Making Apple Cider Wine - Part 1 - Processing Fresh Fruit

[@davidbauman7234]

Funny thing is I was just watching wine making videos on KZbin this morning. Nice info the ones that I watched were amateur hour compared to the info that you two put out.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

As always, thanks for the encouragement David. So with what you've seen on making wine are you going to give it a shot?

[@davidbauman7234]

I'm going to probably be a season or two before I have enough of something that we don't gobble off the trees left over to make it from. Probably be blackberry or mulberry or both.

[@kimmfranke7728]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm a

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@kimmfranke7728 hey there!

[@USSBB62]

There are several ways to make your wine sweeter. The best I feel is to get a wine yeast that dies off at 12 to 13 percent alcohol. Then keep adding your sweet unfermented juice to taste.. Remember Fructose is much sweeter than Sucrose (cane sugar). Ever heard of the term "High Fructose corn syrup" ? Another way is to add enough alcohol to kill or stop the fermentation then add more juice. This is harder as you have to balance taste verses higher alcohol verses starting up fermentation again because of dilution or dropping below the kill threshold for the yeast.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

That definitely makes sense and I from what I understand it's the most common way to make an off-dry to sweet wine.

[@EnlightenmentGarden]

Great informative video and interesting use of apples. Thanks for taking the time to make this video and share it!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks. Not sure if you're into wine, but you have an impressive assortment of figs you harvest from your trees. We made a fig sherry last year that tastes absolutely amazing and it still has a couple of years in the bottle before it's really ready to drink. We're freezing brown turkey figs now to make wine from them once we're moved and it's actually pretty easy to make. It's very rare because figs are so expensive...if you have to buy them of course!

[@EnlightenmentGarden]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thanks! Yes I love wine --more of a merlot person but fig sherry sounds enticing! I'll have to try that out. Thanks again!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@EnlightenmentGarden Sure thing. I jotted down the recipe we used, so if you decide to give it a try I'll pass it along!

[@rogerdelaurentis3964]

Just made my first batch of apple cider wine jus.t finished oct 11,I am fortunate to have relatives up state ny .hudson valley ,1000 acres of apple farm,150 lbs of apples for 20 dollar’s,I will earthier make another ,batch or use them for recipes ,wish me luck,I also make red and white wine ,I like trying different things,next will be a pear wine thank for the information,Gracia as we say in Italian

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Roger! Oh man, having a mix of traditional cider apples or something similar will really give your wine a lot of flavor. What did you use for the red and white?

[@rogerdelaurentis3964]

Edge of Nowhere Farm red ,also mixed all kinds of apples

[@MrGiXxEr]

Use this formula for adding sugar to raise specific gravity on a 5 gallon batch. (1 cup sugar = .0035 sp/gr) Divide by 5 for gallon batches.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks for that formula! Hopefully that will help with figuring out the amount of sugar for folks to add.

[@MrGiXxEr]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm It's a good estimate for calculating the sugar needed to get it where you want to start. As always, hydrometer readings to verify is a must, it's easy to add sugar but hard to take it back out.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@MrGiXxEr oh so true. We usually tend to start with a bit less sugar than we think we'll need and add slowly until we hit the number we're looking for. Wine making is truly an art and once you get into it you realize just how much changes from one batch to the next. Especially with different fruit wines.

[@MrGiXxEr]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Heck yea! I love making it more than drinking it. Have fun and thanks for sharing these videos and your responses.

[@mr_noodler]

Don’t add all the ingredients at once, one at a time with at least 12 hours between this ensures that each process is carried out in full without interference of the others before you pitch your yeast

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hmm, haven't heard this before. Definitely wouldn't hurt, so thank you for the suggestion!

[@Czaronline]

Hi guys, great videos! 👏🏼👏🏼 Thank tou so much for all the knowledge you pass! 🙏🏼 I don't know if anyone has asked these questions but here they go: how do you calculate the amount of sugar you need to add, after doing the first reading, to obtain the measurement you want on the alcoholimeter? Also, are the ingredients you use, the yeast, the enzimes, the tablets, etc. Organic? If not, do you know any organic ones? Thank you so much for your attention! Keep up the great work! 💪🏼

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Antonio, glad you're enjoying the content. We have a book that we use to help us get a rough estimate of how much sugar to add, but there is a website I'll link for you here that explains it pretty good along with a chart you can use. Just keep in mind it's an estimate and you may need to add either more or less to get your desired specific gravity; www.beer-wine.com/adjusting-specific-gravity#:~:text=To%20increase%20the%20specific%20gravity,(use%20column%20on%20right). The ingredients we use are not organic, so I'm not sure where you might find that. One thing to keep in mind is you can use naturally occurring yeast to make wine. The only catch there is you don't know what kind of yeast you'll be using and what the end product will taste like. The other issue would be bacteria that can be a problem and you could end up with vinegar vs wine.

