Apple Wine Q

[wildhair]

I have a manual corer that cuts out the core and slices them into wedges, too. Don't have the fancy juicer, tho - just the old fashioned manual fruit press. I'd been throwing the wedges on the Ninja and chopping them, but it gets time consuming and adds to the clean-up time, too. Not sure how the seed issue got going ~ I was going to press the apples and just use the juice - not the pulp w/ seeds. I knew about the small amount of cyanide in the seeds.

These are a soft apple - when fully ripe (and max. sweet), they bruise if you give them a dirty look. I think I will core some and use the pectic enzyme dissolved in water idea. They'll take less space in the freezer like that, I think. And I'll freeze some whole and see how that works. Lord, knows I got enough to try a few different things.

btw - doesn't a chopper chop the entire apple - skin, core, seeds and all? You toss them in whole, no?

 

[Smok1]

My apple tree is more like a granny smith apple tree, still firm and only slightly sweet when ripe and green. I juice everything but the core/seed, skins get put into a fruit bag and tossed in the primary to extract the color, wine has a nice green tint. Hard to see in the picture but of i shine a light through it the green tint comes through. I do understand the time consuming aspect though, i picked over 100 lbs of apricots today, over 200 lbs this week, already pitted/halfed/froze 75 lbs so far, still another few hundred pounds to harvest, then the peaches will be next. I just look at this labour as my ingredients to make my wine all winter long. Between a apple/apricot/peach/cherry tree and a few patches of rhubard fetch me 1000 bottles or more a year depending on the harvest.

 

[wildhair]

These are tart like a granny smith when green, but thinner skinned and softer. They get a yellow coloration with a light pink blush (sometimes) when fully ripe and a nice sweetness. But they are VERY fragile when they are yellow.

 

[Smok1]

These are tart like a granny smith when green, but thinner skinned and softer. They get a yellow coloration with a light pink blush (sometimes) when fully ripe and a nice sweetness. But they are VERY fragile when they are yellow.

Those look great, i dont have pictures of my apples right now because the apple tree is on my parents property. We have apricots and peaches on our property. Heres a picture of what i picked today, just waiting for wife to get home to pit and freeze. Peaches wont be ready for another 3-4 weeks.

 

[Scooter68]

I use an apple corer, cores the apple and slices it into 6 wedges. Then i freeze, thaw, and run through an Omega slow press juicer, id say it extracts 90% of the juice and rejects a dry pulp. I use the juice in the primary and put the pulp into a fruit bag and drop that into the primary for the first 5 days or so or until it sg gets to 1.02 to try and extract any remainder juices and color from the skins

I'd use that method if I had a juicer - as it is I am force to cut them up by hand. Tonight in about 45 mins time I ended up with 6 cups of very small apple pieces none over 1/4 thick and maybe an inch long in some cases. I tried chopping and using a food processer to chop them up but that's a slow go too. I may have to resort to a juicer after these are all cut up, frozen and then thawed out. I have a press but it's performance has not been impressive.

I just picked another couple of gallons of apples this evening in addition to about 1 1/2 gallons already waiting to be cut up.
We also have an apple slicer-corer - great for store bought very ripe apples, Not much fun with these firmer apples. AND for the final challenge, the birds and bugs have peppered every apple somewhere. So about half of my cutting job is to cut away their work. Definitely a not project to make money on base on work required.

 

[Smok1]

I'd use that method if I had a juicer - as it is I am force to cut them up by hand. Tonight in about 45 mins time I ended up with 6 cups of very small apple pieces none over 1/4 thick and maybe an inch long in some cases. I tried chopping and using a food processer to chop them up but that's a slow go too. I may have to resort to a juicer after these are all cut up, frozen and then thawed out. I have a press but it's performance has not been impressive.

I just picked another couple of gallons of apples this evening in addition to about 1 1/2 gallons already waiting to be cut up.
We also have an apple slicer-corer - great for store bought very ripe apples, Not much fun with these firmer apples. AND for the final challenge, the birds and bugs have peppered every apple somewhere. So about half of my cutting job is to cut away their work. Definitely a not project to make money on base on work required.

I bought one of these cold press omega juicers, has a slow auger that presses the juice without oxidizing too much, its been a champ, ive put thousands of pounds of fruit through it and its never failed. Its no doubt time consuming but i enjoy making wine so its more/less a hobby aside from a chore.

