Apple cider/wine
 

I have a friend that has an apple tree and I am going to get several bushels
from him because he wants me to try to make wine and cider.

Now, I am going to attempt 3, 6 gallon batches. I have been looking over a
variety of recipes and I have a few questions.

First, I see recipes talking about juicing is better than using the actual
apple pieces. Does this mean I want to peel the apples and not use the
skins? I was planning to use an automatic peeler/corer and then put the
skins in with the fermentation with some pectic enzyme.

Second, the recipe I see for cider has me adding a 1/4 cup of dissolved
sugar per gallon at the end of fermentation, then bottling it with screw
caps or champagne style. I assume this is because fermentation is going to
restart and you don't want to risk blowing out the corks. What do they mean
by "dissolved" sugar?

For medium bodied to full bodied wines, I see a range of 8 lbs to 24 lbs of
apples per gallon. Is this right? an I go by hanging weight, or should I
go by weight after peeled and cored?

Next, recipes call for a variety of apples, this seems to be to mix
acidities. Is it going to be much of a problem that I am doing this from
the same tree?


--

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Let us not then pursue
By force impossible, by leave obtained
Unacceptable, though in Heav'n, our state
Of splendid vassalage, but rather seek
Our own good from ourselves, and from our own
Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,
Free, and to none accountable, preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke
Of servile pomp.
- Mammon, Paradise Lost

Use Stayman (winesap) apples. Very tart apples make the best flavor
for wine. I use 70 to 80 pounds for a 60 gal. batch. I like to do it
the old fashioned way, core them slice them into 6 or 8 pieces (when
done like this a 5 gal bucket weighs exactly 30 pounds) dump them
right into the barrel for primary fermentation. 110 pounds of sugar
gets you to about 15%, 10 or 12 pounds of raisens, set the acidity &
let er go. This year I'm gonna experiment with pectic enzyme for the
first time, understand with apples the starch content is up ther. Good
luck.

Barrel? Is this implying you use oak barrels for your fermentation of this?

"PA-ter" > wrote in message
om...
> Use Stayman (winesap) apples. Very tart apples make the best flavor
> for wine. I use 70 to 80 pounds for a 60 gal. batch. I like to do it
> the old fashioned way, core them slice them into 6 or 8 pieces (when
> done like this a 5 gal bucket weighs exactly 30 pounds) dump them
> right into the barrel for primary fermentation. 110 pounds of sugar
> gets you to about 15%, 10 or 12 pounds of raisens, set the acidity &
> let er go. This year I'm gonna experiment with pectic enzyme for the
> first time, understand with apples the starch content is up ther. Good
> luck.

Plastic, obtained from a local fruit processing plant, 60 gal.,
usually yields 45 gal potable wine.