Man, I love Apfelwein - Page 7

Flyin' Lion · 10-21-2006, 10:57 AM

I bought some Dextrose, Montrachet yeast and a 6.5 gal. better bottle yesterday at our local HBS. I thought I needed the 6.5 for this so I guess I'll do a 6 gal batch. Bob, the LHBS owner says in order for this to finish sweet, I should have a SG of 1.090 - 1.095. I bought enough Dextrose to boost the SG up to those levels (others here were talking of using lactose for sweeting), I don't know what I'm doing-but I'm excited to see how this turns out.

Thanks Ed.

**Yuri_Rage** · 10-22-2006, 06:49 PM

So, I went to the High Rolls Apple Festival yesterday to pick up some fresh cider. Lo and behold, they had a ton of it by the gallon jug. Sweet! Then I learned that they put preservatives in it. Bummer. Guess I won't be making that batch of cider after all. TreeTop, here I come.

Todd · 10-23-2006, 01:12 PM

Ed, could you post a pic of that apple juice you use. I went to costco and all I could find was Mott's.

rdwj · 10-23-2006, 01:30 PM

dumb question, but how do you pronounce Apfelwein?

I'm thinking Ap - like in apple
fel - like fell
wein - like wine?

**the_bird** · 10-23-2006, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd

Ed, could you post a pic of that apple juice you use. I went to costco and all I could find was Mott's.

Obviously I haven't tasted it yet, but I just used an el-cheapo apple juice from the grocery store, but an el-cheapo all-natural juice. Ingredients are just water and apple juice concentrate. It's pasteurized, but there are no other preservatives in it. It's fermenting out nicely, seems to be right on track.

Flyin' Lion · 10-23-2006, 01:35 PM

I think "w" in german is pronounced "v", so I'd say you're right except that "wein" is pronounced "vine".

I read it like this: ap-fel-vine
(but I'm far from german or anywhere near fluent in the language).

Flyin' Lion · 10-23-2006, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_bird

Obviously I haven't tasted it yet, but I just used an el-cheapo apple juice from the grocery store, but an el-cheapo all-natural juice. Ingredients are just water and apple juice concentrate. It's pasteurized, but there are no other preservatives in it. It's fermenting out nicely, seems to be right on track.

Hey Bird, what size batch did you make, and did it all fit? I bought a 6 gal. better bottle and couldn't fit all 6 gallons in. I don't think it matters, I'm just wondering what the measurement on these better bottles refers to. I filled it to the bottom of the neck and had probably 1/2 a quart left. Maybe that 2Lbs. of dextrose really takes up some room.

**the_bird** · 10-23-2006, 01:51 PM

Well, I did this in a spare 3 gallon carboy I had kicking around. I did a 2.5 gallon batch, adding 1 lb of brown sugar. No problems.

I'm curious, have people had real active fermentations with this? I thought I heard that cider really was prone to blow-offs, but I've had no issues at all. It's fermented good, but not overly aggressive. It's also fermented a lot longer than any beers I've done, it was still doing a bubble every couple seconds a week after I put it together. No krausen (sp?).

Flyin' Lion · 10-23-2006, 02:00 PM

I haven't turned the heat on in our house yet, so mine is fermenting at about 66 degrees (I used the montrachet yeast). Fermentation is slow and I have what looks like a slight krausen forming at the base of the neck.

**DesertBrew** · 10-23-2006, 02:28 PM

Mine was burping once a second at it's peak. Smelled a bit rank (sulphur) for 2-3 days and now is mellowed out. No big ferment. Probably burping once every 5 seconds now 9 days in.