Wash the apples. Cut and remove the bad pieces. Do not peel off the skin or core them.
Cut the apples into pieces and put them into a mincer. Mince well. Put the minced apples into a large bowl and pour 1 1/2 gallons of cold water over them. Cover the bowl and leave for 1 week, but stir well every day using a wooden spoon.
After 1 week, strain the liquid off through muslin into another bowl or jug. Add 3 pounds of granulated sugar and juice and grated rind of 2 lemons and 1 orange. Stir well until all of the sugar has dissolved, then cover the bowl and leave for 24 hours. It's now ready to strain and bottle.
This is a delicious fruit drink when it is first made and if you have children, they will love it and it is quite safe for them. It does, however, start to turn into wine after the first week or so.
If you leave it for 4 months, you will find it has turned into a very clear pleasant tasting wine. Cork the bottles rather loosely at the first and gently push them in as the wine stops working. This recipe will make 1 gallon of wine.
CAUTION: Because of the no yeast factor, care should be used in its making.
By Irishwitch from Aurora, CO
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Now that the new crop of apples is in, I want to make the apple wine from the recipe posted in January 2011. Do the apples need to soak in a glass container? Would a plastic bucket work? A 1 gallon jug is my largest size and after adding the gallon and one half water to the 3 and one half lbs. of minced apples, my gallon jar will not work. I do not believe a large stainless steel pot would work due to the acidity. Any suggestion for a container to soak apples and water in would be appreciated.
By Frances Godwin from Rockingham, NC
My husband makes home made wine, usually 5 gallons at a time. He uses both glass and plastic containers. A new plastic pail or small trash can would work well. Just make sure you sterilize it before filling.
It would be safe to soak the apples and water in plastic but make sure it's food grade recycle #2, 4 or 5. All the other food grade #'s leach harmful chemicals after the one time (what was originally held in them) use.
Do NOT use-non food grade containers at all! All containers such as waste baskets, kitty litter containers, buckets or tubs you might purchase for storage or cleaning, etc. are made with different chemicals and they all leach harmful chemicals into food and beverages.
You could ask a local bakery, deli or restuarant if they would give you one or more of their empty buckets. I am sure they would be happy to see them recycled rather than having to dispose of them. Make sure they actually held food and not non-food items.
Stainless steel is non-reactive so you don't need to worry about the acidity. Don't use plastic pails or garbage cans because the plastic in them is not food grade.
I made apple wine one year and used a plastic ice chest and it worked fine.It held a double batch perfectly and even had a cover that fit. The wine tasted great and now has a lot of kick to it.
