Really liking your posts as of late.
The banana wine sounds really interesting. Care to share more details?
Also, is this your day job or something semi-permanent you have going on or just hobby related?
I'm thinking someone who has use for a 200L Braaumeister on a regular basis must have something going on
It's a hobby... my day job is a partner in a software engineering / consulting company (our clients are in Asia, Europe and America)
As for the 200 litre Braaumeister; that came about largely because of the ban on alcohol sales... I've been a home brewer for a long time but on a much smaller scale (only for me). The alcohol sales ban resulted in more than a few friends knocking on my door -- if you look back in the thread; you'll see that I was brewing quite substantial size batches using a 20 litre Braaumeister and some urns -- as you can imagine, that was a lot of work with a 20 litre Braaumeister.
My friends started to enjoy my brews far more than what was on offer in store (and what they drank previously), and the lower price (~ R4 per 750ml) certainly has helped. To lighten my weekend workload I got them involved in brewing with me, but they didn't quite experience the workload until they were forced to continue to brew whilst I was stuck in Singapore for a few months earlier this year. That's what started the discussion on how to continue making / enjoying our own brews, but with a focus on lightening the effort to continue doing this. In short we agreed to start a brewing club of sorts, where we'd each contribute equally to the costs of equipment and ingredients, and then schedule fairly regular weekend sessions to brew and braai.
My existing equipment is now used for experimental brewing, as is the case with the Rum (I've made a version of this before, busy now refining it), Peach Sherry (new) and Banana Wine (new) -- because not everyone wants to only drink beer all the time. There's a lot planned on the experiment side (as you can imagine), including at some future point building a pot still for distillation (whisky, brandy, Amarula, ...)
The Banana wine is not my invention -- but I've tasted it and enjoyed before.
Here some videos on how to make it -- a rather simple process in comparison to all grain beer brewing.
Ps. I'll be using
Bentonite Clay to clarify the wine after fermentation (secondary fermenter)... to completely drop out any protein haze, yeast, etc. I also cold crash (stick it in a fridge) the secondary fermenter -- a process I've used with great success with my previous batches of un-distilled rum.
It delivers an absolutely clear end result with minimal to no foaming -- a frothy head is not ideal for either a wine or rum; whereas it's typically desired for beers / ciders.