Apple Wine?

[Tony49]

Stopped by the health food store today and noticed that they had organic apple juice on sale. No additives or preservatives, but pasturized. Juice is sitting on a small amount of lees in one gallon jugs.
Got a three gallon glass carboy not presently occupied, so I thought I might put it to work.
Please let me know if you have a recipe that worked well for you.
Thanks
Tony...

 

[Runningwolf]

Tony I use fresh apple cider for apple wine but, I like using apple juice as a base for other wines like Jalapeno.

 

[FTC Wines]

Tony, Here is the 2 gal. recipe I use for Apple Cider Wine. But let me first say ALL the orchards here in Ga. apple country NO longer have "fresh" cider. They say the gov't put too many regs on them & they now have to pasteurize the cider. Some "flash past." some do it fully. If your "juice" has lees in the jug, it should be OK, but you may need an F-Pac if the flavor or body is a little thin. Roy
2 gal. cider
2.5 lbs. sugar+- to sg 1.085
2.5 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. pectic enz.
1/2 tsp. tannin
campden tab. I only use one, because it's flash past.

 

[Tony49]

Thanks gentlemen:
Checked with Wikipedia and there doesn't seem to be much difference between apple juice and cider. Exception seems to be that when its fermented they call it hard cider.
Anyway they are calling the stuff apple juice at the store.
Appreciate the recipe Roy. I will adjust the ingredients accordingly, especially the pectic enzyme as I understand that juice/cider takes a while to clear.
Is a commercialy available apple juice such as Motts good to use as an f-pack or would a frozen concentrate be preferable?
Tony...

 

[FTC Wines]

Tony, I've used both, frozen conc. & "Motts" type juice for F-Pac's. Don't see a big diff. May try & boil them down to 1/2 or so next time. But I'm not much of an F-Pac guy, usually I just use the "juice" to top off & reduce the ABV. Roy

 

[cst]

Either will work, but youll get more flavor out of the concentrate. The Motts will lower your ABV more than the concentrate of course. My best apple wines came either straight from apples or Motts juice. Of course I never tried fancy organic apple juice. Might have to do that next. Good luck!

oh and the only difference I have found between juice and cider (in the US) is filtering.

 

[cst]

I must type slower than the other guy

 

[Tony49]

Thanks for your input guys.
Cst: this juice is fairly cloudy in the bottle so may not have much filtering.
Preferred yeast?

 

[FTC Wines]

I use e1118, it always ferments well & it's on hand. It's even fermented at 64* for me. may not be a problem in Fl. Just finished vacuum racking 19 gallons of Apple for the 2nd time since 10-5-11, lots of lees. time for lunch, Roy

 

[Tony49]

Enjoy your lunch Roy. Thanks for your advice.
Tony

 

[cst]

Probably no filtering. Here is another vote for ec-1118. Without fail all of the other yeasts I have used for this got reviews comparing the wine to the four dollar cooking wine Safeway sells.

 

[Tony49]

[ Without fail all of the other yeasts I have used for this got reviews comparing the wine to the four dollar cooking wine Safeway sells. /QUOTE]
ROfL