Apfelwein... carb vs. non-carbonation
 

Thinking of making a batch...

How many have not carbonated their Apfelwein, and what is the effect on taste?


For a non-carb Apfelwein is it OK to bottle in wine bottles/corks?


My thinking is to carb part of the batch, and have some non-carb in wine bottles as a try-out.

That's what I did on my first batch - I split it half and half to see which one I preferred. Carbonated won, BTW. They're both good, don't get me wrong ...

Give it a shot ... it's all about seeing what style you prefer. :)

i did my first batch non carbed and i loved it but def think carbed would be even better wine bottles and corks are fine for non carbed

For non carbed is it ok to just use regular bottles? Maybe use the oxy caps to help reduce the oxygen in the headspace?

I've done both carbed and non-carbed, I prefer carbed. For bottles, you can use regular wine bottles. If you're worried about oxidation and you have a kegging setup just purge the bottles with a little co2 before filling. Or, just drink it fast enough that you don't need to worry about oxidation.

Carb it! Carb it! Carb it! :rockin:

We just tasted our first batch of the stuff tonight, and hands down love it! My daughter and I bottled it with 5 oz of corn sugar three weeks ago. It is wonderful stuff. I wouldn't bother with not carbing it now that I've tasted it carbed.

Ed is right. I need to start another batch right away. Maybe over Thanksgiving week when I have a little time off of work.

Ed, you have started a good thing here. :mug:

Jennifer

Oh yeah, we just put in in beer bottles and capped it. It works out to two wine glasses per bottle that way.

I really need to do this, bad!!!!!!!!!!

I also prefer it carbonated. When we first tried the stuff, it reminded us so much of champage, we decided to carbonate it that way. I added 8.7 oz of dextrose to the five gallon batch to get around 4 volumes of CO2 (accounting for residual CO2 at my bottling temperature) and bottled in 1 L, swing-top bottles. After a couple weeks at room temperature, it was brillantly clear. After a couple days in the fridge, the carbonation was right on target. It poured just like champagne.

The effect on taste is that you get that carbonation bite and detect CO2 in the nose. It really crisps it up nicely.

However, it's great stuff, still or carbonated.


TL

Good to know. I was thinking about using 5oz of dextrose for a 2.5-2.9 gallon batch, but I was a little bit worried about exploding bottles. I guess since you were able to do 8.9oz for a 5 gallon, I should be pretty safe. Hmmm....

Mike

When it's still it tastes very much like wine. When it's carbonated it tastes GOOD.