Hi,
I decided to give apricot wine a go after finding our tree produced more fruit than could be freshly eaten, dried or made into jam.
Previously I've only made spirits from fruit like plums, but after hearing apricot wine was a thing I though I'd give it a go.
Unfortunately it appears I've read far too little before commencing my exercise and am now at a point where I'm not sure which way to go.
What I've done and where I'm at:-
1. 11kg of de-seeded apricots (from over a couple of years, all were frozen, which is apparently good for getting the flavor out).
2. Added the apricots, 6kg of dissolved sugar and water to make 26L (in a 30L barrel) which gave a Brix of 24 (which I believe should produce an about 14% alcohol).
3. Added about 8 campden tablets and let sit for 24 hours.
4. Added packet of Mangrove Jacks MA33 wine yeast.
5. Started fermenting no worries at an average temperature of about 22 degrees C. Was in the bathroom, not wrapped to keep in the dark (have since read I probably should have covered it).
6. Added 3 tea spoons of citric acid after about a week after reading somewhere it was a good thing to do. Fermentation slowed initially but picked up again soon after.
7. I left it to continue fermenting in that state for 3 weeks. The fermentation hadn't stopped, but was down to bubbling about once a minute.
8. I decided to filter the wine and re-barrel it after the 3 weeks. Mostly because I was concerned it was taking so long. But now after reading what I could find I possibly should have done that after a week.
The issue I had and now have is the filtering of the wine pulp and concerns for the taste due to not being in the dark and remaining dead yeast.
For filtering, I initially tried to use muslin cloth, but the wine is quite thick and pretty much nothing when through the cloth. So I staged the filtering, first a kitchen sieve, then a nylon bag and finally a nylon stocking.
But even after that it is still like a syrup. (on a side note the fermentation has pretty much stopped about a day after doing that).
Questions
1. Is it normal to have such a thick syrup?
2. Is it possible to get something like this clear? If yes, how to I proceed (fining)?
3. Should I have removed/filtered the pulp earlier?
4. Should I have left the apricots in a stocking to ferment and poke it every day as a way to minimise the pulp issue I have now?
5. Should I have racked earlier? Will 3 weeks have caused issues with the taste due to things like dead yeast.
6. Would the filtering I've done have removed the dead yeast (I'm assuming not)? If not, how do I get it out of the syrup I have?
Thanks for reading my issues and any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Markus
I decided to give apricot wine a go after finding our tree produced more fruit than could be freshly eaten, dried or made into jam.
Previously I've only made spirits from fruit like plums, but after hearing apricot wine was a thing I though I'd give it a go.
Unfortunately it appears I've read far too little before commencing my exercise and am now at a point where I'm not sure which way to go.
What I've done and where I'm at:-
1. 11kg of de-seeded apricots (from over a couple of years, all were frozen, which is apparently good for getting the flavor out).
2. Added the apricots, 6kg of dissolved sugar and water to make 26L (in a 30L barrel) which gave a Brix of 24 (which I believe should produce an about 14% alcohol).
3. Added about 8 campden tablets and let sit for 24 hours.
4. Added packet of Mangrove Jacks MA33 wine yeast.
5. Started fermenting no worries at an average temperature of about 22 degrees C. Was in the bathroom, not wrapped to keep in the dark (have since read I probably should have covered it).
6. Added 3 tea spoons of citric acid after about a week after reading somewhere it was a good thing to do. Fermentation slowed initially but picked up again soon after.
7. I left it to continue fermenting in that state for 3 weeks. The fermentation hadn't stopped, but was down to bubbling about once a minute.
8. I decided to filter the wine and re-barrel it after the 3 weeks. Mostly because I was concerned it was taking so long. But now after reading what I could find I possibly should have done that after a week.
The issue I had and now have is the filtering of the wine pulp and concerns for the taste due to not being in the dark and remaining dead yeast.
For filtering, I initially tried to use muslin cloth, but the wine is quite thick and pretty much nothing when through the cloth. So I staged the filtering, first a kitchen sieve, then a nylon bag and finally a nylon stocking.
But even after that it is still like a syrup. (on a side note the fermentation has pretty much stopped about a day after doing that).
Questions
1. Is it normal to have such a thick syrup?
2. Is it possible to get something like this clear? If yes, how to I proceed (fining)?
3. Should I have removed/filtered the pulp earlier?
4. Should I have left the apricots in a stocking to ferment and poke it every day as a way to minimise the pulp issue I have now?
5. Should I have racked earlier? Will 3 weeks have caused issues with the taste due to things like dead yeast.
6. Would the filtering I've done have removed the dead yeast (I'm assuming not)? If not, how do I get it out of the syrup I have?
Thanks for reading my issues and any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Markus
