Man, I love Apfelwein

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Did my very first 5 gallon batch tonight, followed original recipe exact and hope it works right... wifey (swmbo? What's this stand for) is excited for saving money as I can go through a case a weekend... now to play the waiting game :)

She Who Must Be Obeyed.

There is some disagreement about the legitimate provenance of this term, in threads on this very forum. I always credit it to John Mortimer's character Horace Rumpole in the Rumpole of the Bailey stories. What he called his wife Hilda.
 
I just kegged my apfelwein after aging it in the secondary for 6 months. I followed edworts recipe exactly with one exception. I backsweetend it with 2 cans of apple juice concentrate. Finished project is excellent. Gravity is currently at 1.010 after 2 cans of concentrate. I defenetly recommend trying it.
 
She Who Must Be Obeyed.

There is some disagreement about the legitimate provenance of this term, in threads on this very forum. I always credit it to John Mortimer's character Horace Rumpole in the Rumpole of the Bailey stories. What he called his wife Hilda.

I thought it dated to H. Rider Haggard's character "AYESHA" in the book "SHE"
who was the archetype of SHE (who must be obeyed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She:_A_History_of_Adventure

I'm guessing that Mortimer was referencing Haggard...
 
Recluse said:
I thought it dated to H. Rider Haggard's character "AYESHA" in the book "SHE"
who was the archetype of SHE (who must be obeyed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She:_A_History_of_Adventure

I'm guessing that Mortimer was referencing Haggard...

Dangit, ya beat me to it! Also, those brewers who have used cinnamon sticks when brewing and bottling, do you do anything to sterilize the sticks before chucking them in the mix?
 
I just kegged my apfelwein after aging it in the secondary for 6 months. I followed edworts recipe exactly with one exception. I backsweetend it with 2 cans of apple juice concentrate. Finished project is excellent. Gravity is currently at 1.010 after 2 cans of concentrate. I defenetly recommend trying it.

how you "killl" the yeast before adding the concentrate?
 
Been meaning to post this for a while.... First place in the 2012 Colonial Cup! Thanks for a great recipe!

image-1394055959.jpg
 
I primed with 5 oz. dextrose in 5 gal, just like I do all my beers. Worked out very nicely. I have no interest in back-sweetening, so I wouldn't know about that.

Rico, out of curiosity, how long did you primary (and or secondary) before you bottled?

And

How long did you age in bottle before you noticed a good carbonation level?
 
Well as a first timer, made my first 5 gals last night, and it's starting to ferment already. Saw some bubbles on my airlock already, nothing fast yet. I don't like running my ac real low, and since I'm on a 1 story home, I put the carboy in my closest. Ambient temps hover around 73ish in there. It's in a darker corner, so I'm hoping if it raises up to around 78ish I'll still be ok leaving it there for about 4 weeks.

Been reading up on how to siphon/bottle it out but got a few quick questions. How important is a bottling bucket? I've read it's ok to bottle it out of primary, so I assume I should just go get an autosiphon with something else from the lhbs? I just gotta make sure not to get the bottom or top if anything is there correct? And, not carbing some beer bottles with this wine is ok? I'm gonna let it sit for 3 weeks in bottles, then fridge it for a week, hoping it's ready for a birthday party!
 
detlion1643 said:
Well as a first timer, made my first 5 gals last night, and it's starting to ferment already. Saw some bubbles on my airlock already, nothing fast yet. I don't like running my ac real low, and since I'm on a 1 story home, I put the carboy in my closest. Ambient temps hover around 73ish in there. It's in a darker corner, so I'm hoping if it raises up to around 78ish I'll still be ok leaving it there for about 4 weeks.

Been reading up on how to siphon/bottle it out but got a few quick questions. How important is a bottling bucket? I've read it's ok to bottle it out of primary, so I assume I should just go get an autosiphon with something else from the lhbs? I just gotta make sure not to get the bottom or top if anything is there correct? And, not carbing some beer bottles with this wine is ok? I'm gonna let it sit for 3 weeks in bottles, then fridge it for a week, hoping it's ready for a birthday party!

A bottling bucket is not absolutely necessary, but it makes things a whole lot easier and helps ensure the priming sugar is fully mixed in. Bottling with an autosiphon almost requires two people in my experience... you can probably get it done by yourself, but it's still a pain, and if you don't have the siphon and bottling wand clips to hold them in place, you pretty much need a partner.

I actually use my beer kettle to bottle. The concept is almost identical to Revvy's bottling bucket sticky, but doesn't require a bottling bucket to take up space and can be almost *sterilized* by boiling water in it first. I made a thread about it a while back... searching bottling kettle might bring it up, if you're interested.

Whatever you choose, I don't recommend bottling with an autosiphon - it was such a pain that it was the only thing about brewing I decidedly disliked and made bottling a total chore.

That temperature is a bit too warm in my experience. It'll still be good and drinkable, just not quite as good as it could be... lower temp would make the final product taste cleaner and smoother (i.e. not harsh). I'd try to keep the *fermentation* temp under 70-72 if you could; if you can only control ambient temp, that means no higher than the low 60's. If you're concerned about energy usage, it mostly matters during just the first 4-7 days. After that, warmer temps only affect the finished product slightly, if at all.

