Man, I love Apfelwein

SupervisingChildren said:

Yep, I was trying to get down to their level hahaha

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I would think that by the end of the 6 pack it would be "up" to their level.

Mines going on the 2 month mark in the carboy, going to give it a little more time. Sure smells nice though.

I just opened a bottle after a month primary and three months in the bottle....WOW! It is fantastic! I have another batch that's been sitting in the primary for three months. I'm thinking about bottling and ageing it another three months. Leave it in primary or bottle? I also have two other ciders that I got from a local orchard. I didn't add any extra sugar to it to boost og. One i used champagne yeast and one with so4. Og was 1.046 and 1.052. I was hoping it would come out a lil sweeter. I love making this stuff!!

Bottled my 2nd batch yesterday. It'd been in the carboy 3 1/2 months. I added cheap AJ Motts on top old yeast cake, added half a cup of cleaned raisins and about 2 pounds of brown sugar. Which was more then I meant to, I should have only added one. Nonetheless it started fermenting nicely the next day.

My original batch using some Trader Joe's AJ, Nottingham yeast, 1# dextrose and a handful of raisins had become a clear tasty batch in 1 1/2 months. Having added 2#'s of sugar to 3 gallons I wanted to give it more time in the bottle.

In a taste testing the original old cider was nicely smooth, clear, white winish with a clear apple nose. The new batch was also good, stronger, more apple taste, thicker body, darker too and more cidery. Sweet enough so that I didn't feel like adding any extra sugar to the bottles. We drank it the same day it was bottled so while it was chilled it might have been a bit yeasty.

For my 3rd batch I'll start w/ fresh yeast, maybe go back to Trader Joe's AJ, it has less vitamin C which may make it a bit less tart. Keep adding raisins which I assume give nutrients to the yeast cycle and use 8 ounces of dextrose, 8 of brown sugar and continue to use Nottingham ale yeast which gave me no off smells while brewing in a closet.

I made my first batch of this yesterday per Ed's original recipe and wow did my house stink this morning from the fermenting smell! I promptly took my hard lemonade out of my fermentation chamber and put this in! I'll let it stink up the freezer all it wants.

I started my first batch on June 21st. Will be out of town until late July. Will bottling at 5 or 6 weeks after pitching be too early (assuming it's fully attenuated at that point)?

BinghamtonEd said:

I started my first batch on June 21st. Will be out of town until late July. Will bottling at 5 or 6 weeks after pitching be too early (assuming it's fully attenuated at that point)?

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Speaking only for myself, I bottled at 4 weeks, and tried a couple of uncarbed samples. They are delicious. I'm waiting on most of the batch until after thanksgiving, but we'll see about that. 6 weeks should be good.

Hey all, hoping I can get some advice...

I've got a batch aging in the garage that's hit the 4 month mark and I planned on leaving it until september. Problem is that the garage is scorching hot now during the day and the carboy reads off the fermtape (my guess is low 80's).

1) Is it safe where it is so long as I stay within the yeast tolerance for temperature?
2) Does the temperature only matter during active fermentation?


For convenience, I'd like to leave it where it is if there will be little to no ill effect. But if need be, I can move some of the goods in my chest freezer and put the carboy up in there. Under normal spring/fall/winter weather conditions I'd just leave it be in primary where it site, but the temperature has me worried about autolysis and spoiling 3 months of patience!

pkrath84 said:

Hey all, hoping I can get some advice...

I've got a batch aging in the garage that's hit the 4 month mark and I planned on leaving it until september. Problem is that the garage is scorching hot now during the day and the carboy reads off the fermtape (my guess is low 80's).

1) Is it safe where it is so long as I stay within the yeast tolerance for temperature?
2) Does the temperature only matter during active fermentation?


For convenience, I'd like to leave it where it is if there will be little to no ill effect. But if need be, I can move some of the goods in my chest freezer and put the carboy up in there. Under normal spring/fall/winter weather conditions I'd just leave it be in primary where it site, but the temperature has me worried about autolysis and spoiling 3 months of patience!

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I would age it at room temp in the house and I would age it off the yeast. 3 months is the max I leave it on the yeast at room temp, then bulk age in a keg.

Cheers,

EdWort

pkrath84 said:

1) Is it safe where it is so long as I stay within the yeast tolerance for temperature?
2) Does the temperature only matter during active fermentation?

