Applesauce to make Wine?

[sjm1027]

I have canned approx. 30 mason jars of applesauce in November and was wondering if it was possible to use some of the applesauce to make wine?
I have jars with cinnamon and some without. All properly canned in sterile jars. Let me know if you have ever heard of doing such a thing.

Thanks

 

[pumpkinman2012]

I've never heard of using applesauce to make wine, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done, a quick google search will probably bring up dozens of recipes.

I'd make it just like any fruit wine, the main issues that I see is that once you heated or cooked the apples - I'm going to assume that you cooked the apples to make the applesauce, then heated the applesauce again while canning the applesauce, you''re likely to get pectin haze, you'll need to add pectic enzymes before fermentation, if that doesn't help to clear up the wine you may be stuck with a cloudy wine.

I hope that this helps.

 

[sjm1027]

I've never heard of using applesauce to make wine, but that doesn't mean that it can't be done, a quick google search will probably bring up dozens of recipes.

I'd make it just like any fruit wine, the main issues that I see is that once you heated or cooked the apples - I'm going to assume that you cooked the apples to make the applesauce, then heated the applesauce again while canning the applesauce, you''re likely to get pectin haze, you'll need to add pectic enzymes before fermentation, if that doesn't help to clear up the wine you may be stuck with a cloudy wine.

I hope that this helps.

Yes it helps a bit. I did go a few googles and couldn't find applesauce wine or cider. Your right I heated to make the applesauce and heated again to can it as well. I will look into your comment on pectin haze. Not sure I want to go through this unless I find something written on it. I will keep hunting. Appreciate all the help. Thanks

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Hopefully someone that has experience in using applesauce will chime in.

Keep us updated.

 

[jtratcliff]

I bet @Yooper has thoughts on this... She's made wine from all kinds of stuff... If she doesn't find her way to this thread, maybe PM her...

 

[Mismost]

I would go for it! A friend passed away and we helped clean out the house....there were boxes of jams and jellies...we made wine. Plum,peach, grape, pear, several berry types and some we didn't know what it was...if it tasted good and was sweet, we used it. It came out not bad at all, really pretty good for a free batch of wine. Still only a couple months old, it may get better.

We dumped stirred and topped up with water..SG was 1.08.

If I ever do this again, I'll use a paint strainer bag to line the bucket and catch about a billion little seeds...bet you would have a lot of lees from applesauce. I would not expect the wine to have much of an apple taste based on the apple wines I have made....the cinnamon will shine through.

 

[sjm1027]

Thanks I will look into it. I don't see why it wouldn't work. Thanks for the help.
@Yooper if your out there please let us know what you think.

 

[torilen]

I'm curious about this myself. My wife and I can all sorts of fruit through spring and summer, so I could use our homemade stuff that is getting ready
to go out of date (we can A LOT...so sometimes don't use it or give it away quickly enough).

I also currently have some pumpkin puree (from the can) that I was thinking about trying out...maybe just 2 cups worth as an experiment. I'll have to see if I still have the can sitting around, to make sure it doesn't have anything that will keep it from fermenting.

 

[WVMJ]

I have to ask why you would undo all that canning work for some 2nd rate wine? A good applesauce doesnt necessarily made a good cider. You are going to have a ridiculous amount of sediment. In my opinion I think you would be much better off just buying some nice sweet cider and fermenting that, a lot less trouble and the result will be much better and easier to make. WVMJ

 

[torilen]

Well, in our case in particular, as I said...IF I ever used canned preserves or applesauce or something like that, it would be because we just had too much of it and it was going out of date (two years old or more).

Granted, now that I make wine now and can think ahead on stuff like this, it would be much easier just to pick extra fruit and/or veggies whenever we go picking for canning, and boil the extra with a water to make the proper starter for a wine. No need to pop open canned goods in that case.

(And mind you, I agree with you...canning is a big job and there is no need to use up those goods unless you have to).

As far as me using the canned pumpkin puree, it was just something I had left over from another brew (pumpkin spice coffee wine) and figured, if using applesauce would work, using the puree would work just as well and it would allow me to use it without it going to waste.

