Apple wine, to rack, or not to rack?

[Appleyard]

Ooh, apple wine! Lovely I've got some of that plipping away. If I can read what I wrote correctly, OG was 1.050 (Stardate unknown), and by Nov 1st it was 1.010, thgen I bunged in 3,75kg of sugar, giving 1.060, and on Nov 6th it had gone down to 1.042, now it'sstill plipping away on the dresser, about 1 plip every 12 seconds, whatever that means, at about 15C. Another lot was OG1.050 and had 2kg of sugar. I wonder what will happen.

Anyway the question, now the demijohns have a sediment at the bottom, two or three mil, not much as it was fermented in 25L lots in buckets. Should I rack? What are the pros and cons?

 

[Hagrid]

I’d probably hang fire a bit longer. Sediment can give some off flavours if it’s left on them too long (I believe) but 2-3mm shouldn’t make much of any difference.
It can sometimes stimulate the yeast to turn the music up at their rave a party and little bit harder but you also lose some wine to the sludge at the bottom.
Personally, I wouldn’t rush. Time and doing nothing is often your friend in brewing.

 

[johncrobinson]

Not yet.!!!

 

[lupinehorror]

yup...leave it a bit

 

[Taff]

Got to ask, why so much sugar? Does it all brew out?

 

[Appleyard]

I thought I might have put too little in it!

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

So how much sugar is in the 25l altogether?

 

[Appleyard]

So how much sugar is in the 25l altogether?

50L in fact.

• The first 25L lot had an OG of 1050, and had 3.75kg of sugar added.
• The next 25L lot had an OG of 1060 and 2kg of sugar added (Edit: OP said OG 1050 - it was wrong, it was 1060).

Both had some nutrient in, can't remember how much, probably 1tsp/5l. It's now all in demijohns (labelled!) and plipping away.


Any observations will be most welcome!

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

So that’s like 15% in the first one and 12% in the second, right?

not accounting for the sugar in the apple juice?

 

[Appleyard]

So that’s like 15% in the first one and 12% in the second, right?

not accounting for the sugar in the apple juice?

Don't quite know what that means. sorry.To explain, the apple juice was made from freshly-pressed pulped apples, from my garden and elsewhere; the OG stated is the OG of the pure juice, before the sugar (in quantity given) was tipped in. What are these percentages to do with/how calculated?

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Lol I was attempting to calculate the alcohol percentage of each 25l based on the OG you gave and the extra sugar you added. Although I suspect I am wildly out with my guesses lol

And I did not know the sugar in the pressed apple juice so I could not add that in my working out, although having reread it I see now that that was already in the OG. Lol I don’t usually know the OG of my wine, only the amount of sugar.

I used a hydrometer table I have saved which I use to work out what percentage I want for my wine. Mine is usually approximately 1250g sugar per gallon.

 

[Tony Palmer]

Hi, A starting gravity of 1050 SG there is 130 g sugar per Litre so that's 25 x 130 g = 3250 grams in 25Litre equivalent to 7.8%ABV. You then added 3750 grams of sugar ( in future never add more than 1Kg at a time, to "bump" up the ABV. This also lets you gauge fermentation progress). With a new total of 3250 + 3750 you have 7Kg sugar equivalent. Now forgetting about the solution divisor that would calculate as 16.8% ABV assuming you ferment to dryness. I suspect it might stick at a higher finishing gravity. Good luck. Tony

 

[Appleyard]

This all makes my head go around. I seem to remember Mr Berry added 3lbs of sugar per gallon, but I don't think he used all juice. I used an an online OG to Brix conversion calculator giving ABV and an sugar to potential alcohol one afterwards:

Brew1 1.050 is 12.4 Brix = potential 6.6 ABV
Brew2 1.060 is 14.7 Brix = potential 8% ABV

Using sugar to ABV calculator:

B1 had 3.75kg sugar in 25l = 8.8% ABV
B2 had 2 kg sugar in 25l = 4.7ABV

Combining and using a fudge factor of 0.85 for sugar conversion:

B1 = 6.6 + 8.8 = 15.4 then x 0.85 = 12.24 ABV
B2 = 8 + 4.7 = 12.7 then x 0.85 = 10.8 ABV

How did you two do it? Whose is this hydrometer table? Where is that equivalence calculator? What is that solution divisor? I'm not wonderful at calculations of this sort. Talking Heads seems appropriate here.

"And you may ask yourself, "Am I right? Am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?""

I used "Gervin Universal wine yeast" from Wilko.

 

[Tony Palmer]

Hi Appleyard,

Sorry to confuse. I was a professional brewer before retirement. I have used a general conversion factor, as used by home winemakers. The Bible for this is Gerry Fowles Must reference. In Brew 1 you correctly state that 1050 OG is 12.4 Brix /Plato. That is a wt/wt measurement. However if you use the wt/volume factor which you are, quoting wt of sugar in 25 Litres the figure is 13 Plato i.e. 130g/Litre (this is the so called solution divisor. I don't want to get too technical on you but if you take 1 Litre of water and dissolve sugar in it the volume expands to allow the sugar to dissolve. This becomes much more marked at higher strengths and is called the solution divisor) There are many ways to calculate the ABV from these figures but a normal conversion would yield about 7.8% Abv from your 1050 juice. Now this assumes all 1050 solution dissolved is 100% fermentable and as you used real apples this is probably not the case. However you may have/should have used enzymes to break up the apple juice and that I do not know. When you add 3750 g additionally to your 25 litres (again it depends how you do this. e.g was it say 21 Litres to which you added 4Litres of sugar juice containing the 3750g - which is the best way to do this operation but in smaller lots) Assuming the volume was kept at 25 L then you are adding about 9% Abv. Happy Xmas and my apologies for the lecture.

Tony

 

[johncrobinson]

Many of the recipes in Mr Berry's books were well over sugared.There must have been a fad for drinking alcoholic syrup in those days.

For wines about 12% you need about 1kg (1bag) of sugar in the gallon.

Carton apple juice already contains about half of the required sugar so in reality you will need LESS than this.