Apple Juice wine advice

[jazzyshiraz]

I'm fairly new to wine making. I've been making wine for six months now. Originally i followed Jack Keller's apple juice wine recipe (link below) about 4 months ago and it came out pretty good thus far. I added about 3 cinnamon sticks but left them in there too long and the cinnamon now over powers the apple taste. I just started a new 5 gallon batch of apple juice wine following the same recipe on Jack Keller's website (link below) in order to eventually blend the two together to bring back the apple taste. I adjusted the ingredient amounts for a 5 gallon amount. The only ingredient I added that was not listed in the recipe was 20 oz of golden raisin along with the Camden tablets, yeast nutrient, acid blend, tannin, etc. After 24 hour I pitched the yeast. After 6 days of fermentation I racked off the raisins into a carboy. The apple juice looks very cloudy and different in color from my first batch of apple juice wine. My question is will the cloudiness eventually settle or did I mess up this batch by adding the raisins? Should I have boiled the raisins? I added the raisins to give the apple wine body. Any suggestions/advice is appreciated. I have attached a photo of the apple wine.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request200.asp

 

[ninjamonkey]

I just did my first rack today with my hard cider and it looks the same. The raisens don't make it cloudy, they're just nutrient for the yeast. I just added a little cinnamon and it smells amazing.

 

[surlees]

I didn't see any mention of pectic enzyme being used pre-fermentation. Apples have a lot of pectin. Also, apple wine is notoriously slow clearing, but eventually the pectin and suspended matter will settle out necessitating you rack it several times (usually when you get about 2 inches or so of sediment). It can take 6-9 months to get a very clear wine. If it remains cloudy after a couple of months you can then add pectic enzyme to see if the pectin's contributing to the cloudiness.

 

[jazzyshiraz]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I added 5 tsp of pectic enzymes to the 5 gallon batch. I'm happy to hear it looks just the same as the hard cider. My wife said the same thing. I'll give it some time to clear. I don't recall my first batch of apple juice wine (also shown in the picture) being this color after fermentation, which is why i was concerned.

 

[surlees]

The difference in color is probably due to greater oxidation in the darker wine---you know how an apple slice turns brown when exposed to air. Sulfite, when added, will lighten it somewhat. Also, it could be the raisins you used were darker. I wouldn't worry about it, just keep air exposure to a minimum following fermentation.

 

[fivebk]

If it hasn't cleared in a couple of months you can use superkleer on it and it will clear. I have made several batches of apple wine and they all seem to have their own personallity. ( each batch acts/looks a little different). It has been my experience that apple wine needs to age quite a while for the apple flavor to really come through. ( sometimes as long as a year ) Cinnamon can overpower it very quickly ( been there and done that ).

BOB