EDWORT’S APFELWEIN First batch questions

[Garfield43]

I am trying to make EDWORT’S APFELWEIN for the first time.
I followed this recipe EdWort's Apfelwein
I let it ferment for about 2 months, I have cold crashed and racked and re-racked it.
It taste like burnt coffee.
Does anyone back sweeten this or do you just put in enough sugar to make it carbonate?
I don't have my notes in front of me but I seem to remember the specific gravity got down to .990 so it was done fermenting.
I am not much on really dry wines.
I guess I should have asked before I started this but what is it supposed to taste like?
I kept reading reviews describing it as tasting good and having a deceptively high alcohol content.
Taste good can be very subjective.
Many people love IPAs, I don't care for them.
Anyone who has made this do you back sweeten, if so what do you use and what should this taste like?
Thanks!

 

[Coffee49]

I too made a batch in Jan. 2021, I racked in Feb. Tried it in April, taste flat not alot of flavor, I will wait until June and maybe rerack adding apple juice to top off

 

[Garfield43]

So in my case get it out of the fridge and let it age some more?
I will have to sweeten it with somthing if I want it to carbonate.
I think I will hit it with concentrated apple juice,

 

[Coffee49]

I am thinking of adding a 5th of high quality apple schnapps, that would give me 20 Ltrs. of a good fishing beverage.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Garfield43. Five gallons of apple juice with 2 lbs of dextrose is not likely to have a high ABV. Apple juice is around 1.050 and let's say that 1 lb of sugar dissolved in 5 gallons will increase the SG by about 8 points so 2 lbs will increase that 1.050 to about 1.066 which is potentially, around 8.5% ABV . assuming everything ferments bone dry... but a country wine fermented bone dry usually means that the ethanol favor is pushed forward and the fruit flavors are buried. You want to back sweeten this so that means stabilization and then adding sugars to a sweetness that you like. Concentrated AJ might work but my guess is that you are going to want this to be about 1.010 assuming that it was about 1.000 or lower before you add any apple juice... But adding juice means that you will be lowering the ABV. Not a problem but lower this too much and it's a cider and not a wine. And if it's a cider hard to see the value of adding sugar to raise the ABV.
But here's the thing - and take what I say with a dozen or more pinches salt - coz I have never made this "wine" before although I often make apple wine (and cider). Garbage in - garbage out. The best apple juice to make an apple wine is the juice you get from orchards that press apples for wine makers and not for supermarket apple juice. You want the juice to include sweet apples, apples as acidic as all hell, apples with so much tannin that it dries the inside of your mouth and apples with intense apple flavors. What you don't want is that juice that is sold in your supermarket. Much of that juice is tannin poor and tannins add spine to a wine.

The other thing is that you want a yeast like 71B that will convert some of the malic acids in the juice to lactic acids and if you know something about wine making what you may also want is to use bacteria to do a complete MLF fermentation. Apple cider wants to have some of the sharp notes produced by malic acid but a white wine might taste better with those sharper notes smoothed out.

Again, I have never even looked at this "recipe" until tonight but most wines can be balanced at around 10-12% ABV. One (not inexpensive) way to increase the ABV of a country wine such as apple wine is to freeze the juice hard and then collect the liquid that you allow to gently thaw. If you begin with 6 gallons of juice and collect 2 gallons of the thawed juice (with 4 gallons of the juice still frozen) you will have likely collected all the flavor and all the sugar and your SG will be around 1.100 without the addition of a drop of "dextrose" . The stuff still frozen is essentially ice.

You might do something similar if you use frozen concentrate but instead of diluting the juice per instructions you dilute the juice with the intention of adding only enough water to produce an SG of 1.090 -1.100 BUT frozen juice is likely to be worse for wine making than commercial "apple juice" (less acidity, less tannin, less flavor).
These thoughts are less useful, perhaps in solving your current problems but they may help in any future attempt to make an apple wine.