Apfelwein help

Uh oh.

So I'm brewing up a light ale with a buddy and decide to make use of some of the wine equipment that has been gathering dust in the basement. I know, Apfelwein!

I didn't want 5 gallons so I decided to make two 1-gallon jugs and spit the dry yeast between them. So I empty 1/2 a container of juice into the jugs and then mix in some sugar.

Here's where it went terribly wrong. I thought the bag of sugar in the cupboard was a 1 pound bag, so I figured we'd use about 1/2 the bag for both. So I proceed to add 2 CUPS(!!) of sugar to the apple juice. Turns out I used about 1.5 POUNDS of sugar for each GALLON of this stuff.

I just realized the error of my ways this morning. This has been fermenting since Sunday, is there any way to fix this? Can I cut each of the bottles by mixing with another gallon of just apple juice? making four gallons together?
I think the alcohol is going to be pretty high, and don't want the yeast to die out, making a sickly sweet, undrinkable beverage.

I don't know how your yeast will handle it, but, yeah, your gonna have a strong drink. Apfelwein gets me wrecked and that with 2 pounds of sugar in 5 gallons.

So what I should probably do, is make up another 3 gallons w/o any sugar additions, and then when everything is done fermenting, mix them together and bottle.

I'd mix it up now. You can just throw that stuff together in a bigger carboy now, so the yeast don't get too stressed by the high alcohol. Since it's only been going since Sunday, you can mix it now with no problems.

its like you made two perfect apfelwein starters for the big batch of apfelwein you always wanted to brew...

YooperBrew said:

I'd mix it up now. You can just throw that stuff together in a bigger carboy now, so the yeast don't get too stressed by the high alcohol. Since it's only been going since Sunday, you can mix it now with no problems.

Click to expand...

I am in a similar situation. I started a batch on Monday night but I didn't even realize that the wife picked up 2qt bottles not 1gal bottles. So after dumping everything in I then realized it was way too low. I then noticed that the bottles were only 2qts each. We did have some extra bottles for the kids so I dumped in all we had but its still about 3/4 a gallon short. So I just dumped the yeast in and was going to pick up some more AJ but then our son came into the world a little sooner than expected so I never added any more to it. So it would be ok to add more juice now or just let it go?

ThatGuyRyan said:

So I just dumped the yeast in and was going to pick up some more AJ but then our son came into the world a little sooner than expected so I never added any more to it.

Click to expand...

What does it take to run into the grocery store? like 5 mins? She couldn't wait?

Reminds me of the time when my wife was pregnant, and I stopped by blockbuster on the way to the hospital to drop off some movies. Boy, was she grumpy about that one. :fro:

Yes, I think I'll mix it all up together tonight.