first batch questions

[Dibison]

well bottled my first gallon of apple wine... Im a bit unsure of it now... when I had a little sip before i cleared (well mostly cleared) it tasted alright, now it just tastes like alcohol, is this because its fairly new or have I messed up something?

now I didn't use tannin or pectolase because well I was too lazy to brew up a cuppa and I dont have the pectolase, would this really make such a big difference?

on a positive note though the fruit punch stuff I brewed thanks to second2none is great, waiting on it carbonating now, really cant wait ( viewtopic.php?f=41&t=36370 )

 

[oldbloke]

It's usual to add some tannin to country wines if the base flavour component doesn't have any, and it does make quite a difference.
If it's cleared, you didn't need pectolase - that's all it does, gets rid of haze caused by pectin.
A lot of country wines don't recognisably have much of the flavour of what it was made from - carrot and parsnip, for instance, are pleasant white wines but wouldn't make you go "oh, carrot" or "yum, parsnips". So you wouldn't expect as much apple signature as you'd get in a cider.
But you say it just tastes of alcohol - like vodka? That doesn't seem quite right.

 

[Dibison]

not nearly as strong as vodka but you don't really get any other flavours coming through just an alcohol taste...

I think I'll let swmbo try it since shes more of a wine drinker than me and get her opinion :P

 

[Gayle]

If it's quite strong then it might take a few months for it to improve in taste. I've found that tannin really does make wine better too, you could have added that tea at any point during fermentation. Was the recipe all apple juice or was it diluted with water?

Hopefully its better in the summer, but if not you can always add a little fruit syrup or juice to make it drinkable, or mix it to make punch!

 

[Dibison]

It was 2L of apple juice topped up with water, I kinda winged the recipe. I am making another brew at the moment, added all the stuff I haven't previously (pectolase, strong cuppa, yeast nutrient) so I'll see how it goes when ready