Man, I love Apfelwein

CornyKegs 728
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So this is the first wine I've ever made. I'm going to bottle 2.5 gallons of a 5 gallon batch I made back in October. It has been in Primary this whole time. If I were to transfer 2.5 gallons to another carboy and add another pound of brown sugar, would this work or should I just leave the extra sugar out?
 
Made the recipe exact except for I used wyeast cider 4766, and I kind of forgot about it in the carboy. It's been 6 months now. :drunk: Is it still any good? No visual mold or anything funky like that. Has anyone fermented this long with this recipe? I'm going to keg it today if it tastes right. Thanks for the recipe Ed!
 
GGGsPorter said:
Made the recipe exact except for I used wyeast cider 4766, and I kind of forgot about it in the carboy. It's been 6 months now. :drunk: Is it still any good? No visual mold or anything funky like that. Has anyone fermented this long with this recipe? I'm going to keg it today if it tastes right. Thanks for the recipe Ed!
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I just tasted mine today for the first time after about 4.5 or 5 months and it was delicious.
 
GGGsPorter said:
Mooseman, thanks for the info! That gives me hope mine will turn out. I'll report later on my results.
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Do you have any advice as to my earlier post? I just bottled a little over half of my 5 gallon batch. I'm going to transfer my other half into my other 2.5 gallon carboy to just age for a few more months. Would it be a good idea to add some more sugar to start up fermentation again? Or would that ruin my wine?
 
Mooseman923 said:
Do you have any advice as to my earlier post? I just bottled a little over half of my 5 gallon batch. I'm going to transfer my other half into my other 2.5 gallon carboy to just age for a few more months. Would it be a good idea to add some more sugar to start up fermentation again? Or would that ruin my wine?
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I personally wouldn't do that. Possible off flavors?
 
Kegged mine up this afternoon. Tasted good! No off flavors (autolysis) from being in primary 6 months. Very dry. FG .995 Good apple flavor coming through! Looking forward to it being cooled and carbonated!
 
Mooseman923 said:
Do you have any advice as to my earlier post? I just bottled a little over half of my 5 gallon batch. I'm going to transfer my other half into my other 2.5 gallon carboy to just age for a few more months. Would it be a good idea to add some more sugar to start up fermentation again? Or would that ruin my wine?
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Probably not. I can't think of any reason to restart the fermentation, other then the co2 blanket. You would be producing more of the compounds you have been waiting on to break down.
 
I was at walmart today, and I noticed they had 3 quart jugs of apple juice on sale. So, I filled the cart with them. I will get a 5 gallon batch going when I get some yeast. My question is. Can I sub the dextrose for Brown sugar? I have 2 pounds on hand.
 
Just started a batch of this last night. Used Mott's, Montrachet yeast, and Wyeast nutrient and it is chugging away at the moment. Thanks for the recipe Edwort.
 
HessenHelles said:
I was at walmart today, and I noticed they had 3 quart jugs of apple juice on sale. So, I filled the cart with them. I will get a 5 gallon batch going when I get some yeast. My question is. Can I sub the dextrose for Brown sugar? I have 2 pounds on hand.
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Yes you can use brown sugar,you can use any fermentable sugar you like or none at all. The batch I made with brown sugar came out very good.
 
Well I bottled my first batch last night and drank 3 bottles...needless to say I started a second batch. This time I added a half cup of raisins soaked in Pinot Nior for some added mouth feel but mainly as yeast nutrient. Here's to another 5 gallons of this delishness!
 
I just found a 3 gallon carboy of apfelwine that I started in June of last year. I'm thinking of adding a 1/4 packet of Champagne yeast along with a healthy amount of priming sugar and finally getting it into bottles. I'm also thinking that it's sat too long already on the yeast and I should just dump it all. Any experiences anyone would care to share along these lines?
 
