Apple wine

SoapAlchemist

SoapAlchemist

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Well, I've just returned from 2 1/2 weeks in the Emerald Isle, so am feeling pretty chilled right now. More hard soap is cooking away as I write but the next problem is what to do with 5,000 cooking apples. God forbid HWMOM should make even more apple and green tomato chutney!
I really don't like cyder, but thought I might make a bit of that with a view to then trying to turn it into apple cyder vinegar.
But the main project is to try my hand at apple wine. I have tried my hand at fruit wines many moons ago, without much success it has to be said. But now I know that you're supposed to put water in the bubbler thing, my hopes are high.
My first question is; what is the easiest way to get the juice out of 5,000 apples?
 
In a past life I made a limited amount of cider. I have a very old wooden cider chopper/press that I would use. Why it was a limited amount was that if not refrigerated it would turn very quickly. I would do all the work only to try to find people to give it to.
You also end up with is lot of chopped pressed apple stuff that if you don't have farm animals to feed it to goes to waste.
What you might want to think about is Apple Butter. A lot of work but one of the ways to save it all. I never made large amounts of it but I've seen it done. Outside because of the water vapor that's given off.
Good luck.
 
Well, it's certainly been an apple filled day. I made apple 'butter' and it tastes o.k. for a first jam experiment. I maybe should have cooked it a bit longer, but it's been a learning experience.
On top of that (which took half the day), I spent much of the rest of it extracting a gallon of juice using my juicer. A trip to Wilkinsons yeilded a plastic barrel with a screw on lid with a hole in it. Apple juice, sugar, some raisins, wine yeast and pectolase all went in, and I stuck a bung with a bubbler in it into the hole. Oh, and put some water in the bubbler. No obvious signs of life yet. The yeast didn't say what temperature range it is active in, and I'm not sure what happens if it gets too cold or too hot. Is it possible to kill the yeast by having the temperature too high or too low??
So the plan is to syphon it into a demijohn in about 4 days, put another bubbler on that and wait for a few months, or until bubbles stop coming out, then into bottles for another several months. Once I get it out of the barrel, I'll start the cyder that may one day become cyder vinegar.
God, I feel so virtuous.:angel:
 
Again from an ill spent youth, you may have to warm it slightly to get it going (sink, warm water) and wrap it in a towel and place it in a dark location. Should get it going. If it starts smelling sour you might need a little more sugar. (And in a week you have 'raisin jack.' You'll want to go longer to finish it. If it stops bubbling you'll need more sugar.) yes you can get it too warm and kill the yeast. Just keep checking it. Good idea to have your partner drink 1st. Just in case.
 
I used one when I did wine. In small batches gal sized with the bubble valve it's difficult. I remember doing it more by smell and if it was still 'working' or not.
 
I haven't made any wine in over ten years but you're only measuring the density of the liquid which equates to sugar content, from the charts you then add the appropriate amount of sugar depending on the final strength you desire. I think thats it, no sniffing was required.
 
It started out scientifically and then it became something that you looked at as you went out on the back porch. To my surprise, and those that drank it, aside from being a little cloudy it turned out ok the years that i made it. Not sure what the alcohol content was, but it tasted like the 'backyard' grapes that went in and gave a little buz. I still have the grape vines, planted in the '20's by my grandfather(prohibition time)but they developed a black spot thing that's affected the fruit about 10yrs ago.
 
I dissolved the sugar in some of the juice warmed in a saucepan, so hopefully that warmed things sufficiently to get it going. It's bubbling in occasional shlurps all day, so hopefully things are moving in the right direction.
Jeez Antdad, that's all a bit technical for me. I did buy a hydrometer concerned that Wilkinsons only wine yeast is 'high alcohol'. I had hoped that it would have a few readings along the lines of 'will promote feelings of mellow conviviality'; 'will risk embarrassment if consumed in public' - and so on. But it just has a load of incompresensible numbers on it.
Johnus; just wondering whether it might be possible to take cuttings and plant them away from where they are now? I'm no gardener, but maybe the problem is in the soil. I think tomatoes can go like that as well.
 
