Apple Wine - dilution/preservation

[Neil]

What do you think the lowest ABV would be that would preserve an apple wine base?

I have several gallons of apple wine that are new and a little higher ABV than I think I ultimately want based on the young flavor. All alcohol, no apple...

I also have a decent amount of left over home pressed apple juice, that I do not have room to freeze.

I would like to add some of the apple juice in the future to the wine to reduce the ABV, and boost the "apple" flavor, but I don't want the young wine to start fermenting again. from the sugar in the juice.

The young wine is not yet totally clear, so I don't want to add sorbate yet, as I understand it is not very affective if there is still a decent amount of yeast present.

I was thinking of fermenting the extra juice it to a low ABV (just the sugar naturally in the apple say 6-7% based on the SG) so it would preserve, and adding it to the high ABV wine once it was clear and I could stabilize it.

If things don't work out I will just make Cider out of the leftover apple juice, but if I could make a low alcohol base that would not go off over say 2-3 months I would like to use that to tweak my main apple wine..

Thanks
Neil

 

[winemaker81]

10% ABV is generally considered the low end for wine ABV. Wines with a lower ABV have a shorter shelf life, but we're generally looking at 1 to 2 years. They are also more susceptible to various infections, but again, in the short term of producing a blending wine, it's probably not a problem.

Do the math first, e.g., look at your current wine's ABV, figure in an amount of juice to backsweeten, and then how much of a lower ABV wine you need to hit your target.

 

[hounddawg]

10% ABV is generally considered the low end for wine ABV. Wines with a lower ABV have a shorter shelf life, but we're generally looking at 1 to 2 years. They are also more susceptible to various infections, but again, in the short term of producing a blending wine, it's probably not a problem.

Do the math first, e.g., look at your current wine's ABV, figure in an amount of juice to backsweeten, and then how much of a lower ABV wine you need to hit your target.

do the math, oh my God you just busted my heart, lol after that i might need a shrink, lol
Dawg

 

[winemaker81]

do the math, oh my God you just busted my heart, lol after that i might need a shrink, lol

Instead of a shrink, have a drink.

 

[winemaker81]

The math on this one isn't hard. Let say we have 5 gallons of wine at 17%, are going to backsweeten with 1 gallon juice (0% ABV), and blend with 2 gallons of wine at 10%.

That's 8 total gallons.

Multiply the gallons * ABV and sum the results: (5*0.17) + (0*0.00) + (2*0.10) to get 1.05

then divide that by 8 gallons: 13.1% ABV

 

[Rice_Guy]

You could do a stable apple cider at 5% or higher alcohol. The general guideline is that below 5% ABV we have several additional families of microbes which can survive.

If you have the tools another option is to can it in quart or half gallon jars. The procedure for food below pH 4.0 (pH is another barrier like 5% alcohol) is heat the food to boiling > hold at simmer for 45 minutes > pack in jars and heat submerged for an additional ten minutes (ie sanitize the container). ,,,, Alternate option is pack jars with room temp and heat 45 minutes at a simmer with jar submerged.

 

[Neil]

Math wasn't the issue. That's easy. I just wanted to know how low an ABV I could go and have it preserve the Apple juice so I could blend it later.

I didn't want to make it so strong it would not reduce my high ABV wine, or to low that it would spoil as I don't have room in my refrigerator for it. (like pure apple juice would).

 

[Neil]

You could do a stable apple cider at 5% or higher alcohol. The general guideline is that below 5% ABV we have several additional families of microbes which can survive.

If you have the tools another option is to can it in quart or half gallon jars. The procedure for food below pH 4.0 (pH is another barrier like 5% alcohol) is heat the food to boiling > hold at simmer for 45 minutes > pack in jars and heat submerged for an additional ten minutes (ie sanitize the container). ,,,, Alternate option is pack jars with room temp and heat 45 minutes at a simmer with jar submerged.

Perfect. Sounds like I can go 5-6% and not worry about it going off - which makes sense as that's about where beer and cider comes in.