Crabapple Wine

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 pounds crabapples (about 6 quarts)
• water
• 2 campden tablets
• 1/4 teaspoon pectic enzyme
• 1 package wine yeast
• 1 teaspoon nutrients
• 3 pounds granulated sugar (about 6 3/4 cups)
• honey

METHOD:

1. Crush apples — DO NOT cut seeds open. Place in primary fermentor. Add enough water to cover apples. Crush and stir in campden tablets. Add pectic enzyme and stir well. Let sit overnight.
2. The next day, add yeast and nutrients. Stir. Leave for 5 days, stirring each day.
3. On the 6th day, strain and discard apples. Add sugar. Make up to one gallon with water. Specific Gravity should be 1.100. Put into secondary fermentor with an airlock. Three weeks after fermentation has stopped, siphon off the lees. Mix1/2 cup honey with 1 cup wine. Stir honey mixture back into the wine. Put back into secondary fermentor. Fermentation should begin again. If it does not, add1/2 teaspoon nutrients.
4. If you want a sweet wine, repeat the honey addition one or two more times, until fermentation does not start again when honey is added. For a dry wine, rack every three months and do not add more honey.
5. When wine is 6 to 12 months old, bottle. Wine is ready to drink one year after the date the batch was started.
6. NOTE: The honey gives this wine a smoothness that cannot be achieved as well with just sugar. The drawback is that honey will create more sediment in the bottle if not racked every three months, making long-term storage more of a problem. Try boiling the honey with water (instead of dissolving it in wine). Skim off the foam until no more foam forms. Cool the honey mixture before adding to the wine.