Why would you dump it? All it is going to cost you to bottle it is a cup of sugar, a pack of yeast and a little time. Bottle that and let it carb right away! If it turns out terrible in a few months, well, then you should have dumped it :).
 
klnosaj said:
I just found a 3 gallon carboy of apfelwine that I started in June of last year. I'm thinking of adding a 1/4 packet of Champagne yeast along with a healthy amount of priming sugar and finally getting it into bottles. I'm also thinking that it's sat too long already on the yeast and I should just dump it all. Any experiences anyone would care to share along these lines?
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.....Taste some first. It will probably be fantastic.
 
So started some of this about a week ago.

I used pressed apples instead of juice, put a camden tablet and waited 36 hours before pitching, also used brown sugar.

OG 1.052

For the first 4 days real activity, with bubbles every 2-3 seconds.

Now at day 6 almost no activity, but did fermet down to about .999.

Anything wrong with this?

Also how long can i leave this in the carboy before bottling it? i.e. at what point will the yeast die and be unable to bottle carbonate?
 
RosieTheGreat said:
So started some of this about a week ago.

I used pressed apples instead of juice, put a camden tablet and waited 36 hours before pitching, also used brown sugar.

OG 1.052

For the first 4 days real activity, with bubbles every 2-3 seconds.

Now at day 6 almost no activity, but did fermet down to about .999.

Anything wrong with this?

Also how long can i leave this in the carboy before bottling it? i.e. at what point will the yeast die and be unable to bottle carbonate?
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I don't think anything is wrong. I had a batch hit FG in 8 days last summer. Your batch probably fermented kinda hot. It was summer when I had the batch finish in 8 days, but I had a much higher OG of 1.110.

How long can you keep it on the yeast? .... I'm not sure exactly. A long time. As in six months or more. The yeast is going to take a nap when it runs out of food, but it usually takes some effort to actually kill it.
 
I just did a scaling exercise to replace the sugar in EdWort's recipe with an equivalent amount of honey.

If you are interested in doing this, pick up a 40 oz. bottle of honey while you are picking up your 5 gallons of juice. One 40 oz. container of honey is almost exactly the perfect amount. How easy is that!?!

For each 1 gallon, 1/2 lb. or 8 oz. of honey (also a standard container size) will do the trick.
 
Thunder_Chicken said:
I just did a scaling exercise to replace the sugar in EdWort's recipe with an equivalent amount of honey.

If you are interested in doing this, pick up a 40 oz. bottle of honey while you are picking up your 5 gallons of juice. One 40 oz. container of honey is almost exactly the perfect amount. How easy is that!?!

For each 1 gallon, 1/2 lb. or 8 oz. of honey (also a standard container size) will do the trick.
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Would this be considered a mead or melomel? I'm intrigued
 
sethlovex said:
Would this be considered a mead or melomel? I'm intrigued
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I've already run that idea past the mead & cider folks - they are of the opinion that it isn't enough honey to warrant being called a cyser or mead or melomel. Honey is just another means to jack up the ABV of the apfelwein. It might make it even crisper and drier.
 
well all my first batch is all gone, from start to finish i left it 2 1/2 months, some i carbed up, some i left "flat" my god it is like rocket fuel, i have some Crystal clear now awaiting bottling, then ill start another two batched i think, i can not praise this stuff enough, chin chin..and bottoms up!!!
p.s i like the honey version think ill try that instead of sugar!!
 
I made my first batch today with my fiance. I was a genius and let the stopper drop all the way through the neck into the carboy so we transferred to another 6.5gal carboy. Hopefully there's no complications but I'm not really too worried. I made sure to swish the carboy around to get nearly all the yeast out.

Covered the top with some aluminum and draped a t-shirt over the whole thing. Cant wait to try it out after reading through this thread. Will make another batch using honey in another month or so. Sounds great!

Oh and just in case anybody is wondering and doesnt read through the entire blog:

SG: 1.062, this should be fun to drink.
 
Made my first batch with my son tonight. Pretty cool little project. He asked if he could taste it when it was finished. He's only 11 so "no". But he had fun anyway.
 
