Been about a year

[Lonzo]

Ok so its been about a year since i made my last batch of wine....in total ive only made like 3 5gallon batches so i am a definite rookie.

i started my apple wine in the primary 3 weeks ago and it has been a bubblin brew. well today i planned on racking. i took a hydro reading and it is reading .99 from a starting 1.098....i planned on racking around 1.025 but i missed that. i will let in set in the carboy until next weekend (1 week) and check again. if its the same should i go ahead and add my potassium sorbate and stabalize it? i will degas it at this time too.

if so i do plan on racking it a couple more times to get out some of the sediment. how long should i wait after stabalizing to rack again??

thx

 

[bkisel]

The kits I've done have me racking 14 days after stabilizing, degassing and clearing. the low and mid-level kits have me bottling at this point and the higher end kits aging 2-4 weeks before bottling. I've been starting bulk aging when they say to bottle.

 

[Lonzo]

i plan on letting it age for quite awhile.....in the end i will rack 3gallons with sweetner and let age for a few months and the remaining dry apple i will probably bottle

 

[KeystoneHomebrew]

Your best bet is to rack now, and add some Metabisulfite.

Then, maybe a few months down the road, de-gas, stabalize with Sorbate and more Sulfite, then rack again.

Let Mother Nature expel some of the trapped CO2 to make your life easier. Also, between now and bottling, you may have the idea of making "sparkling apple wine", which will not be possible very easily if you add the Sorbate now (the metabisulfite won't harm anything).

 

[Lonzo]

i was told by my local wine supply store not to add k-meta. he said its not needed and thats the ingredient that causes more hangovers

wasnt planning on adding.....is this something everyone adds?

 

[Lonzo]

ok i read up on this a lil more....i dont have any powdered k-meta but i do have plenty of cambden tablets....should i just crush some up and drop it in the carboy....if so how many tabs for 5 gallons?? should i just drop the crushed tabs in and be good or should i drop em in and re rack???

 

[Enologo]

When using tablets I normally use one per gal. So for a 5 gal. batch I would crush 5 tablets into the clean & sanitized empty carboy then rack onto that which usually makes them dissolve pretty well. I usually don't follow the kit time lines. I usually ferment till dry in the primary, about two weeks in the secondary then stabilize. I will rack off the lees about two to three weeks after I stabilize then as it is clearing another one or two rackings till no more visible sediment degassing each time I rack then when finally when all clear and degassed into the demijohn for bulk aging. Just my process so far still very new at this myself.

 

[Lonzo]

ok, well not sure if it matters. when i set everything in the primary i did crush 5 camden tabs in there. that was 3 weeks ago. should i add 5 more?

 

[garymc]

.99X isn't telling you enough. There is a lot of difference in .999 and .990. You mention a primary and that it's in a carboy now. Does this mean you started it in a carboy or a bucket? Started with apples? Started with juice? Is it a kit? If you're talking about the initial dose in the bucket 12 hours before the yeast is added, that probably dissipated in the bucket. If you started it in a carboy, I have no idea what to suggest. It sounds like you've been doing kits, which are more concerned with time than process. 3 weeks sounds soon, but I would go by the stable sg readings. If you wait for the wine to finish rather than stifle it with the stabilizers, you might not have to worry about degassing. I've never degassed (other than racking) and never had fizzy wine. I rack from the secondary after the fermentation is dead as a doornail and add k-meta at that time. Then I rack again after 2 or 3 months adding k-meta again at 3 months. 6 months to bottling is quick for me. But I'm not making apple wine, which probably doesn't need much aging and I delay the addition of K-sorb in case I need to blend or do something else. You may not have to worry about those considerations. I stabilize shortly before bottling.
Going from 1.098 to less than 1, your wine should have enough alcohol to keep it safe from spoilage, so you only need to stabilize before backsweetening; or bottling if you don't backsweeten.

 

[Lonzo]

ok, well i started in a primary (bucket) with an initial SG of 1.098. after 3 weeks i transerred to the glass carboy with an SG of .0990. I am using Apple cider i got from a local orchard (iasked what they put in it and they said nothing that it is straight apple squueze). i have only ever made wine from a kit once but i have only made like 3 batches in total and the last was a year ago so i forgot most everything. i will check the SG this weekend, if it is staying stable at .990 then i will add the k-meta and let stand for a month or so....ill rerack and let stand again...

 

[garymc]

I don't know anything about apple wine. I found it curious that you can make it starting with cider instead of juice, but I don't know what cider is (chemically) either.

 

[Lonzo]

well from what i know, the cider was just pressed apples....i might be wrong....i do know there is no k sorbate in it to stop fermentation i asked....its the same cider they use to make their apple wine

 

[KeystoneHomebrew]

Basically, apple cider means it was pressed and left unfiltered, so there's lots of other stuff in there like wild yeast and pulp. Once you filter it, it becomes apple juice. Either can be pasteurized or left alone.

Especially since you got it fresh pressed, I would add sulfite at each racking and at bottling, just as you would a grape wine. I typically don't recommend adding sorbate unless you are sweetening it on the back end.