Apple Wine Question

[Dejay]

I'm not a totally new at this wine making game, but would like to know if
anyone has made apple wine using brown sugar. I can't find any recipes on
it, and not real sure if it can be done.

 

[jbullard1]

I am making a 1 gallon test batch using light brown sugar.
It is on the second racking now and is clearing to a dark amber
I also added a cinnamon stick and nutmeg in the primary and left it in during the secondary
So far it is good

 

[shoes]

lots of people use brown sugar for apple wine. it changes the taste just a little bit. i personally dont care for it, as i dont want to mask the nice apple taste, which i think it does. give it a try, you might like it. homebrewing is ALL about expermenting!

 

[Wade E]

I made Spiced Apple wine using that brown sugar, cinnamon, and mulling spices and it came out great. I used fresh cider for this batch.

 

[Luc]

Be carefull as some brown sugar over here (in the Netherlands) contains sulphite.

So this might stun fermentation.

Luc

 

[arcticsid]

Luc, gonna try to find my way to town tommorrow and get some apple cider with pupl in the jar(plus I get a 1 gallon carboy out of it!). Would there be any special conciderations between cider with pupl, or not pupl. One of the very first homemade wines I ever seen as one where my dad took "pulp cider" added yeast, sugar and two weeks later we had something going(drinking), obviously, I have gone beyond hooch. But for what it's worth, his wine wasn't to bad, got us through. Any suggestions? I am not opposed to a heavy body wine.
Thanks Alaways
Troy

 

[arcticsid]

Sounds great Wade, but sounds like "mulled" wine, is this what is refered to? Yikes give me a nice wine and a snifter of Berentzen, than we can talk!!! I am sure looking forward to continuing this addictive hobby with all of you.!!!! (ps, keep your cinamon stick out of my beer)HeeHeeHeeHee
Troy
(Ps, will this apple cider with pulp, will the pulp settle along with the rest of the lees?)

 

[Luc]

arcticsid

I have several batches of apple-wine going at this moment (about 9) and I did some experiments with them.
So I made batches with juice and one batch which pulp fermented.

All of them are clearing nicely at this moment except the one which was pulp fermented.

So that might be an issue.

Next issue is that generally it is concerned that apples should not be
pulp fermented as the pulp will form methyl alcohol which of course is something you will want to avoid.
This is a longtime run story on Dutch boards and forums but has never actually scientiffically been confirmed as far as I know.
Now a lot of people are still doing pulp fermentation on apples so the issue of methyl alcohol is probably way exaggerated. Maybe the danger occurs when you are distilling the juice and it might not be an issue with winemaking.
Nevertheless I would be carefull.

Clear juice is probably the best way to go.

Luc

 

[Dejay]

Thanks to all for all the info. So can I assume all other other ingredients will be the same as ones used in an apple wine recipe for the exception of the sugar?

 

[Luc]

Dejay,

Brown sugar has other ingredients mixed in as normal white sugar.
An example is molasses.

So I will perform some tests with mu hydrometer and refractometer to investigate wether one sort impart more or less sugar as the other one.

I will get back to you with the info as soon as possible.

You can do some tests yourself.
Like dissolving 100 gram white sugar in a liter and measure the SG and do the same with brown sugar.

For example I know that honey is 80% sugar.
So brown sugar might also have a lower actual quantity of pure sugar
in it.

Luc

 

[Dejay]

Luc

Thanks for the info. I think if I add slow and check the SG as I go, When I get
to 1.090 I should be good to go.

 

[moose-1110]

luc

I just transferred a "irish rice wine" into the secondary. The recipe was an old one, so I thought I would try it. Some of the ingredients it called for I understood, but others I didn't, like adding 2 pounds of brown sugar with the white sugar. I was wondering what the brown sugar would do for the wine? also what does the potatoe do?

the recipe is as follows(with out any changes that i did)
2 lbs white sugar
2 lbs brown sugar
2 lbs seedless raisins
2 lbs dry rice
1 large yeast cake (I told you this was an old recipe)
1 gallon warm water
2 oranges
2 lemons
2 apples
2 potatoes

 

[WaWa]

arcticsid

I have several batches of apple-wine going at this moment (about 9) and I did some experiments with them.
So I made batches with juice and one batch which pulp fermented.

