Man, I love Apfelwein

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witz87 said:
Started a 5 gallon batch in a bucket with a tea-towel over top (going with the use-what-you-have approach...and besides...it worked for my dandelion wine!). Fermentation started strong after 24-36 hours...I could hear it in different parts of the house! after about 4-5 days total, fermentation is no longer audible, but still working away.

I just had to sample some. I think it is delicious so far...tastes a bit like a slightly sour, watered-down apple juice. It goes down almost TOO easy! The wife tried it and thinks it's too sour, but agreed to reserve judgment until it's been fermenting for at least the full 4 weeks.

I originally wasn't going to start another batch until it was done, but after tasting it this young, there will be another 5 gallons or more on the go within the next week. I have a feeling the rest of the family will be enjoying this as well...might not be hard to go through the full batch in just a few weekends.

and I followed Ed's recipe exactly, and will do so for the next few as well. I am very pleased with this. I think I have a whopping $22 invested in this...works out to less than $1 per bottle I think...much better than hitting up the wine or liquor store every week!
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If you intend to bulk age, i'd recommend looking at getting a 5 gallon carboy. It'll be worth it anyways if you keep brewing :mug:



Here's my first 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein finished putting it together last night and is bubbling away today.

 
Kdog22 said:
If you intend to bulk age, i'd recommend looking at getting a 5 gallon carboy. It'll be worth it anyways if you keep brewing :mug:

Here's my first 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein finished putting it together last night and is bubbling away today.

http://s925.photobucket.com/user/kdogracer22/media/Apfelwein6-18-13_zpse8c920e7.jpg.html
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I just tasted my second batch which I've been bulk aging sitting on the yeast for four or five months and it has an off taste. Is this normal and will go away once I rack it off the yeast? My first batch I followed the recipe exactly so I've never let anything sit in the primary this long. Let me know your opinions.
 
Vox said:
I just tasted my second batch which I've been bulk aging sitting on the yeast for four or five months and it has an off taste. Is this normal and will go away once I rack it off the yeast? My first batch I followed the recipe exactly so I've never let anything sit in the primary this long. Let me know your opinions.
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It seems some people don't have any problems bulk aging on the lees for 4,5 and 6 months while others note an off taste doing the same exact thing. I intend to rack mine into a clean carboy to bulk age after 2-3 months in the primary carboy, just to be on the safe side and try and prevent that problem.

If you plan to bulk age longer, i'd go ahead and rack it. It certainly won't hurt anything to do so. :mug:
 
Hmmm. I made apfelwein last weekend. I ended up getting 10 1/2 gallon containers and putting about 1/2 lb dextrose in 4 of them after they'd been half emptied. The shaking of the dextrose (not a euphemism) did not produce particularly foamy results. Hoping I didn't undershake it. (Don't JUDGE ME!)
 
Vox said:
I just tasted my second batch which I've been bulk aging sitting on the yeast for four or five months and it has an off taste. Is this normal and will go away once I rack it off the yeast? My first batch I followed the recipe exactly so I've never let anything sit in the primary this long. Let me know your opinions.
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That seems to happen with wine for me between weeks 5 and 7 if I leave it on the yeast. It has been interesting to me to note that only about 1/5th of the people I've had taste a wine with that off flavor can actually detect it.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any way of getting rid of it.
 
Just cracked open my 10lbs of sugar apfelwein and I have to say that it is actually pretty good. Granted it is much sweeter than the regular 2lbs of sugar but that is not such a bad thing.

All in all I will probably end up pouring half of the 6 gallon batch into another 6.5 gallon carboy and then topping it off with apple juice and then topping the other carboy with apple juice too. and let it keep fermenting... that's right, it's still going.

I poured some into a 3/4 gallon plastic bottle and after 35 minutes with the cap on the bottle felt tight and when I took the cap off I heard a loud hisss!

I think the 10lbs of sugar experiment was nice to try but I won't be doing it again. For me, 5lbs is the limit in a 6 gallon carboy... oh well.
 
OK so I read about 40-50 pages of this thread but I just wanted to be sure........you can prime and bottle this stuff in 12 ounce bottles just like you would a home brew correct? I read some posts early on in this thread about people talking about pressure and bottle bombs when using wine/champagne bottles. Obviously I'd like to avoid that. Also aside from the montrachet yeast what others would people recommend. I like cider but I don't particularly care for champagne or white wine so that is why the montrachet has me a bit nervous.