 

[Mismost]

WVMJ...we made it because we had boxes of the stuff...no way we were going eat it all...we wanted the canning jars for our use...so, it was dump and trash it...or dump into a bucket with a dollars worth of yeast and see what happens! Because it was there, like the mountain!

here is a link for Jelly Wine we referenced

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request231.asp

 

[WVMJ]

I have some 10 year old pickles to recycle this year, they finally went a little bit limp! The OP sauce is only since Nov. The other thing is if its not good enough to eat why would you think you can make good wine from it? Why waste the space making wine from something you wouldnt eat anymore? Bumper crops and canners make you go nuts with the doityourselfism! WVMJ

 

[Mismost]

I have some 10 year old pickles to recycle this year, they finally went a little bit limp! The OP sauce is only since Nov. The other thing is if its not good enough to eat why would you think you can make good wine from it? Why waste the space making wine from something you wouldnt eat anymore? Bumper crops and canners make you go nuts with the doityourselfism! WVMJ

I hear you...my sweet Grandmother would can, jar, pickle everything she could get her hands on even when every cabinet in the house was over flowing. I built her a new well house and she wanted all walls to have floor to roof shelves to store her canned goods and empty jars...they were full.

Nature abhors a vacuum, Grandmother hated empty Mason jars! BTW...I bought her place after she passed. We found quart jars of "MGW"....mustang grape wine in one of the cabinets. Dark, thick, so sweet it made your teeth hurt, and was strong enough to strip paint off concrete...yet it was good! I've since read that you can not can wine...but, Bless her heart, Grandmother did NOT have high speed internet, so she didn't know that!

 

[jensmith]

I have seen recipies and post about making wine from canned pumpkin. The posters thought it came out very drinkable. Pumpkin pie types being the "best".
I don't see why you could not make a tasty applesauce wine. Lots of sedament most likley. Use pectin enzyme for sure. Better then dumping it!!! Additive are cheep. Personally I prefure my apple wines to be made with at least a few sliced apples, not just the juice. It makes a better balanced wine with real apple flavore. You could use some apple juice in your sauce it get it started.

 

[Maylar]

But how do you get drinkable juice from mush? A press?

 

[torilen]

I found a simple wire strainer works pretty well for filtering.

 

[z-bob]

I have used crabapple jelly that was a couple of years old and had turn brown to make apple wine. I mixed it with apple juice and fermented it with wine yeast. I thought it turned out pretty good; the brown even all dropped out and it was a nice clear yellow color.

 

[Yooper]

Well, I used canned cranberry sauce ( a ginormous can from the Dollar Store) to make cranberry wine, so I'm sure you can use applesauce to make apple wine.

The cranberry sauce I used was not the jellied stuff, as it had more of a "berries" look to it, but I wouldn't be dissuaded from doing it even if it was!

You can probably follow an "apple juice wine" recipe for the most part, and what I would probably do is throw it all in primary and then pour through a straining bag (medium to fine mesh) at the end of primary when the wine is 1.020-1.010 or so.

 

[jensmith]

The fermenting process separates the juice from the solids. Its kinda like magic. You can "start" the proccess with some apple juice if you want. It may make you feel better then it "works" but I do so anyway.
You can ask the purists on here on how to take whole fruit and make wine with no water added. There may be a few who use the whole fruit and not just the juice.

 

[jtratcliff]

Yay! @Yooper is here!

 

[jtratcliff]

...how to take whole fruit and make wine with no water added...

I have done this as step toward making German style schnapps. Dumped a bunch of plums fresh from the tree into a 5 gallon bucket and let the the wild yeast on the fruit do their thing.

It certainly turned into a "wine".

I forgot about for a year or so... Fruit flies had gotten to it. Some of the best vinegar I've ever tasted. You could sip it like sherry, almost.

I still have bottles aging in the basement.

All accidental. Couldn't do it again if I tried.

I guess my point is, if the fermented result is "meh", maybe turn it into vinegar...

You still win.

 

[Mikal]

I have canned approx. 30 mason jars of applesauce in November and was wondering if it was possible to use some of the applesauce to make wine?
I have jars with cinnamon and some without. All properly canned in sterile jars. Let me know if you have ever heard of doing such a thing.

Thanks

I’ve made a mead with apple butter. And 100% apple juice I had to cold crash and use pectic enzymes the process was quite involved as I put the less into mason jars to keep separating the mead to insure I didn’t lose a lot. but it turned out good.

 

[Wildie]

I have made apple wine for 30 years and always boil the chopped apples to extract the juice then sieve to remove skin and seeds collecting the puree as I go to make apple sauce. Never had a problem with pectin haze wine always cleared without additives after a couple of rackings.

 

[madscientist451]

I've done some experimental batches using cooked cider and although its drinkable, the taste is different and not my favorite. I'd say try a small batch with one quart, but add some cheap juice to it to thin it out before you toss in the yeast. but it would probably be best to keep the rest of the apple sauce for eating, get some high quality juice for fermented cider.

 

[Miraculix]

I also think that is probably best kept for eating. Cooking it multiple times likely oxidised it to a higher degree and destroyed lots of the flavour. And then you have loads of small pieces floating around in the liquid, making it hard to separate, you'll probably having huge losses due to trub or you might have a chewy wine at the end.