Apple Wine Recipe

If you have a lot of apples, making cider is the obvious option, but you can also make wine from apples, especially if you only have a carrier bag full. The process is a little different and you will get a very different finished product. Apple wine does not taste like cider.

Apple wine is very easy to make. Here's our easy to follow recipe to make 6 bottles (4.5 litres) of a white wine that is crisp, has a gentle dryness, has a slight sharpness and is very refreshing served cold. Expect flavours of citrus, apple skins, vanilla, in a dry white wine.

You can use any apples to make this wine, but eating apples with lots of flavour work best. You can add 1 or 2 cooking apples in to add extra acidity.

Ingredients
To Make 6 bottles (4.5 litres) of white wine from apples, you will need:

1.8kg (4lb) Ripe Apples (washed)
1 Lemon
7 Pints Water
250ml White Wine Enhancer
1.4kg (3lb) sugar (50% Supermarket Sugar & 50% Brewing Sugar)
15 grams Oak Chips
Campden Tablets
1 tsp Pectolase
1 tsp White Wine Yeast
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Fermentation Stopper
Finings

Equipment

Some essential equipment is needed to be sure of a good fermentation and a drinkable finished wine.
You will need:

Cleaner and Steriliser
Brewing Bucket
Demi-John with Air-Lock
Siphon
Muslin or a Straining Bag
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Bottles & Corks

Method

Remember to sterilise all equipment before use.

1 - Core the apples to remove the pips as these can make the wine bitter.

2 - Put the apples into a food processor and pulse until you have something similar to rough grated cheese. You may have to do several batches.
If you do not have a food processor, use a grater to grate them.

3 - Put the apples into your fermenting bucket and add the 7 pints of water.


4 - Add the 250ml White Wine Enhancer and the juice and grated rind of the lemon - don't use the white pith of the lemon.

5 - Add 1 crushed campden tablet and 1 teaspoon of pectolase and stir.

6 - Loosely put on the lid and put in a warm (20C) place for 24 hours. The pectic enzyme will break down the cell walls of the apples and release their juice and flavour, while the campden tablet subdues the natural yeast.

7 - Take a sample of the juice and measure with a hydrometer and note down the reading so we can use this to work out the ABV of the finished wine.

Your hydrometer reading will tell us how much sugar is in the apple and water mixture.

It’s good to test how much sugar is in your juice before we add any additional sugar or this wine could be very strong.

For example, if the hydrometer reading comes out at around 1.040, then you should end up with an approximate ABV of 5%. We want this wine to finish at around 11-12% so you will need to add more sugar. 17 grams of sugar per litre of juice will increase the ABV by 1%.

8 - Add the the desired amount of sugar and stir until dissolved.

We are using 2 types of sugar as they do different things. The yeast eat both, but supermarket sugar adds a sweetness to the finished wine, where as brewing sugar does not add any sweetness. If we used all supermarket sugar, the finished wine would be too sweet.

9 - Add the oak chips, yeast nutrient and yeast. Stir and loosely cover with the lid.

10 - Put the bucket in a place that will be 18-22C for 7 days.

11 - Lift the lid on day 3 and if all the apple pulp has risen to the surface, use a sterilised spoon and gently stir to get the apple pulp back into the water. Replace the lid and leave to finish fermenting.

12 - After fermenting for 7 days, prepare another sterilised bucket and straining cloth.

13 - Strain off the pulp and keep the liquid. Squeeze the straining bag gently to release most of the liquid from the pulp.

14 - Transfer into a demi-john, fit an airlock and leave for the ferment to finish and clearing to begin.

15 - After 2 weeks in the demi-john. Check the specific gravity with a hydrometer and if it is 0.996 or below, then it is ready for clearing.

16 - Add the fermentation stopper as per the instructions and 1 crushed campden tablet. Swirl the wine in the demi-john so as to knock out any dissolved CO2.

17 - Swirl the demi-john 3 times a day for 2 days so that all the yeast are killed and there is no more CO2 dissolved in the wine.

18 - Add your finings as per their instructions and leave to clear.

19 - Bottle and cork.

20 - Ideally leave for 6 months for its full flavour potential to be reached.

Cheers & Happy brewing.

Home brewed wine can be very strong, so remember to drink responsibly.

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