Apple Wine Recipe

Apple Wine Recipes

Apple wine can be made in a variety of ways, and can be blended with a variety of fruits for an unlimited amount of delicious wine! Apples on their own can be a bit bland. Using apples that are on the tart side will make for a fuller wine.

Here is a super simple recipe using store bought apple juice:

Super Easy Apple Wine

• 2 12 oz. containers of frozen apple juice.

• Juice from 4 lemons strained of pulp and seeds.

• 2 lbs. of Sugar. (Alternatively if you can find locally produced honey use 3 lbs. instead of the sugar.

• 2 Gallons of boiled (cooled) water) Bottled spring water is best unless local water is of excellent quality.

• 1 tsp. pectic enzyme.

• 5 Campden tablets. (crushed) (optional)

• 1 packet wine yeast. Champagne works well with apples, so does Montrachet.

Dissolve the sugar in warm water. Add water and sugar to a sanitized jug. (Your primary fermenter) Add the defrosted apple juice, the strained lemon juice and the pectic enzyme. Stir.

Once the mix has reached room temperature add the wine yeast. If Campden tablets are used, wait 24 hours or so to add the wine yeast.

Cover the jug with plastic. A clever and inexpensive way to make your own airlock is to use a balloon that you thread onto the neck of the jug. Make several small holes in the balloon. As the wine is fermenting the gases produced by the fermentation will expand in the jug and inflate the balloon. As the balloon gets inflated it will expand the holes in the balloon and allow for air to escape while preventing air from coming in.

Place you fermenter somewhere out of the light. Peeking at the wine you will notice the yeast cells being very busy especially the first few weeks, producing a lot of gases, and some foam on top of the wine.

As the yeast is producing alcohol from the sugar they will begin to die off. As they die off they will form a sediment at the bottom of your jug. That is normal.

As the wine is beginning to clear you want to rack the wine, or decant it into another fermenting vessel.

Without disturbing the sediment move the fermenter onto a table or somewhere else high enough to be able to siphon the wine into a jug below.

Use a small-ish tubing to carefully siphon the clear wine into your secondary fermenter taking care not to disturb the sediment on the bottom. Make sure the tubing along with the second fermenter are sanitized.

Add enough water to make sure the wine level reaches the bottom of the neck of the fermenter. Make a new clean air lock and let the wine ferment for another 8 weeks or so.

When the wine is finished fermenting which you can see by there being no gas produced to inflate the balloon, and when the jug is tapped upon, there will be no gas bubbles rising to the top, rack the wine again and bottle.

Apple wine is best after it has aged for some months, better yet, a year. That may sound like a long tome to wait, but the easiest way to combat that is to make a wine every month… In a years time you’ll be sipping a different, very delicious homemade wine every month.