STJonesin4 said:
Made my first batch with my son tonight. Pretty cool little project. He asked if he could taste it when it was finished. He's only 11 so "no". But he had fun anyway.
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Oh come on, let him taste it. Hopefully he hates it. It will only become a problem if he likes it :)

Force feed him some whiskey sours now - you won't have to worry about him drinking until well in his 20s.
 
I made my first batch of this on Sunday. Yesterday when I got home, my whole house stunk. This yeast (Montrachet) really kicks off some aweful odor. Its similar to the sulfur smell from lager yeast, but not exactly the same.
I did some looking online and found other people experience the same thing and say its Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S). They say to use copper oxide or something to remove it.

I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I'm not reading through 1092 pages of posts to find it. Can someone clear this up for me? Will it go away without any action on my part or do I need to do something to prevent it from tasting like a$$?
 
TheBiGZ said:
I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I'm not reading through 1092 pages of posts to find it.
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You could always use the search function. Seems like you are asking us to do that.

Can someone clear this up for me? Will it go away without any action on my part or do I need to do something to prevent it from tasting like a$$?
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Happy yeast = less SO2. Montrachet is a classic SO2 producer. Keep the yeast happy, and make sure to stir often during the ferment - those are the things someone told me and they worked. De-gassing mine seemed to get rid of what remained.

There are other methods but none of them are specific to this recipe so a search should help you quite a bit (as it did me).
 
TheBiGZ said:
I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I'm not reading through 1092 pages of posts to find it. Can someone clear this up for me? Will it go away without any action on my part or do I need to do something to prevent it from tasting like a$$?
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Those, my friend, would be the rhino farts. Don't worry, they will only last a few days and then clear up on their own. To cut down on the smell place a wet paper towel over the airlock and spray it with Starsan every time walk by to keep it wet.
I have heard that adding yeast nutrient in the beginning reduces the chance of getting the rhino farts. I usually time my batches so that the wife is out of town on days 3-6, when the smell normally hits.
 
Bottled my 3 gallons of brew last week. Used 2 3/4 gallons of Trader Joe's 'Real' Apple Juice, Nottingham Yeast, 1# of dextrose and a handful rinsed non sulfured raisins. Kept it in 3 gallon carboy for 7 weeks. A few days of smell nothing bad, just musty apple. Good thing too since its in my office closet.

Bottled it into 1 quart plastic seltzer bottles. Tasted good that day, even better a week later at party. It cleared to nice golden color, a little sediment at the bottom of most of the bottles. The taste was tart semi sweet w/ a clear apple origin. So success :). Very good straight, also nice served cut w/ seltzer.

I started the 2nd brew right away adding cheaper reconstituted Motts apple juice to the carboy, then accidentally added 2#'s of brown sugar. I meant to just add one, then 1/4 cup of rinsed raisins. Fermentation took off nicely. There was a sprinkle of old yeast left in the packet I put in. It was nice not to have to clean the carboy after the first load, made for a quck turn around, though I'm sorry I doubled the sugar.

I may regret buying a 'small' 3 gallon carboy. The store tried to sell me a 5 gallon and I thought it'd be too much. This stuff is good enough that I wish I had more then the initial 9 32 ounce bottles. <I left 2 or 3 inches on the bottom for renewed fermentation>

I've had no problems with rhino farts, especially with this 2nd batch. I think adding 1/4 cup of raisins may have helped, and the Nottingham ale yeast.
 
I also made some more today this will be my 5th and 6th batch, tried using a high alcohol yeast and more sugar on one, ill see how it goes,the other was pretty much standard, heck i love this stuff.

just a quick one, the yeast used is capable of producing up to 21% alcohol, i have used 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar in a 1 gallon demijohn, sg was i think 1010, any idea what the final Alcohol percentage is likely to be?.
 
First batch, 5 weeks in and syphoning into the keg, only one word comes to mind at first sip, omigodthis****tastesamazing! Dumped another 5 gal and a couple lbs of honey on top of the yeast cake for round two.
 

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