Apple Wine Q

[bkisel]

I make my apple wine from cider bought from Case's Mansfield Cider Mill. The mill opens tomorrow... YAHOO!

Also... https://visitpa.com/pa-specialty-stores/mansfield-cider-mill

 

[Smok1]

Im sure there both good juicers, i can only vouch for the omega, we have owned it for 3 years, we juice wheatgrass ginger and apple every morning, and ive run thousands of pounds of apples cherrys blueberries rhubarb peaches apricots strawberries through it for wine and its still going strong, we owned 2 centrifigul juicers before we bought the omega and neither of them lasted more than a year, i believe because the motor is directly attached to the blade it turns fast but theres no torque, ( i ran some apple through it too fast one time and the motor seized and i didnt shut the power off in fast enough and it smoked the motor) so the windings in the motors heat up faster if your really working it, the omega has a gear box which highly decreases the rpm but in turn increases the torque and can handle alot more abuse.

 

[Smok1]

I bought an Omega 8008Cx (Refurebished) and it has done a great job on apples. Quiet and VERY efficient. A gallon bag of frozen then thawed apples 6 cups yeilds a quart (4 cups) of thick apple juice and just under 1 cup of dry pulp. Yeah I know that math is strange 6 cups becomes 5 cups but there is air and open spaces , and that juice fantastic.

Bottom line folks - Making wine and using some fruits is WORK - no way around it. I spent a lot of time with our apples cutting into small (Fingertip) sized pieces and freezing them. BUT when they went through that juicer the outcome was fantastic. We even made use of the pulp leftover to make crackers - yeah apple crackers. The flavor is pretty good, not raving over it but good. (Imagine plain wheat thins with apple flavor)

Just wondering if youve tryed the difference between running fresh cut firm apples vs frozen cut mushy apples through your omega? I find fresh cut apples run through my juicer alot nicer than the frozen mushy ones, extracts alot more juice and leaves alot dryer pulp.

 

[Scooter68]

Just wondering if youve tryed the difference between running fresh cut firm apples vs frozen cut mushy apples through your omega? I find fresh cut apples run through my juicer alot nicer than the frozen mushy ones, extracts alot more juice and leaves alot dryer pulp.

Haven't tried fresh apples but the apples I've juiced weren't mushy at all. I put pectic enzyme in the bags with the apple pieces and about 1.4 cup water to dissolve it then mixed it well before freezing. I juiced them as soon as they thawed and most were frozen for 3-5 days before I thawed them.

As to the pulp left over - I can't imagine it being any drier than what I got out.

Only problem I had was with the stuff left in the auger area of the juicer - tough debate as to where to put it - with the dry pulp or in the juice to add a few skin pieces. Finally decided just to eat it right then and there.

 

[Smok1]

Yours is probly better than mine, i have the 8006,it was the best one they had when i bought it 3 or 4 years ago, i find mine runs fresh cut firm apples better than the frozen and then thawed ones, it still works fine with the frozen ones i just run the pulp through one more time to extract more juice.

 

[PandemoniumWines]

My apple wine is currently wine applesauce :/ Well, half wine applesauce, anyway. I racked off lees today so it's all mixed up again, but it is pretty freaking thick. I had to strain my pumpkin wine a couple times, I guess I'll do the same with the apple. Ugh. Next year I'm fermenting store bought cider!

 

[Julie]

You need to put your fruit into bags instead of letting the fruit lay loose in the bucket

 

[Scooter68]

You might try racking the heavier 'juice' through a fine stainless steel strainer. I've done that with heavier portions (Bottom 1/2 to 1/3 of the carboy) and was able to reduce the loss considerably. Had to rock and roll the strainer but it didn't take all that long. Within about 1 minute a strainer full (about 2 cups) reduced to less than 1 cup. As long as you don't let it sit out long the oxygen exposure shouldn't be a problem. Did this with a couple of batches of peach wine as well as an apple wine batch. After doing that the lees in the next racking compacted nicely. A 3 1/2 gallon starting batch fit nicely into a 3 gallon carboy with about 1 pint to spare.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

We have our own apple tree's and we freeze the apples first - then let them sit in a 5 gallon pail and we crush them using a normal crusher. We ferment and push down - after fermentation - we press - and we come out with great apple wine !

