SomeDegenerate
Junior
TL;DR: I wound up with 55+ gallons of sorbated cider by mistake. After searching I saw mixed answers on wether or not you could make wine with it. Thanks to encouragement and advice on forums here and a Facebook group, I tried. After about 25days of fermentation I'd say it turns out you can. Wether or not the finished product is great remains to be seen, but it smells great and I have high hopes.
Day one: my grandmother contacted me and told me a local store had cider that was (one day) past the "sell by" date, and rather than tossing it, they were giving it away. That they had two pallets in the parking lot. Asked if I wanted any. I had a free 14 gallons demijohn so I told her I'd take fifteen gallons, if it wasn't too much trouble.
She pulled in about a half hour later and said "I got you fifteen cases. I don't know how much is in each but they looked heavy so it should be at least a gallon."
She had them load up fifteen cases. Of 9 half gallons. 4.5 gallons per case. For a grand total of 67.5 gallons. Lucky enough to have an empty refrigerator collecting dust, I loaded it all in, and managed to give away enough to bring my total down to 55 gallons.
"No problem", I thought. I really like applewine. Look at the ingredients. 'pressed apples, potassium sorbate'. Oh no.
Day two: look through the forums here, post on a winemaking group on Facebook. Mixed answers. Ranging from "no chance, freeze it for later if you can, and use it for backsweetening" to "easy peasy, it's just gonna take extra yeast" with no freezer space, two 32 gallon food grade barrels, and nothing to lose I decided to go for it and called the friend who I make wine with.
Day three: we rack our blackberry wine out of the second barrel, into a 14 Gallons demijohn, reserving the blackberry pulp to use as a yeast starter (figured my blueberry pulp made a fantastic skeeter pee, without waiting to let the preservatives in the lemon dissipate, so it ought to work here.) We split the blackberry pulp and the murkier part of the blackberry wine evenly between two 32 gallon barrels and added 27.5 gallons of cider per barrel.
Day five: no signs of fermentation. Hydrometer hasn't budged. Remember seeing something about using bakers yeast as a sacrificial yeast in sorbated cider, here on the forums. Took an unopened jar of bakers yeast and split it to make two starters in two gallons of store-bought apple juice.
Day six: pitched the very active bakers yeast starters into the barrels.
Day seven: activity. I think this means the yeast bound up all the sorbate. I make new starters with EC 1118
Day eight: add starters, along with nutrient and Energizer (3 T nutrient 1 T Energizer)
Day Nine: bubbling away.
Day eleven: probably partly because the small starters I made had a lot of work to do, and partly because the basement I brew in is very cool, there is plenty of co2 production, but the gravity is dropping very slowly. But everything looks good, everything smells good, and again. I really have nothing to lose on this batch. I try to relax and just monitor the situation.
Day 12-20: bubbling away, gravity slowly dropping. Went from about 1.045 down to 1.02 from pitch day to day 20. I decide that when I'm finally ready for my step additions of sugar, I'm going to want the liquid level in my barrels to be lower, and I buy another barrel.
Day 21: my friend and I rack and stabilize a blueberry wine that we'd finished clearing, and since I have another pair of hands in the brew dungeon, we rack one third of each barrel into the third barrel (it just occured to me, I should clarify when I say barrel, I mean a food grade hdpe drum. Not a wooden barrel. I'm not that fancy yet.) I prepared three more EC 1118 starters, in advance for this, to see if it will help with the sluggish fermentation. We pitch them into the three barrels along with another dose of nutrient and Energizer.
Day 30: the additional starters have really done their job. In the nine days since adding them (along with nutrient and oxygen) all of the barrels are sitting at 1.000 give or take. I did my first step addition of sugar. (A little less than 30 lb per barrel.)
I went off the weight of sugar for my desired Gravity for the overall batch, then figured out the percentage of each barrel weight to the total weight, and split the sugar by those same percentages.nmy intention is to ferment it to a high (17-18%) abv. (The volume I started with, plus the starters and sugar additions should leave me with 70 gallons) and rack it to 5 different 14 gallons demijohns. Each one being done in a different style (straight apple, applewine/stout graff, apple pie, salted caramel apple, and cran-apple.) Letting clear and diluting to 13% abv and backsweetening with apple juice, apple concentrate, and other flavor additions, depending on the style, before bottling and aging for at least a year, I'd imagine. Tasting all the while... For science.
