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Crab Apple wine

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  • Crab Apple wine

    4 lbs ripe crabapples
    2 lbs granulated sugar
    1/4 tsp tannin
    1/2 tsp acid blend
    1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
    1 tsp yeast nutrient
    7-1/2 pts water
    1 crushed Campden tablet
    Champagne wine yeast


    Clean and crush the crabapples as above. Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Pour over crushed crabapples in primary. Cover with cloth and allow to cool to lukewarm. Add all ingredients except yeast and set aside for 12 hours. Add yeast and recover. Stir and knock down cap 2-3 daily for one week. Strain through nylon straining bag and let drip drain (do not squeeze). Let stand additional 24 hours and rack off sediments into secondary. Top up if required and fit airlock. Rack every 2 months. After third racking, check specific gravity and taste. If dry, stabilize, sweeten to taste, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. Allow to age at least a year. [from Terry Garey's The Joy of Home Winemaking]
    N.G.W.B.J.
    Member of 5 Towns Wine and Beer Makers Society (Yorkshire's newest)
    Wine, mead and beer maker

  • #2
    I am interested in trying this receipe, but as a newbie can anyone confirm if it is suitable for someone just starting up. Also what is acid blend? Thanks Bookelf.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Bookelf View Post
      I am interested in trying this receipe, but as a newbie can anyone confirm if it is suitable for someone just starting up. Also what is acid blend? Thanks Bookelf.
      I don't see why not. The only thing I'd do a little differently, is where the recipe says about boiling the water and dissolving the sugar into it and then pouring it over the crushed crab apples, then leaving it till luke warm, well I'd dissolve the sugar in the hot water and then cool it to luke warm before pouring it over the apples.

      Why ? Well, apples are notorious for getting a "cooked" taste if heat treated (that excludes pasteurisation temperatures but I'm not sure how hot/warm that is). So my modification is just a precautionary thing to make sure that it doesn't get affected like that. Plus I recall there being an issue with "excessive" temperature and pectic enzyme (commonly referred to as pectolase). Hence as it say, it's just a precautionary thing. There's probably no problem doing it exactly as the recipe suggests, but what with the cooked taste thing, the pectolase thing and of course, there's a possibility that putting the hot sugar water over the apples could release a bit more pectin in the first place. I'd have thought that it'd be perfectly Ok to make the sugar water, then when it's cooled to luke warm or even room temperature, crush the apples straight into it, then add the other ingredients except the yeast......

      Acid blend is usually a blend of the 3 main wine making (and naturally occurring) acids in fruits i.e. tartaric acid, citric acid and malic acid. There's no laid down or regularly used ratio of the 3 when mixed up into "acid blend". There's a list of which fruit contain which acids somewhere hereabouts, though tartaric is the predominant acid in grapes, citric is pretty self explanatory (but it also comes in a few other fruits than just the obvious citrus ones) and malic acid is the predominant one in apples. You could, of course, do a dig around the net for info on different brands of "acid blend" to find more about the ratio's of the different acids. Hell if you know the ratio's then it's just as easy to buy a little pot of each and mix it up yourself - though if you ask in the local HBS they'll either keep some acid blend or they'll be able to advise one way or another....

      Dunno if any of that is helpful....

      regards

      jtfb
      Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

      Some blog ramblings

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      • #4
        I would also remove the hot aspect of it....use hot water to dissolve the sugar, but then wait till it cools to add to the apples.
        N.G.W.B.J.
        Member of 5 Towns Wine and Beer Makers Society (Yorkshire's newest)
        Wine, mead and beer maker

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        • #5
          Thanks for the input, I tried my local HBS but they did not sell an acid blend. I will try an online supplier and order some rather than buying the individual acids and mixing them together.

          Thanks also for the discussion regarding the hot aspect.

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