just a few Apfelwein Question

I started a 5 gallon Apfelwein a few weeks ago and then a few days ago i upped the volume to 7.5 gallons here what i used.

7 gallons of Tree top Apple juice
4.5lbs of karo corn syrup(could not find corn sugar localy)
~.5 gallon of hot water
1 vial of Westlabs Champaine yeast

I added 3 gallons of the juice to the carboy, then boiled the water for 5 minutes and added the syrup and simmered for 10 minutes, then covered with the burner off and allowed to cool to the touch (~80*f) and added it to the carboy, pitched in the yeast, and then shoock the hell out of the carboy with then lid on(it was only about half full) and then added the rest of the juice to the carboy, and put in the 2 piece air lock, and it was bubbling in less then 24 hours.

Dont have the start SG with me, will update once i get it.

But in less then a week the airlock went from letting out a big bubble 2 to 3 times a second, to less then one bubble every 20 seconds.

Now here is my questions, is it normal for the airlock activity to go like that? i though that apfelwein was a slow fermentor?

It smells great in the fermentation room, so not too worried about the wein, but just hopeing i did not mess something up.

any help and guidance would be great, also how long is it normal for apfelwein to stay in primary, do you even ever move it to secondary? also how long should it be allowed to bottle age?

In this case, I think the speed of fermentation would depend mostly on yeast strain & type of sugar, and as always, ambient temps & nutrients in the must. I've never used that brand of yeast, nor fermented corn syrup, but everything you've described sounds on track to me. Champagne yeasts tend to work reasonably quickly, your best bet would be to take a SG reading; it might just be done fermenting. If so, you might want to rack it off the lees. I'm curious as to what (if any) difference in flavour profile there is from using the corn syrup. Regards, GF.

I used an ale yeast on mine. It started very fast, krausened and everything just like a beer , then slowed down a lot , just like you say. But then it was just a steady bubble every 20 seconds or so for a month. The point is , it will take a while to ferment down to 1.000. Some of my fermenters are air tight and some aren't , so don't rely on bubbling. For Apfelwein its best just to wait for it to completely clear, then take a gravity reading. Mine took 6 weeks to clear. The average around here is about a month to 8 weeks.

JesseRC said:

I used an ale yeast on mine. It started very fast, krausened and everything just like a beer , then slowed down a lot , just like you say. But then it was just a steady bubble every 20 seconds or so for a month. The point is , it will take a while to ferment down to 1.000. Some of my fermenters are air tight and some aren't , so don't rely on bubbling. For Apfelwein its best just to wait for it to completely clear, then take a gravity reading. Mine took 6 weeks to clear. The average around here is about a month to 8 weeks.

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What type of yeast did you use? I've used ale yeast and champagne yeast, but I've never had anything other than a thin layer of bubbles.

Off topic, but I'm curious.

I think I used nottingham.

UPDATE

Orginal brew date (if you count that as brewing)
25 FEB 09
OG
1.067
Current SG @ 19.03 (4 March 2009) @80.4*f)
1.014 (un corrected) 1.016501 corrected for temp via http://leebrewery.com/b e e r m a t h.htm

Still needs time to clear, cant really see in the carboy (see below) but look at the sample its very cloudy. Thinking about racking down to a secondary in a week or so. It has only been ferming for a week or so. It still smells good, very strong apple/CO2/Alcohol smell with just a hint of bread/yeast to it, smells damn good.


here it is in the carboy before i moved it downstairs to the fermy room.