Crabapple Wine

Hello folks,

I am making my first batch of crabapple wine. My brother tells me it is a difficult wine to make. Can anyone tell me if there are precautions I can take to ensure changes of success?

I am using a Jack Keller recipe.


Can I reuse the crapapples to make a second wine?


I have 100 lbs of a different tart apple (these are not crabapples, they are too large) in the freezer. I want to make wine with them as well. Would juicing them first be better have any advantages?

MrWrong

I would suggest making sure you use your tools here. As Jack Keller's site is usually high on sugars and low on fruits.

Use 6 #'s of fruit per gallon - and use the hydrometer to measure and see how much sugar you need. I would target a 1.085 SG for this and a TA at .60.

Mrwrong, there is already a thread started about crabapple wine. You may want to post any future posts on that thread and then we'll be able to follow what everyone is doing for future reference. I am also going to start one in the next month. I have about 85 pounds in the freezer.

This is the link to the thread;
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14544&highlight=crabapple

I did use 6.5 #'s apples per gallon. I added sugar to 1.081 assuming some additional sugar is going to be released from apples. I do not have a kit to measure TA, I guess it should be on my list of things to invest in.

winemaker_3352 said:

I would suggest making sure you use your tools here. As Jack Keller's site is usually high on sugars and low on fruits.

Use 6 #'s of fruit per gallon - and use the hydrometer to measure and see how much sugar you need. I would target a 1.085 SG for this and a TA at .60.

Click to expand...

Did see the tread and figured that I should not distract from what someone else is asking. I guess I need to go read the rules. Sorry.

Runningwolf said:

Mrwrong, there is already a thread started about crabapple wine. You may want to post any future posts on that thread and then we'll be able to follow what everyone is doing for future reference. I am also going to start one in the next month. I have about 85 pounds in the freezer.

This is the link to the thread;
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14544&highlight=crabapple

Click to expand...

Skrabba !

My winemaking 'bible' tells me that "Crabs are small, bitter fruit of the wild apple tree and look rather like yellow and red rosehips. The name probably comes from the Swedish skrabba : a wild apple. Because of their astringency, they make a better dry wine than sweet". Cheers, Tony.

I made a small batch of crabapple a couple years ago. Only used 4 lb/gal. Put them in a bag and poured boiling water over them. I think I should of froze them first. Anyway, they were hard to smash, but did get enough flavor out of them. I really did not care for it much, but opened a bottle of it this summer. Still not my favorite, but my wife thought it was very good. Many of my wines have a taste she does not like. This did not have it, and I have yet to figure out what she calls the off taste. The ones she says have the off flavor are usually my favorites.. By the way, gonna try it again this fall, my crabapple tree is loaded. Take care and good luck, Arne.

MrWrong said:

Did see the tread and figured that I should not distract from what someone else is asking. I guess I need to go read the rules. Sorry.

Click to expand...

LOL there are no rules. The reason I mentioned it is because several of us are or will be making this and having it all in one thread we follow what each other are doing and ask questions of each other. Next year when someone else wants to make it they'll see all of our notes plus we can refer back to them. We have several others going with wine from apple cider and candy cane wine...oh yeah and then there is Skittle wine !!!

I just bottled a crab apple cranberry wine 2 days ago. It came out pretty good. I added a cranberry to back sweeten to give it a little extra taste. I also have 5 gallons of crabapple and something else that needs bottled soon too. It may be kiwi or strawberry. I did make the one a drier wine than sweet.

Rather than crush them I froze them then cut in half while still frozen, removed the seeds and dropped into my primary just FYI.

I take it from the some responses that crabapple wine does not really present any unique challenges.