Man, I love Apfelwein

I plan to make a 5 gallon batch as my first brew hopefully this weekend. I don't plan to carb mine but bottle it in wine bottles or flip top bottles and add 7up to it if I want to. It doesn't have to be carbed right?

I just bottled up my second batch of this sweet, sweet nectar after one month(second batch total, first 5 gallon batch). Got 6 wine bottles and about 1.5 cases of carbed beer bottles out of it. For some reason I ended up at the lhbs today picking up things, and decided to purchase a coopers kit, which I have made many many times; this time, rather than use the usual yeast included in the kit, I threw it on top of the leftover yeast cake from the apfelwein. Should be an interesting brew...I've never tried to reuse a yeast cake before, but since I used Lalvin K1-V1116 which has a tolerance of almost 20%, and the apfelwein came out right under 9%, well you do the math.

spitfire said:

It doesn't have to be carbed right?

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Nope, it doesn't.

We used organic juice from Whole Foods (not intentionally organic, we just wanted the 1 gallon glass jugs for other evil experiments). Since the juice was really hazy to begin with should we expect it to clear as if we were using regular apple juice?

IrishLass said:

We used organic juice from Whole Foods (not intentionally organic, we just wanted the 1 gallon glass jugs for other evil experiments). Since the juice was really hazy to begin with should we expect it to clear as if we were using regular apple juice?

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Mines almost 3 weeks in and it hasn't even remotely cleared. I don't think it will without the use of some kind of clarifier... gelatin, etc.

IrishLass said:

We used organic juice from Whole Foods (not intentionally organic, we just wanted the 1 gallon glass jugs for other evil experiments). Since the juice was really hazy to begin with should we expect it to clear as if we were using regular apple juice?

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Maybe crash cool it for 3-5 days and left if warm over night to keep the amount of dextrose for carbing at 3/4 cup. I think that is what I am going to do.

KerryD said:

Mines almost 3 weeks in and it hasn't even remotely cleared. I don't think it will without the use of some kind of clarifier... gelatin, etc.

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Cold crashing works very well. A week at anywhere below 45* or 50* works fine.

Yes baby!! Just pulled a sample to take a gravity reading, .990. Smells Soooooo good! Like a champagne. Effervescent is a word that comes to mind. Not clear yet as this is the natural stuff but I am letting it sit to settle as we type so that I can rack it to a keg and carb it. The I will put the keg in the freezer with the temp control unit pulled down to the 30's. I will let it sit, recarbing daily at 12 psi until the weekend.

My question, I was going to transfer to wine bottles (magnums, 1500 mls) but wondered about the cork popping out?? i have some 1/2 gallon growlers and some 16 oz flip tops I can put it in also. What say you?

Yambor44 said:

Yes baby!! Just pulled a sample to take a gravity reading, .990. Smells Soooooo good! Like a champagne. Effervescent is a word that comes to mind. Not clear yet as this is the natural stuff but I am letting it sit to settle as we type so that I can rack it to a keg and carb it. The I will put the keg in the freezer with the temp control unit pulled down to the 30's. I will let it sit, recarbing daily at 12 psi until the weekend.

My question, I was going to transfer to wine bottles (magnums, 1500 mls) but wondered about the cork popping out?? i have some 1/2 gallon growlers and some 16 oz flip tops I can put it in also. What say you?

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Are you trying to bottle this carbed or uncarbed?

Uncarbed then you need to rack and defizz then you can bottle in wine bottles (this is how you do it with any wine).

Carbed then you can NOT use wine bottles! Pressure capable bottles only!!

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

Are you trying to bottle this carbed or uncarbed?

Uncarbed then you need to rack and defizz then you can bottle in wine bottles (this is how you do it with any wine).

Carbed then you can NOT use wine bottles! Pressure capable bottles only!!

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I didn't defizz mine and it worked just fine in wine bottles. The only one that popped a cork was a screw-top that I tried corking. It's actually kind of nice how it is a little effervescent. Like a sparkling white wine.

Is there any reason I couldn't use this to brew my Apfelwein? In the triangle on the bottom is has #2 so that means food safe right? If I can use it, is there anything I should do to it besides sanatize it? Like should I drill a hole in the lid, and a grommet so I can ad an airlock?

spitfire said:

Is there any reason I couldn't use this to brew my Apfelwein? In the triangle on the bottom is has #2 so that means food safe right? If I can use it, is there anything I should do to it besides sanatize it? Like should I drill a hole in the lid, and a grommet so I can ad an airlock?

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That'll be a ***** to clean. You can get 5-gallon PET water bottles at walmart cheaper ($6.50) and they'll work much better. They take a #8.5 drilled stopper.

All water and food cantainers are "food safe".

Well, my batch made on 1/24/09 (Ed's AW day!) is kegged! Hit 0.998 on the gravity, which is a bit higher than expected but fine by me since I like it a bit sweeter. Having a pint right now of it uncarbonated at 60F and it is TASTY! Can't wait to have some cold and carbed. Oh and BTW, have another batch fermenting away in week 2 as we speak...that's going to be ready right when it starts to get hot. I'm thinking that will go perfect with some mowing, edging, and hop gardening!

PAC, what dept did you see the PET bottles in? Also, I thought they were the #7 bottles which are a no no?

Has anyone asked Ed why the Montrachet yeast?
Was that the one sitting in the fridge?

If I were to use the one I posted, would I need to drill a hole in the lid for the airlock?

spitfire said:

If I were to use the one I posted, would I need to drill a hole in the lid for the airlock?

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Yes, don't make yourself a bomb.

You might be able to get away with keeping the vent cap a little loose, but otherwise, yes.

