Cranberry-Applewine recipe and guide

I recently started a blog to document my experiments fermenting. Here is the first recipe i posted http://notemybrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/cranberry-apple-wine-my-own-recipe-one.html .

Ill try to transcribe it over to here after the holidays. I also have lots of pictures and the first few details on my dry hopped applewine.

Nice looking cider. Looks like mine but I use craisins. After a year it tastes soooo good.

MarkKF said:

Nice looking cider. Looks like mine but I use craisins. After a year it tastes soooo good.

Click to expand...

The last batch (the 1.100 one) has less obvious cranberry and more caramel flavors, still great but not the same wine.

Here you go folks, my recipe copied from my blog. I have a lot of unique experiments going on right now at the blog (wheat wine, hard tea, hopped cider) so if you would like to vist there or for me to copy something here just ask!

Cranberry-Apple Wine (one gallon)

Combine in 1 gallon carboy and ferment till around 1.010:
2 bottles Motts pressed apple juice
1/2 pound dark brown sugar
Add 1/2 pack rehydrated Lalvin EC-1118 yeast


The SG should be around 1.070-1.080
(The current batch is 1.100!, never buy walmart brand dark brown sugar)

After initial ferment:

Boil for 5 minutes:
1 bag cranberries (chopped)
1 granny smith apple (chopped)
1-1.5 cups sugar to taste (I omitted this for the 1.100 batch)
dash of nutmeg

The righthand bottle is this wine
the left used Simply Apple brand juice
dash of cinnamon
aprox. 4 TBS lemon juice
---optionally a few tsp orange zest
Enough water to keep from burning, if needed

Add all the liquid from the cranberry mixture, and about 1-1.5 cups of solids to the carboy, removing cider as needed to make room (Drink it!).
Roughly smash a 3 inch cinnamon stick, this helps the flavor to extract quickly, and add the pieces to the carboy.
Wait a few hours till the wine is a nice red and the fruit has been bleached white, rack juice into a clean carboy.

Optionally add a fresh cinnamon stick.

Let ferment until back down to 1.010'ish depending on taste desired.

You now have at least two options.

Option 1 (for drinking):
Place the wine into the fridge and let the yeast and solids crash out of it, when the wine is a nice even color and has no visible particles floating around, drink it.

Option 2 (for bottling):
Treat with 1/16th tsp potassium metabisulfite and 1/4 tsp potassium sorbate.
Place the wine into the fridge and let the yeast and solids crash out of it, when the wine is a nice even color and has no visible particles floating around, bottle it.

If you are paranoid about the fermentation restarting and the wine de-bottling itself rack the wine off the yeast, keep at room temp and check FG daily for 1-2 days to make sure that it has stopped. Degass*, bottle, age.

To degass your wine you may use either a vacuum pump, or stir with a sanitized spoon daily for several days. Below are some more daily fermenting pictures and other interesting bits.

I revised my blog post for the Cranberry-Apple wine http://www.notemybrew.com/2012/12/cranberry-apple-wine-my-own-recipe-one.html Much more detail and improved recipe.