I apologize if these questions are common knowledge but this thread is 1133 pages long and a bit overwhelming, kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thanks again.
 
HokieHomeBrewer said:
OK so I read about 40-50 pages of this thread but I just wanted to be sure........you can prime and bottle this stuff in 12 ounce bottles just like you would a home brew correct? I read some posts early on in this thread about people talking about pressure and bottle bombs when using wine/champagne bottles. Obviously I'd like to avoid that. Also aside from the montrachet yeast what others would people recommend. I like cider but I don't particularly care for champagne or white wine so that is why the montrachet has me a bit nervous.

I apologize if these questions are common knowledge but this thread is 1133 pages long and a bit overwhelming, kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thanks again.
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Yes, you can prime and bottle just like any other brew. If you age in bulk first, it could take a few months for the bottles to carbonate. Just make sure it's fermented dry first. Dry for cider is usually between 0.996 - 1.000.

I've had good success using pasteur champagne. Another yeast people have reported success with is lalvin 1116.
 
Kdog22 said:
If you intend to bulk age, i'd recommend looking at getting a 5 gallon carboy. It'll be worth it anyways if you keep brewing :mug:



Here's my first 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein finished putting it together last night and is bubbling away today.

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Looking good!

I'm definitely considering a carboy, but for this round (and with my budget) it was either buy a carboy or similar, or start a batch of apfelwein...the choice was obvious! I may not be able to age the first batch for long as I have a number of people who are very eager to try it. For this reason, I have already started up a second batch which I'm not touching until it's done...all the tasting can be done off of the first batch!
 
I've been enjoying the apelwein after 6 weeks. . I underestimated the bottles I'd need and put a gallon back in a jug, put that in the fridge and pours a clear dry cider. Looking forward to the carbed bottles.
 
Just started a 5 gallon batch with D47. Second ever brew (did my first beer last week). Mixed it per specs,but with table sugar, got 1.066 ~ OG.

After searching aton more before i started this, found out I wasted $10 searching out not from concentrate lol :( Have enough for two batches, my montrachet will be inthis week so iwill compare it to the D47.

After that third batch will be a try using all frozen concentrate, with some extra toreplace the table sugar.
 
I have a 1.25gallon "beverage carrier" that is not unlike a bottling bucket in that it has a top and a spigot. Could I add priming sugar, add my skeeter and give it a good shake and let it prime and condition in the carrier?

I've used the same apparatus to keep still apfelwein "on tap" in my fridge with success...
 
Probably not. The tops of those things don't usually hold pressure. So, you could do that, but it would probably come out flat instead of sparkling.
 
I started my 2nd batch yesterday using Montrachet. Woke up to a distinct apple smell and immediately knew what happened. Walked down stairs check the tub and saw that the Apfelwein had blew out its airlock. My first batch fermented vigorously using White Labs WLP720 Sweat Mead Yeast, but I never had to worry about an airlock blow out. This will be interesting to see the difference between the two batches!

If you use Montrachet, think about slapping a blowtube on instead of an airlock!
 
If you use Montrachet, think about slapping a blowtube on instead of an airlock!
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Just my opinion, but I've never seen montrachet do anything but streams of bubbles. Definitely didn't seems to have that much pressure coming through. To each their own though.

My batch from 4/22 is still degassing in the primary. I'll prob degas it myself within another month. Made another backup already, this stuff goes quick!
 
detlion1643 said:
Just my opinion, but I've never seen montrachet do anything but streams of bubbles. Definitely didn't seems to have that much pressure coming through. To each their own though.
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Mine was nice and quiet like this...until I accidentally bumped it. It was like I dropped Mentos into a 6 gallon bucket of diet Coke. Apfelwein geyser!
 
TangoHotel said:
Right!? This stuff is super dangerous. I backsweetened mine with an extra bottle of applejuice because SWMBO wanted it more sweet. There is absolutlely no alcohol bite to it. Mine came out to 9.31%.
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I started mine at 1080 and cold crash it at 1020 or maybe 1010, then drink it immediately. It's awesome.

I'll go shopping for a heavy-duty plastic pail with two handles that I can fill with ice and drop my entire demijohn. 20 litre demijohn should fit easily into this one:

saavi-45l.jpg


That's one backyard grilling session with about 8 people during the weekend!
 
