Redking
Active Member
So I read a lot of the "Man, I love apfelwein" post and was instantly sold on the idea of making something so simple and yet so very delicious with proven results from many people. So today I went to costco and picked up some AJ and to the LHBS to get some yeast and decided to get it started...with a few changes. So just thought I'd post on here and update the progress on it and hopefully it turns out good and somebody else can try it or learn something!
The main changes were replacing the dextrose with honey, and using apple juice that wasn't from concentrate - figured better apple juice could definitely make a better end product. The juice at costco is also really cheap and delicious, I had a little left over from this and was drinking a glass of it while cooking up the batch! As for the honey, I just like the taste of it and have had some very good ciders/cysers with honey so hopefully it comes out at least a little in the end, if not it'll just boost the alcohol a bit....won't be as high as EdWort's though.
Ingredients:
- 5 gallons of Kirkland Fresh Pressed Apple Juice ($8.49/2gal at my local costco, not from concentrate so I definitely thought it was well worth it)
- ~1lb Kirkland Clover Honey
- 1 packet (5g) Montrachet
I took <12oz of the AJ and heated it up to a mildly hot temperature, just hot enough so that the pound of honey would melt into it...so I slowly poured that in and mixed it, the poured it into the carboy. I had one of the gallons chilling in the fridge for a little bit to bring down it's temperature and compensate for the heat from the honey-AJ mixture so it wouldn't be too hot to pitch the yeast. The I poured in the rest of the AJ - it was more like 4.9 gallons since the honey displaced it a bit, and threw it all into a 5gal better bottle all the way up to the neck, slapped an airlock on and put it in a dark area in my room. My plan is to let it sit for until it clears up...probably more like 6 weeks and then bottle and let it sit longer and just taste one at a time until I am satisfied with the taste. I may or may not backsweeten - sort of leaning toward keeping it dry since so many people say it is the way to go (and I do like dry ciders, but not bone dry).
O.G. was 1.057 - the honey didn't bring it up too much, but enough to get something that will be just over 7% which is right where I want it.
I'll keep updating this when I check on it. It will be back home while I am up in college but I do come back every few weeks. Wish me luck!
The main changes were replacing the dextrose with honey, and using apple juice that wasn't from concentrate - figured better apple juice could definitely make a better end product. The juice at costco is also really cheap and delicious, I had a little left over from this and was drinking a glass of it while cooking up the batch! As for the honey, I just like the taste of it and have had some very good ciders/cysers with honey so hopefully it comes out at least a little in the end, if not it'll just boost the alcohol a bit....won't be as high as EdWort's though.
Ingredients:
- 5 gallons of Kirkland Fresh Pressed Apple Juice ($8.49/2gal at my local costco, not from concentrate so I definitely thought it was well worth it)
- ~1lb Kirkland Clover Honey
- 1 packet (5g) Montrachet
I took <12oz of the AJ and heated it up to a mildly hot temperature, just hot enough so that the pound of honey would melt into it...so I slowly poured that in and mixed it, the poured it into the carboy. I had one of the gallons chilling in the fridge for a little bit to bring down it's temperature and compensate for the heat from the honey-AJ mixture so it wouldn't be too hot to pitch the yeast. The I poured in the rest of the AJ - it was more like 4.9 gallons since the honey displaced it a bit, and threw it all into a 5gal better bottle all the way up to the neck, slapped an airlock on and put it in a dark area in my room. My plan is to let it sit for until it clears up...probably more like 6 weeks and then bottle and let it sit longer and just taste one at a time until I am satisfied with the taste. I may or may not backsweeten - sort of leaning toward keeping it dry since so many people say it is the way to go (and I do like dry ciders, but not bone dry).
O.G. was 1.057 - the honey didn't bring it up too much, but enough to get something that will be just over 7% which is right where I want it.
I'll keep updating this when I check on it. It will be back home while I am up in college but I do come back every few weeks. Wish me luck!
