TC-type apple wine

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Laripu
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Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:24 am
Location: Tampa, Florida, USA

TC-type apple wine

Post by Laripu » Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:51 pm

A year ago I made 23 liters of apple wine using grovery store apple juice and a few other ingredients. It is called Cheap and Shameless, and the label sports a photo of one of my cats and one of my dogs lying together in bed, the dog on his back with legs splayed, "porn-pose" style. His tail is draped over the cat and a thought ballon over his head has him thinking: "No, really. I was apple juice!"

The idea was to elevate the alcohol to wine strength without using any sugar or honey. Grape concentrate did part of that, but frozen apple juice concentrate was the main other source. That was hard to find and not cheap - not many groceries here stock frozen apple juice. (When I was a child it was the main source of apple juice in the city, other than canned.)

Since TC seems to be popular on this forum, I thought I'd share the recipe:

Cheap and Shameless
Yeast:
• 1 pack Lalvin EC-1118 (Champagne yeast)
• 2 packs Lalvin D-47
• yeast was rehydrated, then pitched into starter.
Yeast starter:
• 150 grams of light dry malt extract, boiled in a quart of water.
• Starter was allowed to ferment 24 hours before pitching into must.
Must:
• 20 liters of apple juice
• 2 liters of frozen concentrated apple juice, 51 Brix, I think (and it was six 12-fl-oz containers, but that's the US volume measure)
• Alexander’s Sun Country Chablis grape juice concentrate, 68° Brix (48 fl-oz US measure – 4 lbs)
• 3 tsp pectic enzyme
• 9 tsp yeast nutrient, 1 teaspoon of Marmite as a nutrient.
• 3 tsp tannin
• 10 tsp acid blend
• 8 crushed Campden tablets (used in primary; yeast starter pitched after a day)
O.G. 1.080, 10.5% v/v. One week primary fermentation, three months secondary. I may have bottled slightly early as there is a fizziness to the wine. However it has been in wine bottles, corked, for over 9 months with no explosions, so the pressure isn't too high. It seems to taste slightly better after refrigeration, in the manner of white wines, and goes well with light-tasting food. It tastes 'apple-y'.
Secondary FV: As yet unnamed Weizenbock ~7%
Bulk aging: Soodo: Grocery store grape juice wine experiment.
Drinking: Mostly Canadian whisky until I start brewing again.

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