 

[wildhair]

[/QUOTE]I'd use that method if I had a juicer - as it is I am force to cut them up by hand. Tonight in about 45 mins time I ended up with 6 cups of very small apple pieces none over 1/4 thick and maybe an inch long in some cases. I tried chopping and using a food processer to chop them up but that's a slow go too[/QUOTE]

I did a 3 gal bucket all chopped to about 1/2" pieces in less time than that with my manual corer/slicer and the Ninja! The Ninja will chop about 6-10 apples (cored & wedges) in about 15 seconds. Only 4 boxes in the fridge and another couple boxes still on the tree to go.................

 

[Scooter68]

Bullet biting time - Well sort of. Ordered a juicer today. Not the auger type - Not prepared to spend that much right now. Got the one CR rated tops (Yeah I dont always trust CR but...) Anyway the newer model available for under $100. Should get me what I need. And the wife can now make her own 'tasty' drinks out of whatever she wants. (I will not be her taste tester - no way)

So Now I can cut these up a little less tiny and the press can be saved for something a little less challenging than Apples. Still going to freeze and thaw the apples to get them as soft as possible and avoid the severe browning that is going to happen as slow as I am cutting them up. And still going to use pectic enzyme before I take them to the juicer.

 

[wildhair]

Ordered a juicer today. Not the auger type - Not prepared to spend that much right now

Yeah - I looked them up on E-bay and AmaKong - cost more than my truck payment!! Not this year! I'm gonna try and freeze some whole, probably 10#, then thaw and press. No pectic, nada. Then I'll core/slice another 10# bag, dip them in a Fruit Fresh bath, add 1/2 t pectic enzyme to 2 pints H2O, pour that over the apples, let 'em sit in the fridge overnight- then freeze.
Then I can thaw them both and compare how much juice I get (minus the added water).
One more night of picking, then processing. yah!

 

[Smok1]

Careful when picking out a juicer, if you buy the top feed ones that spins really fast (centrifigul)the oxidize the crap out of the juice. Most centrifigal juicers cap out around 3000rpm and spin the fruit so fast it extracts the juice from the pulp but inturn creates heat which damages the nutritrional content and spins juice so fast it oxidizes very quickly. Auger juicers run only about 40 rpm, pressing the juice from the pulp maintaining nutritional value without oxidization. I own 2 centrifigul juicers and one auger style, the auger was more expensive but outperforms the two centrifigul style juicers hands down. The high speed centrifiguls have a high failure rate due to being high rpm machines, there harder to clean up and they dont extract juice as well as an auger, the pulp will be slightly moist outta the extractor whereas the auger is dry pulp.

 

[wildhair]

Yes, but I can also use the centrifugal juicer to refine uranium - so there's that. LOL

No juicer this year - good advice, tho ~ I'll remember that. Should I decide to spend $400 on a juicer instead of an accessory for one of my motorcycles - I'll go slow auger cold press!

 

[mikewatkins727]

Yes, but I can also use the centrifugal juicer to refine uranium - so there's that. LOL
.
.
.

Go for U-232, it's half life is only 68.9 years

 

[Scooter68]

Yeah Thanks for that advice NOW. I've already ordered a centrifugal juicer. Sigh. Well Amazon will let me send it back at my expense.

NOW I've ordered an auger type. Omega 8008 Refurbished with 12 warranty.

NOW are you happy Smok1 ?

So I have a little more time to cut up apples. Up to about 11 lbs cut and treated with Pectic enzyme. Now into the freezer with them Still short of a gallon so I have to keep cutting. My fingers are all orange from the juice oxidizing on my skin. Think I'm through about 1/2 of the apple crop from the 2 trees we have. (1 McIntosh and 1 Stayman Winesap.) Both tart so guess I need to get a few Sweet apples to offset a little. Meanwhile the crabapple tree decided to produce this year but not anywhere enough to really contribute. I could tap it for a few but that would really skew this juice to the tart side.

Meanwhile I had to pull 14 pounds of frozen peaches out to make room for the apples. Soooooo Another batch of Peach wine will be getting started this week. This will be a "Vanilla Peach" Inspired by the fresh peaches on Vanilla Bean Cream I had a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Smok1]

Its not me thats gonna be happy, its you thats gonna be happy when that omega juicer arrives. Im a little jelouse, the 8008 looks like a powerhouse im sure you will be happy with, my omega is 3 years old now and i have run thousands of pounds of fruit through it and still works as good as day 1. My centrifiguls both havent had 1/4 amount the fruit run through them and the motors are bagged on them. If the centrifugul wasnt too much money keep it, there good for juicing the softer fruits like berries for smoothies and stuff.

