Man, I love Apfelwein

It came out..Third Batch (M.ellow C.ider Hammer) perhaps my best yet. Sweet balanced very young, surprisingly smooth,especially because its so young. Only 32 days in the carboy and its come out great. For Batch 3 (MCHammer) I used a 3 gallon carboy, all Trader Joe's Pure MacIntosh (2.99/half gal 'fresh pressed' juice, 1 cinnamon stick, 2 balls of nutmeg, a vanilla pod, less sugar (batch 2 had 2 pounds of sugar, twice the recommended amount), this time only 8 or 9 ounces ( initial hydrometer reading 1.046) 1/2 dextrose 1/2 brown sugar.

For batch 4 no yeast added!, after bottling Mellow Apple, I left an inch or 2 in the 3 gallon carboy, filled it up with a mix of Trader Joe apple juices, regular, Pure MacIntosh, and murky Cider. I added a bit over a pound of dextrose/brown sugar mix. The old raisins and vanilla pod are still floating inside (didn't see cinnamon or nut meg). Thats it, if I don't see fermentation by late tomorrow I'll add yeast to it. I'm hoping I don't have to. <note fermenting like mad, after 2 days still cap bubbling every second or two>

Hopefully batch 4 is as good as 3, cause right out of the carboy this is very good. I used less sugar, but this is my sweetest batch. It seemed liked fermentation was done. You know what, 2 days ago I topped off the carboy with some new apple juice maybe a third of half gallon. That's why its sweet. It also restarted fermentation a bit.

Damn, I'm sorry I've filled the latest 'carboy' batch so high. That late extra juice I added 2 days before bottling took a dry cider, and made it more vibrant and just about perfect.

At the tasting last night. My 2nd batch, strong stuff, 2#'s brown sugar in 3 gallons of cider, has mellowed out beautifully after a month a half of being in the bottle. Both 2 & 3 were got very good reviews.

I did a batch earlier this year and it turned out ok. Too dry and bland for me. Was just wondering if / how you could back sweeten / flavour and bottle carb a batch? If I backsweeten I would normally stabalize, but then I wouldn't be able to bottle carb.

vNmd said:

I did a batch earlier this year and it turned out ok. Too dry and bland for me. Was just wondering if / how you could back sweeten / flavour and bottle carb a batch? If I backsweeten I would normally stabalize, but then I wouldn't be able to bottle carb.

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You can backsweeten and bottle carb. Check out the bottle pasteurization sticky in the cider forum. Its easy peasy.

vNmd said:

I did a batch earlier this year and it turned out ok. Too dry and bland for me. Was just wondering if / how you could back sweeten / flavour and bottle carb a batch? If I backsweeten I would normally stabalize, but then I wouldn't be able to bottle carb.

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TexasWine said:

You can backsweeten and bottle carb. Check out the bottle pasteurization sticky in the cider forum. Its easy peasy.

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Yup. Basically, you just use 1 PET bottle and pasteurize the glass bottles when the PET bottle is hard to the touch. That kills the yeast off once the co2 has built up to the desired pressure. It's a little imprecise as carbonation levels go, but it works fairly well.

3 week in on 5 gal. of original recipe, clearing up nicely and only bubbling 1 or 2 times a minute. I also stared two one gallion test batches 5 day later. One in the original recipe except I used brown sugar in it. The other I used brown sugar and kiwi/strawberry juice instead. Don't know what the second one will end up like but I figure I try something different.

Pick a bunch of apples from my trees yesterday and ran them through a juicer. ended up with enough juice to make just under 2 gallons. added 4 cups of sugar and pitched k1-v116. bubbling away nicely as we speak

Amazer said:

3 week in on 5 gal. of original recipe, clearing up nicely and only bubbling 1 or 2 times a minute. I also stared two one gallion test batches 5 day later. One in the original recipe except I used brown sugar in it. The other I used brown sugar and kiwi/strawberry juice instead. Don't know what the second one will end up like but I figure I try something different.

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I hope it comes out well. I've not had good luck fermenting anything that says "fruit juice cocktail" on it.

Leadgolem said:

I hope it comes out well. I've not had good luck fermenting anything that says "fruit juice cocktail" on it.

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That's why I only made one gal of it. It fermented good, just have to see how it tastes.

Mixed up some this weekend.


15 cans Walmart apple juice
3 cans Walmart apple cherry concentrate.

2 cans water per 1 can concentrate.

1 tsp nutrient

Wlp090.

OG = 1.07

Did you add any pectin enzyme?

I added DAP. I haven't added pectic to a batch yet and they always do well. Finish nice and dry. Gonna back sweeten this batch w diet sprite.

Sorry to be dumb, but what is DAP?

Di ammonium phosphate its basically fertilizer. Gives them a extra boost.

What can be substituted for dextrose?

Table sugar or corn sugar (can't recall which is which) but its a different calculation for each to get to a specific gravity

Subbing 2 lbs of table sugar vs corn sugar in a 5 gallon batch is not enough of a gravity difference to matter with this recipe.

I kegged my batch at 7 months over the weekend and it already tastes fantastic. I need to get started on my next batch since there is no way this will last 7 months until my next one.