Hi, the high alcohol designation , I believe, only means that the yeast Is very alcohol resistant. Wine , apple jack , etc is a Hegelian dialectic(?) in that the yeast colony want to eat the sugar to grow but in doing so it creates the alcohol, and that alcohol will eventually kill it! You can make wine, jack etc with bread yeast but the alcohol kills the colony very quickly. So you want a alcohol resistant yeast.
There are chemicals that will eliminate the black spot but you need to spray each year. I did it for a few years but not crazy about doing it forever. I usually get about 10% edible crop. Doesn't seem to hurt the vines only the grapes .
 
It's not complicated at all, you use the hydrometer to measure the amount of sugar in the apple juice so you can ascertain what the final proof will be and whether you need to add any extra sugar. Otherwise how do you know precisely how much sugar to add?

If you've bought a hydrometer it'll have instructions and a chart, take a reading before fermentation starts.
 
Thanks for the explanation of the 'High alcohol' designation Johnus. Goldcrest, I'm afraid there won't be any apple flavoured soap any time soon. Antdad, I know how much sugar to add because I got a recipe off the net:s; library being all out of books on winemaking in these austere times. I'm sure all apples aren't created equal, but the recipe was for cooking apples, which these are, so hopefully it will be roughly correct. Anyway, it's way too late now, been bubbling for two days. Am I supposed to just syphon it into the demijohn or seive it through muslin or something. I ask because as well as whatever is lurking at the bottom, the juice was very frothy so there is a big frothy scum on the top. And do I need to keep it warmish for months after it's in the demijohn, or can I put it in the cellar?
 
This is where I bow to antdad. What I would do is after 2wks, about.
It would stop fermenting. If you're going to bottle and save it and everything you need to be careful that you use clean, real clean so you don't introduce bacteria that will turn it to apple vinegar or worse. Here antdad needs to take over.
Right now I'd guess that you are still bubbling and have some kind of crude floating on the top and settling on to the bottom. Here without exposing it to air just shake it up a little every day or so.
Here's where I go basic, once it stopped bubbling you should have a lot of the crude on the bottom. Remember the saying 'rule of thumb?' Here's where you stick your thumb in it to see what the temp is! Or you use a thermometer to see if it's really stopped working. Same inside as out. What I did was"" freeze distill" it. Pour the clearer non crude into a plastic jug, leave some space in the plastic, and freeze it! The water and crude freezes and you have Apple Jack. There wasn't really that much so we didn't worry about storage. Pour it off into bottles and leave in the ice box.
The other way scares me. so antdad needs to take over.

If you do it with grapes... You can call it grappa!
 
soapalchemist said:
I did buy a hydrometer concerned that Wilkinsons only wine yeast is 'high alcohol'. I had hoped that it would have a few readings along the lines of 'will promote feelings of mellow conviviality'; 'will risk embarrassment if consumed in public' - and so on. But it just has a load of incompresensible numbers on it.
Click to expand...

Hopefully you noted (or remember the first reading you took...) this is original gravity (OG) - when it's fermented out take the reading again (final gravity - FG).

Calculate the difference between the two. (If your original figures are around 1000 in size, divide the answer by 1000 and do as below, if they're around 1 use them as-is)

Multiply by 105 to get the alcohol by weight and by a further 1.25 to get alcohol by volume/ABV (which is the normal measure)


Example: OG 1040, FG 995 - that's 45 difference so divide by 1000 (because the original figures were around 1000)... 0.045 x 105 means it's 4.7% alcohol by weight, multiply that by 1.25 and it's 5.9% alcohol by volume

Example: OG 1.040, FG 0.995 - that's 0.045 difference (so no division required) blah blah same answer

Disclaimer: Figures are approximate, I don't know how good you are at reading your hydrometer. Legs may buckle earlier than expected.
 
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