For convenience, I'd like to leave it where it is if there will be little to no ill effect. But if need be, I can move some of the goods in my chest freezer and put the carboy up in there. Under normal spring/fall/winter weather conditions I'd just leave it be in primary where it site, but the temperature has me worried about autolysis and spoiling 3 months of patience!

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I've been dealing with high temps here in Texas as well. For your questions, I would answer them in reverse order. It's my understanding that temperature matters at every stage. Pitching, fermentation, aging, everything. But temperature impacts different things at different stages, and you may have different temperature requirements at different phases.

During active fermentation you'll obviously want to keep temperature within the acceptable range for the yeasts. But you may not necessarily want to age at the upper end of what a particular yeast can tolerate during fermentation. Some yeasts can tolerate really high temperatures, like over 90F. I would imagine high temps at aging could cause other issues.

I'm just getting started in this whole endeavor of making things at home, so please double check what I've written with someone more experienced. Hopefully I haven't written anything heretical

I'm in Texas too and room temperature (77 to 69) depending on time of year and time of day has worked best for me.

I would never subject it to the wide ranges of temp in a garage.

EdWort said:

I'm in Texas too and room temperature (77 to 69) depending on time of year and time of day has worked best for me.

I would never subject it to the wide ranges of temp in a garage.

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It's good to see you back online Ed

I fermented mine in the basement. Carbed half and did half still. It's finally carbed and wonderful!

EdWort said:

I would age it at room temp in the house and I would age it off the yeast. 3 months is the max I leave it on the yeast at room temp, then bulk age in a keg.

Cheers,

EdWort

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Thanks for chiming in! I'll rack it off the yeast as soon as my kegs arrive in the mail then. I'll just age it in the keg in my chest freezer

There was caramel vodka in the discount bin, so I bought some and made caramel apple cider cocktails: 1oz caramel vodka and 6oz apfelwein cider over ice.

Just curious, anybody tried vacuum degassing this stuff to try and cut the time till you can get it into a bottle?

I started a batch of this on 6/18, it looked easy and sounds tasty. I had it in a 5G bucket and just moved it to a 5G jug today as I wanted to use the bucket. I took a reading and the SG is at 0.994 right now so I think its done or almost since the SP is so low and nothing in the airlock yet.

Anywho - I am interested in some input as I am still new to home brewing. When I did the transfer there was a bit more space at the top of the jug than I like (a bit more than the 9-12-06 jug in the first post). I actually saved about half a bottle of apple juice for this situation. HOWEVER - I left that half bottle out on the counter, sealed, for two days without thinking about it. Oddly enough even though it was pasteurized it started to ferment on it's own. Wild yeast in the air I assume. I found it funny and actually topped it off with water and put it under and airlock and treated it as it's own, very diluted, brew. About a week ago it finished. I racked it once and it's completely clear now with nothing at the bottom sitting in my fridge. My question is - do you guys think it would be safe to use this extra diluted cider to top off my main batch? My only reason for hesitation is that it started fermenting on its own with wild yeast. Like I said it seems to have finished completely so I assume it's safe to use, but I would hate to introduce something this late that could mess it up.

Tom128 said:

I started a batch of this on 6/18, it looked easy and sounds tasty. I had it in a 5G bucket and just moved it to a 5G jug today as I wanted to use the bucket. I took a reading and the SG is at 0.994 right now so I think its done or almost since the SP is so low and nothing in the airlock yet.

Anywho - I am interested in some input as I am still new to home brewing. When I did the transfer there was a bit more space at the top of the jug than I like (a bit more than the 9-12-06 jug in the first post). I actually saved about half a bottle of apple juice for this situation. HOWEVER - I left that half bottle out on the counter, sealed, for two days without thinking about it. Oddly enough even though it was pasteurized it started to ferment on it's own. Wild yeast in the air I assume. I found it funny and actually topped it off with water and put it under and airlock and treated it as it's own, very diluted, brew. About a week ago it finished. I racked it once and it's completely clear now with nothing at the bottom sitting in my fridge. My question is - do you guys think it would be safe to use this extra diluted cider to top off my main batch? My only reason for hesitation is that it started fermenting on its own with wild yeast. Like I said it seems to have finished completely so I assume it's safe to use, but I would hate to introduce something this late that could mess it up.

