Apple Wine Issue

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Degassing wine

sounds like it may need to be degassed but if you are not planning on bottling this until you get back, she doesn't need to worry about that right now. But to make sure it is not fermenting have her take a hydrometer reading and again 4 or 5 days from the first reading and see if it has moved or not.

Julie, I was doing some research about wine degassing and I found that you can use a food saver to degas it! And I happen to have one! I am going to give that a whirl when I get home.

 

[Julie]

We have had a few on here that has used the foodsaver and they said it worked fine.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

I have heard of that but I totally spaced on using it for that purpose. She added K meta and sorbate before adding the concentrate so i do not know how the fermentation would have restarted. My next question... Before fermenting should I add K meta or is that something added after fermentation.. I have read that it is used to keep yeast from re-fermenting, or do I have it mixed with something else?

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

My wife added both K meta and sorbate before she added the apple juice concentrate which i believe is the correct process...

 

[Julie]

yes, she did it correctly. And I do add k-meta prior to fermentation to my fresh fruits and grape wines. I don't add to the concentrates or juice. buckets.

 

[BernardSmith]

bench test for addition of sugar

Julie, are you talking about adding sugar? My thought process was this, asked her to fill a wine thief about 3/4 full then empty into a glass and add sugar until either the bitterness goes away or gets to where she likes it (or both!) then pour it back into the wine thief and measure it with a hydrometer..

And thank you!

I wonder if it might be simpler to measure out a specific and known quantity of wine with your wine thief, and add specific quantities of sugar so that at any moment you can easily calculate the amount of sugar that would need to be added to the volume of wine you have in the carboy. The method you seem to be suggesting would seem to make it difficult for you to estimate how much more sugar you would need to add to the carboy, but if you were working with a known fixed quantity in the thief (say 100 CC) then it would be easy estimate the total amount of sugar needed to be added to say, five or six gallons of apple wine

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Bernard, I see where you are coming from with that but I do not have the capabilities to do that, nor does my wife understand the process. The process I chose is difficult and time consuming, but it is easier to explain to my wife this way than it is to involve math and chemistry (which I know well being a chemical engineer).

 

[Julie]

in my suggestion of making sure you sweeten enough to taste and to take a hydrometer reading was for the purpose of knowing how sweet to make your wine. Once you get to the sweetness that you want take a reading. You can calculate how much sugar you will need to get to a specific reading.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Julie, great news! She poured it into a glass tonight and there were no tiny bubbles in the glass! I am thinking that the wine glass she poured it in to the other night might have had residual soap in it. My wife loves super sweet wine, dessert wine. She sweetened the glass to her taste and the hydrometer read 1.054! Thats sweet! She didn't add it to the carboy, she wanted to check with me first before she did (smart wife). But whats a hobby/obsession if you cannot share it with the ones you love? So chances are when I get home it'll be to her liking. The bitterness was completely gone when she added the sugar. And my new meter came in last night! She bought the Vinmetrica SC-300 for me as my welcome home gift (though I'm not home yet).

 

[DaveL]

Thank you for your service.

Thanks Again!

 

[nucjd]

Be safe costalempire and thank you for your service.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Thanks everyone for the support

 

[Julie]

Holy crap she does like sweet wines. I would suggest that you don't go any higher than 1.020 and leave it sit for a couple of weeks and taste it again. When you backsweeten the wine will become slightly more sweeter. Plus this gives the wine time to settle now.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Ok sounds good. I will sweeten it when I return and let it sit for a little while.

 

[FABulousWines]

That is so cool that your wife and you have something to do together while you are apart. Sounds weird to say it that way, but you know what I mean.

I agree with Julie, 1.054 is VERY sweet. My wife and I bought 4 bottles of strawberry which, at the time of the tasting at the winery, we thought was very good. A few weeks later we opened a bottle and we just thought it was too sweet. I dropped my hydro in it and it was 1.050. We still have a bottle of it left; we only drink it when we have a sweet tooth, LOL. Just remember, it is very easy to add sugar, but near impossible to take back out. Creep up on it and get it right!

Let me also add my thanks for your service and my prayers for a safe return.

 

[saramc]

Coastal....make sure the wine sample is at serving temp when you (or wife) do the tasting trials as this has a huge impact. Ask her to consider adding a drop or two of vanilla to her next sample, then sweeten to taste. Sounds like you guys are going to have a nice wine on your hands.

If you will be expanding upon your winemaking, and to make it easier for your wife to get involved, you may want to look at the All-In-One Wine Pump, www.allinonewinepump.com; it is a vacuum system and is so very useful with transfers, racking, degassing, and bottling. The creator, Steve, is on here often and I would not be able to make anything larger than one gallon without the use of the AIO.

Keep your eyes & ears open and your head down--something my father-in-law would tell his troops quite often. But I am sure you've heard it before too. Stay safe.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Saramc, your suggesting adding a drop or two of vanilla extract to the sample glass? I do not think she is going to be messing around with it until I return, but I will definitely give it a try, we have not been testing it at serving temp, we have been doing it at room temp. i will make sure I chill the glass when I get home and try it that way. I agree 1.054 is very high! I am going to try what you all suggested and I will let you know how it turns out. I am always up for new experimentation. I will have to look into the pump. All transactions have to go through the boss (my wife) before I purchase it. That is a good saying to live by, but I am almost to the point of coming home so

Fab, yes it is a lot of fun and very challenging as she has never helped me make it before. But it is a good learning experience! I have had a lof of fun watching her testing it, changing it, and etc. over Skype/Facetime. She enjoys it and I cannot wait to join her in on my hobby. She has been a tremendous help while I have been gone.

 

[CoastalEmpireWine]

Julie, I guess my only question now is: If the vanilla enhances the wine and makes it better, how much would I add to a 5 gallon carboy?

 

[Julie]

Julie, I guess my only question now is: If the vanilla enhances the wine and makes it better, how much would I add to a 5 gallon carboy?

Saramc has a very good idea on the vanilla but IMO I won't do it. While it will enhance it will change the flavor slightly. If I was you, I would continue the way you are and the next batch play with vanilla or like Runningwolf said about the cinnamon and cloves. I am a big fan of the cinnamon and cloves, it is like drinking a glass of apple pie.

 

[saramc]

Julie, I guess my only question now is: If the vanilla enhances the wine and makes it better, how much would I add to a 5 gallon carboy?

We can typically calculate how much to add to a larger volume if you figure out how many drops you like in a certain sample size; assuming a drop is a certain size. Typically it takes 3-5 drops per 750ml bottle, just depends on your extract and taste. You can always add the vanilla as you fill the bottles, if you want to have a variety. The variety is quite common, you may want some of the wine on the drier side, some sweeter, some spiced.