Apple Wine

[mmadmikes1]

That brings up a question, Where's Allie

 

[St Allie]

Sorry I missed this query.. hope your apple is bubbling away happily by now.

were you making the apple wine or cider?.. I generally just mix everything together and add the yeast 24 hours later myself.

It was a book recipe.. I checked the SG as I went anyway.. sugar additions do need to be adjusted to the fruit sweetness.. I can see how that would confuse someone.

How's it looking?

Allie

 

[WineYooper]

Thanks Allie, the apple is bubbling along nicely. After mixing it all up and checking my sg I found I was near 1.085 with only 6# of sugar added. The fruit must have carried quite a bit. In reading different recipes it looked like I would be adding 1-2# in. Glad I checked after adding only 1#/ga. Reading your recipe it looked like the ferment was complete and then the fruit was pressed dry, add the sugar and put in gallon jar. That confused me so I did it the way I have done up to this point with my other experiments. I must be learning as I read more on this forum and in the books I have. At this point I will continue along and check my acid before transferring to the secondary and adjusting at that point if needed. From Jack Keller's articles it looks to be better to add after ferment is complete so I am going to try this, also I don't have any on hand. Right now it appears the wine has a definite red/rose color to it but I expect this will clear out with time.

 

[alanfalala]

The recipe of wine is as bellow :

Ingredients
- 3 1/2 lb Cooking Apples
- 2 1/2 lb Granulated Sugar
- 1 Gallon Cold Water (8 Pints)
- 2 Lemons
- 1 Orange
- 1 tsp Wine Yeast
- Yeast Nutrient
- Pectic Enzyme

Method
Wash and cut apples - do not peel or core, mice if possible. Put into a plastic bucket and pour 1 gallon of cold water over them. Cover bucket and leave for a week, but stir well every day with a plastic spoon. After a week, strain liquid through muslin into another bucket. Add 2 1/2 lb of sugar and juice and grated rinds of washed lemons and orange. Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Add the yeast, yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme; then cover bucket and leave for 24 hours. It will then be ready to strain and put into fermentation jar.

 

[jackendonald]

Here is an inexpensive (about $ 25 for 5 gallons) and easy to do what I call apple wine - in fact it is a dry sparkling cider hard, but it's easier to tell People cider so you do not need to explain You .. 2 pounds of white sugar, 2 pounds of brown sugar 5 gallons of apple juice (the walmart thing works fine, just pay attention to preservatives such as sorbate and sulfide) 1 packet of dry wine yeast (I prefer Lalvin-71B 122) To that, I 'm assuming you have a fermenter. I use a glass bottle 5 gallon. Stay away from anything resembling boxes or water bottles that are not for pets, because they will leave O2 - you can buy a glass bottle 5 liters for about $ 27 and a PET bottle for better $ 26

 

[Drifter379]

What are the measurements for a 6 gal batch? Is it the same as this but everything x5?

 

[Wade E]

If the recipe is for 1 gallon you would multiply it by 6 for a 6 gallon batch. Everything except the yeast that is as one packet is good for 6 gallons and actually good for more then that.

 

[Angelina]

Thank you for all the good info. I was able to pick up 50 lbs of apples today from a farmers market that was getting ready to close for the winter.

I am thinking about coring them and then running them though my juicer, then put the juice in the bucket and the pulp in a mesh bag in the bucket, then proceed with the recipe. Do you think this will be okay??

 

[Julie]

Thank you for all the good info. I was able to pick up 50 lbs of apples today from a farmers market that was getting ready to close for the winter.

I am thinking about coring them and then running them though my juicer, then put the juice in the bucket and the pulp in a mesh bag in the bucket, then proceed with the recipe. Do you think this will be okay??

Freeze them before you put them thru the juicer. Freezing helps break down the fruit and you will be able to get more juice from them. Everything else sounds fine

 

[Angelina]

Thank you so much Julie!!!! I will take your advise.

