I am a beginning winemaker and decided to start with an apple cider.

I placed the tannins and acide and campden into a jug of natural apple
juice with no preservatives and airlocked it. I am using the original
jug the juice came in. Is this a bad idea?

I also got another identical jug and this one I have the same
ingredients as the previous one except that I am using turbo yeast with
this one. I expect the first one to go bubbling along for quite some
time. Jack Keller says 60 days or more. But the turbo yeast one
should do its job and stop in how long? It is still going after a week
or more.

I did the turbo yeast as an experiment and I dont expect to get a good
flavor from it. If it is too nasty to drink I figure I can always
distill the alcohol out of it (when I go to New Zealand, that is).

I used ec-118 yeast in the first jug, btw.

Also, as a beginner, is it better to start with making a grape wine as
opposed to a country wine, or vice versa?

As long as you left some room for the fermetation it's ok, 75% full is
pushing it as a rule of thumb.

> I am using the original
> jug the juice came in. Is this a bad idea?
>

Most wines are mostly fermented withing 2 weeks unless you cold
ferment.

> Jack Keller says 60 days or more. But the turbo yeast one
> should do its job and stop in how long? It is still going after a week
> or more.

No experience with turbo yeast, I think it's just more alcohol tolerant
that most.

> I did the turbo yeast as an experiment and I dont expect to get a good
> flavor from it. If it is too nasty to drink I figure I can always
> distill the alcohol out of it (when I go to New Zealand, that is).

Good general purpose yeast

> I used ec-118 yeast in the first jug, btw.

Make what you like, always. Grape wines tend to be more naturally
balanced as to sugar and acid as a rule so may be easier to make.
Country wines usually require some adjustment to sugar and acid so
usually need measurements.

Joe

> Also, as a beginner, is it better to start with making a grape wine as
> opposed to a country wine, or vice versa?

mdginzo wrote:
> I am a beginning winemaker and decided to start with an apple cider.
>

If you didn't add any sugar, you're not going to get a lot of alcohol.
My calculations with my current batch of cider are at about 8%, and I
added rasins, apple juice concentrate, and priming sugar. It was
pretty low in alcohol when I sampled it before bottling.

>
> I did the turbo yeast as an experiment and I dont expect to get a good
> flavor from it. If it is too nasty to drink I figure I can always
> distill the alcohol out of it (when I go to New Zealand, that is).
>
> I used ec-118 yeast in the first jug, btw.

Both yeasts are good choices for high alcohol, but you will have to
feed it some sugar. A little googleing on wine making should let you
know what amount of sugar you'll need. You're likely to get a shot
glass worth of apple jack out of a gallon of distilled cider as you
have it now -- once you get it to New Zealand.

>
> Also, as a beginner, is it better to start with making a grape wine as
> opposed to a country wine, or vice versa?

Either works. If you're going to buy turbo yeast or lavin ec-1118, you
should have gotten a hydrometer, and measured how much sugar was there.
It would have come with a table to let you know what amount of alcohol
to expect.

Ok, I must be missing something here - why would you want more than 8%
alcohol for apple cider anyway? Most of the commercial ciders I've seen
are around 6%.

EC1118 is often used with ciders, when cold fermented, and that sounds
like what mdginzo is doing, otherwise there is no way the ferment with
that yeast would take 60 days - Joe already covered this.

Pp

wrote:
> mdginzo wrote:
> > I am a beginning winemaker and decided to start with an apple cider.
> >
>
> If you didn't add any sugar, you're not going to get a lot of alcohol.
> My calculations with my current batch of cider are at about 8%, and I
> added rasins, apple juice concentrate, and priming sugar. It was
> pretty low in alcohol when I sampled it before bottling.
>
> >
> > I did the turbo yeast as an experiment and I dont expect to get a good
> > flavor from it. If it is too nasty to drink I figure I can always
> > distill the alcohol out of it (when I go to New Zealand, that is).
> >
> > I used ec-118 yeast in the first jug, btw.
>
> Both yeasts are good choices for high alcohol, but you will have to
> feed it some sugar. A little googleing on wine making should let you
> know what amount of sugar you'll need. You're likely to get a shot
> glass worth of apple jack out of a gallon of distilled cider as you
> have it now -- once you get it to New Zealand.
>
> >
> > Also, as a beginner, is it better to start with making a grape wine as
> > opposed to a country wine, or vice versa?
>
> Either works. If you're going to buy turbo yeast or lavin ec-1118, you
> should have gotten a hydrometer, and measured how much sugar was there.
> It would have come with a table to let you know what amount of alcohol
> to expect.

I added about 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each gallon. Like I said, I was
following a recipe from Jack keller. I have a hydrometer, but my eyes
are bad at the moment, so i am waiting for cataract surgery before I
get into using it. Thanks.

mdginzo wrote:
> I added about 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each gallon. Like I said, I was
> following a recipe from Jack keller. I have a hydrometer, but my eyes
> are bad at the moment, so i am waiting for cataract surgery before I
> get into using it. Thanks.

Haven't seen that recipe, but 2.5 cups of sugar per gallon sounds like
you're making an apple wine rather than cider because you'll end up
with alcohol at around 12% or higher, depending how much natural sugar
was in the juice. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's what you
expect.

Pp

pp wrote:
> mdginzo wrote:
> > I added about 2 1/2 cups of sugar to each gallon. Like I said, I was
> > following a recipe from Jack keller. I have a hydrometer, but my eyes
> > are bad at the moment, so i am waiting for cataract surgery before I
> > get into using it. Thanks.
>
> Haven't seen that recipe, but 2.5 cups of sugar per gallon sounds like
> you're making an apple wine rather than cider because you'll end up
> with alcohol at around 12% or higher, depending how much natural sugar
> was in the juice. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's what you
> expect.
>
> Pp

Sorry, I take that back, I was reading "lbs" instead of "cups". Cups
are probably okay for a cider.

Pp