Apple Wine 1

March 5, 2017

Ingredients

• 15 lb Fuji apples – $22.50
• 2 gal organic apple juice – $18.00
• 8 oz date sugar
• Yeast: Red Star Premier Blanc (champagne, up to 17% alcohol) – $1.00

Notes

• I did not use pectin enzyme
• For > 10% alcohol, need 1.1 OG (https://www.omnicalculator.com/other/alcohol-by-volume)
• OSG: 1.0666 (1.064, add 0.0026 due to 80 F)
• FSG: 0.999 (measured at 58 F)
• Final ABV: 8.79%!
• Ph 3.65

Why secondary fermenter?  To get it off the “trub”, e.g. dead/dormant yeast, which can cause unwanted flavors.

Fining

• Eggshell! Bake at 300 degrees, crumble into the wine, wait 5 days, rack it. Wait a month.
• UPDATE: Didn’t do squat! Probably clouding from set pectin during pasteurization.
• Tried gelatin. Recommends 0.5 – 1.5 tsp. Water X 25 by weight. Soak in cold water then heat until almost boiling.
• UPDATE: Still cloudy! Need pectin enzyme.

Plan

• 12D, March 18. Rack into secondary. Wait ~2 weeks.
• D, April 3. Eggshell treatment. Wait ~5 days.
• D, April 9. Rack into conditioning. Wait 2 weeks.
• D, April 23. Taste. Bottle it?
• Hrm… did not take notes. Dates drifted.

Review

Initially, we did not like it much. After repeat exposure though we began to like it…. even Lynell!. It’s very dry as desired but also sour. After the last racking, I put the jugs and growlers into the wine fridge at ~47 F. Seemed to improve the taste but remains very cloudy.

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