Apple wine

From Burden's Landing

History

November 2019

November 3, 2019

Morning:

  • Cut 36oz of Eun-Joung's apples into eighths, including cores, but not seeds. Put in my 항아리.
  • Added peel, juice, and seeds from one of her lemons
  • Added about 3.5oz of sugar (all that I had left) and about 8oz of her wild honey from Nova Scotia
  • Added about 8 cups of filtered water boiled for about 30 minutes, then cooled

Smelled so good! Mixed around noon.

Plan to let it go anywhere from 4 days to two weeks, however long it takes for the mixture to calm down (plus a day). Then I'll get rid of the solids and let it ferment some more.

November 4, 2019

Morning, some very light foam on top. Stirred in morning, noon, and night.

November 5, 2019

Morning, no foam. Apples starting to brown on one side. Stirred in morning, noon, and night.

November 6, 2019

Morning, no foam, more browning, but apples still feel solid. Starting to smell like the apples are fermenting. Tastes sweet (and nice), but not really boozy (or terribly apple-y) at all. Stirred in morning, noon, and night.

It's been really chilly, which may explain why it's taking so long to ferment. I'm also not sure how yeast-laden Eun-Joung's Nova Scotia honey is. Patience!

November 7, 2019

Morning, no noticeable differences from yesterday. Still smells great, though! Stirred in morning, noon.

November 8, 2019

Morning, foam, glorious foam! Finally! The wine was in a heated room for the first time in three days, which may have contributed.

Noon, started smelling sour.

November 9, 2019

Still foamy. Starting to smell a little better, but no longer sweet

November 10, 2019

Morning, no longer foamy. Smells like my lemon honey wine. Probably will start my secondary ferment tomorrow.

Noon, foamy again! Maybe hold off on the secondary ferment?

November 11, 2019

Still foamy.

November 12, 2019

Still foamy, but seems to be slowing down. Start secondary ferment tomorrow?

November 14, 2019

Not very foamy. Strained the solids. Tasted an apple. Boozy, slightly sweet, and definitely edible, but lost a lot of flavor, which is good. That means it went into the liquid. Tasted the liquid. Good! Slightly sweet. Added 5 heaping spoonfuls of sugar, transferred it into my jug.

Was going to try using a balloon with a hole as the airlock, but buying a real stopper and airlock cost the same, so did that. Having trouble keeping the stopper all the way in, but seems to be working okay.

In theory, let ferment 30-60 days until no longer bubbling.

November 17, 2019

Still bubbling away!

March 14, 2020

Siphoned and bottled the wine. It had fully fermented for weeks, and it was definitely dry. It smelled wonderful, and it tasted okay. Gonna age a bottle for at least another few months to see if it develops some tasty flavor.

See Also

Using this recipe as a guide.