Freeze them before you put them thru the juicer. Freezing helps break down the fruit and you will be able to get more juice from them. Everything else sounds fine

 

[Angelina]

I took my apples from the freezer to the juicer and into the fermenter last night and I have a few questions/concerns.
I did use ascorbic acid in a bucket of water as I was cutting the apples up to prevent oxidation but when I went to juice them before I could get them all done my apples oxidized some. I didn't want to leave the pulp out of the fermentation so I put them in anyway. Is there anything I can do about it to resolve the possible color issue or will it go away with processing? I did notice 2 things with this browning. When I fill my wine thief the liquid looks like a see through greenish color, I assume because I used a lot of green apples in my batch, but it is the foam on top that is brown and the pulp is brown.
My other question is my SG is 1.020. so I added 8 cups of sugar made into simple syrup using some of the apple juice. Should I have done this, or something else. The new SG is 1.042. Should I add more sugar to get it up to 1.085 or more apples? The temp on my fermenter is 68-70 degree's
Also I actually had 65 pounds of apples and I used 8 gallons of water and I guesstimate that I have about 15 total gallons of juice now. It is in a food grade 32 gallon Brute Can.

 

[Julie]

bring your must up to at least 1.070, this will give you about 10% ABV. To be honest I really do not worry too much about the apples oxidizing, I backsweeten with some brown sugar so my apple wine has a golden color anyway.

 

[Angelina]

Thank you so much Julie, I was hoping you would chime in. I have been worried about it. I am going to head down stairs and take another reading to see if anything has changed overnight with the additions made last night. Then adjust the SG to at least 1.070

 

[Angelina]

I racked my apple wine into carboys today and ended up with 14 gallons of wine Them apples must have been juicy cause I only used 8 gallons of water! It looks like Orange juice at the moment, is this normal?

 

[UBB]

The last batch of apple my dad made was bulk aged for over a year and the apple cyser was bulk aged for almost 2.

I wish he had wrote down what he had done more specifically as to how many lbs of apples he used but it turned out fabulous! It was crystal clear and after sweetening it back (S.G. was 0.992 on most of it) to around a S.G. of 1.02 IMO is very close to a Riesling.

He did not juice the apples, just cored them and chopped.

 

[Angelina]

I have another 60 pounds of mixed apples in the freezer and 54 pounds of Granny Smiths sitting on the kitchen table. I have to get the ones in the freezer going so I can make room for the Granny Smiths. Thinking I will mix them with another fruit, just not sure which fruit would compliment the mixed apples the best..?? As for the Granny's I haven't decided. I would love a crisp Granny Smith wine, but I am not sure if it would work out that way.

 

[chevs15]

Maybe I missed it... But what would be the recipe using apple juice (I'm not pressing my own apples)? This would also be for 5 gallon.

Thanks!

 

[Julie]

Maybe I missed it... But what would be the recipe using apple juice (I'm not pressing my own apples)? This would also be for 5 gallon.

Thanks!

I'm sure there is a recipe on here somewhere but I would make sure you have enough juice to make 5 gallon with no water addition, peptic enzyme (the bottle will tell you how much for 5g), yeast nutrient, acid blend to bring acid up to .65% and enough sugar for an sg of 1.080

In my last batch, which was a 3g batch, I added 3 cups of brown sugar and 2 cups of regular sugar for backsweetening, final gravity was 1.018 (this was a sweet wine) 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 cloves and a 1/4 inch chunk of ginger, left the spices in for 2 months.

 

[Redtrk]

I'm sure there is a recipe on here somewhere but I would make sure you have enough juice to make 5 gallon with no water addition, peptic enzyme (the bottle will tell you how much for 5g), yeast nutrient, acid blend to bring acid up to .65% and enough sugar for an sg of 1.080

In my last batch, which was a 3g batch, I added 3 cups of brown sugar and 2 cups of regular sugar for backsweetening, final gravity was 1.018 (this was a sweet wine) 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 cloves and a 1/4 inch chunk of ginger, left the spices in for 2 months.

Julie how did this turn out as for taste? I just pitched yeast in my apple wine this morning. I was thinking about adding some cherry concentrate after fermentation. I made 6 gallons but could split it off into two 3 gallon batches for a couple different finished flavors.

 

[Redtrk]

I just checked on it this morning before leaving the house and it's fermenting!