Man, I love Apfelwein

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mot said:
Ok I think I got everything figured out but one thing, I am thinking of putting it in a secondary and let it sit a little while longer. Another few weeks...When I do carb them do you think I will need to add more yeast to help in the carbination because it has been sitting so long, or do you think I should just skip the secondary and go right to the bottles?

Should be plenty of yeast in there to carb with 3/4 cup corn sugar from what others have said. Also the secondary is to clear things up and get the product off the sediment. I have found there to not be much sedument to this recipe. If you want to secondary, it will not hurt for sure, but other than that, just wait it out.
 
blefferd said:
needless to say after 3 glass's i was done i tried to finish watching the hockey game but my wife said i had passed out around 930 lol i woke up around 4am with a splitting head ache and cotton mouth like crazy! i still have a headache im waiting for the coffee and bc powder to kick in lol
:drunk:RALMAO! The 3 glass rule is for 12 oz. glasses, not jumbo Slurpee cups. :D

Apfelwein can sneak up and bite you on the a$$ like that, so be careful. I recommend moderation and drink some water before passing out. :cross:
 
Did everyone else's apfelwein clear up? Mine is coming up on four weeks and its still cloudy. It looks better than it did at week one, but still cloudy. I would like it less cloudy, I guess I'll wait a little longer.

However, airlock activity had come to a near halt, maybe I should bottle?? I guess if I bottle it, maybe that will help it clear...
 
Mulcahey's Brewing said:
Did everyone else's apfelwein clear up? Mine is coming up on four weeks and its still cloudy. It looks better than it did at week one, but still cloudy. I would like it less cloudy, I guess I'll wait a little longer.

However, airlock activity had come to a near halt, maybe I should bottle?? I guess if I bottle it, maybe that will help it clear...

Did you have clear juice when you started? If so, wait a couple more weeks. I've gone up to 3 months before kegging.
 
I just kegged mine and made a second batch on top of the yeasties in the bottom of the fermenter. First taste was from the hydrometer jar. It was still warm and a little fizzy and I thought, OMFG it's a Green Apple Jolly Rancher! Very tasty. Finished the clean up and poured the hydro jar into a glass with a couple of ice cubes. Taste is completely different when it's cold. Not quite as smack in your face with the apples. Very refreshing. Can't wait to get space in the kegerator for it. I think my wife is going to like this a lot.
 
Well,
Add me to the cult.. uh.. i mean club... sorta..

I set out to make a toned down version but kinda messed up because what I thought were 1 gal bottles ended up being 3qt bottles.. i was shooting for 4 gallons but ended up with 3.

My final mix was 12.5oz of corn sugar in 3Gal of apple juice.

using rehydrated Nottingham yeast.

My juice was 100% from concentrate with ascorbic acid added..

It was fermenting this morning..

this was WAY easier than beer.. hehe..
ws
 
skou said:
So, this guy walks into my LHBS, and asks for a pound of dextrose, and a package of Montrachet yeast. I ask if he's making a batch of wine? Yep. Apple wine? Yep. EdWort's apfelwine? Yep! (He's doing a 2.5 gallon batch.)

It seems, this recipe is out of control! Congrats, Ed!

steve

Happened again!

Guy walked into the store, and got 2 pounds of dextrose, so I asked.

"Wine?" "Yep."

"Apfelwine?" "Yep."

"EdWort's Apfelwine?" "Yep."

(He already had the yeast.)

It seems that this recipe is causing a large underground success, here!

steve
 
skou said:
Happened again!

Guy walked into the store, and got 2 pounds of dextrose, so I asked.

"Wine?" "Yep."

"Apfelwine?" "Yep."

"EdWort's Apfelwine?" "Yep."

(He already had the yeast.)

It seems that this recipe is causing a large underground success, here!

steve

What a hoot! Are you stocked up on dextrose & Montrachet yeast?

It's amazing that there are no price breaks between 1 and 5 pounds of dextrose, so I alway buy 1 lb. bags. That way it's already pre-measured for me for each bottle.
 
Well, after being in bottles for a while this stuff is awesome.

I can watch TV through it it's so clear.

Not sure what I like better, carbed and sweetened with lactose or plain but either way this is probably the smoothest wine I've ever had...Thanks again for the recipe Ed!
 
Reidman said:
Well, after being in bottles for a while this stuff is awesome.

I can watch TV through it it's so clear.

Not sure what I like better, carbed and sweetened with lactose or plain but either way this is probably the smoothest wine I've ever had...Thanks again for the recipe Ed!

Reidman - Can you tell the difference from lactose sweetened and plain? I really can't tell the difference, however I didn't do a side by side. I tasted the two a week apart and didn't see much difference. If anything it may have more mouth feel and suds on top w/ lactose.

What do you think?
 
I just went and picked up the final ingrediants for Apfelwein at lunch. I'm going to be making my first 5 gal batch tonight!!
 
dylan8678 said:
I just went and picked up the final ingrediants for Apfelwein at lunch. I'm going to be making my first 5 gal batch tonight!!

Tonight, your obsession begins...

