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Apple Wine 2

May 20, 2017

Mead1-2Ingedients

  • 2 gallons apple juice
  • 2 quarts blueberry pomegranate juice (sweetened with apple)
  • 2 lb honey with enough water to make 2 quarts.
  • 1 additional quart water to compensate for racking loss.
  • 1 ½ tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1 ½ tsp pectin enzyme
  • Yeast: Red Star Premier Blanc (champagne)

Notes

  • OSG: 1.074. If FSG is 0.99 then 11.03% ABV
  • 2015-05-28: FSG: 0.998. ABV: 9.98%

Log

  • Stir each day for 4 days to aerate the yeast during aerobic phase.
    • 2017-05-22 Stirred with lid off. Heh, didn’t keep up with my plan.
  • Has been very low activity for this entire time, wondering if it’s a busted batch. Asked my buddy David di Blasio, he says sometimes the yeast will chew up all the sugar super fast. Suggested to measure with hydrometer to check if primary fermentation is done. I think I have been letting primary fermentation continue too long. This source says to rack it at 1.005 SG, I’ve been waiting until activity stops, usually < 1.0 SG.
  • 2015-05-28: Very low gas activity.
    • I bought a wine thief for easier SG measurement. Turns out it’s too tall for these 3 gallon batches, had to use a baster to fill up the rest of the tube so I could float the hydrometer.
    • FG = 0.998. ABV: 9.98% – slightly egg-ey smell. Racking it.
    • Tasting notes…
      • Nell: Can’t describe it.
      • Morg: Very neutral, hardly any flavor to describe. Some apple notes in the back of my tongue. Maybe this one will be a good candidate for flavoring. Using the blueberry pomegranate juice seems pointless, can’t tell if there is any difference in taste from plain cider sweetened with honey.
  • AppleWine1-22015-06-03: Racked to two 1 gallon jugs.
    • Tasting notes…
      • Nell: Aack, there’s some kind of sharp, off flavor, hits me right in the mouth.
      • Morg: Still very neutral to me. Drinkable but not much flavor overall.
    • Going to try adding blackberry extract to 300 ml gradually and tasting along the way.
      • 0.1 ml – 0.5 ml – No taste
      • 0.8 ml, 1 drop stevia – I like the little bit of sweet. Still can’t taste the blackberry.
      • 1.0 ml, 1 drop stevia. I did a comparison with a sample of the unflavored bit. This is definitely better. Going to stop adding stuff b/c right now it’s competing with that off flavor… now I can tell what Lynell meant. There is a heavy sharp flavor on the tongue. Folks say to let the brew sit for a couple months to mellow out any off flavors. I don’t want the flavoring to overpower it.
      • 1 gallon is 3785 ml. So… 1/300 * 3785 = 12.6 ml of flavoring, 12 drops stevia.

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