And yes, you can leave some of it flat. In fact, some people prefer it, though most here seem to prefer carbonation. I personally prefer it sparkling (highly carbonated), sometimes exceeding 5 volumes, though I bottle in champagne bottles. If you use standard beer bottles, don't carbonate higher than 3 volumes... they can explode. Champagne bottles can take much more pressure, though some of the thick Belgian bottles and some German Hefe bottles (the tall and slender 500ml ones) can take 4 volumes... the latter generally uses caps instead of corks, though some of the good Belgian ones do too (particularly the small, stubby ones). PET bottles (i.e. plastic soda bottles) can take more carbonation than you could possibly want.
 
Rico, out of curiosity, how long did you primary (and or secondary) before you bottled?

And

How long did you age in bottle before you noticed a good carbonation level?

I made the batch December 3rd, and racked it to the secondary the first week of March (primarily so I could mix in a few drops of pectic enzyme to try and clear it up). At that point, the Montrachet yeast had done a real job on it, registering 0.998 on my hydrometer.

I think I bottled it about a month later, which would make it early April sometime, and it was carbonated up a month after that. It's really nice now, dry but with a nice apple flavor, and pretty (although not completely) clear.

I primed it with 5 oz. of dextrose to 5 gal. of Apfelwein, the same as my beers, and all of the operations described, from the initial fermentation on, took place in my basement, which runs around 60-61F.
 
Made my first batch 3 months ago and am about to make another because it's so damn good!!! Thanks ED for this and so many other great recipes!
 
Ok so I am drinking from my original batch done i would say about 4 or 5 months ago I had some in the fridge in a 1 gal container. Seems to be sour. I know it will be dry b/c it's wine like but does sour come with it? Or do you think it will go away? I am going to bottle carb my next batch july 1st being in primary for little over 2 months
 
Those of you who have used cinnamon in this.... How many sticks do you use and how? I have had mine in the fermentor about a month and a half... I was going to throw about 4-5 cinnamon sticks in there for a week or so... that too much/too little? Any suggestions?
 
mastamind said:
Ok so I am drinking from my original batch done i would say about 4 or 5 months ago I had some in the fridge in a 1 gal container. Seems to be sour. I know it will be dry b/c it's wine like but does sour come with it? Or do you think it will go away? I am going to bottle carb my next batch july 1st being in primary for little over 2 months

Could be excess Malic acid, maybe? Read up on Malo-lactic fermentation.
 
Those of you who have used cinnamon in this.... How many sticks do you use and how? I have had mine in the fermentor about a month and a half... I was going to throw about 4-5 cinnamon sticks in there for a week or so... that too much/too little? Any suggestions?
I used 2 sticks, broke them in half and put them in a spice-bag with some cloves and marbles for weight. A piece of monofilament fishing line was tied to the bag and secured outside the carboy. The rubber bung seemed to seal it well. The 2 cinnamon sticks was just about right. The cinnamon flavor is nice, but not overpowering. The 7 cloves I used was TOO much! After only a few days, I pulled the bag, and removed ALL the cloves, and returned the bag with cinnamon sticks only. The nice thing about this setup is that you can let the spice bag in until the flavor is right, or adjust the contents as needed.
 
Never made this Apfelwien and not a big drinker. Can I make a smaller batch from this recipe? Say using a 3 gal carboy filling with 3 gals of apple juice and 1 pound of corn sugar?
 
jab007 said:
Never made this Apfelwien and not a big drinker. Can I make a smaller batch from this recipe? Say using a 3 gal carboy filling with 3 gals of apple juice and 1 pound of corn sugar?

I have done just that for my first batch of this. Worked out perfectly.
 
Never made this Apfelwien and not a big drinker. Can I make a smaller batch from this recipe? Say using a 3 gal carboy filling with 3 gals of apple juice and 1 pound of corn sugar?

Oh, yeah....this recipe is pretty forgiving, compared to most wine recipes...

It scales up and down beautifully (I've done 0.5. 1, 3, 5, and 10 gallon batches).

I've varied the sugar from as little as 1#/5gal to 1/2#+concentrate in 1gal - creates a different product, but still quite good! People have used corn sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, candi sugar, even molasses...

Right now, I have 8 different experimental batches with different spices, fruits, etc. fermenting away for comparison....
 
Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but I don't plan on reading all 986 pages, I read about 10 and didn't see the answer. But if I were to make this recipe with with no extra sugar added, just the 5 gallons of Apple Juice, will it still turn out exactly the same flavor-wise just without the extra alcohol?
 
Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but I don't plan on reading all 986 pages, I read about 10 and didn't see the answer. But if I were to make this recipe with with no extra sugar added, just the 5 gallons of Apple Juice, will it still turn out exactly the same flavor-wise just without the extra alcohol?

there'd be nearly no alcohol in it, the sugar is what creates your alcohol. but i'd assume it'd still taste the same, you'd just have to drink all 5 gallons to get a buzz
 
there'd be nearly no alcohol in it, the sugar is what creates your alcohol. but i'd assume it'd still taste the same, you'd just have to drink all 5 gallons to get a buzz

I saw that is was 8.5% ABV with 2 lbs. of Dextrose in the original recipe. I know there is sugar in the apple juice, I was just wondering if you left out the 2 lbs. of Dextrose would you get about 4-5% ABV?
 
Sorry if this has been mentioned already, but I don't plan on reading all 986 pages, I read about 10 and didn't see the answer. But if I were to make this recipe with with no extra sugar added, just the 5 gallons of Apple Juice, will it still turn out exactly the same flavor-wise just without the extra alcohol?

The added dextrose is actually EdWort's idea....the original Frankfurt-area style of German apfelwine is made with straight-up juice.
 
correct but by eliminating 2# of sugar your alcohol % would be greatly reduced my best guess would be in the 3-5% range as opposed to the 8-9

upper end of five.

I've made apfelwein many times with excellent results... it is as delightful as all 900 pages of this thread would indicate.

I also dig Graham's English Cider (thanks HBT'r freezeblade!) quite a bit, an easy cider with no extra sugar. Not trying to hijack the apfelwein thread, I promise.

Rest, assured, that I have enjoyed the drunkenness from both!:tank:
 
So, my apfelwein has aged for 5 months, and it taste pretty good. (I got sidetracked and time went flying by)

After that amount of time, would there still be any dormant yeast available if I was to prime it before bottling to carb or am I regulated to putting it in wine bottles and enjoying it still? If read almost every post. But I cant seem to be able to remember what the answer is.
Thanks guys!
 
Ironred88 said:
So, my apfelwein has aged for 5 months, and it taste pretty good. (I got sidetracked and time went flying by)

After that amount of time, would there still be any dormant yeast available if I was to prime it before bottling to carb or am I regulated to putting it in wine bottles and enjoying it still? If read almost every post. But I cant seem to be able to remember what the answer is.
Thanks guys!

You should be fine but you could add some more yeast if you wanted... just part of a pack of dry stuff would be more than enough.
 
If I want to back sweeten a 5 gallon batch, how much Splenda should I add??
I did some research and testing on this a while back. Calculate the amount of sugar you would add, then use about 1/10th that amount of Splenda.

However, do some bench tests first! Try maybe 5 samples with the calculated "ideal" one in the middle. Find the best one, and then calculate how much you need to add to your 5 gallons. Then I would add about 70% of that, wait for a week, and taste your wine. Often, a sweetener gets more intense with some age. It's easy to over-sweeten. If after a week, the taste is not sweet enough, you can add some more.

In the end, I did NOT use Splenda to back-sweeten. It adds a different taste than sugar, and I didn't care for that. But it's your wine, so go with what you like.
 
feffer said:
I did some research and testing on this a while back. Calculate the amount of sugar you would add, then use about 1/10th that amount of Splenda.

However, do some bench tests first! Try maybe 5 samples with the calculated "ideal" one in the middle. Find the best one, and then calculate how much you need to add to your 5 gallons. Then I would add about 70% of that, wait for a week, and taste your wine. Often, a sweetener gets more intense with some age. It's easy to over-sweeten. If after a week, the taste is not sweet enough, you can add some more.

In the end, I did NOT use Splenda to back-sweeten. It adds a different taste than sugar, and I didn't care for that. But it's your wine, so go with what you like.

So in the end. You used table or corn sugar? And how'd u kill off the yeast?
 
So in the end. You used table or corn sugar? And how'd u kill off the yeast?
I used cane (table) sugar. The wine was first treated with k-meta and potassium sorbate to stabilize it. Doesn't "kill" the yeast, but "controls" them so they won't restart fermentation.

The poster was asking about back-sweetening, so I'm assuming he wants non-carbonated apfelwein but with some sweetness to it. If he is looking for both carbonation and sweetness, then don't use k-sorbate. In that case, either corn or cane sugar for carbonation. For sweetness, add something non-fermentable like Splenda, Stevia or even glycerin and/or cinnamon. The two later ones add "apparent" sweetness.

Or easiest of all, don't bother with additional sugar at all. Leave the wine still, and when serving, add 7up or Club Soda (2 or 3 parts Apfelwein and 1part soda). Some will like it that way; others will like it "original."
 
feffer said:
easiest of all, don't bother with additional sugar at all. Leave the wine still, and when serving, add 7up or Club Soda (2 or 3 parts Apfelwein and 1part soda). Some will like it that way; others will like it "original."


I wanted mine carbed and I think I may want it sweet. My sister is a big reisling fan so I may just try adding a bit of sugar or 7up when serving
 
Just kegged five gallons of apfelwein that had been in the carboy for six months. Turned out fantastically crisp, dry, and a little tart. Calculated ABV for the batch is 6.7%. It's going to be on tap for a bbq we have planned in a couple weeks. Looking forward to doing another batch soon.
 
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