disqus doesn’t allow pictures to be included in comments unfortunately).
For the record I would love to live somewhere where I could just walk around picking up mangos!
We have just started, and are enjoying, making homemade wine and are in the process of making Mango Wine. But, we’ve noticed that there is a large amount of some sort of white substance settling at the bottom of the jar. Is this anything to be concerned about? If this white substance isn’t going to go anywhere then we are going to lose about an inch and a half volume of wine.
Hi Graham, this white substance may be yeast lees. I’m not sure if you’re a beginner or not but if so the yeast lees is simply the dead yeast cells that collect at the bottom as they die off and fall out of suspension.
Typically you can get 1/2″ to 1″ in the bottom. If you’re using a glass carboy or jug the amount of lees can look deceiving due to the sloped edges of the container.
If you know all this already and feel like you’re looking at something else forming in your wine let me know and I’ll see what else I can figure out for you.
Thanks for leaving your question in the comments where we can all learn from what’s going on.
Cheers! -Matt
Hi Matt,
Many thanks for sharing the recipe, this looks lovely.
I have few questions for you:
How long was the fermentation in total for you?
And how many bottle have you been able to fill finally?
Do you think the fermentation will be better/quicker as my basement is 15°C/59°C, which fit better to this kind yeast? Or does the absence of heat will slow the yeast?
I will use can mango puree does it change something for you? as there is no mango tree here in France 🙁 .
Many thanks,
Alexandre
Hi All
Mango wine is ready to be re racked. Still looks and tastes good – slow to clear. Patience is a virtue they tell me.
I haven’t posted another picture because it would look the same as the previous two.
Will update when I bottle.
Cheers
Kerry
Hi Alexandre, I have not yet made this wine personally. Kerry is our best bet.
A single gallon batch of wine can produce up to five bottles but with racking and what not I usually end up with just four full bottles.
Fermenting at 59 degrees F is going to make for a long fermentation. That’s not necessarily bad because you will likely have more fruit flavors to show for it. Usually I ferment at about 65-68 degrees F.
When using canned mango you need to check the ingredients for sulfates and sorbic acid (sorbate). Sulfates are okay as they will prevent other micro-organisms from taking hold initially. Sorbate, however, can make fermenting the mango tough as this will prevent the yeast from reproducing and growing a population large enough to power through the sugar.
I hope this helps Alexandre. Best of luck with the mango wine and please do let us know how it goes for you.
Cheers!
-Matt
I really want to try your recipe. Mangoes are just coming in season, but i might just try it from pulp.
Can you please advice substitute for pectinase – this enzyme is not available in our area. Thanks
To be honest I don’t know of a substitute for pectinase. However, if it’s hard to come by what you can do is freeze your fruit then thaw it out before you make the wine. The water in the fruit expands and breaks open all the plant cells releasing flavor, color, and aroma compounds. This is effectively what pectinase does but in a different way. Freezing should get you most of the way there. I hope this helps! -Matt
Just commenting here so I can keep up with the progress of the wine. I really want to see what it looks like when you bottle it!
What about an online order Lourdes? It comes as a dehydrated powder and could be shipped all over the world. Available from many homebrew suppliers.
I started it, and actually added strawberries that i juiced, its been a week and so far very cloudy, big chunks of yeast floating about, and lots of activity so far. I’m hopeful that it turns out. I might clear it with bentonite in a month just to taste it, then give it another go.
I know, I’m going to let it ferment to dry, then rack it for a couple of weeks, then drink it. If i like it Ill make it again and let it sit for a year.
I usually add bentonite at the end of fermentation, however, it is the only clarifier that may also be added at the beginning of the winemaking process. This is typically done in kit winemaking to shorten the wait time at the end.
-Matt
Thank you Matt. I learn something every time I talk to you!
I’d love to know how it turns out!
I tasted it today, its very promising.
Still bubbling a little, not clearing at all, its been nearly a month.
Mine has been about 14 months and 3 rackings…still not clear. Mango isn’t a quick wine to make. I’m told it’s one of the slowest fruits to clear.
Came out ok, i might try it again next year and let it clear without fining agents.
Well done link07! How does it taste?
Very sweet! Its good i want to do it again.