bcgpete

Recipes 

I recently moved into a new house that has a big sour apple tree in the back yard. My first thought of what to do with the apples was Apfelwein.

I have a Kitchenaid stand mixer with a fruit/vegetable strainer attachment I was going to use to juice the apples, then based on the amount of juice I get scale down Edwort's apfelwein recipe.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried making apfelwein from sour applejuice, or even using fresh apples.

Thanks!

dinnerstick

Recipes 

what about making cider! i love my dry sour apple cider, i get 'horse apples' (sour and barely edible) from a neighbor, add about 10% dessert apples to get the gravity up to 1.050ish and make a carbonated dry cider, 6 months later it's wonderful

RobWalker

Recipes 

I was going to suggest the same thing - add some sweet apples - almost all good cider is a blend of bitter and sweet apples. I decided against a cider because it'd just disappear in an hour tops - apfelwein will probably last longer

No idea how a strainer attachment works because I did mine with a muslin bag and a chopper - but I just put this on the other day - I used just over 3/4 of the apples in the tub

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/apfelwein-real-apples-262718/

Other than that just measure the OG to scale it to what you want. I didn't take my OG because I didn't want to fiddle once it was in the demi john and I'm forgetful. Took about 1.5 hours so not difficult at all mate! Go for it, and if it's good, you'll have time to prepare for next year's.

Some info too - the apples in your back garden arn't likely to be a "type" like you purchase at a supermarket - they're like dogs in the way that they're cross-bred, hybridized and impossible to keep track of. Mine were powdery and resembled Pink Lady apples - if you really fall in love with what you make, try and find the apple closest to it.

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BenjaminBier

Recipes 

German sour apfelwein is called Viez and is made with what the Germans call Wood Apples. This doesn't translate exactly and I think they are our crab or horse apples. They use a small amount of lacto in the primary fermentation to increase the sour. The result is a slightly cloudy dry crisp sour cider.

More at maathes.de/maathes_artikel.htm

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BenjaminBier

Recipes 

I finally made some of this today using the windfall apples from my friend's tree. I did a simultaneous pitch of Montrachet and Wyeast lacto, hoping to get some nice dry, clear, sour apple cider out of it.

If it's any good I'll post back here.

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