Apple wine

[rrawhide]

We are in apple country here in the mountains of the sierra
nevada's. That kind of apples should I be looking for? we
have lots of golden and red delicious in this area as well as some
cooking apples. What should I be looking for for wine. Will
this be a sweet wine or a semi-dry? any help will be
appreciated. thanx

rrawhide




Edited by: rrawhide

 

[Waldo]

I would go with a blend rrawhide. The delicious apples do not make a really good wine on their own. I would say a 30% blend of the delicious with the rest being the cooking variety.

 

[grapeman]

Definitely blend them together for the best flavors. Delicious apples alone make horrible wine or cider. They aren't juicy enough and are very blah tasting alone as a juice. Cooking apples alone can be too tart and have too much acid. I usually pick out several varieties that are good to eat right out of hand. They have the right combo of flavor, juiciness and acids.


By itself, apple will ferment out very dry and usually doesn't taste great while young. Let it go dry and them resweeten some to taste. Let it age a good long time and if you like, try sparkling like NW does.

 

[Wade E]

I made a spiced apple wine last year with cinnamon sticks and mulling spices with raisins and it came out really nice.

 

[MichaelZ]

Tell us more about the raisins and cinnamon sticks...Will you share that recipe please?


Z

 

[Wade E]

3 lbs raisins chopped in 1/2
3/8 tsp liquid pectic enzyme
6 tsp yeast nutrient
3 tsp yeast energizer
6 gallons pressed cider
1 package cider mulling spices in mulling ball
4 tsp acid blend
5 cinnamon sticks
1/4 tsp k-meta
1 package of yeast( I used Cotes Des Blanc)Do not add till after 24 hours of adding k-meta!
I used 7 lbs of sugar to bring SSG to 1.090 but recommend not going above 1.085, preferable starter SG would be 1.080 in my opinion!
Put spice ball, raisins cinnamon sticks in fermenting bag or sanitized nylon.
I back sweetened this with frozen Seneca apple juice. It will need at least months in the bottle aging time to come around.
Edited by: wade

 

[dfwwino]

I agree with Waldo. Use a blend of tart and delicious apples. Or in my case, I take whatever's available and shoot for the best. But tart apples really help.