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Yesterday was the applejuice buy from Vanbrewers. I came home with 22 gallons of mixed granny smith/jonagold/honeycrisp juice. It's got a little bit of acid tang but is still pretty sweet. We didn't get the juice till 8 or 9 at night, so it was a long night. Here's what i did.
Spiced Apple Wine.
5 kg sugar.
yeast nutrient, yeast energiser, pectic enzymes as per package directions
3/4 tsp wine tannin (according to minimum package directions)
2tsp acid blend (according to minimum package directions)
375g sultanas
Top up to 6 gallons with apple juice
Stir till mixed, didn't heat it or sanitize it on anything since my stove was full of other things and I was gonna be pitching right away.
I was sleepy when I was pitching, so I pitched the wrong yeast. I had meant to pitch Cote des blancs, but accidentally pitched Wyeast Cider smack-pack 4766. On later research I learned that maybe that was fortuitous. Some folks have said that yeast doesn't hold aroma and I really, really don't wanna lose the aroma on the quince. Hopefully it holds arome, but I am gonna add a bunch of spice in the secondary, so there'll be supporting flavours. I'll be adding
Sassafrass
Rose petals
Cinnamon
Star anise
in the secondary, maybe with a little oak and williamette hops. I pitched the yeast into (pretty cold) must last night, and maybe 20 hours later I've just had to put it in a primary bucket because it was blowing the top off the carboy.
16.5% potential alcohol.
Strong sweet cyser.
Redo of the one I did last year that is now starting to taste pretty amazing but would probably be even better in another year or two:
~8 kg honey (I may have poured a little heavily)
tannin, acid, pectic enzyme, yeast energiser, yeast nutrient as per lowest package directions
apple juice to fill (about 4.5 gallons)
I heated the honey briefly on the stove till it was liquid enough to pour through a funnel into the carboy, topped it up with the (very cold) apple juice, stirred a lot, then pitched the same yeast I used last year, the Wyeast smack-pack sweet mead yeast 4184.
Last year I hadn't added the tannin or acid, but I really liked its effect on the juice.
18-19% (!) potential alcohol.
Apple quince wine.
Half a shopping bag of frozen quinces.
5kg sugar
tannin, acid, energiser, enzymes, nutrient
fill to 6gallons apple juice (about 5 gallons)
Stir till mixed. Pitched Red Star Cotes des blancs because I had accidentally pitched the cider yeast into the spiced apple. The quinces were still frozen solid so I didn't break them up much or anything, so I 'll be poking them when I stir it from time to time.
Potential alcohol 17% (measured quite cold).
Candy apple graff.
Steep in 1.5 gallons water at 150-160:
0.75 lb Crystal 60L
0.65 lb Special B
1 lb Carapils
1.5 lb Acidulated malt
Pull the grains out, rinse them in a little hot water. Put that hot water in there too. Toss the grains. Add
3 lb pale dry malt extract
Start boiling. Add
0.5 oz Williamette hops.
Boil for half an hour. The Williamette hops smelled so good I added
0.5 oz Williamette hops
right at the end, then chilled the whole thing down a little and poured it into 18L apple juice to make up the six gallons. Pitched Safale - 04 yeast to keep some sweet in. I really liked the taste the acidulated malt lent the wort. I'm considering adding some tannins and acids in here too.
I just pitched some nottingham yeast directly into the last cider, I am making another graff out of it but ran out of time and figured that was the best way of preserving the juice, so that's what I'll go do now.
Apple juice info: Tank A: Brix = 10.8 PH = 4.6 EC = 1.7
Tank B: Brix = 11.0 PH = 4.3 EC = 1.6
Mix of Apples : 4 parts Honeycrisp; 5 parts Jonagold; 1 part Granny smith
Spiced Apple Wine.
5 kg sugar.
yeast nutrient, yeast energiser, pectic enzymes as per package directions
3/4 tsp wine tannin (according to minimum package directions)
2tsp acid blend (according to minimum package directions)
375g sultanas
Top up to 6 gallons with apple juice
Stir till mixed, didn't heat it or sanitize it on anything since my stove was full of other things and I was gonna be pitching right away.
I was sleepy when I was pitching, so I pitched the wrong yeast. I had meant to pitch Cote des blancs, but accidentally pitched Wyeast Cider smack-pack 4766. On later research I learned that maybe that was fortuitous. Some folks have said that yeast doesn't hold aroma and I really, really don't wanna lose the aroma on the quince. Hopefully it holds arome, but I am gonna add a bunch of spice in the secondary, so there'll be supporting flavours. I'll be adding
Sassafrass
Rose petals
Cinnamon
Star anise
in the secondary, maybe with a little oak and williamette hops. I pitched the yeast into (pretty cold) must last night, and maybe 20 hours later I've just had to put it in a primary bucket because it was blowing the top off the carboy.
16.5% potential alcohol.
Strong sweet cyser.
Redo of the one I did last year that is now starting to taste pretty amazing but would probably be even better in another year or two:
~8 kg honey (I may have poured a little heavily)
tannin, acid, pectic enzyme, yeast energiser, yeast nutrient as per lowest package directions
apple juice to fill (about 4.5 gallons)
I heated the honey briefly on the stove till it was liquid enough to pour through a funnel into the carboy, topped it up with the (very cold) apple juice, stirred a lot, then pitched the same yeast I used last year, the Wyeast smack-pack sweet mead yeast 4184.
Last year I hadn't added the tannin or acid, but I really liked its effect on the juice.
18-19% (!) potential alcohol.
Apple quince wine.
Half a shopping bag of frozen quinces.
5kg sugar
tannin, acid, energiser, enzymes, nutrient
fill to 6gallons apple juice (about 5 gallons)
Stir till mixed. Pitched Red Star Cotes des blancs because I had accidentally pitched the cider yeast into the spiced apple. The quinces were still frozen solid so I didn't break them up much or anything, so I 'll be poking them when I stir it from time to time.
Potential alcohol 17% (measured quite cold).
Candy apple graff.
Steep in 1.5 gallons water at 150-160:
0.75 lb Crystal 60L
0.65 lb Special B
1 lb Carapils
1.5 lb Acidulated malt
Pull the grains out, rinse them in a little hot water. Put that hot water in there too. Toss the grains. Add
3 lb pale dry malt extract
Start boiling. Add
0.5 oz Williamette hops.
Boil for half an hour. The Williamette hops smelled so good I added
0.5 oz Williamette hops
right at the end, then chilled the whole thing down a little and poured it into 18L apple juice to make up the six gallons. Pitched Safale - 04 yeast to keep some sweet in. I really liked the taste the acidulated malt lent the wort. I'm considering adding some tannins and acids in here too.
I just pitched some nottingham yeast directly into the last cider, I am making another graff out of it but ran out of time and figured that was the best way of preserving the juice, so that's what I'll go do now.
Apple juice info: Tank A: Brix = 10.8 PH = 4.6 EC = 1.7
Tank B: Brix = 11.0 PH = 4.3 EC = 1.6
Mix of Apples : 4 parts Honeycrisp; 5 parts Jonagold; 1 part Granny smith
