Just pitched - Apple wine

[Srimmey]

Good afternoon and happy holidays!

I made some apple wine today with apples picked from my family trees. The apples were picked starting in mid August through mid October (as they ripened) then stored in the chest freezer.

Scratted, pressed as pitched today. Unknown amount of pounds, 5.5 US gallons of cider.

Inital gravity of the juice was 1.06, I added some store bought apple juice concentrate to get the OG up to 1.08. Final volume was 6 gallons.

Thinking about doing some MLF in secondary, will also age on oak.

QA23 yeast + gofirm
10 grams of fermaid O
6 teaspoons of pectic enzymes
PH - 3.35

 

[Brewsterguy]

Good luck m8, what's the expected fg for an apple wine?

 

[Srimmey]

Good luck m8, what's the expected fg for an apple wine?

I’m not really sure…

I am calling it wine for 2 specific reasons…

1 - I am brewing it like a wine with acid adjustments, MLF, oak and a plan to bottle still.
2 - the OG is more than standard cider. Usually cider ranges from 1.04 - 1.06. Wine is usually 1.09 - 1.100. This is something in between at 1.08

 

[Srimmey]

Quick update!

Apple wine is 2 weeks into MLF and still going strong. Primary finished at 0.996 which hits right 11% abv. Also in the secondary carboy are 2 medium toast oak spirals for a whole lot of needed tannins.

 

[Srimmey]

Racked the apple wine off the oak. Still have not stabilized it yet, waiting another 6 weeks before hitting it with meta K. It also got a heavy does of pectic enzymes (5 tps). It’s just not nearly as clear as I would like it to be, I suspect pectin haze.

Right now it is very much like a Chardonnay! Lots of very nice oak to add robust tannins. I had used 2 6 weeks medium roast oak spirals, each meant for a 3 gallons. The extra oak was a great additive since I only had the apples off my trees (probably honey crisp) and a bunch of pears.

MLF has also done wonders! It has that smooth buttery texture like a classic Chardonnay. It really is like a Chardonnay except with distinct apple flavors. Very nice.

From here I will wait another 6 weeks for MLF to finish and hopefully more clearing. Then I will do a final rack, wait 6 weeks and bottle. I don’t think it needs any back sweetening at all.

Also pictured is a kit wine that was racked off the fine lees for final aging. A Viongier/pinot Gris blend.

 

[Srimmey]

If I wanted to bottle carbonate 25 750ml bottles up to 5’ish vols, how many grams of sugar should I add?

 

[Rish]

Depends on the sugar you are using. This will help you figure it out. If you're adding sugar to each bottle, just plug in .2 gallons and 5 volumes of CO2. You can also change to metric for ml and grams. It'll give you how much of each type of sugar you would need to add to each bottle. Good luck!

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[Srimmey]

Depends on the sugar you are using. This will help you figure it out. If you're adding sugar to each bottle, just plug in .2 gallons and 5 volumes of CO2. You can also change to metric for ml and grams. It'll give you how much of each type of sugar you would need to add to each bottle. Good luck!

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

I was thinking of mixing apple juice concentrate to the carboy right before bottling.

I know the concentrate tube will say exactly how many grams of sugar there are so i was going to us that as a ruler for determining if i should use the whole thing, half, a quarter or an eighth.

Mix it all in real well, then bottle in champagne bottles.

 

[Srimmey]

I still need to clear the cider. It’s done with MLF but if I want to bottle carbonate, should I dosage with meta K?

 

[Rish]

mixing apple juice concentrate to the carboy

I've done that, too, and you're right, just plug in the amount to see how many total grams of sugar you'll need.

 

[Chalkyt]

I make life easy by working on an increase in SG of 2 gravity points due to fermentable sugars (plain sugar, juice, AJC or whatever) results in about 1 volume of C02 when fermented. So, I just add the sugars to increase the SG to match the volumes of C02 that I want. For 5 volumes you need to increase the SG by 10 gravity points. If the cider has been sitting for too long, you may need to add a pinch of nutrient and a pinch of yeast.

This way you don't have to measure anything or calculate their sugar content... just watch the hydrometer bob around!

 

[BB_]

This is exactly what I would like to eventually do: fresh pressed homegrown apples into cider.

I am calling it wine for 2 specific reasons…

1 - I am brewing it like a wine with acid adjustments, MLF, oak and a plan to bottle still.
2 - the OG is more than standard cider. Usually cider ranges from 1.04 - 1.06. Wine is usually 1.09 - 1.100. This is something in between at 1.08

I was originally thinking being higher abv and not carbonated would make it more like wine, but i forgot sparkling wines are a thing.

Also I haven't seen MLF before, what exactly is that?

 

[Srimmey]

This is exactly what I would like to eventually do: fresh pressed homegrown apples into cider.

I was originally thinking being higher abv and not carbonated would make it more like wine, but i forgot sparkling wines are a thing.

Also I haven't seen MLF before, what exactly is that?

MLF is a secondary fermentation process using bacterial cultures to convert malic acid into lactic acid. Malo-lactic fermentation.

It softens the acid, raises the PH slightly and adds buttery/bready notes. Much like a Chardonnay!