 

[wildhair]

So you bag and ferment the frozen apple chunks, THEN you press? I cored and cut, soaked in citric acid bath (Fruit Fresh), added some pectin water then froze. I have about 150+# in the freezer. I was going to thaw, press, strain then ferment the juice. I froze some apples whole, just to compare how much juice I got from whole apples compared to the chopped ones. I made my apple wine from just apple juice last year, no added water - that turned out fine. I just used a strainer to filter out the "applesauce" before fermenting.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

We just freeze the apples whole - with and without bruises

I have an adapter that can pull most of the first run using a vacuum set-up = saves alot of time to pressing

 

[Scooter68]

Wildhairs process of filtering before fermentation should work great. IF you are already in the process - using a strainer now will accomplish the same thing. Just don't let it sit out in the open any longer than necessary. You can use a strainer over a large funnel dropped into the carboy to minimize exposure to the air .

 

[Zog]

I make a lot of apple and pear cider wine from fruit. All I do is wash the fruit and let it air dry, trim out any bad spots, then freeze them whole. After a couple weeks in the freezer, I thaw them and press them in a bladder press. Any press will do I imagine. The freezing totally breaks down the structure of the fruit. I get about 3 gallons per bushel. There is less oxidation of the fruit using this method as opposed to grinding fresh unfrozen fruit. So, the color is a little lighter, which I like. By the way, if they aren't completely thawed before pressing, then the brix of the juice will be higher.

 

[wildhair]

I'm anxious to try pressing the fruit - been a hectic fall. The only problem with freezing the whole fruit is it takes more space in the freezer. I bought a small chest freezer for my various fruits for wine, but it doesn't even hold all the apples I cored and froze. LOL 150#+ of apples takes a LOT of freezer space. The "Fruit Fresh" bath seemed to have kept them from oxidizing in the freezer so far.

 

[Scooter68]

It's not a fast process but an auger type juicer would definitely get the most out of any fruit, unless you want it to sit on the skins but even then you could simply freeze some of the auger residue with the skins. With my apples once they come through that juicer they are more than ready for fermentation (Or freezing) and of course that juice will take up a lot less space than whole or even apples cored and cut. Again pretty slow process but auger juicers will certainly get the most out of your fruit.

 

[wildhair]

From the looks of of the feeder tube on the juicers I saw - I'd still have to cut up the apples to feed them into the auger. I wonder how long it would take to run over 150# of apples thru it? I'm thinkin' - more time than I got probably.
I bagged 10# of whole apples and I took another 10# of whole apples, cored them, dipped them in Fruit Fresh - then froze both bags. I'll press them later with my old-timey fruit press and which works better & gives more juice. But from a "freezer space" perspective - using the corer-slicer and freezing them in 10# bags takes a lot less space than 10# of whole, round apples. And I was able to prep & freeze about 50# per hour using the old manual corer-slicer.

 

[Scooter68]

I agree with you on the time perspective. It would take hours of time to juice them that way. For 1-5 gallon batches it's workable but beyond that.... If you could chop them up with a large chopper that would help with storage space.

The big advantage of the juicer is that it does get more juice out of the fruit than any other method. What's left is like damp cardboard.

Some fruit just presents some challenges regardless of the equipment at hand. With apples I believe that coring, to remove the seeds is a must do. The cyanide in the seeds is not a big issue but the bitterness from them and hard shells around seeds make pressing and processing more difficult.

 

[NDengineer]

I made some pear wine and pear cider (perry) about a month ago. I cut out the worms and rotten spots, crushed the fruit, and then attempted to press, but the pears were too soft, causing a mesh in the basket press. I ended up just putting all the crushed pieces/pulp in large straining bags, and removing the bags after primary fermentation.

the pear wine and perry have a stark difference in color, even though they have identical composition (aside from a little bit different concentration of juice). See the picture. The pear wine is the 5 gallon green/yellow carboy, and the perry is the partially full 3 gallon one. The perry came out brown out of the primary fermenter (5 gallon pail), even though both were handled the same.

Is the brown color oxidation in the perry? I know there's too much headspace for the perry in secondary right now, but it was brown beforehand.

 

[sour_grapes]

Forgive my ignorance if the answer to this should be obvious: What you did do differently between them that is making you call one a wine, and one a cider?

 

[wildhair]

And forgive my ignorance as well - what would make you post a Q on problems with a pear wine/cider in a thread called Apple Wine Q instead of starting a new thread? LOL Not to be the "thread police" - but you might have a better shot at getting answers from someone who may NOT be following this thread on apples.

Actually - wish I could help you out, but as a newly minted vintner myself - I can't add anything constructive to "clarify" your issue. ;-) Let's see what bigger brains have to say.............