As far as Pet bottles at Wal-Mart.... Wal Mart does local water contracts so they will vary by location. Here they are 7's.

KerryD said:

You might be able to get away with keeping the vent cap a little loose, but otherwise, yes.

As far as Pet bottles at Wal-Mart.... Wal Mart does local water contracts so they will vary by location. Here they are 7's.

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#7 is a bad thing right. I was at Walmart last night but couldn't find the PET bottles to see what # they were. I did check the local grocery stores and they were all 7's.

I seen the aqua tainer at Walmart and thought why wouldn't that work. It really doesn't look all that hard to clean plus it is 7 gallons. I have 2 BB's on the way so I will use them but thought I would just use the aqua tainer for my apfelwein.

Home Depot carries Culligan water bottles that are #1. They are only $6 too, nice price.

StoutFan said:

Home Depot carries Culligan water bottles that are #1. They are only $6 too, nice price.

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You gotta watch the cullingan bottles, some are #1 and some are #7. I don't know if they are in the process of a changeover, or if they just have mixed inventory. I have noted that their "purified" water always seems to be in #1 bottles and their Spring water is most often #7 with the occaisional #1 mixed in. HD sells the Spring water, but there is a Culligan warehouse just down the road from me that sells several water types (distilled, spring purified and RO) in 3 gallon and 5 gallon.

babalu87 said:

Has anyone asked Ed why the Montrachet yeast?
Was that the one sitting in the fridge?

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Because it comes the closest to the Apfelwein he had in Frankfurt.

gingerdawg said:

You gotta watch the cullingan bottles, some are #1 and some are #7. I don't know if they are in the process of a changeover, or if they just have mixed inventory. I have noted that their "purified" water always seems to be in #1 bottles and their Spring water is most often #7 with the occaisional #1 mixed in. HD sells the Spring water, but there is a Culligan warehouse just down the road from me that sells several water types (distilled, spring purified and RO) in 3 gallon and 5 gallon.

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Every bottle at my home depot was a #7, otherwise I would've picked them up. I imagine that everyone's shifting towards #1's, but it happens faster in some places than others.

#7 water bottles are polycarbonate and can be used. I used them for many many many many (shall I go on) years. There's just as much Biph-a in a can of coke, if that's your worry.

Get a used water bottle, the Biph-a should have leached out of those used ones a long time ago.

I just want to pick one of the cheaper water bottles so I can use my 2 BB as my secondary for beer and the cheap one for my ciders and apfelwein's

damn after reading the first page and then the last 200 pages I'm going to hop right into this. I am ordering a 5 gal BB and the yeast right now.. I guess it helps to be drinking woodchuck now also

Back to the Apfelwine at hand.....I wasn't really looking to carbonate it. I'm already having enough problems finding bottles for my beer at this point (and I really don't feel like bottling three 5 gallon batches the same day).

But I would like a little, uh, effervescence. Ed mentioned splashing it with 7up or something like that when you serve it. What do you guys think about me just racking into some growlers (cracking the seal every week to let off whatever pressure might build up), and then when serving it up just have some 7up they can splash it with, or mix it up and put it in a container with a spout at a party?

I haven't really seen anyone talk about how it is combined with 7up, or something else and was curious as to how it compares.

I am ready to make some of this tonight. I had an order for my starter kit and it came in today. I thought I had ordered 2 pounds of corn sugar but guess I didn't. I know I can use brown sugar instead but can you buy corn sugar at the grocery store? Is it called something else at the store?

If I use brown sugar, should I still use 2 pounds? I plan to use light brown sugar. Also, do I mix the brown sugar the same way as the corn sugar or do I have to boil the brown sugar in juice first?

Yep, you use it the same way.

If you have a health food store near by you might find corn sugar there.

I did batches with both and i can't tell the difference.

spitfire said:

... I know I can use brown sugar instead but can you buy corn sugar at the grocery store? Is it called something else at the store?

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If you can't find corn sugar, you can also look for Dextrose or Glucose. They're all the same thing. Be careful, though, there's a glucose gel product available for diabetics that you definitely don't want.

I haven't tried it, but you could probably even use sucrose (granulated white sugar). In that case, though, you should probably boil it to make a syrup, since the granules won't dissolve easily. Don't use confectioner's sugar, it's got corn starch in it.

Anyone else have any thoughts on pure sucrose?

Thanks for the replies, I ended up going with light brown sugar. I do have a health food store by work so I will check there for my next batch.

I don't have any Vodka on hand, is it a big deal to use water?

EDIT: Answered my own question, just gonna use star san this go round and grab some Vodka for the future.

A lot of people use water.

That is actually what I ended up doing. Used water instead of wasting the Star San

Edwort, I like your apfelwein...but I think you should put a disclaimer on it. Something about if your friends drink it they will end up spending the night on your lawn. Yah, something like that...

I read about the first 100 pages, decided to do a batch of Apfelwein myself tonight.

I plan on using the empty apple juice bottles to bottle with, they're clear, will the light have any effect on the Apfelwein? If so, I'll just keep em in the closet.

The bottles are 3qt bottles, I believe I read somewhere that the bigger the bottle the longer time it takes to carbonate. About how long will these take? I'm guessing around 2-3 weeks.

I can only answer the question about the clear bottles. Clear bottles are fine from what I understand as there is no hops in it so the sun doesn't affect it. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

I carbed this for 2 days in a keg then used the "we don't need no stinking beer gun" (BMBF) to transfer the cider to beer bottles and then capped. My wife had the first glass from the chilled keg and really enjoyed it. Thanks Ed!

OK, last question here. I have read a variety of ferm temps for the Apfelwein. What is the range of temp that is best?