Pulp Fermentaiton vs Juice for Apples

I don;t have an answer - but rather share your question. I make a pear wine using cut fruit added (suspended in a mesh bag) to appropriate amounts of water, sugar, and acid - and then add the magic ingredient of pectic enzyme to help break down the fruit and allow the yeast to get at the sugars.

I also have a couple trees full of apples - but don;t have a quality apple crusher. Was wondering if I could use the same technique you suggest; cut up apples, press out what juice I can in my basket press, then add the pulp to the juice (in a mesh bag) along with some pectic enzyme to allow all the fruit sugars to contribute. Also seems to make sense in that most of us have dessert apples rather than true cider apples - and the inclusion of the skins in the primary would seem to be warranted for their tannins.

I had an uncle in law (sadly passed) that made apple wine (appel woi) in Germany every year near Frankfurt, the apple wine region of Germany. He used to kid me about my wine making because I added stuff and measured stuff and tinkered with it. All he did was go to the village apple crusher and by juice and pulp all mixed up and just let it sit. Added nothing, siphoned or strained off the pulp when finished and put under an airlock. Of course he benefite from local wild yeast that was know to be work well. I can't say how fine the apples were crushed, whether it was pulp or chunks

His wine was wonderful. Cloudy as hell. Unfiltered, unfined, unsulfited, just let go.

Dan

Bryce wrote:

I always did the latter. I found my wine to be rather high in tannin, but the apples were grown in Edmonton, and more northern latitudes are said to give apples more tannin than southern ones.

When I first started making wine, I fermented apples on the pulp and the wine was good. Then I learned it was better just fermenting the juice. The wine was not so good. Recently I tasted some apple wine in Michigan. The winemaker said he fermented on the pulp for quite some time. The wine was good. Your mileage may vary.

I have made it both ways. I prefer making it on the pulp rather than using juice. I also have a friend who has made it both ways and he prefers it on the pulp. I just cut my apples up, dumpt them in the bucket with enzyme and strat it going. After 5 days or so the cut up apples will have broken down and I press them and put them in secondary. Much like making grape wine.

Now if you want to make hard cider rather than wine, that is different. Then Juice is the way to go.

Ray

One of the golden rules I learnt, regarding fermentation on apple pulp, is dont do it! You will have problems filtering. Apple pulp is very fine in suspension. Also, if you leave it too long on the pulp you get off-flavours.

I have always soaked apple quarters in water for 2 to 3 days, strained the liquid and fermented that. I have found that an apple selection is best, e.g. half eaters, quarter cooking and a quarter crab-apple.

I did try pressing out the juice, but I found the result very acid. I had to add water to reduce the acid. YMMV with the type of apple.

My results have been the opposite and a winery in Michigan ferments the apples on the pulp for an extended period and the results are very good.

as I have variety of apple trees growing in my yard, I tried to make a batch last year. I juiced the apples with an electric store bought juicer, cored apples in top, juice out bottom and pulp out the side. This worked wonderfully, and gave me a cloudy mess of raw apple juice. I did this in batches until I had enough for about 4 gallons of wine. I froze the juice in cleaned welch's 64-oz bottles. I left the whole batch out to thaw before work one morning and when I got home, I heated the juice, separated the scum off the top and added the warm juice to primary (I did not boil the juice) I started with about 6.5% PA so I added sugar to warm juice to 1.090. It fermented quickly, and took forever to clear even after secondary ferment was complete. It is still a bit cloudy, so the juice/pulp clearing issue does not strike as a difference to me. I will double the amount of pectic enzyme next time and see if I can slow the primary ferment down a little bit.

The wine is quite drinkable now, fermented dry, and I want to dabble at sweetening, hence my post in other threads.

Long and short... I will try again maybe this year, more likely next year with two different batches. One on pulp and another juiced with my modifications. Then I'll have an active comparison.

Greg, Erie, PA

Well with the batch of apples that I picked I did a 4 gallon batch from the juice. I will see how it comes out.

I am going to be doing the same thing in another week or two. The first variety of apples was falling of the tree. And the other two were just getting ripe. So I'll take same variety of apples and do a few gallon batch of each. In a years time I'll have a taste-off with some friends and I'll post the results....

Thanks everyone for your help.

Bryce