 

[wildhair]

Just finished picking the last of the apples off my tree this morning. Now - to process the apples. I'm gonna try & freeze the small ones whole because
1. I lose too much then I core/slice them anyway
2. They'll thaw faster
3. They'll be less bulky in the freezer.
That's my theory at least............

I've only got the one tree ripe this year, but the early picked ones are tarter than these last batches I picked - so hopefully they balance out.

To paraphrase Don Rumsfield - "You make wine with the fruit you have, not the fruit you might want or wish to have at a later date."

 

[Scooter68]

deleted and replaced

 

[Scooter68]

Just finished picking the last of the apples off my tree this morning. Now - to process the apples. I'm gonna try & freeze the small ones whole because
1. I lose too much then I core/slice them anyway
2. They'll thaw faster
3. They'll be less bulky in the freezer.
That's my theory at least............

I've only got the one tree ripe this year, but the early picked ones are tarter than these last batches I picked - so hopefully they balance out.

Just finished picking the last of the apples off my tree this morning. Now - to process the apples. I'm gonna try & freeze the small ones whole because
1. I lose too much then I core/slice them anyway
2. They'll thaw faster
3. They'll be less bulky in the freezer.
That's my theory at least............

I've only got the one tree ripe this year, but the early picked ones are tarter than these last batches I picked - so hopefully they balance out.

Sounds like a plan. I have no choice with mine. They are such a mess that manual cutting to remove spots and the cores is the only way. Last night I had a total of 8 1/2 lbs of apples cut up ready to freeze and 2 1/2 lbs of waste. The deer and other critters are happy - most of the stuff I put out at night is gone by morning. (My apples never get to turn all red. They are ripe but never fully redden.

So far my cut up apples are about 1/2 gallons which, if I'm lucky might bet me close to a gallon of juice, if I'm very lucky. Our apple trees are not getting the TLC they need and I hate to spray a lot of chemicals on them. We've also lost 2 trees to Fire Blight so I am going to have to pay more attention to them or lose them over time. Right now we have 5 trees But one is still very smallish and won't produce any quantity for at least another 2-3 years IF I put some effort into feeding spraying them and proper pruning. Oh did I mention the fun of Japanese Beetles. Yeah add that to the list of forces working against all my fruit trees. Fortunately I've found an effective safe spray for them. Neem Oil with Pyrtherin. The Pyrtherin is a quick killer that also breaks down quickly. I can't use anything during blossom time to avoid killing bees. The Neem Oil is a deterrent spray that also is supposed to be a miticide and fungicide. (In East India Neem oil is used on the skin for beauty treatment - go figure so it seems to be safe for me as the user)

 

[wildhair]

I typically spray right after blossom drop, then again in about 3 weeks. That's USUALLY enough - I never spray for a month before picking. My apples actually look pretty good this year - skin damage is superficial & very few worms. I'm also not fond of chemicals - but I hate wasting the apples & feeding the worms even more. I prune all my fruit trees & shrubs pretty regular - March is the best time to do it in WI.
Lunch break now - I just cored / "wedge cut", dipped in Fruit Fresh, poured 2 cups of water w/ pectic enzyme and bagged 4 ~ 10# of apples. Took about an hour. Still 4 boxes to go!
FYI - a 2 gal. Ziploc freezer bag holds 10# of apple wedges.

 

[Scooter68]

Our problem in NW Arkansas is the heat. Low to Mid 90s common for the last month.
Worms, I don't seem to find but doggone between the squirrels, birds and japanese bettles.....
The Neem oil spray is considered organic and usable up to day of harvest. One thing I have found - NOT good for peaches, apricots or nectarines They will drop their leaves pronto. So we lost all but one poor nectarine that keeps hanging on. After 11 years it's still only about 3 1/2 feet diameter and one lopsided branch. Yet it will produce a couple of nectarines each year. Probably should take my chances and move it closer to the house where I can keep a better eye on it and fertilize it better. Probably a good fall project for me.

 

[Scooter68]

NOT looking good for apple wine this year. My juicer arrived today and I had thawed out some of the apples I cut up and froze. Ran a 1 gallon bag and 1/3 of another gallon bag of apple pieces through my new juicer (Omega 8008) Result was 1 quart and 1 pint jar of juice. THICK JUICE.
Sorry to have to report that the outlook for apple wine no longer looks so good. However, I will be drinking some awesome apple juice now. This stuff is so rich. The apples were really ugly wormy looking things but this juice is unbelievable. Wife won't drink it straight - She has to water it down - says it's too concentrated.

So I guess I'll see what happens with 6 bags of frozen apple pieces but the prospects of makng wine with it, just doesn't look likely.