First Wine - Winging it with lots of questions

[doublehaul]

I found this recipe here http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/recipes.asp -

2-1/2 lb. apricots
7 pints water
2 lb. sugar
1-1/4 tsp. acid blend
1 tsp. pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp. grape tannin
1 crushed Campden tablet
yeast and nutrient

In primary fermentation vessel, combine all ingredients except yeast and apricots, stirring to dissolve sugar. Wash, pit and dice apricots. Place in grain-bag, tie top, and squeeze as much juice as you can into vessel. Place grain-bag of pulp into vessel, cover, and set in warm place for 24 hours. Add yeast, cover, and squeeze pulp daily to extract more juice. Stir twice daily. After five days, strain juice from grain-bag, discard pulp, transfer liquor to secondary fermentation vessel, and fit airlock. Rack after 30 days and again after another 60 days. When clear, rack again and bottle. Allow to age one year or longer. [Adapted from Raymond Massaccesi's Winemaker's Recipe Handbook]

And had a couple questions -

What volumes are we talking about - how big is the primary? I'm guessing 1 gallon since 7 L water - this doesn't seem like a very large batch. especially after racking. Should I upsize? - my smallest carboy is 5 gallons but I have many growlers. How would I "squeeze daily" - stick a spoon in the carboy and press it? Not sure how I'd get the grain sack in there. Same for stirring twice daily - could I just swirl it around? What yeast? Sorry I'm a homebrewer - never made wine before, but I have a ton of apricots.

 

[Floralfallon]

You have to start with a primary that will allow you to get into it and ariate it for 3-10 days depending before you go into your carboy, i get the food grade buckets from my local grocrie store deli or seafood department, they throw them away after the potatoe salad ( or similar) is used up. After you start in ur primary you rack into your carboy with airlock after the designated ammount of time in the primary.

 

[Floralfallon]

The best yeast for this imo would be champaigne yeast, and you will be able to squeeze and stir in the primary i talked about earlyer. One gallon fills aprox 4 bottles when finished. Upsize if you need to. You add all your ingredients except the yeast into your primary , day after hydrate your yeast acording to the back of it ( dirrections on back) and add the day after.

 

[Floralfallon]

Edit: add the hydrated yeast the day after all of your other ingredients, the day you hydrate it.

 

[Floralfallon]

If tour doing a 5 gal, buy a bucket with a lid at home depot or lowes for your primary talked about in my first post. grocrie store free containers are genraly only 2 gal big. Hope all that helped alittle

 

[doublehaul]

Thanks! That is a big help. So stirring is to introduce O2, so stir it vigorously? The actual squeezing - do you do that with a sanitized spoon or something? I am an all grain brewer where I boil everything, I have to admit the process makes me a little nervous! I guess the campden is what protects against wild yeast/bacteria? I think I read you add more campden on subsequent rackings? There was a recipe that called for boiling the fruit too. I have gallon buckets galore but like your idea of the smaller food grade bucket. Thanks again.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks! That is a big help. So stirring is to introduce O2, so stir it vigorously? The actual squeezing - do you do that with a sanitized spoon or something? I am an all grain brewer where I boil everything, I have to admit the process makes me a little nervous! I guess the campden is what protects against wild yeast/bacteria? I think I read you add more campden on subsequent rackings? There was a recipe that called for boiling the fruit too. I have gallon buckets galore but like your idea of the smaller food grade bucket. Thanks again.

Not only does stirring introduce some 02, it degasses off some c02 (which is poisonous to yeast), plus it "re-sinks" the fruit which will float and get moldy out of the liquid if not stirred. Generally, the instructions will say to "stir and break up the cap" or something like that.

And yes, sanitize anything at all that touches the wine- your hands if you squeeze the bag, the spoon, etc.

Jack Keller's recipes make 1 gallon. But you can scale up to 5 gallons by multiplying everything by 5 (except the yeast). Just make sure your secondary (carboy) matches your batch size as you want NO headspace after fermentation slows.

Racking is done whenever you have lees 1/4" thick or more, or anytime after 60 days if there are ANY lees at all, even a light dusting.

Many people (me included) use campden or the k-meta powder at every other racking. The idea is to approximate about 50 ppm of sulfite. That's a low amount, but enough to help inhibit oxidation as the sulfite will bind to the wine, so that oxygen can't. It dissipates so more is added at intervals, and every other racking and at bottling is a good interval if you don't have an S02 meter.