apple wine - is like sludge!

[janeyo]

After the success with the cider last year we are having a go at apple wine this year.
I had the apples in the busket chopped with water and yeast for several days. Then strained off the juice and added sugar, then had to press the rest of the apples to add to the rest of the juice. This is where it went wrong (?) as we have ended up with brown sludge. I have added the clearing agent but after 4 days it still looks like brown sludge. It's bubbling nicely so I know it's doing what it should be but am worried it will not clear.

I have another bucket waiting to be juiced for more wine but don't want another demijohn of brown sludge!

Any suggestions as to how I can 'press' the apples without a press? I normally juice them.

Thanks

[scarey55]

I should think it would slowly clear as the particles settle down to the bottom of the demijohn.

I wouldn't worry too much just leave it for a couple of weeks and see if it's any better then.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'm just about to start some apple wine - I'd do what you're doing, janey with the exception of the clearing agent - I'd just let it get on with it and it'll clear when it's ready.

My wines always look like ditchwater when they start, but they all turn out ok in the end.

[rustylady]

It will clear of it's own accord eventually. I used to make loads of homebrew and never used a clearing agent.

[janeyo]

There's cloudy... and then there's sludge!

[Hilary B]

There's cloudy... and then there's sludge!

I've had plenty of wine look like that when fermenting. Most of them cleared, eventually, just rather more 'wastage' at racking than average.
Right now I have one that looks like NOT clearing, but since the recipe included bananas.......

[Dave Rench]

Hey don't know if it's any worthy input or not but I recently bought an old wooden wine barrel that was about half full off apple wine (apple jack). Well being uneducated about wine making I was informed later that what I bought was the 'leftover' after they had drained off the wine1 So I got the 'sludge'. Well fortunately I found that If I pump out a two liter pop bottle full and am patient about it and let it sit for about a week, all the sludge settles to the bottom (about an inch or so) and although it is still a bit 'cloudy' looking it is clean and I was told when I bought it that it had been aged for several years so seeing as it was aged in the natural wood and the age it's twice as good and even though I didn't end up w/ the "cream of the crop" I still have about another 8 to 10 gallons it just takes a little longer to get to the end result. - Hope this helps?