Making Apple Cider Wine - Part 3 - Degas and Back Sweetening

[@naturalcurls1513]

Wow,from Phenix City Alabama my husband and I just tried wine making for the first time. We’ve watched a lot of videos and by far yours is the BEST. Thank you so much.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Woohoo! That first batch is always a little nerve racking, but it's SOO worth it! Cheers!

[@allanturpin2023]

Interesting process even though I don't drink. I like the rack for your cookware next to the cabinets... I hope we get a tour when you are all settled.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Allan. Good catch on the rack for the cookware. We had a few projects we were working on that day and were curious to see if anybody would notice it went from a blank wall to wood planks with pans!

[@Oak138]

Great idea of using the degassing process to mix in the ingredients

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Figure you're already in there mixing things up, so why not get the rest of it mixed together. Two birds with one stone as they say.

[@desertdanblacksmith1394]

looks interesting....next year will have to try this...we turned most of our apples into homemade vinegar. It turned out great and we giving the chickens vinegar apples once in a while...have some frozen

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Dan. Apple cider vinegar is on our list of things to make once we get trees producing again. The wine turned out very good and we made some Cran/Apple Sherry at the same time that turned out amazing!

[@Betterfoodforbettermood]

Awesome video guys.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Thanks Bin!

[@reggiewilliams9759]

I really learned alit from this video. Thanx bro and keep up the good work. Im starting my 2nd batch today.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Reggie, glad you found it useful and keep on brewin!

[@josephbiggica939]

Look absolutely beautiful

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

This was a good batch Joseph. We're still working our way through the last few bottles.

[@danielfisch655]

Nice job even though we don't drink alcohol. Thank you for sharing and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Daniel! Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.

[@rogerdelaurentis3728]

Hi I’m just finished with 10 gallon of Apple wine ,when I figure it out I’ll put up a photo

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Roger. Wow, 10 gallons of liquid gold, congrats! We'd love to see a pic. You can message us on FB or Insta or better yet, post a KZbin video so we can all see it!

[@dhudach]

I am a rookie to home wine making. What are your thoughts on pasteurizing versus finishing with chemicals? I realize that 5 gallons would be a lot to pasteurize. But suppose you are dealing with 1 or 2 gallons, would you still add the chemicals rather than pasteurize? Thanks in advance.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We have not attempted that, so I wouldn't be able to say for sure. We've had 1 batch of wine pop corks and break bottles, so we've resorted to this with all of our wine just to be safe. You'll have to let us know how that works if you give it a shot!

[@lloydmartin3554]

Just finished viewing Part 3. My problem with wine is sulfates. I get headaches like you would not believe. My goal is to produce an apple wine without sulfates. Unless I missed it, you have not mentioned it yet. I have two batches about 3 weeks apart and just racked my second batch last night. Is there something that I should be doing along the process to limit sulfates? Or is there nothing that can be done. Opps one more question, for bottling purposes, do you use clear or colored glass bottles?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Lloyd, great questions! So we use sulfates twice. First is just prior to pitching the yeast when we're trying to kill off any bacteria and wild yeast. I'm not familiar with another option, but given you'll have quite some time before the wine is sealed I think the amount left in the finished wine is very small. The second time is prior to bottling, but this step you may be able to skip. In fact, with this wine I think we would could have easily skipped it because we had it in the secondary so long and I doubt seriously there was any remaining yeast. If you're going to give that a shot it's best not to back sweeten so there isn't any residual sugar left for yeast to consume. The Potassium Sorbate can still be used to inhibit yeast reproduction if you decide to try a little back sweetening. We're just overly cautious and always add it anyway. For bottling we use the green tinted bottles. I'll link to Amazon the exact ones we use. Hope this helps and good luck on those batches!! amzn.to/37MB5be

[@linarush1393]

Dont use fresh apples then you do not need to kill off wild yeast. Store bought juice with vitamin C ascorbic acid. Pasteurizer your bottles at the end then you don't need to use Camden tablets or phosphate. I have done it this way and that way. Of course fresh juice it the way to go but the headaches and hot red ears with a flush red face half way through a glass 🥵 I enjoyed watching this thanks 🍷cheers

