Crabapple starting S.G. to high?

[AAADiamond]

Hello wise members, I'm new to this great forum, but not exactly new to wine making. I recently "inherited" 5 gallons of crabapple must from my parents, who have several trees in their yard and discovered that the starting S.G. is 1.10. They had 20 pounds of crabapp pieces sitting in water and apparently a lot of sugar in a carboy like glass container for 3 months till all the crabapps settled to the bottom, but it never fermented.

I think this is to high of a potential alcohol for crabapple wine, maybe not if others have tried this, but my question is, am I better off cutting the secondary fermentation off early, or just sweetening and adding cinnamon like additives later? I also plan to age this in a medium toasted oak barrel for a month or two and am planning to use Cote des blancs yeast.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[grapeman]

Welcome AAADiamond.


When you say the SG was 1.100, do you mean a current reading is 1.100 or that is what they originally had. If it never fermented at all and is 3 months old- I would throw it out, the apples would be bad by now. If it was 1.100 originally when they first started, what is it now?


A bit more info would help a lot.

 

[AAADiamond]

Thanks appleman!

I have to assume the SG was even higher when they began because I can taste a bit of alcohol in it. It does not seem oxidated, nor does it have a sour bite, but I'm assuming the starting SG 3 months ago was to high for the wild yeast to handle...

 

[grapeman]

That is a rough one. You can try to make a starter for it and see if it will move down some if you can get it going.

 

[AAADiamond]

Yeah I'm shooting for a must temp of 75, yeast starter and nutrient...I guess we'll see what comes of this potential rocket fuel.

Thanks!

 

[Wade E]

Make a good starter and slowly introduce a little of that crab apple at a time until you have at least tripled the size of the starter so as to acclimate the yeast to the abv thats already there. Id also look into the acid on this by testing it cause that could be high also creating a problem. Id get some ascorbic acid in there to prevent any oxidation in there as you really cant protect it with k-meta until its done fermenting.

 

[AAADiamond]

Good point Wade, upon tasting the must for the first time, I immediately thought it was too acidic, so we're definitely on the same page. I'll try the starter technique you speak of, as I've done this with a peach recipe before.

Thanks for the good insight!

 

[Wade E]

Get Er Done!

 

[AAADiamond]

I'm starting to see some bubble action after making a last minute decision to use K1-V due to the high starting SG, so I think this may go over well!

 

[Wade E]

Great, It must not have much abv then or this yeast is just a super duty yeast!

 

[AAADiamond]

Yeah, I tell ya, I've found K1-V1116 to be an absolute warrior to a lot of difficult situations, so I can't help but recommend it to everyone in rough must conditions! Of course, its only been 24 hours lol, much work left to be done...