Homemade Apple Wine

You'll may have read in my Homemade Plum Wine that I was given some apples by my second cousin and that I had started off some apple wine.

The pulped apples were left in water in a sealed bucket whilst I enjoyed my birthday celebrations and a trip to Ireland. I wasn't sure what would have happened as I haven't made apple wine before.

Opening the bucket it all looked great, just a few spots of mould so I definitely caught it in time. Under the top dried layer the apples showed signs of starting to ferment.

After sterilising a second bucket, jug and sieve the straining task began. It takes a while to strain 7 pounds of mulched apples in 3 gallon of water but the liquid was very clean, unlike the sludgy liquid when making the plum wine. 

After the explosive yeast in the plum wine I decided to be a little more patient this time. I added two and a half bags of sugar and stirred until it had dissolved, then came the patience. 

Sealing the bucket I left the wine 24 hours to see if it would start fermenting on it's own. I was delighted to see evidence of tiny bubbles so syphoned the wine into three sterile demi johns.

There was a very slow air bubble in each which I hoped would increase. It did, by the next morning the wine was bubbling away nicely.

And so the waiting game begins, the plum wine is still bubbling but looking clearer every day and once I'm happy that the apple wine will not over flow I'll move it to join the plum in our Snug. 

I have no idea how long the wine will take, the next stage for both is once the bubbling completely stops I need to syphon it into clean demi johns avoiding any sediment. The waiting will continue then as the wine clears. I will not be adding any chemicals to help clearing, I'm just letting nature do its thing.