[@Czaronline]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Thank you so much for your attention with me and the precious info you gave me 🙏🏼 All the best for you, lots of success! 💪🏼

[@FarangNick]

Great tutorial !! Been experimenting with bottled juices for a few months now. Will now try with fresh juice and use your video to guide me through it.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

You're really going to enjoy this wine. It is one of the best wines we've made so far and a great alternative to traditional white wine.

[@danielfisch655]

Great information, thank you for sharing.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks Daniel. This was a little different, so we were hoping it was interesting for everyone.

[@rogerdelaurentis3728]

Question,I followed your recipe for apple wine came out great ,just wondering if I use brown sugar would that work out well also

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you're enjoying that wine. We have found it is a consistent white wine for us from season to season. We haven't attempted wine with brown sugar, but it would be interesting to give it a shot. Especially with this one, makes me thing of apple pie!

[@davidbrizendine5973]

We have five gallons of apple cider wine currently under way. We added all the ingredients in your steps (starting with Camden tablets through sugar, yeast and yeast nutrient) but our wine isn't bubbling. We added the yeast nutrient & yeast about 24 hours ago. What should we do now?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Congrats on getting this one started, we just bottled this year's vintage and followed pretty much this exact same process. Keep in mind, the temperature has a LOT to do with how fast and hard your fermentation will go. Our apples are harvested in the middle summer and our house temps are around 78-80 degrees the entire time. That's nearly ideal for yeast to multiply and every degree cooler than that will slow them down more and more. After about 48 hours you can test your specific gravity and see if it's going down at all. If so, you're just getting a slow fermentation and it will take a bit longer before you transfer to the secondary. If not, you may want to increase the temp of the must and/or try a different yeast. Premier Cuvee and Premier Blanc yeasts from Red Star are both very strong yeasts that can help kick start a stuck fermentation. It's one of the reasons they are our go-to for getting a fast, fully attenuated wine.

[@davidbrizendine5973]

We will try it. Thank You@@EdgeofNowhereFarm

[@twinztwice]

Best video out there! Thank you. Question, does the juicer basically blend/pulverize the whole apple? So the cider that is in the bucket is skin and core and all? Wondering if I can use my Vitamix and just blend the whole apple. Susan

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Susan. Glad you enjoyed the video and great questions! The juicer separates the pulp from the juice almost completely, so there's only juice left over with some foam that is created when the disk pulverizes the apple. So we're able to juice the entire apple without having to core it. You might be able to use blended apples, but I would remove the core and particularly the seeds so they don't taint the wine. Most folks use a juice press to make cider, but we didn't want to invest in a separate tool when our juicer does the job fairly well. Tomorrow we're finally getting around to finishing this wine, so we'll have the final video(s) up soon!

[@Alex-ym2pv]

Thanks a ton Dwyane. Very well explained. I'm gonna try making this right away. Really simple too. There is no need to use Betnonite?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Alex, glad you enjoyed this one. This wine did an amazing job of clearing up for us, so I don't think you'll need to add anything to clarify it. Assuming clarity is what you were concerned about in regards to the bentonite.

[@andreaseita2872]

Complmenti hai detto la verita' anche i cinesi poi fanno una spece di vino con riso fermentato(sake)....

[@andreaseita2872]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm u

[@ronaldjohnson2409]

We been making wine but it was our first try at Apple. We got her apple juice but then we heated it up to 160 to pasteurize it. Should we have done that? Pasteurized it? Anyway we went on the process of thinking it was like apple juice from the store at that point. And we followed the instructions on this another site for 1 gallon. And it seems to be OK except for it’s very cloudy can we clear the cloudy ness? I racked it one time so far. Should I add anything to clear it up. I did add a Cinnamon stick after we added the sugar water. We decided we don’t like the cinnamon sticks so next time we won’t do that. Can you help us thank you.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Ronald. It could be a few things, but my guess is it either needs to settle further (you didn't mention how long it's been settling) or you may have an issue with high pectin. Pectic enzyme is critical when you're using most fruit wines and apple is no different. Apples are quite high in pectin, so that enzyme is very important for this one. Also, check the specific gravity as it may be fermenting still. If that's the case it will remain cloudy until that's complete. There are anti-clouding agents you can use at this point, but we try to avoid those as they can alter the taste of the wine in our experience.

