Dry wine(cider) made from apple juice

[Hankhill11]

WHat i'm after is a test gallon of apple wine, clear and bright, in the 13-14% alcohol range that is drinkable. I imagine this drink to be similar to a white wine.

What would be a good yeast that can eat its way down to say . . .998? would that be TO dry?

Thinking any store juice will work well for clarity, but what sort of sugars to use to bring the potential ABV into range?

Has anyone made this?

 

[lumpher]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=14860

 

[Terek]

probably a billion people have done this before you myself included. Normal juice will work. Some people use table sugar to bump the gravity, but i have found brown sugar gives it a nice flavor. I will usually put a few black tea bags in as well. I recommend that if you want to go that high alcohol level, you will want to age it for about a year. Otherwise it will be "hot" alcohol taste. You can even go to the extent of "apple jacking" your cider. Condensing it into arond 20% when done.
There are a bazillion posts about this and even an entire section on these forums talking about the subject.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32

 

[MarkKF]

I prefer to bump up the ABV with honey rather than sugar (I've used white, raw & brown). Simple recipe:

1 gal. Apple Juice
2-3 pounds honey
Dry wine yeast
Nutrients or raisins

 

[madscientist451]

If depends on what your definition of "drinkable" is. Everyone has different tastes and preferences of what they like/don't like. The sugar/juice mixture to me produces a nasty
"hot" alcoholic flavor that I find repulsive. Others may tolerate it better or even like it.
So to answer your yeast question, I'd try the Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast.
I'd also back off the sugar addition on your first test batch and shoot for 8-10% instead of 14% and see how it comes out. Also, instead of adding sugar you can add
frozen apple juice concentrate (without preservatives) to the juice to increase the ABV without getting the table sugar hot alcohol flavor. Good Luck!

 

[Hankhill11]

thanks all for the suggestions. Lumper i have a 5 gal batch of edworts going now too. This experiment is for something a little higher octane. I guess it'll be similar but more age and alcohol.

I think i'll go for something like Markkf suggests using honey and or brown sugar, with addition of black tea and a handful of raisin rather than the LHBS nutrient.

EC-1118 has a reputation of being a tough bugger(and cheap!) so i may go with that or look up some other white wine yeasts. I have one pouch of this already though

 

[Yooper]

This one is really good: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=27602

The yeast strain doesn't really matter- all of the wine yeast strains will ferment simple sugars completely (to .990 or so). Then the winemaker just stabilizes the wine when finished and sweetens to taste.

 

[Hankhill11]

Thanks Yooper. Do you - or does anyone - know how much/strong tea to use to achieve the equivalent amount of tannan? (1/4 to 1/2 tsp lhbs tannin)

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yooper. Do you - or does anyone - know how much/strong tea to use to achieve the equivalent amount of tannan? (1/4 to 1/2 tsp lhbs tannin)

No, I don't use tea in mine.

 

[Terek]

Thanks Yooper. Do you - or does anyone - know how much/strong tea to use to achieve the equivalent amount of tannan? (1/4 to 1/2 tsp lhbs tannin)

i use 2-3 black tea bags per gallon. One is fine, but I prefer 2-3. Personal preferance