Apple Wine

Hey, apple time is just around the corner.  Actually, in some spots you can get them fresh now.  This is a nice one to serve on Thanksgiving along with a dash of cinnamon.

16 cups apples, cored and chopped 2 pounds raisins 1 cinnamon stick (optional) 4 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 teaspoon yeast nutrients 1 1/2 teaspoon acid blend 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme 1 campden tablet 1 gallon water, hot 1 package wine yeast (for 1 to 5 gallons)

Place fruit in primary fermentor. Pour boiling water over it. Let sit overnight.
24 hours later, add balance of ingredients. Stir to dissolve sugar. Stir daily for 5 to 6 days or until frothing ceases. Strain out fruit and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can. Siphon into secondary fermentor and attach airlock.
For a dry wine, rack in three weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.
For a sweet wine, rack at three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.
If wine is not clear, or still has quite a bit of sediment forming between rackings, Fine the wine as follows.
Use wine finings or plain gelatin. Gelatin: use 1 teaspoon per 6 gallons of wine. Finings: 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons or as per package directions. Soak in 1/2 cup cold water for 1/2 hour. Bring to a boil to dissolve. Cool. Stir into wine. Let sit 10 to 14 days. Rack. If not clear enough yet, repeat process. DO NOT increase amount of gelatin or finings. The mixture will stay suspended in the wine, preventing it from ever clearing. Bottle once wine is clear.
The wine is best if you can refrain from drinking it for one full year from the date it was started.
NOTE: The best apples to use are tart apples such as winesap, jonathans, etc and not the delicious apples.

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Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Apple, Recipe

Concord Wine Recipe

I read an article in the paper today about how good the grape crop will be in and around the Lake Erie area.  So, I fiqured I would dust of this old recipe for one of my Concord Wines.  This was quite the learning experience, using actual grapes, but in the long run it was worth it.  If I could do it over again, I would not have made juice out of a portion of them.  Live and Learn.

This recipe is the first time that I used actual grapes to make wine. I picked the grapes at my bosses's father's house on an October afternoon. October 2003 was not a real good year for grapes in my area, so they were more tart then sweet. I did eventually add a couple container's of Welch's Grape Juice to the must, but that was after the original had mostly fermented. This wine ended up being an average wine.

Ingredients:
40 Pounds Concord Grapes
7 1/2 Pounds Sugar
6 Teaspoons Yeast Nutrient
2 Packs Pasteur Red Yeast

First time using real grapes, we crushed 20 pounds cold and made juice out of the other half by heating them
Racked October 5, 2003 to primary fermenter

Racked October 17, 2003 and added 33 oz Welchs Frozen Grape Juice Concentrate along with 1 cup sugar to top off

Still a work in progress, tasted in December and it still has a high acid factor

Update:  This wine did turn out decent, just took about a year.

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Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Concord, Recipe

Tropical Wine

I found this recipe on Jack Keller's site and renamed it Tropical Wine. The original name is Orange-Pineapple-Coconut.  For my recipe, I made 1 gallon and used 2 Pina Colada frozen mix cans and 1 frozen pineapple juice can and 1 frozen orange juice can for the ingredients.

Orange-Pineapple-Coconut

Bob Arndt is a relatively new winemaker and has written to me many times trying to understand the nuances of his new hobby. He created this wine....

• 32 oz. orange juice (Tropicana, not from concentrate, in 64 oz. carton in dairy section)
• 32 oz. pineapple juice (Dole, not from concentrate, in 46 oz can)
• 6- 11.8 oz cans young coconut juice with pulp (strained) not coconut milk or cream, mine is from Thailand
• 3 cups sugar or 1.095
• 1 tsp. grape tannin
• 1 campden tablet
• 1/8 tsp. pectic enzymes (liquid)
• 1 tsp. acid blend
• 1 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 2.5 grams Montrachet yeast

Mix juices. Check specific gravity, then mix 1 quart of juice with sugar, bring to 110 degrees, mixing until sugar is completely dissolved. Add sugar mixture to juice and lower temperature to 75 degrees with sandwich bag filled with ice cubes. Add crushed and dissolved Campden, acid blend and grape tannin. After 12 hours add pectic enzyme. After 12 more hours, add yeast nutrient and yeast. Ferment in primary to 1.010-1.025. Rack to secondary, top up and fit with airlock. Ferment as long as you can wait (usually 30 days for me). [Recipe by Bob Arndt, location unknown]

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Technorati Tags : Wine, Winemaking, Tropical, Pina, Colada

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Apple Wine

6 cups apples, cored and chopped 2 pounds raisins 1 cinnamon stick (optional) 4 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1 teaspoon yeast nutrients 1 1/2 teaspoon acid blend 1/2 teaspoon pectic enzyme 1 campden tablet 1 gallon water, hot 1 package wine yeast (for 1 to 5 gallons)

Place fruit in primary fermentor. Pour boiling water over it. Let sit overnight.
24 hours later, add balance of ingredients. Stir to dissolve sugar. Stir daily for 5 to 6 days or until frothing ceases. Strain out fruit and squeeze as much juice out of it as you can. Siphon into secondary fermentor and attach airlock.
For a dry wine, rack in three weeks, and every three months for one year. Bottle.
For a sweet wine, rack at three weeks. Add 1/2 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup wine. Stir gently, and place back into secondary fermentor. Repeat process every six weeks until fermentation does not restart with the addition of sugar. Rack every three months until one year old. Bottle.
If wine is not clear, or still has quite a bit of sediment forming between rackings, Fine the wine as follows.
Use wine finings or plain gelatin. Gelatin: use 1 teaspoon per 6 gallons of wine. Finings: 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons or as per package directions. Soak in 1/2 cup cold water for 1/2 hour. Bring to a boil to dissolve. Cool. Stir into wine. Let sit 10 to 14 days. Rack. If not clear enough yet, repeat process. DO NOT increase amount of gelatin or finings. The mixture will stay suspended in the wine, preventing it from ever clearing. Bottle once wine is clear.
The wine is best if you can refrain from drinking it for one full year from the date it was started.
NOTE: The best apples to use are tart apples such as winesap, jonathans, etc and not the delicious apples.

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Technorati Tags : Apple, Wine, Recipe