A tale of 2 apple wine batches

[bj4271]

4/21/07 @ 8:30 am I started two batches of apple wine from juice.


Each batch included: 1 gal Mott's 100% juice (no sugar),
2 Qt Mott's Fresh Pressed (no sugar)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp pectic enzyme
2 TBS banana powder


4/22 pitched Lalvin EC1118 on one batch & 71B-1122 in the other.


4/25 @ 7am added 1 Qt Mott's Natural Fresh Pressed (no sugar) and 1 cup brown sugar to each & stirred.

5/19/07 racked - now the differences come out -
The 1118 had a thin layer of loose lees
The 1122 had a thick layer of thick lees, got 1" less wine in gal jug.


5/28 racked, stabilized, and sweetened with 100ml wine conditioner, added 1/3 cup Amer hvy toast oak chips to each.


6/15 racked, sorbated, added Isinglass to clear.


7/14 filtered using gravity filter
1118 - filtered approx 90% then filter was too clogged, used another filter to finish
1122 - filtered, all went thru one filter easily
Both batches bottled. At that time, both tasted heavy-bodied, the 1118 was a little more 'appley' and the brown sugar taste came through too much.


I intended to bring both batches to Winestock, but had spinal surgery

a week before so only took a few bottles.


This past Sunday, I took them from storage (under kitchen table) & put one in the fridge & another on the bar to try them but didn't get around to it. Wed noticed the tasting cork form one was on the floor. Both are now very fizzy. I've been shaking, stirring, using the hand-held contraption that takes air out of the bottle (and sucks out CO2) several times a day. They just keep fizzing!!!!!!!!

Why?

 

[NorthernWinos]

I had a batch of Hard Apple Cider got fizzy like that during the clearing stage....it had a S.G. of 1.002 and I was just waiting for it to clear a bit more then bottle. It got so fizzy that we couldn't rack it...the bubbles would run up the hose fast and we would loose the syphon....it eventually lost that fizz after a month and we added more sugar at bottling and now have a nice carbonated Cider....we do not stabilize/sorbate when we are going for a carbonated beverage.


I had thought of bottling it when it was fizzing on it's own...it was perfect carbonation...should have had a big cider party because it was perfect.


Don't know why it did that fizzing on it's own like that....surprised yours did with the sorbate in it.

 

[lockdude]

When I have one of those accidental carbonations,I rebottle it in champagne bottles with wire hoods.I just love the carbonated stuff.
lockdude

 

[grapeman]

bj, how much K-Meta or Na-Meta did you add before sorbating? If you didn't have enough, the sorbate might not keep a secondary fermentation(mlf) from starting. Apple juice is naturally high in malic acid.

 

[bj4271]

Richard,


That may be it. My notes only say "stabilized" - not how. Maybe I only used sorbate & no K meta. Think a little now will stop the fizz?Edited by: bj4271

 

[Waldo]

Put it in the ice box for a couple of days and see what that does to it bj. If it is actually still fermenting thj addition of sorbate will not stop it.

 

[grapeman]

Yes, you have to stop the fizzing first. If you haven't added any k-meta, some would help it keep longer. Refrigerating should stop it. If you don't mind the fizziness, you could just transfer to champagne style bottles and use wire hoods to keep the caps on and drink it up in the next 6 months. You could also stop the ferment, put back in a carboy and add the proper amount of K-Meta to bring it up to 30-50 available by the test(accuvin is easy to use). Anyway the first step is to stop the fizzing before all the corks blow. I have had blueberry start up again before on a batch I hadn't sulfited very heavily.

 

[bj4271]

Waldo & Appleman - I first noticed it in a bottle that was in the fridge! Then I saw where the cork ahd blown out of the other.


I tried a little Kmeta (per NW) & it seems to be stopping, although this weekend I was so busy (trying to get drip irrigation & landscape fabric down on the replacement orchard) I never looked at them. I'll check it tonight when I get home.

 

[bj4271]

Well, the fizz stopped with a little KMeta - BUT - tastes like mold! Both have no apple flavor left, just a horrible moldy taste. Down the sink they go!!!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Too bad...so sad....

 

[dfwwino]

What was your final SG before bottling? Because the wine was no longer fermenting, if your final SG indicated dryness, it may not be a sugar refermentation that occurred in the bottle, though it might be. Because this is apple wine, it contains high levels of malic acid. You may have had an unintended MLF in your bottle, or some other microbial infection may have fermented in your bottle. This is certainly possible if you did not add Kmeta to stabilize the wine, which also prevents MLF if in a sufficiently high dose. Here's an article from Allison Crowe of Winemaker Magazine on refermentation:
http://winemakermag.com/mrwizard/736.html

Edited by: dfwwino

 

[bj4271]

New info! These bottles were in the kitchen - brightly lit. I found a bottl of each (I had forgotten about) in another, very dark room. I haven't opened them, but no sign of fizz or corks raising up.


Can light have anything to do with it? That's the only diff between those that fizzed & those that, apparently, didn't.