Bottling the Green Apple

Oh it has been a while now since the Green Apple started to ferment and become wine, but the wait was realy worth it!.

I finished steralizing all the bottles and got the racking cane out and began to fill the bottles. With Help from my wonderful wife of course, the operation went very fast and smoothly. She would fill the bottles and I would Cork and put them away.

We were left with about half a bottles worth of Green Apple Reisling which we all enjoyed that evening after the bottling.

The wine is crystal clear, and smells very much like Green Apples. There is a hint of Sulfites left but that should go away after a little while, during the aging process.

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning and putting away the Wine making equipment for the holidays. We have run out of room around the apartment to keep the stuff handy to make another batch of brew and with the holidays it will just get in the way. So expect to hear from me again after the new year, to begin a new batch of brew. I think I will try my hand at Mead next. I love the taste of a nice mellow Honey wine.

Till next year
Have a safe and happy holiday!

Trouble with the Green Apple Reisling

A little problem with the Green Apple Reisling kit from Island Mist.

The wine is week and not as Apple-y tasting as my last batch.

As it turns out the kit has a new set of instructions in the box, which I followed to the letter, and the new instructions tell you to fill the primary fermentor with 6 US gal. Instead of the 5 like I made last time. So following the instructions like a good brewer I made a 6 Gal. batch instead of a 5 gal. batch.

I went to the local Beer and Wine Making pantry to discus the weak wine, and the owner told me that she has instructed all her employees to tell customers that purchase the Island Mist kits to make 5 gal batches instead of the 6 gal batches per the instructions. Guess I must have missed that advice when I bought the kit.

In any event they have a Green Apple extract (2 oz.) to add to the wine to bring out the apple flavor but I am still worried about the weak wine part.

I will have decided that during the bottling phase (next week) I will purchase a bottle or two of my favorite Reisling wine, and remove some of the weak wine, and blend in some store bought wine, and add the Green Apple extract to bring the wine back up to my liking.

The Island mist kits have always been a favorite at our home, and an important lesson can be had here. Some times the instructions are not exactly correct and it is up to us, the good wine and beer brewers to experiment with.

Will let you know how the Green Apple turns out after the bottling. Also will be bottling the Meza Luna Red as well, and this is tasting wonderful!