Apple wine with fresh apples and cider?

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homesteader26

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I picked 24lbs sweet honey crisp apples today along with gala. I cut them up without the seeds and have them in the freezer in a fruit bag. I've been reading a lot that say don't add water to Apple because it is such a delicate flavor it will get watered down. I purchased at the orchard a gallon of non-pasteurized, no preservative added cider. If I were to bring this to a boil to kill any potential bacteria that campden tabs wouldn't kill (like E-coli) could I add that as water to increase my volume and still keep it appley?

I think I know the rest of the steps from a prior recipe - defrost - get to room temp campden tabs - sit 12 hrs - pectin enzyme - sit 12 hrs - adjust SG to 1.080, check ph - adjust - then pitch yeast. How am I doing? Anything blatantly wrong?
 
I just did exactly that and have been in secondary for about two weeks now. So far seems really good. Used 4 gallons of juice over about a full 7 gallon bucket of cut up apples. Split up and Fermented in two buckets with 1118 yeast. After a week I pressed the apples and ended up with 6 total gallons with lots of sediment. Racked after one week to 5 gallon carboy and let it start it's clearing process. Might keep this on the dry side, has a lot of flavor so far.
Best of luck, let us know how it turns out.
Mike
 
First time I made apple I pressed 54# of cored apples and got 4 gal of juice. I think they were drier based on the second batch of probably different apples. I pressed 20 1gal bags of cored apples and got over 7 gals of juice. First batch 2 gal of water, second none. Both were well liked, I'm not a huge fan of white wine but others really enjoyed and asked for it on occasion. It varies by apple evidently so I'm thinking you may be doing a 3 gal or maybe five and adding liquid in. I think it will still be good either way, nothing like experience to refine your methods to taste. When you start your primary keep in mind the volume of apples that will be coming out.
 
I used 6 gallons of apple cider and about 3 pounds of skins from some apples I had dried earlier and made a cyser out of it. It's about 8 months old right now and it's amazing. I'm hiding the rest to let them get over a year old before I drink anymore.


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This may sound really dumb but if I add cider to it vs. Apple juice will it end up being a hard cider? I want it to be wine and I'm not sure what the difference really is.
 
[Q UOTE=homesteader26;530923]This may sound really dumb but if I add cider to it vs. Apple juice will it end up being a hard cider? I want it to be wine and I'm not sure what the difference really is.[/QUOTE]


It has more with the alcohol content than juice vs cider. If it ends at 9%+, it's usually called wine, under 8% is usually hard cider...



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I did something similar last fall. I used fresh apples and fresh pressed cidar. I added brown sugar and white sugar. I backsweetened with 2 1/2 cans of apple juice concentrate. Bottled last week, ABV a little over 10%. My son tasted it when we bottled and the alcohol sneeks up on you. Bakervinyard
 
I certainly don't want to wish a year away but waiting for my wine to be ready yo try is going to kill me! Hopefully when enough time has passed I will have a nice selection to sample as I want!
 
I used 6 gallons of apple cider and about 3 pounds of skins from some apples I had dried earlier and made a cyser out of it. It's about 8 months old right now and it's amazing. I'm hiding the rest to let them get over a year old before I drink anymore.


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might I ask where it's hide at:i
 
At my parents house. That way I can't go over all the time without getting a guilt trip. Pretty effective way to keep from drinking stuff you want to age.


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