All of them are clearing nicely at this moment except the one which was pulp fermented.

So that might be an issue.

Next issue is that generally it is concerned that apples should not be
pulp fermented as the pulp will form methyl alcohol which of course is something you will want to avoid.
This is a longtime run story on Dutch boards and forums but has never actually scientiffically been confirmed as far as I know.
Now a lot of people are still doing pulp fermentation on apples so the issue of methyl alcohol is probably way exaggerated. Maybe the danger occurs when you are distilling the juice and it might not be an issue with winemaking.
Nevertheless I would be carefull.

Clear juice is probably the best way to go.

Luc

Hi Luc,
Was wondering if you could clear something up for me...
I was told methyl alcohol is produced from 'wood' product i.e., pips, stems etc, hence why we should be careful not to let pips and stones etc in the must. AND ethyl alcohol is from flesh and juice and is more desirable. apparently, you know if methyl alcohol is present coz ya get one hell of a hangover!!!
thanks

 

[Luc]

Methyl alcohol is indeed called wood-alcohol.
It is formed from the solid structures in fruit.
Now every wine will have a certain amount of methyl alcohol in it.
It just gets dangerous when the wine is distilled and the methylalcohol
is not disregarded.

In wine there is just a small amount of methyl so it
is not harmfull.

Now the pits is something entirely different.
Pits when crushed and fermented may cause bitterness in
a wine. But that's just bitterness.
Worse is that they may form cyanide.
That is why crushing seeds and pits and stones always
best is avoided.
Again amounts in a wine will be minimal but these
poisons are not removed from your body and will
accumulate until a leathel amount is reached.
Again nothing to worry about when making normal wines.
But when for example making wines from peaches or plums
make sure the stones are not crushed.

The jury is still out on the headache.
It surely is not the suphite. Most believe it are the histamines
that cause headache.
Heavily drinking will also cause headaches

Luc

 

[WaWa]

ok, thanks for that

 

[Old Philosopher]

Still not sure....

So what's the bottom line on apple wine made from crushed/pulped fruit (no seeds)? Is that a problem?
Getting juice out of my apples right now is worse than trying to get something out of the Government. My plan was to pulp the apples in my grinder, and ferment the pulp in my primary. Bad idea?

 

[Tom]

bad idea
Slice and core, freeze for 2-3 days, put apples in a straining bag and thaw add water AND pectic enzyme. This will break down the cells in the apples. wait 24 hours and add meta and sugar to 1.085 wait 24 hours add yeast

 

[Old Philosopher]

bad idea
Slice and core, freeze for 2-3 days, put apples in a straining bag and thaw add water AND pectic enzyme. This will break down the cells in the apples. wait 24 hours and add meta and sugar to 1.085 wait 24 hours add yeast

Been there, done that. I sent the t-shirt back. I tried a 5# test, due to lack of freezer space. The only difference from your method was that I left them at zero degrees for only 24 hours. I also did a 10# test batch outside in 20 degree weather for 2 days. When all was said and done, the apples thawed out ready to eat. 70% of them were still crunchy to bite into. :<
My cider was done with ground apples and squeezed. I don't have a press. It was a PITA, and I only got about 75% of the juice sources tell me I should have.
So...back to your first line, please. Why is it a bad idea to ferment the pulp/grind?

 

[Tom]

It will be a bear to clear. I have used puree and juice from a juicer w/ pulp. Both had alot of sediment. lost over 1 gallon in racking. I hope you are making more than ONE gallon.. 6gal may get you 5 gallon tops.

 

[Old Philosopher]

It will be a bear to clear. I have used puree and juice from a juicer w/ pulp. Both had alot of sediment. lost over 1 gallon in racking. I hope you are making more than ONE gallon.. 6gal may get you 5 gallon tops.

Yeah, I got a preview of the loss with my cider. I would never use a puree. I tried that with the plum wine, and ended up with perfect jelly pulp, but it was totally homogeneous! Haha! My options are limited by my equipment. Even the apple grind I used for the cider, drained and squeezed, created a cloudy cider that will take months to clear.
It would be simple to go buy the apple juice, but I have 75-100 pounds of apples I picked that aren't going to make it through the winter. Anybody interested in making 7,352 jars of jelly?