Winery got a delivery!

[Arne]

JS if you change it and it comes out better, make sure you let me know what you did. I am always up for a change. Arne..

 

[jswordy]

Sure enough, I will let you know, Arne. But it looks like the recipe is about what I was going to do anyway. I will use 71B1122, though.

 

[Arne]

The bottle of wine I sent along will let you know about how it is going to taste if you follow my directions. If that is about what you want, I say go for it. Don't believe the yeast is going to make much of a difference. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[Runningwolf]

Jim & Arne they look just like the ones I use. Mine are Dolgo Crabapples if you want to look it up.

 

[Arne]

Thanks, Dan. Arne.

 

[jswordy]

Dan, all I know is my folks planted two of those trees because the pic on the pot showed how beautiful they are in spring. Which was true. But the info did not tell how messy they are the rest of the time!

Hahaha ... Dad let them grow for years, but they have long since been cut down.

 

[jswordy]

Updated for 2015! Time flies when you are drunk. Look what just came out of the freezer! Arne's 25 pounds of crabapples from fall 2013!

These bad boys crushed right up by hand after being frozen solid. Wow, I have not made a batch of wine this small in years. Brings me back to my roots.



Juice was a lot redder before I added the k meta. A tasty must. I ended up adding 4 cups sugar. SG 1.085 so the fruit doesn't get overwhelmed.



This is an all-juice batch. I'll have to look in the fridge to see what yeast I have. That'll get tossed tomorrow. Should be 25 or so bottles of goodness ahead sometime.

So there ya go, Arne! Thank you, sir! I'm slow but I make up for it by not moving quickly.

 

[Arne]

Good luck with it, keep us informed how it comes along. Arne.

 

[jswordy]

Back to being real red now. Looks like a cherry recipe. I didn't see any signs of ferment yesterday and forgot to look this morning. We'll see this afternoon. Tastes great right now.

 

[jswordy]

Well, it looks like my 71B1122 stash may be dead. They've been around quite awhile. I've tried two packs since Sunday. Got up at 2:30 a.m. today, still no visible ferment and no "bloom" from the pack contents. Very unusual, since the temps are nicely in the upper 60s and low 70s here. I'll have to pull out another pack and mix up a starter just to check viability. Might be time to toss 'em.

Anyway, while I was up at 2:30, I pulled an EC-1118 out of the same refrigerated stash, sprinkled it on and went back to bed. Got up at 6 a.m. and had bubbles. We rollin'!

This must is red as all get-out. I hope the color is preserved throughout the process.

Note to self: Start using a marker to write the arrival date on every yeast pack.

 

[PhilDarby]

Im in the uk, traditional cider/scrumpy, over here is brewed from a mix of apples, reds, greens and crab apple roughly mixed in 1/3rds the nicest tasting apple wine, or scrumpy however u want to name it, though, has a bit of a bias towards red apples, reds give a nicer, traditional dry flavour to apple wines in my opinion.

Based on that I would go 25% green 25% crab and 50% reds for a nice drinkable balance, in my opinion.

Also, worthy of note, is that apple tends to blend well with most other fruit wine, and in conjunction with grape, generally provides all trace nutrients required for a healthy ferment hence the apple and grape beverage industry.

Both, apple and grape have a lifes worth of fermenting to enjoy, hope u enjoy your journey ;-)

both crabs and greens tend to be overly acidic as well.

 

[jswordy]

Phil, my very first wine was apple, years ago. Apple wine is fun to work with and it is very popular among my friends, who generally like it dry and sometimes compare it loosely to a kind of fruit chardonnay, but I really have not much cared for it personally so most of my bottles have been given away to those friendly raves.

This is a true apple wine, made from wine yeasts and using wine processes. It is uncarbonated.

I've always wanted to try adding the crabs to it, but the Southern US grows a mealy crab apple, not like the tart, firm ones I remember are grown in the Northern US. I believe they grow too fast in the South. As a surprise, my friend sent me some from the North, hence this experiment. I do plan to do a number of things to it as the process proceeds to attempt to get it to something I better like.

I have a commercial apple orchard less than 5 miles from my house and am always tempted to get green tart apples from them for a trial wine, but I am almost to the point now where there will only be two wines I make, both will be grape based, and I will make them both but once a year.

I wanted to try this experiment out before I switch schedules. It only took me two years to get around to it!

 

[PhilDarby]

Many years ago I visited a cider farm in somerset, they take visitors around and show them the orchards and processing and stuff, im not a great lover of straight cider or apple wine (it makes me baulk if its too green or acidy, as I have gastric problems)

But apples with a bias towards red apples are the ones I think you will find bias it towards chardonnay imho.

anyway hope your batch turns out well ;-)

 

[jswordy]

Phil, you made me go look up "scrumpy." Learned something. Now I get ya!

All my apple wines have been dry and light. They are not overly acid at all, and have had no "cidery" characteristics. That's why I wanted to try something a bit different this time. As I said, others raved, but I like real fruit-forward wines and with the dry apple wines I had been making, that has not been the case.

We'll see!

 

[jswordy]

Man, look at how red this stuff is, even after having the yeast stirred into it. Wild!

 

[jswordy]

Tasted a teaspoonful tonight.

(Clasping hands together)

Oh Lord, if you could see your way to let this taste this good when it is done so I can get drunk --- er, I mean, so I can honor your goodness and generosity to a poor soul like me with it, glass after glass, I would be beholden to you.

Your faithful servant,
Jim

It is tart and complex right now. Oh, and fizzy.

 

[jpike01]

You truly are "Otis"

 

[jswordy]

This thing is still rocking right along, at 1.040 last night. The liquid volume appears to have grown, as well. I ought to get it in a carboy maybe Sunday.

 

[ceeaton]

Never have had a crabapple wine before, but boy that looks good. My oldest son was looking over my shoulder when I was viewing your picture in the earlier post and wondered if they made wine out of Hawaiian Punch!

 

[jswordy]

Never have had a crabapple wine before, but boy that looks good. My oldest son was looking over my shoulder when I was viewing your picture in the earlier post and wondered if they made wine out of Hawaiian Punch!

Yes, they do! Try it sometime!