Adventures in Apple Wine Making, con't

The penultimate step has arrived in the apple wine making process! The liquid reached its final specific gravity of less than 1.0 so it is safe to bottle. In vintners' terms, the process is called 'racking off' as it is siphoned from the carbide to bottles.

Dad is holding a nifty device that fills the bottle when pressed to the bottom of the bottle's surface but stops the flow of liquid when lifted up and no pressure is applied to it. That way the tube does not have to be pinched as it is moved from bottle to bottle to avoid spillage.

Plus, it leaves just the right amount head space in the
top of the bottle for continued fermentation after capping.

More and more bottles line up on the counter to be capped. The final step, in two weeks is sampling it with Thanksgiving Dinner. It should be potable by that time and reach peak in four months.

Adventures in Apple Wine

The apple wine is successfully transferred from the primary container to the carbide (secondary container) for another two weeks until the yeast has almost completed fermenting the sugar into alcohol and it is safe to bottle. Stay tuned.

The last of the apples

Apple wine is fermenting, Mom and Dad put up 8 quarts of applesauce during the week, I froze an apple pie for Thanksgiving on Friday and made another pie to be enjoyed over the weekend. Except for what's been preserved for future use, this is the last of the apples from the giant bin that was used to start the apple cider a week ago...whew!!!

It's bubbling!

The apple wine adventures continue in the 6 gallon primary container as the yeast ferments and feasts on the sugar of the apple cider making alcohol and carbon dioxide which is bubbles out of the container via this air lock.

If this was "smell-o-vision" you could detect a faint yeasty aroma. Once the bubbling settles down and the cap inside the air lock comes to a rest in a few days, the liquid will be ready for transfer to the secondary container or carbide.

Pitching the Yeast

This morning the apple cider had reached proper fermenting temperature,
so Dad pitched the yeast.

Basically, that just means the yeast is added into the apple cider mix.

Our pitching was easy and nothing compared to what will be happening tonight when Andy Pettitte and the Yanks take on Cliff Lee in Game 3 of the American League Championships.

This little airlock will release the air that is a
byproduct of the yeast eating sugar to produce alcohol.

Here's what Dad did on his own today with an extra gallon of cider that won't fit into our primary vat. He found out how to make his own homemade airlock from the internet and got it all fitted up all by himself - I am so proud!

How to make Apple Wine Part I

Step 1 - Be like Johnny Appleseed and plant an apple orchard. Wait a few years.

OK, we really don't have that sort of time to invest at this point, so it's a good thing that step was taken care of a few years ago. But to begin the adventures in wine making that I unintentionally embarked upon yesterday, what we do need at this point is lots of apples which were delivered to Doc's late this week.

He has a double cider press, so apples can be ground up into one bucket,
slid through to the masher where the press can go to work to extract the juice.

His grandkids were chomping at the bit to get started and make a dent in the apple bin.

Ground apples come through to the first bucket

When the first bucket is filled,
it is pushed through and the press
begins to make mash as the juice comes through.

Filling up the bucket with apple juice

In order to get through all the apples a little more help is necessary

No matter how many kids show up, grinding is still hard work.
Loading up the grinder
Doc inspecting the works

Now that we know we've made a dent in the apple bin,
we'll turn our attention to the apple juice.

The juice is strained a few times to rid itself of any small bits of mash

Strained juice is funneled into containers for transport.

Dad filling up the primary container with the just pressed apple juice.

Floating the hydrometer to determine its density -
or specific gravity - which is the preferred term of oenologists.

We added sugar, fruit pectin and yeast nutrient to the apple juice so it can rest and sit while it comes to room temperature before we add the yeast, maybe sometime tomorrow.

And that is how you actually begin to get your hands dirty (well, actually sticky) in the process of making apple wine. Tune in soon for the next installment.

Because you can never have enough hobbies.....

So tomorrow my dad and his buddies have their annual apple cider making party - only dad has other plans for his cider. Last year he considered making apple wine with his share of the crushed apples, only he didn't make his decision quite in time. When he visited a local supplier for home brewing he discovered he needed to rethink his strategy. I'd like to say he plotted and planned and researched the whole endeavor in the 'off season' but that would be stretching the truth to the extreme. I must admit, though, earlier in the week, he started gathering up plastic jugs for the annual event and then last night announced that he was still mulling over the possibilities of wine. (Can you identify the two puns in the previous sentence?) This morning, when he mentioned it again, Mom and I realized he was serious. So we found the number to Princeton Homebrew (located in Trenton) and he called to find out their hours so he could go get the yeast, pectin and other pertinent chemicals necessary for wine making. As you can see above, he - or more accurately stated - we returned home with slightly more than just the chemicals.

When Dad mentioned he was headed to the home brewer supplier, I made a fateful last minute decision to join him for the ride. I think Dad was a little relieved I decided to go because as the owner started discussing specific gravity and fermentation processes Dad's eyes glazed over and he started relying on the fact that he conveniently did not wear his hearing aids and therefore could rely on his daughter who once spent ten years teaching chemistry and biology to really know what needs to happen. Beyond the 2 new 6 gallon containers you see on the counter in the first photo, we have a hydrometer to measure the density of our product, a surface stick thermometer for the plastic tub, tubing and siphon to transfer the liquid from the primary container to the secondary container at the proper time as well as a bottle filler when the final step occurs and the necessary yeast and chemicals we went to go get in the first place. We didn't need to get bottles, caps or a bottle capper - they are already stored in the cellar from days long gone by when we used to make root beer. Actually, therefore, in the end, starting this hobby isn't all that bad, because its not like we really had to buy EVERYTHING in order to get started!

So, without even intentionally looking for blog material, I think a few entries have been handed to me in the next several weeks as Dad and I foray into being amateur oenologists.