Apple Wine

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

We are making - or trying to make - some apple wine and I don't think it's going well!
Firstly, we didn't have quite enough to fill a demijohn so our demijohn is only half full, apparently the more air inside the DJ the worse it is?
Secondly, the recipe called for the apples to be cooked and then left to ferment for a few days (I put in yeast and other ingredients as directed) which I did in our aluminium jam making pan. I have since read fermenting fruits should not be in metal containers.
Since the wine went into the DJ it has not seemed to do a lot and we've not seen a single bubble come through the airlock. I thought this was possibly because most of the fermenting was done in the pan and it was just too slow for us to notice?
I can see bubbles rising to the top of the liquid so there's definitely gases being made!
Is the wine OK to keep? Is there anything I should do?
We have other wines on the go but we're new to it all so any advice would be great.
Thanks!

[pumpy]

Sorry, but i'm not really knowlegable enough to help...... but there are plenty of others here who will know, so hang on in there!!

[MKG]

Whew - quite a lot in there

First of all, let's kill off the "air in demijohn" fallacy. There is no more chance of having excess bacteria in a half-full demijohn than there is in a full one. As your wine ferments, it gives off carbon dioxide which, being heavier than air, displaces any air in the gap above the wine. Nasty microbes DO NOT like carbon dioxide. So, ferment away in half-full demijohns if you like. The confusion comes because it isn't a good thing to store FINISHED wine in half-empty vessels. Oxygen will then get in and start off certain chemical processes which will make the wine taste very different (not always badly - this is deliberately done in sherry manufacture). Right - ferment OK, store not OK.

This is the first time I've heard of a recipe which tells you to cook your apples first. I'm not saying it won't work, but it will certainly increase pectin extraction by quite a lot, and you may well get a cloudy wine as a result.

Metal containers are usually a no-no, but aluminium is a bit of a special case (think about that preserving pan). Unless you attacked the pan with a Brillo immediately before cooking your apples, there'll be a coating of aluminium oxide on the surface and this provides a lot of protection. You should be OK.

If you can see bubbles in the liquid, then it is fermenting. Probably what's happened is that you haven't got a perfect seal between either a) the demijohn and the bung or b) the bung and the airlock. Take the lot off, give the airlock an extra push into the bung and then give the bung a good push into the demijohn.

I'm fascinated by your recipe - let's all have a look at it.

Mike

[Pumpkin&Piglet]

http://www.wine-making-guides.com/apple_wine.html

This is the recipe I'm using

I forgot to mention this particular demijohn is plastic so we wondered if the screw lid on it just didn't seal correctly? But i will take it all off a put it back on taking extra care to see if this helps.

Thanks very much for the help!