making crab apple wine today - need some advice please!

[marc]

hi folks
got a coupla bags of crab apples last weekend and decided to tear into making some wine today. I say 'tear into it' cause I started into it without bothering to read any recipies. I thought I'd remember it all since last year. I spent the last couple of hours pulping and then juicing the crap apples. I got about 9 litres of juice. i then went a chucked the pulps into my compost heap. ...Then I decided to read a recipie, and now realise i should be leaving the pulped apples in to ferment and only then putting them through the press.

so now I've gone back to my compost heap and scopped a load of them back out. so this is my ingredient list. Can someone please advise what ratios of water I need to add to this lot?

9 litres of (very bitter but lovely) juice.
a 25ltr bucket full to about the 20ltr mark full of the pulped crab apples.


also have a question regarding the sanitation. I presume I have to sanitse the apple juice itself somehow? If I add a couple of campden tablets to the brew is that ok?

how much wine can I expec to make from the above?
how much water will I add?
how many campden tablets?
anything else nice in there? I think I added a load of raisans last year.

any guidance is appreciated. thanks folks

[Tom]

Wow! Off the compost heap, I'd definitely be getting one campden tablet / gallon in there, plus an extra one for luck!

Don't add yeast for 24 hrs then.

I don't know much about what you're doing, except that the more tannin there is the longer it will need to mature. You might be able to knock some of it out with finings post fermentation, though.

I'd carry on as per cider though, and juice the apples first, then measure the gravity, and if you want to add any water, consider bringing back up to the OG with sugar.

Compost heap though!

[Will_D]

Hmmmm, Rescued off of the Compost Heap?

Brave Man, you will probably end upwith a wondrful wine!

But back to basics:

Crab Apples are not grapes or apples - therefore you cannot scrat and press them!

Like most country wines made from fruits:

Freeze them if you can: This breaks down the cell walls when you defrost them

Once thawed ( or not ) add yeast and enzymes and ferment for 3 to 5 days.

Then you press or strain the juice

Then add more sugars

HTH Will