Sparkling Apple Wine

My Sparkling Apple Wine label

When I lived in Iowa it was easy to obtain fresh pressed Apple Cider every Autumn from many local commercial apple farmers. Since I moved to Alaska in 1991 I found there are no commercial orchards up here and this is one of my favorite recipes that I have not made since I moved here. Yes, I could get apple juice here and even some fresh juice from Washington state in season - but the cost of shipping is quite high and not worth the high price to me. So I decided to try mixing up some juice from frozen concentrate that is always available at any local grocery store. I decided on the Treetop brand 100% juice that only contains added Ascorbic acid. I have a 3 gallon glass carboy so I decided to make a 2.5 gallon recipe. Pure Apple Juice has a Specific Gravity (S.G.) that will average about 1.050 and will produce a Hard Cider around 6% alcohol by volume. If you want to make a wine or champagne style beverage you will have to add sugar to reach the desired alcohol level in your finished wine.

Sparkling Apple Wine - 2.5 Gals
7 - 12 oz cans Treetop brand frozen 100% Apple Juice concentrate
+21 cans water = 252 oz for total volume of  2.625 Gals Apple Juice

*Note: One lb sugar will add about 10 oz of volume to your juice. So adding 3.5 lbs sugar did raise the Specific Gravity close to my target S.G. of 1.100 but it also raised the total juice volume by 35 oz for a total volume at 2.9 Gals. - Next time I will reduce the added water by 3 cans or about 1 quart and start with 3 lbs sugar.

3.5 lbs sugar
0.37 oz Potasium Metabisulfite
2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
3/4 tsp grape tannin
1.5 oz Acid Blend
2.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient

I will start by fermenting my Apple wine completely dry and when finished I will add a fining agent to help settle the yeast. When clear I will then add priming sugar and bottle in beer or champagne bottles and cap with crown caps to produce natural bottle conditioned sparkling Apple wine.

10/19 Mixed all ingredients in a 3 Gal glass carboy and let rest 24 hours.

10/20 Starting S.G. 1.098
The next day I dry pitched one pkg Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast.

I set up a closed fermentation system using a Blow-Off tube. A large 1.5 inch plastic tube will fit tightly into a 3 or 5 Gal carboy and I can get this tubing at my local Home Depot. I direct the tube into a 2 Gal bucket with about 1/2 Gal of sanitizer made with Sodium Metibisulfite and water.

Since I am working with all juice and no fruit pulp I do not need to stir the pulp or punch down the cap daily. A closed fermentation system is just another way to keep out bad bacteria and fruit flies and limit exposure to oxygen. I shake the carboy well as I mix all of the ingredients too make sure it is well oxygenated. This will insure there is enough oxygen to get the yeast started. Once the fermentation is active the yeast is anaerobic and does not need oxygen that can add oxidized or stale flavors to light wines. When the active fermentation slows I will replace the Blow-Off tube with a traditional airlock. When the fermentation is finished I will rack the new wine into several small glass jugs under airlocks to clear.

Activity was observed within a few hours and was very active in 24 hours.

10/24 Fermentation appeared to be slowing so I replaced the Blow-Off tube with an Airlock.

Final S.G. at bottling was 0.990 that = 14.6% alcohol by volume. I added 1/2 cup priming sugar and bottled in 21 oz. beer bottles with crown caps. I will update after 4 weeks aging.