[@toddcook5416]

Where did you get that big glass pickle jar, the 5 gallon one . I'm looking for the lid like the one on that you are using . Thanks

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Todd. We have them in our Amazon shop, but I'll also link to the 5 gallon version here for you on Amazon. These are made out of glass; amzn.to/3mwXkff

[@tazblink]

Good video thanks. After you add the Camden tablets and wait for the sulfite to degas do you keep the container lid off or is it covered the whole time? Also why did you add the acid blend and ascorbic acid was that for color or something else? I am about to start my first hard cider today so thanks for sharing your video it has helped. I added 3 lb's brown sugar and 3.5 pounds table sugar we will see how that works. Thanks again.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Taz man, those are great questions. You don't need to cover with anything more than a towel in that initial 24 hours after the Camden tablets. We keep the vent hole open to allow the gas escape and it seems to be enough, but I have a mentor that just uses a towel to cover the bucket. The acid mix was to bump up the overall acid content of the mixture. We didn't use them here, but we have since started using acid strips to verify acidity before adding the amendments. This amount was taken from another recipe that we found online for hard cider, so I would imagine it would suit your needs well also.

[@tazblink]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Cool thanks for the reply and the info I had seen others add the Camden to kill the wild yeast and let it degas but no one ever said to cover or not to cover ha. After I commented on the acid's you were using I remembered the PH level and figured that was probably why you were adding it. However I had forgotten about that and did not check mine so I am really glad I asked you. I have PH strips, PH test chem's in test tubes, and a nice PH meter and I completely forgot and over looked that part of it.Haha. Anyway thanks for the information I appreciate it.

[@Petanisimple]

I only add yeast and apple

[@JesusFreakJene]

Entertaining

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks Jen! Great to hear from you.

[@damedose3861]

Woulda liked to see the bucket more like when he was pointing to it. Nd what does off gas mean?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Dame, good call on more shots inside the bucket. We'll be working on a few more this fall and need to keep that in mind. Off gas is what happens when sulfur is released. You want it to move up and out of the bucket, so it's called off gassing.

[@chelseagarrett7142]

Great starter video! I'm still confused as to how to determine how much sugar to add for a certain alcohol level. Is it simply one pound per gallon of must or is there a formula for determining this using the hydrometer? Thanks

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Chelsea. We've tried to figure that out and it always seems to be different with each batch of wine. There are charts you can google that show how much sugar there is in relation to specific gravity and they are a good estimate, but we count on the hydrometer to figure it out.

[@jeaninedelong5741]

Still how do I know from my first SG how much to add is their a formula?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@jeaninedelong5741 here's a link to a website that gives a good estimate. We have a wine making book that uses the same table. It's not 100% accurate, but it's a good estimate. We subtract the final specific gravity sugar content from the initial reading to get that initial estimate. www.beer-wine.com/adjusting-specific-gravity

[@USSBB62]

Chelsea Garrett see my comment above.

[@USSBB62]

@@jeaninedelong5741 Rule of thumb; for every 2% of sugar you get 1% alcohol. The more particles or junk in your hydrometer sample the more false readings you will get when testing for dissolved solids (Fruit Sugar).

[@evangelinabvaldez9563]

I see the juicer you used for the apples. What do you use of citrus and pomegranates? Same juicer or do you use a citrus press?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Evangeline. We use a press for citrus and pomegranates. You get a lot more juice with less of the foam on the top with a press, so it's really ideal for those types of fruit.

[@dwightmann6297]

So apple wine is different from apple cider?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Dwight! There are some technical differences between the 2. The alcohol content is the primary difference. Cider is usually in the mid single digits similar to beer while wine is usually in the double digits. Also, cider is not always fully attenuated, so there's some residual sugar which would require a different yeast. Cider is usually carbonated, but not always. The apple wine recipes we found also include tannin giving it an even drier taste, but we didn't add that to our version. The major difference in what we're doing with this batch vs the typical apple wine recipe is we're using apple cider as our base vs cut up apples added to water and sugar. So far, it's turning out pretty darn good. What we didn't show here is another batch we're making that included dried cranberries in the must that we'll also fortify with Brandy to age as a Sherry. That one actually tastes superior to this one so far....

