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Hoss

On Wed, 6 Sep 2006 20:07:48 +0100, (Shane
Badham) wrote:

>
>One of the golden rules I learnt, regarding fermentation on apple pulp,
>is dont do it! You will have problems filtering. Apple pulp is very fine
>in suspension. Also, if you leave it too long on the pulp you get
>off-flavours.
>
>I have always soaked apple quarters in water for 2 to 3 days, strained
>the liquid and fermented that. I have found that an apple selection is
>best, e.g. half eaters, quarter cooking and a quarter crab-apple.
>
>I did try pressing out the juice, but I found the result very acid. I
>had to add water to reduce the acid. YMMV with the type of apple.

as I have variety of apple trees growing in my yard, I tried to make a
batch last year. I juiced the apples with an electric store bought
juicer, cored apples in top, juice out bottom and pulp out the side.
This worked wonderfully, and gave me a cloudy mess of raw apple juice.
I did this in batches until I had enough for about 4 gallons of wine.
I froze the juice in cleaned welch's 64-oz bottles. I left the whole
batch out to thaw before work one morning and when I got home, I
heated the juice, separated the scum off the top and added the warm
juice to primary (I did not boil the juice) I started with about 6.5%
PA so I added sugar to warm juice to 1.090. It fermented quickly, and
took forever to clear even after secondary ferment was complete. It
is still a bit cloudy, so the juice/pulp clearing issue does not
strike as a difference to me. I will double the amount of pectic
enzyme next time and see if I can slow the primary ferment down a
little bit.

The wine is quite drinkable now, fermented dry, and I want to dabble
at sweetening, hence my post in other threads.

Long and short... I will try again maybe this year, more likely next
year with two different batches. One on pulp and another juiced with
my modifications. Then I'll have an active comparison.

Greg, Erie, PA