2013 Apple
December 2013 – I haven’t made apple wine in decades. The price for a bushel of red delicious at the Raleigh Farmer’s Market was $20, so I snagged one. My juicer got a workout!
Ingredients
| Fruit | 1 bushel Red Delicious apples, approximately 42# |
| Bentonite | 2-1/2 tsp |
| Sugar | 9 lbs |
| Grape Tannin | 1-1/4 tsp |
| Yeast Nutrient | 2-1/2 tsp |
| Pectic Enzyme | 5 tsp |
| Yeast | Lalvin EC-1118 |
| Sulfite | 1/4 tsp at each racking |
| Sorbate | 1-1/4 tsp |
| Fining Agent | Super Kleer K.C. |
Method
| Got 3.5 gallons of juice from juicing apples; added water up to 5.5 gallons. Note: Should not have added water — found recipe online that said add no water to apple juice!
Dissolved bentonite in juice in fermenter, using powered stirring rod to mix. Added pectic enzyme and grape tannin. Stirred yeast into juice. Juice SG was 1.010. Added 4 lbs of sugar. Need to get more sugar. |
12/22/2013 SG 1.030 |
| SG dropped to 1.020. Added 5# more sugar, raising it up to 1.060. Added together this equates to a starting SG of 1.080. | 12/23/2013 SG 1.060 |
| Purchased yeast nutrient at American Brewmaster, added to wine. Didn’t check SG, not worth it; wine is fermenting well. | 12/24/2013 SG – |
| Racked juice through a straining bag, got a fair amount of pulp that way. Put into 5 gallon carboy with 1/2 gallon in separate jug. | 12/30/2013 SG 1.010 |
| Racked the wine. Added 1/4 tsp sulfite and 1-1/4 tsp Sorbistat-K to stabilize the wine. | 01/24/2014 SG 0.990 |
| Added 2 quarts of commercial apple juice. This kicked the SG up to 0.994, which is still technically dry, but it really enhanced the flavor. There was bit of a bitter aftertaste, which went away with the addition of the juice.
Added a package of Super Kleer K.C. to help clear the wine. It was $2 at American Brewmaster so I figured, “why not?”. |
01/24/2014 SG 0.994 |
| Bottled the wine. Flavor much mellowed. | 03/31/2014 SG 0.994 |
Notes
| Yield | 25 bottles |
| Alcohol | 12.2% |
| Residual Sugar | nil |
| 10/28/2018 | I screwed up, adding water to this wine. I want to do another apple wine, where I’ll buy 2 cases of apples and juice them, using only the juice. I’ll also make sure I have enough sugar on hand.
It’s odd that I recorded no notes regarding this one. I recall the second run I did tasted better for a time, but that one aged quickly so we drank it first. This one did get better at the year mark … although all was gone by the end of year 2. |