[@dwightmann6297]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Oh I see thank you for responding to my comment hello from Honduras

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@dwightmann6297 Wow, Honduras. Hello!

[@mr_noodler]

When you use sugar in wine making, you may lose body of the wine. I think that using pure apple juice with only a little water will give you the specific gravity you are looking for

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Solid suggestion. One of my mentors whose been making wine for decades does that from time to time.

[@Shaggy-yi7zb]

I Know this one is off topic but have been meaning to ask what Mic are you using for capturing your voice so well?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Good question. We've been using the MOVO LV1. It's corded which can be a little bit of a challenge, but we haven't had any luck with an inexpensive cordless one. We're on our second one only because of a mishap with closing a sliding door on the cord and pinching the wire! I'll leave a link for it here; amzn.to/2XV4xdL

[@USSBB62]

Chelsea Garrett; General rule of thumb if your using any of the family or "Sychromycese Cervasa" type wine or bear or whiskey yeast. Most figure for every 2% of Fructose or Fruit Sugar you will get 1% alcohol. Slightly less with Sucrose (cane sugar). Keep your temperature's as low as possible during fermentation. The higher the temp the larger the alcohol molecules are and the chance of headache's increase. The slang term for this (higher molecular weight alcohol )is called "Fusel Oils". Stick to Fructose its organic.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks for the comment and suggestions on this topic. We're taking notes as well!

[@karendurborow5016]

What city are you guys located and n? Can you chip wine to another city for someone? If they wanted for free from you guys or how much does it cost to get it from me guys?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Karen. Unfortunately, we are not able to ship wine or sell it to anyone. We have been known to give a bottle away to friends who visit the farm from time to time. Especially out of town guests. 😉

[@caseyturner8773]

You don't have baseboard trim in your house?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Casey! No we didn't have any trim in the old farmhouse. The builder was able to float the space between the flooring and drywall to keep from needing it. We asked the builder of our new home if this was possible and he looked at us like we were crazy. We never had any issues with this home and actually had fewer pests getting into it.

[@iudude2012]

Love your videos. Best out there. Do you have to use fresh apples or can you use store bought apple juice? I'm looking to make a small batch 1 gallon apple wine

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Glad you're enjoying these. We've never used store bought juice for our wines, but I know many people do. I imagine an organic apple juice would probably be your best bet, so you don't have any extra chemicals in there that may deter yeast growth. Definitely worth a shot. Oh and we started putting our wine making videos on our other channel to focus on the farming aspect here. It's called Healthy Farm Living and I'll link it for you here; kzbin.info

[@subhassarkar2940]

I am indian

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Subhas! Glad you're here with us!

[@chnsinner116]

I AM GROOT

[@andreaseita2872]

Spero che traducono in inglese, in Inghilterra fanno il vino con le mele perche..? Perche non hanno l 'uva... IL SIDRO, L' IDROMELE, LA BIRRA SONO DIFFUSI NEI PAESI NORDICI DOVE NON C 'E' IL VINO.... stranamente pero ' la francia che ha una produzione vinicola, produce anche queste bevande...

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ciao Andrea! Questo è così vero per la mancanza di vino d'uva in alcuni luoghi dove alcuni frutti non sono naturali. Oggi con l'agricoltura moderna si tende a dimenticare che le persone fermenterebbero sempre ciò che avevano a disposizione. In questo caso il sidro era comune in Inghilterra e Mead in alcune parti dei Paesi Bassi. Ovviamente vino in Italia, Francia e altri paesi. Sto usando Google Translate, quindi spero che tutto vada bene. Ciao!

[@andreaseita2872]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Caro edge, spero che anche stavolta traducono in Inglese, mi domando A)

[@andreaseita2872]

Ciao caro Edge mi auguro che anche stavolta traducono in ingl Es

[@andreaseita2872]

Mi domando A) quanti litri di sidro beve un cittadino inglese in un anno?... B) in inghilt Erra e' piu diffuso il sidro o la birra? Toglimi questa curiosita' grazie. Ciao.

[@andreaseita2872]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Ininghilterra e' piu diffuso il sidro o la birra?