New to wine making. Questions about Apfelwein

Hello everyone!

I have been lurking here on the forum for a while now, and finally decided to register and become active on here. I have never made wine, or anything else for that matter, but I am trying to get everything I need to make a 5 gallon batch of EdWort's Apfelwein as my first project.

I know all the ingredients are listed on Ed's original post, but here it is again just in case I managed to miss something.

*5 gallons of apple juice. I have a local organic grocery store that sells pretty amazing apple juice. It is "cloudy", and has no preservatives or anything like that. Would that work OK?
*2lbs of dextrose.
*1 5 gram pack of Montrachet Wine Yeast
*5 Gallon Carboy. He used Better Bottle, but would any plastic water jug work just as well?
*Carboy cap with airlock.

My main questions have to do with sanitizing. The post says to sanitize the Carboy, airlock, etc. But it doesn't say what that is exactly. Soap and water, or a commercial product?

My other questions is what is suitable for bottling the finished product? The apple juice I mentioned from my local store comes in one gallon glass bottles with metal caps. Could I sanitize these and use them for storage?

Thanks! I cant wait to get started.

That juice should work fine it may just not be as filtered as some other juice. Generally youd want a carboy or better bottle but you should be able to use something else as long as its food grade. To sanatize you should use an actual sanitizer like star san. Im sure someone will suggest bleach but i wont. Soap and water doesnt sanitize. Those bottles would work for storage but they arent meant to withstand pressure so you wouldnt be able to carbonate in them if you wanted to.

Wiggleplum said:

Hello everyone!

I have been lurking here on the forum for a while now, and finally decided to register and become active on here. I have never made wine, or anything else for that matter, but I am trying to get everything I need to make a 5 gallon batch of EdWort's Apfelwein as my first project.

I know all the ingredients are listed on Ed's original post, but here it is again just in case I managed to miss something.

*5 gallons of apple juice. I have a local organic grocery store that sells pretty amazing apple juice. It is "cloudy", and has no preservatives or anything like that. Would that work OK?
*2lbs of dextrose.
*1 5 gram pack of Montrachet Wine Yeast
*5 Gallon Carboy. He used Better Bottle, but would any plastic water jug work just as well?
*Carboy cap with airlock.

My main questions have to do with sanitizing. The post says to sanitize the Carboy, airlock, etc. But it doesn't say what that is exactly. Soap and water, or a commercial product?

My other questions is what is suitable for bottling the finished product? The apple juice I mentioned from my local store comes in one gallon glass bottles with metal caps. Could I sanitize these and use them for storage?

Thanks! I cant wait to get started.

Click to expand...

For something like Apfelwine use Star San or Potassium Metabisulfite. Both can be found @ your LHBS. Soak or spray the equipment with either of those solutions and let drip dry. Don't use bleach or soap!

For final product, if you don't wish to carbonate, then yes the gallon jugs are a great idea (soak them in the same stuff as above before putting the Apfelwine in).

If you do wish to carbonate, use beer bottles, champagne bottles or soda bottles.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the help!

A few more questions. I plan on letting this ferment for about 6 months, and was wondering if I need to clean the airlock or replace the vodka in it at any point? How do I stop the fermentation when I am ready to bottle? Also, how long would this stay safe if I used the gallon bottles to store it?

Thanks again!

Just keep liquid in the airlock; it will evaporate. No need to clean it.

Fermentation will stop on it's own when the yeast have eaten all the sugar (no more food, no more fermentation)

It'll stay safe indefinitely...once it's fermented, nothing harmful can live in it

Theres a fill line on most 3 piece airlocks so just keep it filled. You dont need to clean anything. Just let it ferment out and then bottle.