Apple Wine Turns Out Sparkling

[RickD]

I had a couple of bottles of apple wine made from juice that I bottled on 3-24. I opened one today and the amount of carbonation was amazing. There was some tan-colored sediment. The taste was not good. I thought I would see if its salvageable or if I should go ahead and toss it.

SG of juice: 1.050, pH 3.79
SG after sugar: 1.082
Final SG: 0.998

I dosed with K-meta and K-sorbate the day before bottling. I thought that was supposed to prevent this?

I wonder where I went wrong?

 

[Arne]

Well, if you go back thru a bunch of the old threads you will find the same thing happening. Happened to me a long time ago. Was sure I stabilized it, but maybe not. Think maybe the sorbate mite have been a bit old. Only thing is, i caught it at the right time and had a few bottles of good sparkling apple. When I caught the first one, put the others in the fridge and handled them carefully. Drank them soon after, and have never had the problem since. It has happened to a lot of folks and many if not most were with apple. Arne.

 

[Rembee]

Your carbonate apple wine could possibly be the result of rushed winemaking or insufficient degassing, conditions often seen in wine that is produced and bottled too quickly.
Apples contain a lot of malic acid and when fermented can produce an abundance of CO2.
Here is an article about this and possible reasons why your wine had carbonation after being bottled.

Home - Daniel Pambianchi

Here, you can download tools to help you in your winemaking, search yeast strains from your favorite manufacturer and get grape variety recommendations, search the troubleshooting guide to help you determine causes of problems and how to fix and prevent these, access my research papers and other...

www.techniquesinhomewinemaking.com

 

[Arne]

Still think mine was the result of old sorbate. Everything was clear and degassed. Course mite of been the result of no sorbate. Been a long time ago, but could of been sampling a bit much before bottling. LOL, Arne.

 

[cmason1957]

Still think mine was the result of old sorbate. Everything was clear and degassed. Course mite of been the result of no sorbate. Been a long time ago, but could of been sampling a bit much before bottling. LOL, Arne.

Sampling and winemaking! Say it isn't so, I am shocked, shocked I say. That hasn't happened around here, at least not yet today, but the day is very young.

 

[Arne]

Sampling and winemaking! Say it isn't so, I am shocked, shocked I say. That hasn't happened around here, at least not yet today, but the day is very young.

Just a bit early. But when winemaking you have to know what things taste like. Quality control, ya know. Arne.

 

[cmason1957]

Just a bit early. But when winemaking you have to know what things taste like. Quality control, ya know. Arne.

If'n you ain't sampling, just to see what you got at each point along the path, you ain't doing something quite right. And I did succumb and do some required samples yesterday. Bottled beer, retasted some rose my wife and I thought we had the back-sweeting nailed down on a month and a half ago (we didn't it needed just a bit more, still dry, but less dry), and some nearly ready to filter and bottle Chilean from last year (still a bit odd tasting for some reason).

 

[Arne]

If'n you ain't sampling, just to see what you got at each point along the path, you ain't doing something quite right. And I did succumb and do some required samples yesterday. Bottled beer, retasted some rose my wife and I thought we had the back-sweeting nailed down on a month and a half ago (we didn't it needed just a bit more, still dry, but less dry), and some nearly ready to filter and bottle Chilean from last year (still a bit odd tasting for some reason).

Note: Best have another glass of that Chilean just to make sure it has an odd taste or maybe not. Another glass and see if it is odd or not. Another glass and who cares? Arne.

 

[wood1954]

I found out my first apple wine was carbonated when I heard the corks hitting the wall opposite the wine rack. Ended up making apple jack out of it.

 

[winemaker81]

@RickD, your wine is young. It will need aging before it tastes good.

Sorbate and K-meta stop a renewed fermentation. If the fermentation was active, even if slow, and if the sorbate was a bit old (if you just purchased it, might have been in the shop a while), it can fail.

Sediment in the bottle means you didn't let the wine clear long enough. If doing natural clearing, you need a minimum of 3 months. Some will recommend up to a year.

One option is to unbottle the wine into a carboy and let it set a few weeks to see how much sediment drops. You can either use time, or add a fining agent such as kieselsol/chitosan, which is sold under various brand names such as Super-Kleer. After that, add fresh sorbate + K-meta, sweeten to taste, and re-bottle. [Most fruit wines need at least a bit of backsweetening to bring out the fruit flavor.]

You are far from the first person to have such a problem, and you will not be the last. One of my first wines dropped sediment in the bottle and started pushing corks out. I caught it before any blew, so I didn't have the mess @wood1954 had. I did what I suggested to you unbottled & fixed it.

 

[hounddawg]

I've had that problem,, tell me how to maintain, after all during quality comital i never take any chances and check each and every bottle, i even went down to 375 ml bottles but got drunk twice as fast, so what is yawls secret,
Dawg