Right now I'm sucking down a Raspberry-Apfelwein - w/pulp!! Kind of like a raspberry alcoholic slushy. This was the last bottle from bottling bucket so its got a good bit of pulp. I added fruit to the 2ndary, the only dreggs are the settled out fruit. Which isn't too bad.
 
Schlenkerla said:
Right now I'm sucking down a Raspberry-Apfelwein - w/pulp!! Kind of like a raspberry alcoholic slushy.

Rough life at 2:19 PM on a Friday. I have a few more hours to go.

Here's to Friday, the day before Brewday!
 
EdWort said:
Rough life at 2:19 PM on a Friday. I have a few more hours to go.

Here's to Friday, the day before Brewday!

:off: Oh yah - I worked 15 days in a row w/o a day off - In China.

During that time: No mowing grass, no plantin' the garden, no water proofing the deck, no putting out spring flowers for SWMBO. And nor fixing whatever is broke.

So I took 5 w/o vacation. - Comp time!! - I'm squeezing in a few drinks while the SWMBO is at work and tryin' to knock stuff out before I go back Tuesday. Work was so nice to separate the trips by a whole 6 days. I'll be back there for another 14 days.

They were only gonna give 2 off until I bitched!!!! Hell the jet lag is almost 2 days. My return flight; Des Moines, Minneapolis, Portland, Tokyo, Beijing. 28hrs total. Thankfully its Biz-Class.

I've got to get my Honey Kolsch in a bottle this weekend too. Hopefully I'll get to it...

:mug:
 
QUESTION PLEASE:

I am 5 weeks in and it is not clear...I want to bottle and plan to do so right now. I also plan on 3/4 cup corn sugar to carb....should I be good to go?
 
Wait until is clear. It should measure FG 1.000 or less. Sometimes it takes awhile. Mine was 12 weeks. Jan-March

If is 1.000 or less go ahead and bottle.

~3/4 cup is right. 5 oz by wt is more right!!!
 
Not not necessarily, mine was a little bubbly at bottling, it was kind of annoying with the syphon hose. You could bottle now or wait. You are as much as .001 high but I think that would not make much of a difference.

If you shine a light through the carboy is it relatively clear or cloudy? Bottle or wait? It depends how much sediment you want in the bottle. The sediment packs pretty good. Its really now a matter of preferrence.

:mug:
 
Schlenkerla said:
Reidman - Can you tell the difference from lactose sweetened and plain? I really can't tell the difference, however I didn't do a side by side. I tasted the two a week apart and didn't see much difference. If anything it may have more mouth feel and suds on top w/ lactose.

What do you think?
The lactose adds an almost cidery aftertaste and makes it a little tart IMO but still tastey. I also haven't noticed any more suds than in the unsweetened half but the lactose seems to have thickened it up slightly which I guess is to be expected.

It's hard to tell since it's only bottle conditioned about a week now. I used 1 lb of lactose for 2.5 gallons so it may be sweeter than if I had done the whole batch.

The effect is subtle but I can taste a difference. It's good either way though..:cross:
 
FINALLY got around to bottling mine.

Drier than I thought it would be but really good.

The REALLY good news is, SWMBO likes it A LOT. She helped me bottle the whole batch. (I was amazed)

Didn't carb it or anything, just running with it. I did press to her how easier life would be with kegging and she didn't object....

To me that gives me the go-ahead....

Thanks in advance Ed....

Ize
 
OK, decided to follow EdWort's recipe and went to Costco to get some apple juice. Unfortunately, this being Korea, the only apple juice they had (no concentrate) was $8.50 a gallon so I got some cheapo apple juice/peach/passion fruit ****. Tastes nasty, kind of like apple juice with a shot of canned peach syrup in it. I wonder how it'll be when the cloying sweetness ferments out :mug:

Oh one question: I haven't been able to find corn sugar in the stores around here, would corn syrup be OK or does that have preservatives in it? My Korean isn't the best... Maybe I should use brown sugar instead?
 
Bosh, the nasty flavours will probably fermemt out. (You could have used concentrates, without much problems, though.)

Since you can't find corn sugar,I'd recommend plain (sucrose) cane or beet sugar, over corn syrup. Brown sugar may work too, if you don't mind the molasses flavour.

Jaybird, check the first few posts. The info you seek, is there.

steve
 
skou said:
Bosh, the nasty flavours will probably fermemt out. (You could have used concentrates, without much problems, though.)

Since you can't find corn sugar,I'd recommend plain (sucrose) cane or beet sugar, over corn syrup. Brown sugar may work too, if you don't mind the molasses flavour.

Jaybird, check the first few posts. The info you seek, is there.

steve

I would've used concentrate if any concentrate except for orange existed in this country. :( OK, one nice 1 kg bag of cane sugar it is...

Maybe 100g of maple syrup I have lying around as well...
 
Bosh said:
I would've used concentrate if any concentrate except for orange existed in this country. :( OK, one nice 1 kg bag of cane sugar it is...

Maybe 100g of maple syrup I have lying around as well...


