Need help ASAP!!

Wife is on the way to the store. I need 4 gallons of Apple Juice to make a hard apple ale. I'm going to use some 2lb LME in 1 gal of water and then mix with 4 gal of apple juice.

What kind of apple juice should I have her get? I'm not so much worried about brand as I am making sure it'll work in an ale...


Thanks!!

Award Winning Apfelwein Recipe (German Hard Cider) Apple Wine Recipe
Placed 1st in the Cider & Apple Wine category at the BJCP sanctioned Alamo Cerveza fest (out of 11 entries) and took 2nd place for Best of Show for the main category of Meads & Ciders (out of 50 entries).

Ingredients

5 Gallons 100% Apple Juice (No preservatives or additives) I use Tree Top Apple Juice
2 pounds of dextrose (corn sugar) in one pound bags
1 five gram packet of Montrachet Wine Yeast

This is from EdWorts Apple Wine Recipe on here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

Notice no LME....

Good luck!

Thanks.

I'll use Tree Top, then. I'm not looking to make an Apfelwein, though, but I'd imagine it's the same concept. Hopefully this will turn out to be a lightly colored ale with a heavy apple flavor.

Sounds like a slightly ale flavored cider or wine, depending on what yeast you use. Any of the apple juices, even from concentrate will work fine. I use frozen for the apfelwein and it works great and costs a little less for 5 gallons.

TeufelBrew said:

Sounds like a slightly ale flavored cider or wine, depending on what yeast you use. Any of the apple juices, even from concentrate will work fine. I use frozen for the apfelwein and it works great and costs a little less for 5 gallons.

Click to expand...

Ale yeast. Not sure of the strain offhand. The guy at my LHBS suggested it after what I told him I was trying to do.

Check here for some variations:

Brandon O' Graff

People use all kinds of juice. Personally I have used Krogers generic juice from concentrate for one batch and local organic cider for another. Both have worked just fine for me. If you have some time, check out the Graff thread (but it is loooong).

velosim said:

Check here for some variations:

Brandon O' Graff

People use all kinds of juice. Personally I have used Krogers generic juice from concentrate for one batch and local organic cider for another. Both have worked just fine for me. If you have some time, check out the Graff thread (but it is loooong).

Click to expand...

^^^^ The post is long but Brandon O's Graff is soooo good.

velosim said:

Check here for some variations:

Brandon O' Graff

People use all kinds of juice. Personally I have used Krogers generic juice from concentrate for one batch and local organic cider for another. Both have worked just fine for me. If you have some time, check out the Graff thread (but it is loooong).

Click to expand...

She got Tree Top from concentrate with no sugar added. They only had 1 Gallon of that, so she also got 3 gallons of Mott's which is from concentrate with no sugar added. Should this work? I'm gonna do it either way since she bought it, but I just wanted to know what you think. Also, do you think 2lb LME is enough or should I wait until tomorrow and pick up more? I'm thinking the natural sugar in the apple juice will suffice and keep the appley (sp?) flavor...

I've used 2 lbs DME + 1/2 lb Crystal 60. I've also used third runnings from an all-grain beer before that was pretty low in gravity. The malt flavor tends to be a nice compliment to the apple, and I think you will probably be just fine with your 2 lbs LME.Not sure if you have any hops lying around, but I've always added a little to each of my batches per Brandon O's Graff recipe and it makes for an extremely drinkable cider/beer.

I have used both Tree Top and Mott's. As long as there are no preservatives added they will make some good cider plain, or adding sugar, or adding malt extract, or adding honey, etc. In general if you like the taste of the juice, your like the cider. Better you like the taste of the juice, the more your love the cider.
Personally I still like to back sweeten after they have fully fermented out with some concentrate, usually I use one can for a 5 gallon batch becuase I do like things dry.