Apfelwein Bottle Bombs - or not

two very popular thread topics - apfelwein and bottle bombs - all wrapped up in one thread!


let's say somebody recently made some apfelwein with montrachet yeast... Ed's original recipe w/5 gallons apple juice, 2 pounds of corn sugar...

and then let's say that on bottling night of a batch of dubbel, SWMBO finally talked the 'homebrewer' into bottling the apfelwein as well, despite the fact that the gravity read 1.004...

would it be okay if they put all those bottles in the fridge when they are carbed, or will the montrachet laugh at their puny attempts to put them to sleep with cold temps?

just a purely, eh, hypothetical question.




?

I don't know how well Montrachet works at refrigerator temperatures, so I would tiptoe as I passed the fridge. Maybe someone can give you better news, or just some better-informed news.


TL

well, i suppose if montrachet continues to ferment at fridge temps, perhaps opening and re-capping each bottle is in order?

just saw a personal web site that says the montrachet temperature range is 15-25 C...

I'm sure my fridge is below 59 degrees farenheit, which is what that comes down to...

so it might de-activate the yeast?

That might only be an optimal range. Again, I don't know if the yeast will keep going or not, but I'm not the one with hyper-primed bottles in the house.


TL

At 0.999 I primed mine up to 1.008 looking for 4 volumes of "champagne" bliss to make black velvets with 888RIS. Infected unfortunately, but it was nicely carbed with tiny bubbles when I poured it out.

Do you BELIEVE in your bottles? Have you got FAITH, Brother?

Personally I kept them in the basement.

Not to Hijack, but I'm at 1.004 after 3 weeks..... any ideas? Will it really drop much in just a week?

Poindexter said:

At 0.999 I primed mine up to 1.008 looking for 4 volumes of "champagne" bliss to make black velvets with 888RIS. Infected unfortunately, but it was nicely carbed with tiny bubbles when I poured it out.

Do you BELIEVE in your bottles? Have you got FAITH, Brother?

Personally I kept them in the basement.

Click to expand...

well, that is encouraging... that yours didn't explode, that is...

as for my bottles, fortunately i drink a lot of belgian beer, so i've got a lot of thick glass...


i've started an experiment, tho - should tell me what i need to know. I put a bottle in the fridge last night. i figure i'll give it a week or so, check one of the room-temp bottles for carbonation, and then check the one in the fridge. if the one in the fridge hasn't carbed, then i suppose i know that the fridge will de-activate the yeast.

sound about right?


oh, and to quickerNu - mine was at 1.004 at 3 weeks... then 1.004 at 4 weeks... then i bottled... so we'll see... i know it should get down further, but i wasn't seeing much movement...

just figured I'd update this, in case anyone is interested...

after a little over 2 weeks in the bottle, the apfelwein is indeed carbonated... last night the one i cracked open had a nice 1-inch head after pouring... (disappeared pretty quickly)

but it's not so over-carbonated that i'm worried about bottle bombs... looks like my faith is being rewarded, for now, anyway...


i did put one bottle in the fridge immediately after bottling, to see if montrachet will continue fermenting at fridge temps...

and i will open it in a few more days to see how carbonated it is!