Newbie apple wine question

[CajunTim]

Hiya all,
My name is Tim and I am a newbie to wine making. I have been wanting to make wine now for about 6 years or so, but things just seem to keep coming up in life when your younger. Now that I am a little older and things are settled down < for now anyway >

I will check off this box of my “Things to do before I die” list.
I will be trying a one gallon organic apple juice from the health store soon. Although I have read most of this site and most of Jack Kellers site I may have a question or two along the way. Hope some of you might be able to help.
Some questions seem to have answers I am not sure of just yet. Only question I have right now is two recipes for apple have all the same ingredients, but one calls for yeast to be sprinkled on top and the other calls for a yeast starter. Is apple juice hard to get kicked off, or will they both do ok? I live if FL. It’s a little warmer here.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give a little background first.
Thanks, Tim

 

[Waldo]

Welcome Tim and glad you are finally getting a chance to pursue a passion. They are plenty of friendly folk on here to help you along the way. I have made a couple of batches of Apple wine and for all of my country wines I make a yeast starter. My thinking is that it gives the yeasty beasties a running start on doing what they are designed to do and why take a chance on another method failing. Thats just my two cents on the subject. Good luck and keep us updated on how it goes. We love pictures too......loads of pictures

Edited by: Waldo

 

[CajunTim]

Thanks Waldo,
I think I will go that route. I better get going on it soon if I want to start by Sat. I will keep yall posted. And Pics? Now there’s something I can do. Have cam, can shoot.

Ok, sure more questions to come. If this turns out to be a joy, I will be contacting Gorge soon after to send down a 6 gal equipment kit. Thanks again, Tim

 

[masta]

Welcome Tim,


When you get your 6 gal equipment kit and wine kit sprinkling the yeast on top is the best and foolproof. I re-hydrated my yeast for quite a while since I thought this was best but have found out that the sprinkling method works perfectly every time.


Grape juice is the perfect medium for fermentation and the important thing to remember when fermenting anything other than grapes is to add the proper nutrients which you will find in a good recipe.

 

[grapeman]

Welcome Tim,

Either method works, I just find it easier like Masta says to just sprinkle it on top. It is usually off to a great start in just 12-24 hours. Never have had an apple stall out either. Don't rack too soon to the gallon jug(assuming you have a gallon and a half or two gallon pail to start it in). Apple tends to be very vigorous at fermenting. What yeast are you going to use?

 

[Wade E]

Welcome Cajun Tim. We would be happy to answer any questions you have. I
just stabilized and clarified a batch of apple wine and it is still in
the 6 gallon carbot getting a little more age on it. I added mulling
spisec a few cinnamon sticks in it and some chopped raisins for extra
body.I then sweetened it up after stabilizing it with Senaca apple
juice concentrate.

 

[CajunTim]

Masta, thanks for the info. I need to keep this in mind also. I need to get back and look at your “Demo” on yeast starting. I will try the sprinkling on top when I try a kit wine.
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Appleman, I have a two gallon pail to start in and a gallon jug to rack to. I will be using Red Star Champagne yeast. Should be very cool to see it do its thing.

Wade, I never thought to put in cinnamon sticks in it. I may need try it and the raisins in my next batch. Yea, I might have to sweeten up some. I do like my wines a bit on the sweet side. Thanks to all the wine gurus on here, I think I am going to like this a lot!

 

[Wade E]

You could also sweeten it up with a sugar water. I forgot to mention
that I also used a little brown sugar with the Senaca to back sweeten
wich was someone elses idea, I think it was Ramona but not sure and it
sounded like it would be a great addition to the spiced apple. Good
Luck.

Wade

 

[CajunTim]

OK, I decided to start the apple juice wine this afternoon. I sanitized everything and added the juice, sugar, acid blend, tannin, yeast nutrient and crushed campden. Stirred well until all was dissolved. Will let it set covered with a paper towel and rubber band and add pectic enzyme in 12 hours. I am going to work on the yeast starter to night and get it ready to go for a bit later. OK, so lets see what happens in a day or two. Oh, maybe I can put a pic.

 

[pkcook]

Hey Tim,
Welcome to the forum. Good luck on the apple wine. Once you get this mastered, you can make some sparkling apple wine. Here is a link to the process: http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1222

 

[Wade E]

Hope all goes well there.

 

[CajunTim]

I will try this pic. Day1














Well.....tryed, but the upload would not take.

Sorry.

 

[Wade E]

Youll probably have to resize your photo. There is an excellent program
that is very easy to use somewhere in this forum but I cant find it.
Hopefully someone will post it for you to download. That way if you
want to email photos to someone they will download to their computer
much easier specially if they have dial up.

 

[CajunTim]

Thanks Wade, I did size it down. Went from over 700kb down to 50 or so. it all worked till I tried to "post reply" then just sat there. well, I will try again on friday.

 

[Wade E]

There are afew things you have to click. That size should have gone no
problem. What you could do is email Masta and he'll post it for you if
you continue to have problems.


Edited by: wadewade

 

[masta]

Here is the image resizer and it works great. Depending on the size of the original picture determines weather you have to resize to large, medium or small to get below the 150 kb size limit for posting.


http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/learnmore/tips/eschelman2.mspx

 

[CajunTim]

ok, this worked. It seems to work here at work. must be my net setup at home. Anyway this is day one. THANKS all of you for the help!

Edited by: CajunTim

 

[NorthernWinos]

 
ok, this worked. It seems to work here at work. must be my net setup at home. Anyway this is day one. THANKS all of you for the help!

I have trouble UpLoading photos too....I use the Reply box in the previous Post....then if I click on the UpLoad Icon real fast...like before the Post box has totally loaded I can get the Upload box to appear and can at least get one photo per Post.

If you figure out your problem at home I would love to know what you did.....Thanks!!!

 

[Wade E]

Looking good cajun, Northern I hope you finally get this figured out. Is this the only problem left stemming from the virus?

 

[OldWino1]

haaa another newbie Life is good.