Apple Ephemere Clone Attempt - Page 2

GermanBlood · 08-28-2009, 03:41 AM

Stormrider - just recently I racked to secondary your receipe above except with StephenWein yeast to make it a little different. I used a hand-crank tupperware food dicer to break the 4.5 lbs of apples into aprox 1cm cubes. Waiting now for it to come out of secondary. I also used a healthy amount of iodine cleansing. I will say though, don't do this in secondary if you're planning on putting chopped apples into the carboy. It took me almost 45 min just trying to get the little sticky apple chunks into the neck of the carboy. I will have to relook at possibly pitching at primary fermentation into the bucket to make it a lot easier. My version of brewing is always Keep It Simple Stupid... I'll let you know how it turns out...

jjp36 · 08-28-2009, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GermanBlood

... StephenWein yeast to make it a little different.

I'm guessing you mean the weihenstephaner yeast (wyeast 3068)?
If so, the beer could probably still be good, but you'll be missing a lot of the Belgian characteristics that show up in Ephemere.

zandrsn · 02-07-2012, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormrider51

I'm working on cloning Ephemere too. I started brewing about 6 years ago and have tried anything and everything that sounded good. I've come to especially like Belgian brews because of the "anything goes" attitude. When I discovered Ephemere I knew I had to clone it. I agree that it is basically a Belgian White with apples. With a little advice from Scott at Austin Homebrew I came up with the following recipe as a starting point:

1.25 lbs Belgian Pilsner, 1 lb White Wheat Malt, 0.5 lb Flaked Wheat

5 lbs Liquid Wheat Extract

1.5 oz Strissel Spalt Hops

0.5 oz crushed Coriander

0.5 oz Bitter Orange Peel

4.5 lbs Granny Smith Apples

White Labs Belgian Wit Ale yeast (WLP400)

The mini-mash steeping time is 45 minutes at about 155 F. Drain bag and sparge. Bring wort to boiling and add malt extract. Bring back to boil and add 1 oz Strissel Spalt hops. (Note: Boil is only 30 minutes.) At 15 minutes add Coriander and bitter orange peel. At 5 minutes remaining add 0.5 oz Strissel Spalt hops. Cool down, add water for 5.5 gal, pitch yeast, and seal it up.

I added the apples on Day 3 of primary fermentation. I peeled, cored, and diced the apples before putting them in a sturdy zip lock bag and partially freezing them. The partial freezing makes the next step easier. Crush the apple chunks, let them thaw completely, and add to the wort.

After primary and secondary time I kegged and force carbonated the beer. I ran out of the Scottish Ale that was occupying one half of my kegerator about a week later and the Ephemere clone took its place. In other words, I didn't give it a lot of ageing time!

Yesterday I filled a growler with the homebrew and bought a couple bottles of the real thing before heading off to the homebrew shop for a little comparison test. The consensus was that the real thing had more apple aroma and taste but my clone had more mouthfeel. All agreed that it was darned good beer. My wife said she likes my version better but then she is prejudiced.

I'm doing another batch today. All will be done the same until it comes to adding the apples. This time I will skip the freezing and crushing in favor of just making a puree in the food processor. I will also wait until I rack the beer over into the secondary before addig the apples. Wish me luck.

John

Hey Stormrider, I know this an old thread, but I was wondering what temp you fermented your ephemere clone at. Thanks!

Stormrider51 · 02-07-2012, 03:43 AM

Belgian beers are normally brewed at room temp. That's what I do. My house is fairly well insulated and we maintain the temp at around 70 F in the winter and 76 F in the summer months. I really don't worry about it much since I never brew lagers. I've repeated the Ephemere clone several times and always liked it. I also did a variation where I replaced the Granny Smith apples with dried sour cherries and that one was a big hit with friends and family.

John

zandrsn · 02-07-2012, 05:23 PM

Great, thanks for the information. Looks like a great recipe!

westerville · 02-07-2012, 08:18 PM

The mini-mash steeping time is 45 minutes at about 155 F. Drain bag and sparge. Bring wort to boiling and add malt extract. Bring back to boil and add 1 oz Strissel Spalt hops. (Note: Boil is only 30 minutes.) At 15 minutes add Coriander and bitter orange peel. At 5 minutes remaining add 0.5 oz Strissel Spalt hops. Cool down, add water for 5.5 gal, pitch yeast, and seal it up.

I added the apples on Day 3 of primary fermentation. I peeled, cored, and diced the apples before putting them in a sturdy zip lock bag and partially freezing them. The partial freezing makes the next step easier. Crush the apple chunks, let them thaw completely, and add to the wort.

After primary and secondary time I kegged and force carbonated the beer. I ran out of the Scottish Ale that was occupying one half of my kegerator about a week later and the Ephemere clone took its place. In other words, I didn't give it a lot of ageing time!

Yesterday I filled a growler with the homebrew and bought a couple bottles of the real thing before heading off to the homebrew shop for a little comparison test. The consensus was that the real thing had more apple aroma and taste but my clone had more mouthfeel. All agreed that it was darned good beer. My wife said she likes my version better but then she is prejudiced.

I'm doing another batch today. All will be done the same until it comes to adding the apples. This time I will skip the freezing and crushing in favor of just making a puree in the food processor. I will also wait until I rack the beer over into the secondary before addig the apples. Wish me luck.

John[/QUOTE]

have this in a primary right now and it smells good even without the apples. Figured I'd go two weeks in the primary but not sure how long to leave in secondary/on the apples? Thanks for posting.

Stormrider51 · 02-07-2012, 08:44 PM

I consider primary fermentation over when the airlock is down to one bubble about every 30 seconds. I think you will find that the addition of the apples (or cherries or whatever fruit you decide to try) kicks off another round of fermentation. In every batch I've made the second fermentation, as judged by the bubbling rate in the airlock, is slower and lasts longer than the primary one. Once again, when the bubble rate gets down to about one every thirty seconds I go ahead and keg.

As sort of a side note, I could be completely wrong but it has never made sense to me to set some arbitrary amount of time for the wort/beer to remain in primary or secondary. I let the yeast tell me when they are done. If I have any doubt I use my wine thief to draw up enough beer to check the specific gravity. If it's where I expect it to be in the finished beer then I know I'm good to go. Otherwise the beer needs more time regardless of how slowly the bubbles are coming.

John

westerville · 03-23-2012, 03:50 PM

We are drinking this right now and it is awesome. Super drinkable and refreshing as hell. We racked out of the primary onto the apple chucks/peels and let sit for another two weeks. We used a large paint strainer bag to hold the apples in the secondary bucket. It makes clean up and kegging super easy. We are making another batch next week. Thanks again.

theshoe82 · 04-20-2012, 03:03 PM

I am going to give this a shot when it gets a little warmer in my neck of the woods. My SWMBO loves Ephemere so this may go into the normal rotation.