Bosh,

I'd leave out the maple. If you can't get corn sugar (dextrose) use the cane sugar (sucrose). Its gonna be different with the peach and passion fruit.

I think the maple would make it weird.

This reminds of when I was in the service we used to have garbage parties. We took a few bottles of clear liquor, usually Everclear, and fruit juices and a bag of ice and dumped it all in a cooler with a spigot. As people started showing up more stuff got dumped into the cooler. We also called it swamp juice. Getting there early was key as you knew what the hell you were drinking. Later in the night it got really nasty but you were too goofed up to notice or care what you were drinking.

You might be pleasantly suprised on how good it will be if you keep the flavors simple. I thought of doing something similar, Welches has a Peach & White Grape Juice. The funny thing cider happens to be the first ingredient.

:mug:
 
Question..

I've heard folks claim to have their batches bubbling for over 4 weeks.

i made a batch last week (wed)... today is monday..

it stopped bubbling over the weekend.


nottingham ale yeast..
3 gal of juice from concentrate.. with ascorbic acid added..
no perservatives...

12.5 ounces of corn sugar.

is this normal?
do i just let it clear now and either bottle or keg?

do i need to re-pitch my spare dry yeast package. (it's munton's ale yeast.. all i have)

ws
 
waskelton4 said:
Question..

I've heard folks claim to have their batches bubbling for over 4 weeks.

i made a batch last week (wed)... today is monday..

it stopped bubbling over the weekend.


nottingham ale yeast..
3 gal of juice from concentrate.. with ascorbic acid added..
no perservatives...

12.5 ounces of corn sugar.

is this normal?
do i just let it clear now and either bottle or keg?

do i need to re-pitch my spare dry yeast package. (it's munton's ale yeast.. all i have)

ws

Most people used wine yeast. (Cote or Montrachet) and not nottingham so YMMV. To really know if your ferment is stuck, take a gravity reading.

It may be desireable if it stopped prematurely if you prefer a less dry (sweeter) drink and are kegging.

Again, the only way to know is take a reading and a taste.
 
Yes - Most people have used wine yeast. It usually takes longer, mine was 12 weeks at ~57'F. If you wanted to check it to be sure, tranfer it to a 2ndary and take a gravity or just do the gravity.

If your weather has been anything like mine (70-80F) the odds are that the Nottingham did it job and its close to being done.

Wine yeast ferments in my experience have been tame, I suppose that's why it takes so long, outside of the fact they make alot of ABV. The ferment looks almost like a bubbling beer. Like the Dortmunder sitting next to me!! :D

You can afford to let it sit for at least two weeks - no problem.

Bottle/keg when; the gravity is not changing, its close to 1.000FG, and its cleared (use a flashlight).

:mug:
 
I had my most non-fine moment ever today.

I filled up a 5 gal. carboy with apple juice, corn sugar and yeast. I picked it up around the neck to get my hand on the bottom to move it to its final resting place, and.....

dropped it.

5 gallons, all over my kitchen floor and 1 broken glass carboy.

I feel dumb. I was so excited. I talked about Apfelwein to my fiance all day.:(
 
HCNate said:
I had my most non-fine moment ever today.

I filled up a 5 gal. carboy with apple juice, corn sugar and yeast. I picked it up around the neck to get my hand on the bottom to move it to its final resting place, and.....

dropped it.

5 gallons, all over my kitchen floor and 1 broken glass carboy.

I feel dumb. I was so excited. I talked about Apfelwein to my fiance all day.:(

Oh man, I'm sorry. Reading that actually caused me great sadness as I know it did you. One word for you.

BREWHAULER.

I lugged my 5 gals. up 13 steps and on to the kitchen counter with no problem. A deal for $12.95 at NB, and MORE than worth it.

Sorry for your loss man. :(

Ize
 
HCNate said:
I had my most non-fine moment ever today.

I filled up a 5 gal. carboy with apple juice, corn sugar and yeast. I picked it up around the neck to get my hand on the bottom to move it to its final resting place, and.....

dropped it.

5 gallons, all over my kitchen floor and 1 broken glass carboy.

I feel dumb. I was so excited. I talked about Apfelwein to my fiance all day.:(
SOOOO sorry for your loss:( . Pick up the pieces and try again.:cross: I use plastic for just that reason a batch of PORTER and 1 glass carboy gone:(
JJ
 
HCNate said:
5 gallons, all over my kitchen floor and 1 broken glass carboy.

Bummer man! Time for a Better Bottle. They are easy to grip by the neck and bottom to carry. I do it all the time. I'm glad you were not injured.
 
EdWort said:
Bummer man! Time for a Better Bottle. They are easy to grip by the neck and bottom to carry. I do it all the time. I'm glad you were not injured.

Yeah, that's rough. I use carboy handles that tighten around the neck with a wignut. The Apfelwein was so easy, I just dumped it all together in my basement and didn't have to move the carboy at all.
 
Only problem I have had with Apfelwein is that I wish I had started another batch about 1 week into the 1st batches fermentation! 5 gallons goes REAL fast when your wifey likes it too! Time to go pick up a few more carboys!
 
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