I'll be back with progress updates and pictures once I get all my ducks in a row.
Day one: my grandmother contacted me and told me a local store had cider that was (one day) past the "sell by" date, and rather than tossing it, they were giving it away. That they had two pallets in the parking lot. Asked if I wanted any. I had a free 14 gallons demijohn so I told her I'd take fifteen gallons, if it wasn't too much trouble.
She pulled in about a half hour later and said "I got you fifteen cases. I don't know how much is in each but they looked heavy so it should be at least a gallon."
She had them load up fifteen cases. Of 9 half gallons. 4.5 gallons per case. For a grand total of 67.5 gallons. Lucky enough to have an empty refrigerator collecting dust, I loaded it all in, and managed to give away enough to bring my total down to 55 gallons.
"No problem", I thought. I really like applewine. Look at the ingredients. 'pressed apples, potassium sorbate'. Oh no.
Day two: look through the forums here, post on a winemaking group on Facebook. Mixed answers. Ranging from "no chance, freeze it for later if you can, and use it for backsweetening" to "easy peasy, it's just gonna take extra yeast" with no freezer space, two 32 gallon food grade barrels, and nothing to lose I decided to go for it and called the friend who I make wine with.
Day three: we rack our blackberry wine out of the second barrel, into a 14 Gallons demijohn, reserving the blackberry pulp to use as a yeast starter (figured my blueberry pulp made a fantastic skeeter pee, without waiting to let the preservatives in the lemon dissipate, so it ought to work here.) We split the blackberry pulp and the murkier part of the blackberry wine evenly between two 32 gallon barrels and added 27.5 gallons of cider per barrel.
Day five: no signs of fermentation. Hydrometer hasn't budged. Remember seeing something about using bakers yeast as a sacrificial yeast in sorbated cider, here on the forums. Took an unopened jar of bakers yeast and split it to make two starters in two gallons of store-bought apple juice.
Day six: pitched the very active bakers yeast starters into the barrels.
Day seven: activity. I think this means the yeast bound up all the sorbate. I make new starters with EC 1118
Day eight: add starters, along with nutrient and Energizer (3 T nutrient 1 T Energizer)
Day Nine: bubbling away.
Day eleven: probably partly because the small starters I made had a lot of work to do, and partly because the basement I brew in is very cool, there is plenty of co2 production, but the gravity is dropping very slowly. But everything looks good, everything smells good, and again. I really have nothing to lose on this batch. I try to relax and just monitor the situation.
Day 12-20: bubbling away, gravity slowly dropping. Went from about 1.045 down to 1.02 from pitch day to day 20. I decide that when I'm finally ready for my step additions of sugar, I'm going to want the liquid level in my barrels to be lower, and I buy another barrel.
Day 21: my friend and I rack and stabilize a blueberry wine that we'd finished clearing, and since I have another pair of hands in the brew dungeon, we rack one third of each barrel into the third barrel (it just occured to me, I should clarify when I say barrel, I mean a food grade hdpe drum. Not a wooden barrel. I'm not that fancy yet.) I prepared three more EC 1118 starters, in advance for this, to see if it will help with the sluggish fermentation. We pitch them into the three barrels along with another dose of nutrient and Energizer.
Day 30: the additional starters have really done their job. In the nine days since adding them (along with nutrient and oxygen) all of the barrels are sitting at 1.000 give or take. I did my first step addition of sugar. (A little less than 30 lb per barrel.)
I went off the weight of sugar for my desired Gravity for the overall batch, then figured out the percentage of each barrel weight to the total weight, and split the sugar by those same percentages.nmy intention is to ferment it to a high (17-18%) abv. (The volume I started with, plus the starters and sugar additions should leave me with 70 gallons) and rack it to 5 different 14 gallons demijohns. Each one being done in a different style (straight apple, applewine/stout graff, apple pie, salted caramel apple, and cran-apple.) Letting clear and diluting to 13% abv and backsweetening with apple juice, apple concentrate, and other flavor additions, depending on the style, before bottling and aging for at least a year, I'd imagine. Tasting all the while... For science.
I'll be back with progress updates and pictures once I get all my ducks in a row.