Apple Wine

[VirginVegGrower]

Hi all - I am seeking advice, yet again. I am using a combination of cookers and mixed eaters to make apple wine. The recipe I have found calls for golden sultanas and black tea; also lemon juice. There's a chock load of sugar to go in it too but I don't want an overly sweet white wine. Should I cut the quantity down or trust that I should follow the recipe verbatim?
Any suggestions welcome and thanks in advance.

[chris]

Dunno, but can I have some?

[VirginVegGrower]

Yep sweetie if you ever get up here. It might taste like the stuff I give the hens in their drinking water, by the time I have finished. There is another grape up here who brews a very very good tipple. Can you guess?
Do you want some apples for your own experimentation?
I have elderberry going into bottles very soon. Think you have to leave it for 12 months though.

[Ananke]

I tend to stick to the recipe the first time and make any adjustments next time round. Some recipes are too sweet though, I had to cut down the sugar in my blackberry wine this year, the last batch was just a wee bit too sweet for my liking but it was still very drinkable.

[VirginVegGrower]

8kg of sugar which I thought sounded a lot, but I am also a VWP

[Ananke]

That does sound a lot, how much apple juice does the recipe call for?

[VirginVegGrower]

I am using chopped apples, enough to fill a five gallon bucket, topped with boiling water. Then I have to squeeze it out.

[Ananke]

I'm not sure how to work that out without weights but i'd read a few other recipes first and see if they use as much sugar, i've got toothache just thinking about it lol

[Two_Sheds]

Have you got a hydrometer VVG? That would tell you exactly how much sugar you'd need to add

[VirginVegGrower]

Yep but it's just apples and water at the moment, so ???

[scott78]

that sounds like a lot of sugar, i would use a hydrometer and add sugar syrup until i got a gavity of around 1090, that would give you around 12%

[zazen999]

If you ferment it until it's dry, then all the sugar gets used to make alcohol anyway, so it's not sweet.

Our elderberry is over half gone - leave it for 12 months

My rule of thumb is:

For 5 gallons, fill the bucket half with fruit, then add a kilo of sugar and water to make the 5 gallons up.

Add your yeast.

Leave it for a week, mashing it each day. Then strain, measure the SG and mix it to 1.08 with more sugar and water to make up the 5 gallons again. Probably about 3-4 more kg of sugar will be needed...

Add your pectolase, nutrient, bentonite etc at this stage after straining.

Then leave to ferment until dry, which is an SG of 0.9

Saying that, I have an apple, pear and rasp mix which I haven't strained which has been sat here for about 3 months, no mashing, no straining yet, nowhere to put it! Going to strain and mix with a couple of demigods that stopped early and haven't got going again yet....save wasting it.

The sultanas add body, and the tea adds tannin. I stick with raisins/sultanas/whatever is in the house and don't add tea personally. I add rasps for a little colour and some different flavour tones.

Oh, and putting a pear into the mix adds a more subtle tone and takes some of the squeaky teeth ness out of it.

[Two_Sheds]

Yep but it's just apples and water at the moment, so ???

So take an SG of the appley water and see what you've got. Add sugar syrup to take the SG up to 1090

If you ferment it until it's dry, then all the sugar gets used to make alcohol anyway, so it's not sweet.

Unless you're making a sweet/dessert wine like a port, then it is sweeter. My elderberry ports have a finished SG of about 1018

It's safest to add less sugar (because you can always add more, but you can't take it out). If the finished wine is too dry, add sweetener for drinking

[VirginVegGrower]

Thanks TS and Zazen - will do on both. Masses of apples left - you two want any? You're the ones with the demi gods

[VirginVegGrower]

3.5 kilos of sugar have gone in to make SG correct. 1 kilo of golden raisins, juice of ten lemons and I'm exhausted. Yeast and pectolase added so time to wait for bucket chemistry to do its thing. Thanks all for help and assistance on this. Can you tell I'm a newbie?!?