Apple wine

[duffsticks]

Managed to forage 5.5kg of wild apples over the weekend from our local forest, so I'm in the process of testing out this apple wine recipe. Any thoughts? I've just added the pectic enzyme.

The apples aren't too tart but aren't too sweet, so I'll be interested to see how the flavour comes out - I used demerara sugar as apparently it should give some caramel notes (assuming I get to a finished product of course ). Mrs D used the leftover apples to make a really nice chutney, so we'll have that if nothing else!

We also collected a heap of sloes on our trip, which I will need to put to use. Our freezer is slowly filling up with sloes, elderberries and rosehips, so that should keep me busy for the foreseeable. Will get photos up when I can.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

I like to add chopped sultanas to my wines for a bit of extra vinosity

 

[duffsticks]

Thanks! I added some to a batch of dandelion wine I made over the summer, but I keep forgetting to pick more up in the supermarket!

 

[duffsticks]

I racked this off into a demijohn recently but the activity is now virtually non-existant. A little concerned that it's too cold for the yeast - I am in Glasgow, so that's a routine danger I suspect.

I've moved it to the airing cupboard beside the boiler in the hope that it'll stir the yeast into action, any other thoughts? Never had to restart a fermentation before...!

 

[lupinehorror]

i too am in glasgow so therefore rely on heat pads
i would rehydrate a little more yeast and chuck it in to see if it kickstarts it.

 

[Richie_asg1]

Try a small pad heater for it to sit on. I've got a small 5W pad heater that is just enough to warm things up a bit.

 

[duffsticks]

So I've tested the SG, and it looks like it's pretty much finished fermenting - it's sitting at 0.994. I think it's more a case of me underestimating the amount of sugar I'd need, so the fermentation was much quicker than I'd expected. The apples were still relatively solid when I took them out despite the pectic enzyme going in, so I probably haven't extracted that much sugar out of them.

It's also the first time I've used a 'specialist wine' yeast*, the first handful of wines I've made I'd used Young's general purpose yeast, but for this I used Mangrove Jack's CY17, which I was maybe a bit afraid would be more susceptible to temperature issues.

Overall it tastes alright to be honest, there's a decent flavour to it already so I'll leave it in the airing cupboard to keep maturing and see how it comes out. Looks a beautiful colour, so I'm relatively happy with it thus far.

*My own highly-technical term.

Edit: definitely think a couple of heat-mats will be in order though!