Apple Wine V2.0
 

Here's the link to my first brew. I was just winging it and thought I was making a cider, but came out a wine. Little did I know that all that sugar would make it a wine. It actually turned out really good! The honey and brown sugar blended well to give me a smooth drink. So after a few other brews under my belt, I decided to make a few adjustments on my old recipe and see how things go. Here's my recipe.

5 gals Indian Summer cider
4lbs brown sugar
4 cans apple juice concentrate
~4lbs honey (yay free honey)
1.5 tsp energizer
3tsp nutrient
Nottingham yeast
OG 1.090


Might also add more concentrate before bottling to back sweeten after sorbate does it's thing. May also add some acid blend this time as well. What does everybody think? I think I've improved on my recipe, and can't wait for the results!

sounds like it will be a tasty beverage to me. let us know how it turns out.

So last night I racked it and added campden. It fermented out to 1.010. I figure that between the racking and campden it'll stay at 1.010 and I'll add sorbate later and back sweeten with concentrate to about 1.015 or so.

Does anybody have input on acid blend? I have never used it before. What will it add to the drink?

Campden doesn't kill yeast- it's used as a preservative and antioxidant. If you want to inhibit refermentation, that's what the sorbate is for. You can sorbate with the campden. Sorbate works better in the presence of sulfites. In fact, you don't want to use sorbate alone in an apple wine. If the wine goes through MLF (sometimes happens with apple wine if it's not sulfited enough), adding just sorbate can cause a terrible flavor like geraniums in the wine. So, when sorbate is added, that's usually one of the times campden is added.

Anyway, acid blend is a blend of three acids, tartaric, malic and citric acid. It's used if the wine is "flabby" or needs a boost in acidity. A squeeze of lemon juice can also be used, if you think the wine needs citric acid.

So if I added the campden yesterday would it be to late to add the sorbate today?