How can I "improve" my apple wine ?

[fatbloke]

I followed the recipe in "First Steps in Winemaking" (auth C.J.J. Berry ISBN 1-85486-139-5), as closely as was possible.

It's been aging since last March (this year), though when I tried some last night to see if it was ready for bottling, the only similarity it had to Mr Berrys' description was that it does indeed have a "cidery bouquet". Otherwise, it tastes like rather "syrupy" apple juice, but with that "alcoholic" bite.

I've been thinking that I might "blend" it with some vodka, in the hope that that will "cut" it, and make it less syrupy i.e. still very "fruity", but with a less sugary/syrupy consistency.

Why it's turned out like that, I'm not sure.

It's drinkable, but I'd like to know if theres anything else I could consider, to "finish" it better ?

regards

fatbloke

p.s. Oh and the recipe is:

Apples = 10 kilos
Sugar = 1.5 kilos (to the gallon of liquor)
Yeast and nutrient
Water = 4.5 litres

Yes, I do now understand that this is quite a "high fruit" recipe, but thats what the book said to use!

[silverfox]

Apple Wine

Hi Fatbloke,
Well I have just dug out one of my copies of First Steps in Winemaking.
I have found the recipe & have checked the numbers here is the result.
The Recipe will give you a Wine of:-
Potential Alcohol % 34.666
% Acid in Must 1.333333333
% Tannin in Must 0.222222222
As you can see the Recipe had too much sugar & Acid to give a balanced wine.
Best thing to do is to Re-start the wine by using a Yeast starter Like Gervin "C" or Gervin no.3 & keep adding some of the original & make up the total volume to 12 litres.
This will give you a Wine of:-
Potential Alcohol % 13 ,
% Acid in Must 0.5 ,
% Tannin in Must 0.083333333
A nice balanced wine.

Best of Luck Silverfox

[fatbloke]

Thanks for the tips silverfox and David.

As I'm quite new to this wine making game, I haven't been overly attentive to things like using a hydrometer (ha! that'll teach me).

I should point out, that there was no apparent indication that it might have stopped fermenting early, but I think that I'll give it a go. I did originally use a "high alcohol/dessert wine" yeast (I think ???). Plus it was bubbling for a good 6 weeks.

Though as you suggest, it's got to be worth a try. I seem to recall that I have some of the Lalvin EC-1118 thats mentioned in the link that David posted already. So I'll probably try that (plus I have a "spare" container i.e. 12 litre bottled water container). I'll have to drill another 1.75 inch cork though as I'm using the two I have at the moment.

regards

fatbloke

[Asphaltboy]

Why do people still use books that are 30 years out of date?

Cjj berry did an enormous amount of good to the home brew movement but his recipies are outdated for modern uses - yeast and tastes etc

Better research and modern information can be obtained from Gerry Fowles

Another example of how our hobby has not been upgraded or moved on!

Join a club, enter competions - take constructive critisism and make better brews

There is nothing worse than tasting your own wine / beer and convincing yourself it's great !

[fatbloke]

Why do people still use books that are 30 years out of date?

Cjj berry did an enormous amount of good to the home brew movement but his recipies are outdated for modern uses - yeast and tastes etc

Fair comment, but if old info is the only info you can find when starting out at something, then you probably have to go with it and just try to adapt the instructions/recipes to the materials available.

Better research and modern information can be obtained from Gerry Fowles

Never heard of him! Is his "stuff" available in book form or online ? I'm quite happy to read anything that could assist/help me!

Join a club, enter competions - take constructive critisism and make better brews

My average working week exceeds 60 hours, so with family commitments, the only way to improve my knowledge is the hit and miss method and try to read stuff similar to that found here and at other online locations when time permits (often to the detriment of sleep).

There is nothing worse than tasting your own wine / beer and convincing yourself it's great !

Absolutely agree, I'd rather get it right first time.

regards

John the Fatbloke

[fatbloke]

It's been about 10 days since I tried to "restart" my apple wine (from last year).

It's still very sweet/syrupy but as far as fermentation activity is concerned, absolutely nothing. Flat as a pancake and not a bubble in sight.

It seems more and more likely that my original thoughts of fortification will have to be carried out for me to make any use of it.

At the moment, it's tasting like the German "apfel korn", but not so alcoholic. I know that the commercial German product is about 22% abv, so I could easily just bung a litre or two of vodka or home made sugar spirit (when I can get to the local HBS to get the kit/hardware).

Obviously that would be a last resort as I really don't want to bin it completely. It's just that it's one of those recipes that I won't use again as it's proved to be a complete PITA (sorry Mr Berry!).

So if anyone has any other ideas as to what might be done, I'd be very grateful to hear them.

regards

fatbloke

[lockwood1956]

Did you try to restart it using this information?

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=911

or some other means?

bear in mind that the wine contains alcohol which will inhibit yeast activity, you will need to do the doubling up method outlied in the link.

hope this helps
regards
Bob

[fatbloke]

Did you try to restart it using this information?

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=911

or some other means?

bear in mind that the wine contains alcohol which will inhibit yeast activity, you will need to do the doubling up method outlied in the link.

hope this helps
regards
Bob

No, I thought I'd just give it a try with rehydrating the yeast and putting that in. Not the smartest move on my part, laziness I suppose in the hope that it would still kick start the ferment.

Looks like I'll have to follow those instructions exactly and see what happens

regards

fatbloke

[lockwood1956]

let us know how it turns out