Finally bottled my ... apple wine

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

Regicider

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Messages
56
Reaction score
0
Location
Oslo, Norway
Yeasts are strange beasts.

You may or may not remember me asking for advice in this thread. I was doing a cider ferment with ale yeast and had switched to wine yeast because the fermentation was stuck. I got some good advice. This was early november last year. It's been sitting in the vat since.

Now, fast forward to yesterday. (Not one single bubble passes through the airlock during this interval.)

Yesterday, I finally plucked up the courage to open my vat and test the stuff. Smelled like apples. Promising. Tasted like ... hmm ... very, very, very dry, young wine. And apples. [Be flabbergasted, get hydrometer out, test gravity. Pour cider over hydrometer in cylinder. Keep pouring. Keep pouring. Won't the damned thing float soon? Keep pouring. Pass the 0 mark. Keep pouri- ah.]

So. What I originally intended as a moderately sweet, moderately strong, sparkling cider has sneakily turned into apple wine with next to no residual sweetness! I bottled it anyway. ;) (I even added a little sugar in the hope that some yeasts might like it and produce a few bubbles for me.)

We live and learn, we relax and have a homebrew.
 
It's tough to stop the ferment on a cider without actually killing the yeast. My ciders tend to be bone dry. I'm thinking about "dry hopping" the lastest with some ginger root.
 
I bottled one of my 1-gallon cider projects on Saturday, and it is also apple wine. FG ~ 0.096. The other gallon had an OG of 1.104! But it is also using a champagne yeast. I think I am going to start taking SG readings every day, then campden the sucker when it gets around 1.006-1.010.
 
Regicider said:
Yeasts are strange beasts.

You may or may not remember me asking for advice in this thread. I was doing a cider ferment with ale yeast and had switched to wine yeast because the fermentation was stuck. I got some good advice. This was early november last year. It's been sitting in the vat since.

Now, fast forward to yesterday. (Not one single bubble passes through the airlock during this interval.)

Yesterday, I finally plucked up the courage to open my vat and test the stuff. Smelled like apples. Promising. Tasted like ... hmm ... very, very, very dry, young wine. And apples. [Be flabbergasted, get hydrometer out, test gravity. Pour cider over hydrometer in cylinder. Keep pouring. Keep pouring. Won't the damned thing float soon? Keep pouring. Pass the 0 mark. Keep pouri- ah.]

So. What I originally intended as a moderately sweet, moderately strong, sparkling cider has sneakily turned into apple wine with next to no residual sweetness! I bottled it anyway. ;) (I even added a little sugar in the hope that some yeasts might like it and produce a few bubbles for me.)

We live and learn, we relax and have a homebrew.
Click to expand...
Excellent news! You mentioned it tasting 'young', it'll take longer to mellow being more of a 'wine' than a cider now. In six months it'll be aging still and in a year even better! Well worth the wait if you have the patience - Get another cider on with the ale yeast in the meantime!:drunk:
 
mpetty said:
I bottled one of my 1-gallon cider projects on Saturday, and it is also apple wine. FG ~ 0.096. The other gallon had an OG of 1.104! But it is also using a champagne yeast. I think I am going to start taking SG readings every day, then campden the sucker when it gets around 1.006-1.010.
Click to expand...

Are you going for a still cider? If not, how are you going to carbonate?
 
Camden tablets might stun it but most commercial wine yeasts are tolerant of so2. Might just have some bottle bombs if theres to much sugar left. Best way is to let it ferment to dryness, sulfite and add sorbate (do not do if you want the yeast to carb it) , add finings wait until clear, then sweeten to taste and wait to make sure ferment doesnt start back up. Much easier to pick a yeast with a lower alcohol tolerance that will die out before the sugar is all used up. Champagne yeast like lalvin ec-1118 are good to 18% alc. and very hardy.
 
Caplan said:
Excellent news! You mentioned it tasting 'young', it'll take longer to mellow being more of a 'wine' than a cider now. In six months it'll be aging still and in a year even better! Well worth the wait if you have the patience - Get another cider on with the ale yeast in the meantime!:drunk:
Click to expand...
I certainly have the patience. I only have to find the storage space for it. (I'm sure I had some. Where could I have put it?)

I will get another cider on with ale yeast as soon as I restock my supplies of liquid apples. That might not be until autumn. Meanwhile, I'm going to try my hand at a lager. :D
 
billybrew said:
Are you going for a still cider? If not, how are you going to carbonate?
Click to expand...

Eh... I haven't really decided if I will carbonate or not. These are only 1-gallon batches. I was thinking of buying some of those carbonation drops so I could carbonate just a few of the bottles.
 

Similar threads

S
Just pitched - Apple wine
Replies
12
Views
939
Srimmey
S
W
Cider from pulp?
Replies
2
Views
790
madscientist451
madscientist451
SoCalPlumber
Plumber's Cider
2 3
Replies
86
Views
3K
Fixerman
F
SoCalPlumber
Apple Wine & more
Replies
2
Views
352
SoCalPlumber
SoCalPlumber
D
Cider nutrient conundrum. Asking others about their experience(s) with nutrients in the cider process.
Replies
8
Views
842
Crapple
Crapple
Brewer's Friend 300

Latest posts

Back
Top