Ive had this in my primary 5 gallon carboy since April 14th.... kinda forgot about it:). Now all of a sudden I am worried that I have let it sit too long on the yeast/carboy. Am I OK to leave it for a bit longer in the primary, or should I consider transferring to a secondary or bottling it?

Id prefer a secondary, I am not prepared to bottle in the next month or so
 
Roughster said:
I started my 2nd batch yesterday using Montrachet. Woke up to a distinct apple smell and immediately knew what happened. Walked down stairs check the tub and saw that the Apfelwein had blew out its airlock. My first batch fermented vigorously using White Labs WLP720 Sweat Mead Yeast, but I never had to worry about an airlock blow out. This will be interesting to see the difference between the two batches!

If you use Montrachet, think about slapping a blowtube on instead of an airlock!
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I followed the recipe to the T. Same Apple juice, corn sugar amount and Montrachet wine yeast and did not have any overflow problems like that.
 
Yeah not sure why this batch took off so fiercely. It is still bubbling like mad and if I didn't have a blow off tube, it would be fouling an airlock still for sure. Maybe I got a weird batch of apple juice with higher than average sugar content?
 
Yeah i'm not sure. Mine bubbled like CRAZY for the first couple days but there was very little faom. Just tons of little bubbles floating upwards and along the sides.
 
arborman said:
Ive had this in my primary 5 gallon carboy since April 14th.... kinda forgot about it:). Now all of a sudden I am worried that I have let it sit too long on the yeast/carboy. Am I OK to leave it for a bit longer in the primary, or should I consider transferring to a secondary or bottling it?

Id prefer a secondary, I am not prepared to bottle in the next month or so
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Mine have been aging since December on the yeast cake, no issue.
 
timcadieux said:
Mine have been aging since December on the yeast cake, no issue.
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Awesome, thank you! What's the longest I could leave in primary? A year?
 
Just bottled my apfelwein that was in the primary for over 2 months. Anybody notice what a nice apfelwein dispenser a bottling bucket and spigot makes? :drunk:

This stuff is ridiculous. I'm looking forward to a cold winter evening with SWMBO when I break this stuff out after 6 months...it's a liquid Barry White album. :)
 
Thunder_Chicken said:
Just bottled my apfelwein that was in the primary for over 2 months. Anybody notice what a nice apfelwein dispenser a bottling bucket and spigot makes? :drunk:

This stuff is ridiculous. I'm looking forward to a cold winter evening with SWMBO when I break this stuff out after 6 months...it's a liquid Barry White album. :)
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Yeah, bottling buckets make great dispensers. Though I like mine chilled, and my bottling bucket won't fit in the fridge.

Yeah, this stuff is pretty much LPR.
 
Forgot I made this till I went to use my carboy for a barleywine! Its been on the yeast for 6 months... hopefully that doesn't hurt. Question... do most drink this carbed or uncarbed? Its my first batch and I do keg.
 
Bamsdealer said:
Forgot I made this till I went to use my carboy for a barleywine! Its been on the yeast for 6 months... hopefully that doesn't hurt. Question... do most drink this carbed or uncarbed? Its my first batch and I do keg.
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Drinking this stuff uncarbbed will give you quite a kick. Carb it up, and should knock you near out cold. I've drank as much as a gallon of it in a night, and don't remember a thing.

I rightfully name it "Apple Stumble Surprise" cause it will literally take you by surprise. :drunk:
 
Well, I pitched mine about six months ago, but I think I'll let it finish aging in bottles--I want my fermenter back!
 
No hops, so no skunk.
UV will deteriorate it, so keep it out of the light but it won't go south nearly as fast as beer.
 
Bamsdealer said:
Forgot I made this till I went to use my carboy for a barleywine! Its been on the yeast for 6 months... hopefully that doesn't hurt. Question... do most drink this carbed or uncarbed? Its my first batch and I do keg.
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I usually bottle still and dry. That way I can sweeten just what's in the glass depending on how I feel. If your kegging though, I'd carb it. It's actually a little better that way, I'm just indecisive on sweetness.
 
I just finished my last bottle. Like an idiot! I didn't start another batch in time. I do have a honey cider that is in the mix and ready whenever I was
 
Rys06Tbss said:
I just finished my last bottle. Like an idiot! I didn't start another batch in time. I do have a honey cider that is in the mix and ready whenever I was
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You know, there's a thread for that. :p

I have to admit, I haven't quit gotten my brew schedule down for this stuff. It's my main pipeline brew, but I sometimes run dry between batches.
 

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