bbriscoe

Recipes 

What is the difference?

I want to make a gallon of something and I'm not even sure what to call it:
1 gal of Treetop juice
1 or 2 lbs of table sugar and/or brown sugar - until OG is around 1.10
champagne yeast

then add priming sugar before bottling to bottle carb. I want it carbed. Sweet would be nice too, but not sure if I can get there without the bottle bombs.

northernlad

Recipes 

I just finished a young glass of Apfelwein. As I understand, champange yeast is not your choice for a sweet finish.

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

Apelwein has an ABV up in the wine ranges. Just for the sake of being simple I would say 9 to 10 percent and up.
Hard ciders are in the beer ranges up to the wine range.

Assuming you get a FG of 0.995 or so.

2 lbs sugar will get you around a SG of 1.123. ABV of above 16%. With champagne yeast you will be looking at rocket fuel that will take a year or more to be blended enough to be really good.
1 lbs sugar will give you a SG of around 1.088, and an ABV of above 12%. Still well up in the apple wine level and it will take a long time for the flavours to blend and be ready to drink.
I usually use 1-3 lbs of sugar with 5.5 gallons of apple juice because I'm a lightweight and I like drinking cider too much.
The high ABV ciders makes the next morning a little difficult.

You can sneak over to the mead section, go to the FAQ in the sticky and download hightest spreadsheet and work out the recipes you like.
Hope this helps, sanitize everything and good luck.

__________________
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In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.

bbriscoe

Recipes 

So it depends on how much sugar you use? Or which yeast? Or whether you bottle carb it?

jkarp

Recipes 

Apelwein has sugar added. Cider usually doesn't. The wine / beer comparisons are also good. Apelwein is aged like wine while cider is ready in beer timeframes.

chuggs

Recipes 

It's basically the same thing.

I normally would call it apple wine if it had an alcohol content in the 12-18% region. But looking at a commercially made Possmann's German Frankfurter applewine...it's only 5.5% ABV.

In England it would be a Cider.

I've made Apple Cider from the Vinoka Ciderpress Kits...and I make it slightly sweet...but you do it by:

Ferments out dry (1.000 Final gravity)

Filtered to remove as much yeast as possible

Potassium Metabisulphite added to kill the yeast that is left

Invert sugar, raw sugar, and additional apple flavoring is added.

Kegged and carbonated...

It makes an excellent cider...but these kits are getting more and more expensive.

If you want a sweet cider...you either have to add sugar after killing the yeast...or use a yeast that just naturally peters out at 6% alcohol.

I'm very much enjoying the Apfelwein...If you want it slightly sweeter, you can add a shot of lemonade or Sprite. Dang stuff is addictive...crisp and refreshing.

bbriscoe

Recipes 

So you can't make it both sweet and bottle carb it?

chuggs

Recipes 

You can...but you'll have to do it much the same way that home carbonated soft drink makers do..

Use a yeast that's not temperature tolerant....

Bottle...leave at room temp until they start getting carbonated...then put them in the refrigerator to cold shock the yeast into dormancy.

I don't have any experience with this...so I'm not going to be very helpful.

chuggs

Recipes 

Another thing you might experiment with....

Use the yeast you would normally use for the dry cider.

Pitch just enough priming sugar to carbonate in the bottle.

And invert sugar (lactose), splenda (non-fermentable sweetener) for sweetening...

Bottle and allow to naturally carbonate.

bbriscoe

Recipes 

which yeasts are not temp tolerant? and if I do that method how long to I carb before putting in the fridge? I guess if I wait too long I'd have bottle bombs for sure?