Anyone can feel like an expert, helping me....(aka HELP!)

[CrystalBrewer]

Hey. I love fermenting stuff. Done veggies, milk, and stuff like that. But for some reason making wine makes me nervous. I'm trying to just get a basic understanding. I have some apple juice from the store in 1L bottles. I have a couple of airlocks from Amazon. I already made my first newbie mistake by buying distillers yeast. From reading some say it will end up tasting bad. I don't know good from bad really, so I will go with what I have. I am sure ignorant and for some reason am worried I will drink something that hurts me. Can anyone tell me a basic recipe for what I have? One L of juice has 28 carbs. Do I need to pour our a little juice and put in some sugar water? How much? How much yeast do I add? I'm so new I don't have a hydrometer or anything yet. I just want to get started first. Can anyone help me make my first not so good apple wine, with the items I already have? Thanks!

 

[Bossbaby]

If the juice has preservatives you may not want to use it, typically frozen or raw concentrates are best for yeast consumption, there are plenty of recipes online for apple wine. A hydrometer is cheap and will be your best friend to determine what is going on with your must. prisoners make wine every day with hardly any ingredients but I wouldn't want to drink it.

 

[G259]

GET a hydrometer ($5?)and WINE yeast ($1)! Do some reading about the craft first, you'll thank me later.
You can get most equipment and supplies online from Amazon, Midwest Supplies, and Northern Brewer.
check if there are any wine-making supply stores in your zip code. Côte des Blancs is probably a good
yeast for this.
In the beginning, I bought 4L wine (Carlo Rossi) for the secondary fermentation vessel, not outstanding wine, but you get a secondary out of it! Primary vessel will be a food grade bucket, 1.5 - 2 gallons. Check for that little triangle with a number in it on the bottom. You will need airlocks and plastic tubing as well, again - read up, it's not hard once you get the initial equipment and learn what to do. Don't let it overwhelm you though, wine is fairly forgiving generally, as long as you sanitize everything that touches the juice (must). I bought a starter equipment kit from Midwest Supplies in the beginning, and I strongly suggest it to anyone starting this.

* no preservatives - look for 100% juice and that it has no potassium sorbate in the ingredients.

Here is an apple recipe that I acquired somewhere, maybe Jack Keller's site:

Apple Juice Wine

1 gallon apple juice, pasteurized (no preservatives added)
1½ lb. finely granulated sugar
1½ tsp. malic acid (or acid blend - my edit)
1 tsp. pectic enzyme
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 sachet Red Star Côte des Blancs or Lalvin ICV D-47 (Côtes-du-Rhône) wine yeast

Crush Campden tablet very fine and scatter in bottom of primary with sugar, yeast nutrient, tannin, and yeast nutrient. Add apple juice and stir very well to completely dissolve sugar. Cover with sanitized muslin cloth (or place cover on top loosely) and set aside for 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme, recover, and set aside another 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover primary. When fermentation is very strong, stir twice daily for 5 days. Stir again and immediately transfer to gallon secondary, leaving 3 inches of ullage (headspace), and fit airlock. Pour excess juice into wine bottle and seal with #2 bung fitted with airlock. When fermentation in gallon secondary stops (3-8 weeks), rack and top up with racked excess juice (if not enought to top up, top up with finished apple juice or water). Allow wine to set for 2 months, then rack again and stabilize. Wait additional 30 days and rack yet again. Sweeten to taste if desired. If no renewed fermentation in 30 days, bottle the wine. Age one year.

 

[Rice_Guy]

@G259 has given a good wine recipe if you want to cook book it.

* wine and hard cider and pickles and yoghurt and even cow silage are preservative systems. They vary by degree, but all are based on removing the fermentable sugar and replacing it with a byproduct as lactic acid or ethyl alcohol. ,,,, you are not likely to kill yourself EVER if the pH is below 3.5! The good news is most grape and apple is below 3.5 so we have a head start on the fermentation, one preservative barrier is there.
* apple wine and apple cider and apple port vary by percent alcohol, the higher the alcohol the fewer organisms will grow. At low alcohol the main risk is vinegar which requires air (oxygen) and some folks will intentionally make apple cider vinegar. KEY, the presence of oxygen is necessary to make vinegar, ie we use air locks and minimum head space. NOTE there naturally is some acetic acid which adds complexity, just don’t let it get out of hand.
* alcohol is a fairly high energy molecule which naturally wants to combine with oxygen producing acetaldehyde which at high levels contributes a burn note in the back of the throat, therefore we use air locks and minimize head space. NOTE at low levels it doesn’t hurt and adds complexity, just don’t let it get out of hand.
* a lot of what is in WMT is making pretty wine, so we let it sit a half year plus for gunk to settle out. It still will taste good with a little gunk and by reducing time less vinegar and acetaldehyde flavor develop, ie for getting your feet wet drink it young.
* i try to not use water since there is less flavor in water than apple juice, or grape etc
* yeast occur naturally on the skin of grapes and apples, fresh cider with no preservative will ferment by itself. ,,, what kind of apple juice? commercial bottle stuff? Wine yeast are really good since they tolerate higher alcohol as 12% or even 18%, a lot of natural yeast die off at 8% (ie native apple without added sugar)
* temperature, a lot of apple cider will get 10C (50F/ unseated garage), fruit wines get less than 18C (ie room temp) and red grapes get 25C. High temp loses fruit aroma and stresses the yeast risking sulfur aromas (ie yuck/ toilet). Yeast work faster at high temp so a garage may take a month or so.
* wine and cider are hedonic, does it taste good? We spend a lot of time looking for the perfect blend of acid, high sugar, and high dry matter (the flavor is in the solid matter)

what else? Oh!, welcome to wine making talk!, and have fun!

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

 

[winemaker81]

I am sure ignorant and for some reason am worried I will drink something that hurts me.

Getting sick will be a factor of how much you drink.

If the wine smells and tastes ok, you are ok.

You can find dozens of good recipes and probably hundreds of not-so-good recipes, but @G259's recipe is a good one.

If you can't get the yeast he suggested, ANY wine yeast is better than using a non-wine yeast.

Do you have a local supply shop? If so, go there and ask questions. Hopefully they can help you. If you don't have a local shop, there are many online retailers.