Empire Apple Wine

[MFC]

Hi All - I would like to make some apple wine this year.

I have about 10lbs of empire apples (5lbs I got for free).
The recipe I would like to use for 6 gallons (ran out of five gallon carboys) is as follows :


10lbs Empire Apples
6 12oz Frozen Apple Concentrates
6 lbs granulated sugar
6 tsp acid blend
6 tsp pectic enzyme (how many drops?)
1 package Montrachet wine yeast
6 tsp yeast nutrient (fermax)

I would like some feedback as to what should be added or removed, more sugar etc as I am kind of making this up as I go . I plan on putting the apples in a food processor and adding them to the concentrate in the primary waiting 24hrs and adding the yeast & nutrient. Any other thoughts or comments would be appreciated ladies and gents.

 

[Julie]

Hi All - I would like to make some apple wine this year.

I have about 10lbs of empire apples (5lbs I got for free).
The recipe I would like to use for 6 gallons (ran out of five gallon carboys) is as follows :


10lbs Empire Apples
6 12oz Frozen Apple Concentrates
6 lbs granulated sugar
6 tsp acid blend
6 tsp pectic enzyme (how many drops?)
1 package Montrachet wine yeast
6 tsp yeast nutrient (fermax)

I would like some feedback as to what should be added or removed, more sugar etc as I am kind of making this up as I go . I plan on putting the apples in a food processor and adding them to the concentrate in the primary waiting 24hrs and adding the yeast & nutrient. Any other thoughts or comments would be appreciated ladies and gents.

Add the peptic enzyme when you put the apples in the primary. And take a sg reading before adding any sugar, you might not need that much sugar and then again you might need more. Shoot for an sg of 1.080 or there abouts. And don't add any water.

 

[MFC]

Add the peptic enzyme when you put the apples in the primary. And take a sg reading before adding any sugar, you might not need that much sugar and then again you might need more. Shoot for an sg of 1.080 or there abouts. And don't add any water.

Hi Julie - No water? I do not think that 10lbs of apples and 6 cans of concentrate will amount to 6 gallons of wine right? Also, I was wondering about how many drops of pectic enzyme are in 6 tsp (20 drops maybe?).

Thanks!

 

[Julie]

Not sure on how many drops, but Apple wine is a mild flavor wine and adding water will dilute it down and you won't have much in the way of apple flavor.

 

[MFC]

Perhaps adding some apple juice will bolster the flavor.

 

[closetwine]

Yeah, I'd use apple juice to fill up space. Flavor and volume.

 

[MFC]

Does the rest of this recipe look like I will produce something decent? I kind of blended a couple of online/book recipes.

 

[Julie]

Check your acid before adding acid blend and adjust accordingly, remember to check your sg before adding sugar and add what you need to get to the sg that you want and yes it looks pretty good.

Good Luck

 

[closetwine]

Check your acid before adding acid blend and adjust accordingly, remember to check your sg before adding sugar and add what you need to get to the sg that you want and yes it looks pretty good.

Good Luck

The Queen of Country Wines has spoken, you may proceed! LOL, Love ya Julie!

 

[MFC]

An update:
The concentrate and juice I got only contained two items, apple juice and asorbic acid (vitamin c). How much acid blend if any do i need at this point? I have no way of testing the acid content so I have to ballpark it sorry. Also, I know that julie said no water but I had to add a little over a gallon of water to bring the volume up to 6 gallons (I ran out of juice).

Last question, should I add kmeta before i add the yeast in 24hrs or just let it sit tight and add the kmeta once fermentation is complete?

 

[Julie]

if the ingredients has listed sulphites you won't need to add k-meta. When it is time to backsweeten, get some apple juice and boil it down to half, use this to up the flavor

 

[MFC]

if the ingredients has listed sulphites you won't need to add k-meta. When it is time to backsweeten, get some apple juice and boil it down to half, use this to up the flavor

The ingredients only listed apple juice and asobric acid. So do I need kmeta at this point?

Also any idea about the acid blend? Do I need any?

Thanks again,
Mike

 

[JasonH]

Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell how much acid blend you will need without an acid test.

You should still add kmeta.

 

[MFC]

An updated recipe for anyone who cares lol:

10lbs Empire Apples
5 12oz Frozen Apple Concentrates (Juice and Citric Acid)
5 lbs granulated sugar
4 tsp acid blend
6 tsp pectic enzyme (20 drops)
1 package Montrachet wine yeast
6 tsp yeast nutrient (fermax)

The initial SG of the Juice and Apples was 1.04. Adding 5 pounds of sugar got me to 1.08
Added the yeast and nutrient the after 24 hours. The juice has a nice dark yellow/brownish color. It smells great and the temp was 72 degrees when I added the yeast. I plan on adding more yeast nutrient in two days and then two days after that (2tsp each). Once fermentation is complete I will add 1 tab of kmeta for each gallon of fermented wine. The intial volume is 6 gallons but I am probably going to need another 5 gallon carboy once fermentation is complete.

 

[MFC]

Another Update:

Hydrogen Sulfide follows me wherever I go. My apple wine had a very strong smell for the last two days. This morning I stirred for about 15 minutes and it now smells great hopefully it will stay this way. Although everything now smells great the apples themselves do no look shrunken or being consumed by the yeast.

 

[MFC]

So I racked to the secondary today. The consistancy of the "wine" was like apple sauce. There is a good four inches of gunk in the bottom of the carboy. What is the best way to get rid of this stuff? Rack again through cheese cloth?

 

[JasonH]

You need to strain it out. Cheese cloth works fine.

 

[MFC]

Another update:

Racked for a second time yesterday. I only ended up with a little more than 3.5 gallons of wine. About a gallon and a half was almost pure sediment. It looks like if you want 5 gallons from the recipe I used you must start with 7+ gallons in your primary. Lastly, I think that there is a better yeast to use for apple wine than Montrachet.