[@alcatel1460]

You don't need to use sulphates or even kill wild yeast. Some people use only the wild yeast to ferment like they did back in the day. If you do use a manufactured yeast, it'll overpower any of the wild stuff. There's no point in adding sulphates

[@lloydmartin3554]

My wine expert (my wife) and I have decided not to sweeten our first batch of apple cider wine. Other than de-gassing the wine, can we forgo the addition of Potassium Sorbate and or the Campden tablets? I'm thinking just the Campden tablets. Otherwise we are just about ready to bottle. Best Regards Lloyd Martin Rolling Potato Spirits

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Lloyd! We definitely could have skipped the back sweetening on this one, so I think it's a good call. As for the Pot. Sorbate and Campden tablets, probably. This wine finished completely for us, but we tend to be nervous about bottling without ensuring there is no chance of restarting fermentation. Enjoy your wine!

[@itshd3897]

Hello, I have a few question about making wine at home , I started using 100% juice and sugar and yeast , didn’t even get really potent, what is the cheapest way I could make wine up to 25% and up

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey HD. I'm assuming you're talking about alcohol content of 25% and up? If so, I'm not aware of a yeast that will survive alcohol content that high. We make our Sherry by using Premier Cuvee yeast (tolerance up to 17-18%) and then we fortify it with brandy before bottling. There are a few calculators online that estimate how much brandy to add in order to reach specific alcohol contents by doing this, but we just add enough so it has the kick we're looking for. We have some pretty strong Sherries aging right now by doing it this way. Hope this helps!

[@itshd3897]

Edge of Nowhere Farm it really helps , I drink a lot lol, and the wine I make seems to be weak. Be looking and researching to find a way to make stronger wine , but haven’t found anything , figured I would ask you, I know you know what your taking about !!!! I’ll look into that tho myself ! Thx a lot 🙃

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@itshd3897 You got it. We like our wine on the strong side also!

[@PaulsGearReview]

adding sugar in primary fermentation gives you more alcohol

[@lincolnstovall9471]

How about apple juice for sweetening ?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Lincoln. As long as it's pasteurized and you're confident there are no impurities it should be just fine. Especially for an apple wine like this one!

[@cleverkimscurios3783]

Is it not supposed to be a "sparkling" wine? That sounds delightful to me, but I'm not a wine drinker.

[@cleverkimscurios3783]

And if you already said- my bad. I'm doing some housework as I watch this.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Kim. So this is a regular wine. We haven't tried our hand at making sparkling wine....at least not on purpose!!

[@freedomfamily1358]

I dont add any preserves they take the good gut bacteria out other than that great job i hate that u added the extras to it!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Jr. Yeah, we would prefer to leave them out as well, but we've had 2 batches of wine ruined when yeast kick started fermentation in the bottle. We usually have anywhere from 100-200 bottles of wine on hand at any given time and being here in the desert it's just too warm to take any chances. If we had the money to invest in some decent wine coolers we would definitely skip that step like you're suggesting.

[@freedomfamily1358]

Next time just chill the wine its the natural way of doin it thats why they had wine cellars bk in the day

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

A wine cellar would be the best way to handle this for sure!

[@lynkpaul2171]

I have been watching all your videos on making this wine and didn't see you sanitize any of your utensils. I'm sure you did but you don't seem to be too bothered by over emphasizing the need for it. How concerned are you about your wine spoiling due to skipping a step in sanitizing or the world come g to an end if you forget to rinse tools everytime you use them? I see some people really religious about it.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Funny you should ask. We pretty much stopped sanitizing any of our utensils years ago and have had no issues with soured wine. We wash them with hot soap and water and we sanitize the bottles (and corks) prior to bottling, but pretty much nothing else. Will it cost us a batch at some point, maybe. Is it worth stressing over and spending countless hours trying to over-sanitize everything, not in my opinion.