I may add some other juice to my next one, but I also plan on making a more cider style batch using WB-06 wheat beer yeast. I read it comes out good with tartness and sweetness. Just going to change it up a bit and see what happens.

I have now made 3 batches of this stuff. Everyone seems to like it.

Stupid beginner question but I'm not sure when to bottle my batch. The airlock isn't bubbling however there are a few tiny bubbles coming up to the top of the carboy. Do I need to de-gas it? Just be patient for the bubbles to stop? Bottle it since the bubbling is minimal?

agb4090 said:

Stupid beginner question but I'm not sure when to bottle my batch. The airlock isn't bubbling however there are a few tiny bubbles coming up to the top of the carboy. Do I need to de-gas it? Just be patient for the bubbles to stop? Bottle it since the bubbling is minimal?

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Do you have a hydrometer? What does that read?

.999

agb4090 said:

.999

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There is a good chance it's done. Wait 3 days. Take another reading. If it's the same, then your done and can bottle if you would like. If it's not the same, wait another 3 days and repeat until you have two readings that are the same.

Just because it's below 1.0 doesn't gaurantee it's done. I've had cider go clear down to 0.98, though typically it's more like 0.992-0.998... Yeah, I brew pretty high gravity stuff so it sometimes finishes really low.

Happy Brewing!

I'm coming up on 12 weeks in the bucket...I realllly keep meaning to bottle this stuff. Maybe this weekend. Maybe.

I have had this fermenting for nearly 5 weeks now. It darkened again a while back and airlock activity stopped, but has not significantly cleared at all, you can't see all the way through the carboy. Is this normal?

I think so. Mine doesn't really clear until its been in the fridge for a week or two. I usually bottle after 3 weeks in the fermenter.

I've had my Apfelwein going for about 3 months now in the primary and it's slowly clearing at room temp but it's a slow process. It's a wine and like pretty much any other wine can take a little time to clear. I would never expect a wine to fully clear after only a month and a half. Even just 1 gallon batches. Plus I can't see through my buckets.. Only my glass carboys..

Kdog22 said:

I've had my Apfelwein going for about 3 months now in the primary and it's slowly clearing at room temp but it's a slow process. It's a wine and like pretty much any other wine can take a little time to clear. I would never expect a wine to fully clear after only a month and a half. Even just 1 gallon batches. Plus I can't see through my buckets.. Only my glass carboys..

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Heh, I meant carboy Fixed my post.

Just took a hydrometer sample, and my apfelwein is at 1.006. Isn't that unusual at 5 weeks? It's been in the basement at a constant ~68-71 degrees. Wait longer, or even possibly repitch yeast?

dave8274 said:

Just took a hydrometer sample, and my apfelwein is at 1.006. Isn't that unusual at 5 weeks? It's been in the basement at a constant ~68-71 degrees. Wait longer, or even possibly repitch yeast?

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stir it up a little and warm it up to about 75 for a week and it will probably finish up below .999 like it should.

Mmm apfelwein

I finally threw a 5 gallon recipe together per the original posted by Edwort. After day 2 my 6 yr old came home from school and wants to know why the house smells like poop! From what I've read, this means I am right on point to make good Apfelwein!

I am going to try this as I have a load of apples on my in laws tee that will go to waste, do I need to peel the apples before I juice them? Or does it not matter


Thanks in advance

I did not peel mine before I juiced them.

Nope, if you're going to juice you don't need to peel. There is some debate on whether you should core or not. I prefer to core before juicing, I think the juice tastes better. Though it's been quite a few years since I've pressed my own apples. If you have the option, cold press is preferable.

Powhatan said:

I finally threw a 5 gallon recipe together per the original posted by Edwort. After day 2 my 6 yr old came home from school and wants to know why the house smells like poop! From what I've read, this means I am right on point to make good Apfelwein!

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Kids are funny!

I've made more than 10 batches and I've never smelled the rhino farts, but that may be because I can't get Montrachet where I live so I use Kitzingers Reinhefe champagne yeast instead. Except with my last batch that is using Safale us-05, but that hasn't farted yet, either.

podz said:

Kids are funny!

I've made more than 10 batches and I've never smelled the rhino farts, but that may be because I can't get Montrachet where I live so I use Kitzingers Reinhefe champagne yeast instead. Except with my last batch that is using Safale us-05, but that hasn't farted yet, either.

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I've always used Lavlin EC-1118 with no major smells either.

Scientifically speaking, Rhinos fart more when the temperature is hotter.

DrewschBag said:

Scientifically speaking, Rhinos fart more when the temperature is hotter.

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My batch is sitting at 70*. Is that too warm?

Probably not. Depends on the yeast strain.

Powhatan said:

My batch is sitting at 70*. Is that too warm?

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I had a fairly good batch that was sitting at 85 through most of the fermentation. It needed an extra couple of months conditioning, but was still very good.

gcdowd said:

Mmm apfelwein

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I can't quite tell if it's newspaper clear but it's definitely toaster clear!

bigbeergeek said:

I can't quite tell if it's newspaper clear but it's definitely toaster clear!

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Haha both