Hello, Noob wants to make some Crabapple Wine!

[Seeds]

Indeed.

I found this great forum looking for instructions regarding crabapple wine and it looks like I might find some help here.

First of all I know nothing about this so its a new adventure.

Not sure about the lingo, vocab, supplies and such that I will need for this operation.

Secondly, we've had a ton of rain this summer and earwigs have infested the tree boring themselves in to the ripened apples. I was wondering if I could pick the green ones and let them ripen off the tree, inside perhaps?

Okay, thanks!

 

[BirdmanBrewingCo]

Welcome Seeds!

 

[Yooper]

I have a great crabapple wine recipe posted- it's a wonderful wine and we make tons of it. We had over 100 pounds of crabapples the last time- and made a lot of wine! Take a look, I don't think you'll need any fancy lingo. Just make sure to purchase a good quality no-rinse sanitizer and always sanitize ANYTHING that touches your must/wine. That's not in the instructions, since it's a universal thing.

Crabapples won't ripen after picking. If you pick green crabapples, you'll only have green crabapples to make wine with. That's tough about the earwigs, but you can pick the ripe wines, quarter them, and get rid of the bugs and then stick the crabapples in the freezer.

 

[Seeds]

Yooper - Yes I think I am going to try your recipe!

It appears we have ornamental apples. Have you experienced using this variety?

 

[Yooper]

Yooper - Yes I think I am going to try your recipe!

It appears we have ornamental apples. Have you experienced using this variety?

No. I was under the impression that those "ornamental" apples weren't very good. Our crabapple trees make wonderful snack apples. The wine will only be as good as the fruit you use. You may be better off with regular sour apples than ornamental crabs.

 

[Seeds]

There's my next question - what is a good fruit? Highly sweet?

They are pretty sour but I've acquired a taste for them through out the years and I figured why not give them a shot?

 

[Yooper]

There's my next question - what is a good fruit? Highly sweet?

They are pretty sour but I've acquired a taste for them through out the years and I figured why not give them a shot?

Some sweet fruits, especially apples, tend to not make a good wine believe it or not. Sour apples, like cider apples, sour cherries, etc, all make a great wine.