Apple Wine

Alright, I've read a few different ways to make apple wine, and I have made 4 different 5 gallon batches. There are many chemicals and additives that you can add to your wine, this recipe is one that I came up with and all the ingredients can be found at your grocery store. Apples don't give off very much juice so it takes a lot of apples in order to do this. To make a full 5 gallon batch your going to need 2 10 lbs bags of apples, 2 5 lbs bags sugar, also one package of "Fleischman's Active Dry YEAST" they come 3 to a pack but you will only need one

The way I did this last time was to use a large kitchen knife and cut the apples, "skin and core too" into bite size pieces. After you have them all cut up fill a blender all the way to the top with the pieces then take a large glass of water and fill the blender with water, be sure to leave room for the lid to fit. Now Blend like hell. Once you have liquidized the apples. Get a large pot and place it on the stove. "This part is important!!! make sure that it isn't a black metal pot" Only use an enamel or even better a stainless steal pot. The black pot will turn your apple mesh into a nasty looking green color. I know, I did it. Now pour your apple mesh into the pot and blend the rest of the apples the same way you just did.

Now that you have all your apples on the stove turn the heat up and let it boil, you should stir often so that it will help to break the apple pieces down. As it boils it will become thiner if its to thick add a little water to it. The time it takes to boil this will differ depending on the size of pot used. I don't have a large pot yet so I use 2 5 quart pots and process one bag of apples at a time. Just let it boil till it seems thin enough to pour through a strainer.

Next you will need a 5 gallon bucket, then place a strainer on top of it. Just pour your boiled mesh through the strainer into the bucket, careful this will be hot. fill the bucket a lil more than 3/4 full. Put a lid on the bucket to keep bugs or anything else from getting into it and let it stand for 24 hours to cool down. aww your done for today, go grab a beer, next month your will grab a glass of apple wine.

Ok its been 24 hours, or close enough, Open that bucket. This is where your going to need a tool called a hydrometer. If you have one get your Sp.Gr. to 1.090 to 1.100 In most cases I always try to keep the Sp.Gr. to 1.090. If you don't have a hydrometer you really need to get one if you plan on making very much wine but anyways add 2 5 lbs bags of sugar to your bucket, might be a lil to much depending on how sweet your apples are. Stir your sugar and apple mesh together well. Now its time to put it into your carboy. TIP: I use a big hose that I bought in the fish section at wal-mart, I put the empty carboy on the floor and the bucket of apple mesh on the counter and siphon it into the carboy. You will need this siphon hose later so plan on getting one Friday or when ever you get paid, They don't cost much. Fill the carboy to where it starts to get round on top, be-sure to leave an air space because you will need that space later.

Now your carboy is full, Its going to be heavy so don't pull a muscle trying to put it on the counter. All you have left to do is add that package of yeast. The correct term I believe is "Pitch the yeast". Anyways just pour that package into the carboy. if any yeast sticks to the top of the bottle on the inside try to get it to fall down into the must. It will grow there and it looks gorse if you don't. Now you should have a airlock and a drilled stopper that fits your carboy. If you don't have one thats ok, you can order one when you get your hydrometer, make sure when you get the airlock you get the rite size rubber stopper. I think a normal size 5 gallon carboy uses a number 7 stopper. If you don't have your airlock yet its ok. Get a condom and poke a whole in the top of it with a tooth pick and place the condom on top of the carboy. "Yeah its a conversation piece now, be sure to order that airlock"

Thats it for now, go grab a beer or some wine if you have any. If you have a airlock you will notice it starting to bubble in about 20 minutes time. If your using a condom keep an eye on it cause you don't want it to fly off there. If it dose you didn't put a big enough hole in the top of it. I used to put 2 small holes in the very top with a tooth pick. Now let this sit there for about 3 weeks while it ferments. Tomorrow there will be bubbles be sure to check them out.

Its been 3 weeks since we did anything to our wine, right? Its ok to wait 4 weeks. Now get a bowl and separate one egg white from the yoke. Through away the yoke because we don't need it. now add one cup of water and one table spoon of salt. Wisp this all together real good and pour it into your wine. This is known as a finning agent. The egg white will make the leas settle to the bottom of the carboy and be ready to be racked in about a week. Be-sure to put your airlock back on.

Now it should have been a week since we finned our wine with the egg white. If you look at the bottom of the carboy there is a layer of crud called "leas". Don't worry, it will do that every time. That is yeast hulls and fruit chunks that have settled. We want all of that stuff out of our wine. I hope you went out and got that hose that I told you about cause now its time siphon the wine out of that carboy into another carboy or a 5 gallon bucket. I have 2 different size hoses. I use a small diameter hose when siphoning wine from the leas. The other hose is a larger diameter and I use it to transfer the racked wine from one bottle to another. Be careful not to shake the leas cause we don't want to disturb them. Just siphon from the top down but when you get close to the bottom stop. Pour the rest of that mess down the drain and wash the carboy with hot tap water. Make sure you clean the carboy well because if you don't it can cause the wine to go bad.

Alright Siphon the wine back into the carboy, Here is where I use the large hose since it don't matter about being careful this time and its a lot faster. As you can see the wine looks a lot cleaner now, This is called racking. We still want to wait another week and repeat this step, if we don't there will be a film in our bottles and nobody wants to drink that stuff.

Now we took the time to rack the wine one more time right? Ok now its time to bottle it. My girlfriend buys Boone's Farm for her daughter when she comes down and I always save the empty bottles and they work really well. If you don't have any of those canning jars also work really well. I use those too. just siphon the wine into the bottles, there will be more leas at the bottom of the carboy so try not to suck them up in the process. After you get it all bottled up don't try to drink it yet. Go get a beer or some wine that is ready. This wine is too green to drink right away. You need to give it at least two more weeks in the bottles before drinking.

Ok its been at least two more weeks since we bottled, Right? Keep in mind that some wine flavors taste better than others so if this wine has a strong bite to it try this. Take a wine glass and fill it half way with the wine. Then add a quarter of a glass with a mixer like club soda or 7up. for a better taste try adding a quarter of blueberry or pomegranate juice by Ocean Spray on top of the 7up. Its really good, Me and my girlfriend drink it like that all the time. Enjoy!!!

Be sure to leave me some feedback in the message board if this helped you. Also check out the Videos section since apple is a video that I have added so far. This tutorial was written by Eric Richards.