Moonshae

Recipes 

I've kegged mine, and while I'm waiting for it to carb, I'm not sure I'm so keen on it, even after 3 pints. It packs a whollop, to be sure, but...I think I'd prefer a bigger beer to a weakish carbonated wine. I'll keep trying, and it isn't bad by any means, but I don't think it's going to earn a devoted tap.

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In kegs: Shae's Braggot; English Cider; Doppelbock; Semi-Sweet Mead, Raspberry Cider, Apfelwein, Belgian Golden Strong Ale
In Bottles: Raspberry-Vanilla Melometh; Cherry Melomel; Vanilla Metheglin; For Heaven's Sake;
In Secondary: Traditional Mead (basswood); Traditional Mead (honeysuckle); carrot cake mead; Pirate Ale; Ginger Beet Ale; American IPA, pumpkin ale
In Primary: Berliner Weisse
Up Next: Oud Bruin

fratermus

Recipes 

Mine is about 24hrs old and there is a full, even, steady stream of CO2 blowing through the airlock. Ed wasn't joking about keeping the airlock vodka handy. It's weird seeing that much CO2 and no crud or blowoff.

SInce ed's instructions said to ferment it at room temp I watershirted mine and it is 72-74F.

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Adequate Mousetrap brewhouse

Batch history | yeast slants | Suspending yeast

wiseman

Recipes 

I know that one of the reasons this stuff is so popular is because it's cheap, fast, powerful, and tasty but it seems that the taste may be a bit weak for some. Has anyone tried boiling the apple juice down or using concentrates to increase flavor?

Denny's Evil Concoctions

Recipes 

Part of the point of "Apfelwein" is that it is drier than typical hard cider.

But to sweeten you do what they do with wine, (often with whites). You add some potassium sorbate to arrest the yeast and sweetener (either sugar or juice.)

I would go with pasteurized apple juice instead of sugar. Add little to start. You can always add more but if you over sweeten, well....

For flavor, yeast selection can make a difference. Not an expert in wine yeasts but I'm making a batch right now with k1-v1116. This yeast works awesome for strawberry wine (and other fruit wines) for a more vibrant flavor and aroma from fruit. This is my first try with a cider with this yeast. In the past I've used 1116 but found it very dry with less fruit flavor.

The best cider is made from juice containing different apples. Not all store bought juice is "blended" that way. Some probably are, but I don't know of any that state the apples they use. I used 3 different juices. One was a tasty cider that still had a bit of skin/pulp in it.

I haven't seen the yeast Ed uses here. Most of the yeast here in Kelowna is red star or predominately lalvin. Probably because lalvin is made in Canada.

I'd love to do 2 batches to compare.

So to conclude. If you want the same dryness but more flavor, you can try different yeasts or mixing apple juices. Try tasting them to see the difference. A mix of apple flavors might be best.

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MikeFlynn74

Recipes 

I used WL sweet mead yeast in my last batch- Kegged it at 1.012 and it was very full of apple flavor

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Thwizzit

Recipes 

I'd like to hear a response to this question as well. I put my 5 gallon bucket up on the third floor because I figured it would be warmer (heat rising and all that) and it was warmer for a while (65-68) but I just checked and the temp has dipped below 60 to around 57-58 degrees and I'm wondering how that will affect fermentation.

fusion94

Recipes 

Thwizzit: I PMed Ed and he stated that it will just take longer to clear up...8 weeks or more.

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On Deck: Nothing
Primary #1: Belgian Trappist Ale
Primary #2: Fat Tire Clone
Primary #3:Arrogant Bastard Clone
Primary #4: EdWort's Apfelwein
Secondary #1: Candlestick Commons
Secondary #2: Honey Pale Ale
Bottled: Big Basins Redwood Ale, Presidio Pale Ale, Angel Island IPA

Thwizzit

Recipes 

Cool, thanks :-)

TexLaw

Recipes 

Age increases the flavor quite a bit. I agree that apfelwein is cheap, powerful, and tasty. However, I do not agree that it is fast (other than the hands-on time). Give this stuff time, and it pays off huge.


TL

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Beer is good for anything from hot dogs to heartache.

Drinking Frog Brewery, est. 1993

Crazytwoknobs

Recipes 

I used waay too much brown sugar and dextrose in mine, and it never finished, tastes awful now, my worst experience with any kind of DIY alcohol. All sorts of stuff went wrong. Completely my fault, but I really want to blame it on the yeast. I might try a smaller batch with it soon, and with no brown sugar.

Keep track of how long it takes to finish, I'm interested to know.

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