bottling apfelwein

if i were to bottle in standard wine bottles, will the corks hold up to the carbonation?

Nope!
NEVER try and carbonate in a wine bottle.
Best case...you blow corks all over the cellar....worst case, a bottle blows up while you are opening it, severs an artery in your neck, and your wife gets to watch you bleed to death on the kitchen floor.

Use beer bottles to carbonate in.

I carbonated a bunch of mine in 22oz bombers. If you kinda squint, they're almost a wine bottle.

ChshreCat said:

I carbonated a bunch of mine in 22oz bombers. If you kinda squint, they're almost a wine bottle.

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And only a few ounces short of one, too.

BigKahuna said:

Nope!
NEVER try and carbonate in a wine bottle.
Best case...you blow corks all over the cellar....worst case, a bottle blows up while you are opening it, severs an artery in your neck, and your wife gets to watch you bleed to death on the kitchen floor.

Use beer bottles to carbonate in.

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Way to scare the **** out of him Kahuna haha That image could definitely convince a few to go the safe way.

hahahah, i use 22oz or 24oz beer bottles as well. sierra nevada has 24oz in case you are wondering.

having said that, thanks for the info... my friend is a wine guy but enjoyed my apfelwein. so, he was hoping to use what he had on hand to bottle his first batch. i will let him know that wine bottles are NOT a good choice.

thanks all!

Unless you bottle it still. If he's a wine person, he may like it that way just fine. I bottled most of mine still. Just did a six pack of 12 oz bottles, and 5 bombers carbonated. The rest I just want as a nice wine.

good point cat, i will let him know of that route as well.

thank you!

if your going for the fancy look ,and don't want to bottle it still, look into the large flip top bottles. not quite a wine bottle, but still very nice curb appeal.

does the apfelwein automatically come out fizzy? Or is that something added later? I'm reading the apfelwein thread, but it is enough reading for days.....

bkvail said:

does the apfelwein automatically come out fizzy? Or is that something added later? I'm reading the apfelwein thread, but it is enough reading for days.....

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It will have a bit of CO2 in it when you rack it, but I wouldn't call it "fizzy" by any measure. It's definitely flat, just a few bubbles here and there.

To get any real carbonation you'll have to bottle it with sugar and let it sit.

Kilgore_Trout said:

It will have a bit of CO2 in it when you rack it, but I wouldn't call it "fizzy" by any measure. It's definitely flat, just a few bubbles here and there.

To get any real carbonation you'll have to bottle it with sugar and let it sit.

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so, if I sweetened it with sugar after it's done fermenting, then it will get some fizz, interesting..... I'm assuming because it gets the yeast going again? It won't taste yeasty doing it that way will it? I am pretty sure I don't want it completely dry, so will definitely sweeten it after I ferment one way or another.......

bkvail said:

so, if I sweetened it with sugar after it's done fermenting, then it will get some fizz, interesting..... I'm assuming because it gets the yeast going again? It won't taste yeasty doing it that way will it? I am pretty sure I don't want it completely dry, so will definitely sweeten it after I ferment one way or another.......

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You won't be able to sweeten it with sugar, though. The yeast will eat up the sugar and dry it out again. If you want fizz and sweet, you either need to stabalize it (kill the yeast) and keg, or sweeten with something that the yeast won't eat. Splenda or lactose or something like that.