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If it's stopped fermenting, it's probably ok. You might get a little fermentation, but it will likely be negligible to taste. That is, if the wild fermentation tastes good.

i had to sign up for the sight. i am new to making and brewing but i had tried some of the apple n all i can say is yumm being a big apple fan from smoking my food and soaking my food in apple juice marinades i cant wait to make this im going to try it in some 1 gallon carboys that i have

I'm trying this out tonight and I can't wait. I've been wanting to get into brewing and wine making for a while and this seems like a good way to ease into it.

I have a couple questions before I start.

I'm stopping by the local HBS today and hopefully they have dextrose. If they don't and I have to use brown sugar should I be using light or dark? What's the difference in the end product between using brown sugar and corn sugar?

Should I be mixing everything in a primary bucket and then funnel it into my carboy before adding the yeast or should I just mix the sugar in the half full bottles of apple juice?

jstampler said:

I'm trying this out tonight and I can't wait. I've been wanting to get into brewing and wine making for a while and this seems like a good way to ease into it.

I have a couple questions before I start.

I'm stopping by the local HBS today and hopefully they have dextrose. If they don't and I have to use brown sugar should I be using light or dark? What's the difference in the end product between using brown sugar and corn sugar?

Should I be mixing everything in a primary bucket and then funnel it into my carboy before adding the yeast or should I just mix the sugar in the half full bottles of apple juice?

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Dunno about the sugar part but no need to sanitize and dirty a primary bucket to mix everything in. Mixing the sugar in the half full containers per the instructions works great and makes throwing everything together that much easier and quicker.

jstampler said:

I'm trying this out tonight and I can't wait. I've been wanting to get into brewing and wine making for a while and this seems like a good way to ease into it.

I have a couple questions before I start.

I'm stopping by the local HBS today and hopefully they have dextrose. If they don't and I have to use brown sugar should I be using light or dark? What's the difference in the end product between using brown sugar and corn sugar?

Should I be mixing everything in a primary bucket and then funnel it into my carboy before adding the yeast or should I just mix the sugar in the half full bottles of apple juice?

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Brown sugar is made by adding molasses back to refined white sugar after they have been separated. Light brown sugar has less molasses added back then dark brown sugar.

Brown sugar changes the flavor of the finished product, corn sugar just adds alcohol. I personally don't care for the flavor imparted by molasses after it's finished fermenting. Sort of odd to my palette, not in a good way. If I was going to use something instead of corn sugar I'd just use granulated white sugar. In fact, I have done that many times. It takes a little more work to get the sugar to dissolve, but other then that I haven't noticed any problem using table sugar.

Kdog22 said:

Dunno about the sugar part but no need to sanitize and dirty a primary bucket to mix everything in. Mixing the sugar in the half full containers per the instructions works great and makes throwing everything together that much easier and quicker.

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This.

Hello new here, but I love this forum. Long time lurker.:cross: I just threw this together 2 days ago per the original recipe. Tonight it's burping like a thousand time's a minute. It's non stop. Sounds like a car ideling. Is this a good sign? I'm new to home brew anything so thought I'd ask.

Thanks.

Ohara said:

Hello new here, but I love this forum. Long time lurker.:cross: I just threw this together 2 days ago per the original recipe. Tonight it's burping like a thousand time's a minute. It's non stop. Sounds like a car ideling. Is this a good sign? I'm new to home brew anything so thought I'd ask.

Thanks.

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That's about how mine sounded for a few days. It's a good thing

Ohara said:

Hello new here, but I love this forum. Long time lurker.:cross: I just threw this together 2 days ago per the original recipe. Tonight it's burping like a thousand time's a minute. It's non stop. Sounds like a car ideling. Is this a good sign? I'm new to home brew anything so thought I'd ask.

Thanks.

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Welcome, and yes. That's normal, even good.

Heading toward aging of my second batch and wondering if anyone just uses the original Treetop gallon containers? I carbonated all but one gallon of the first batch which I just fridged in a Treetop jug and enjoyed. I like the sparkling version as well, but prefer the wine style. Don't really see the sense in bottling it unless someone has had a poor experience aging in Treetop top jugs. Thanks.

I've got a gallon of a batch I ran out of bottles for in a musselmans plastic apple cider jug. After 6 months in the jug, I've got a hint of cardboard. The same batch in glass does not have this flavor.

It's up to you, but if you're not going to drink it within 6 months or so I'd bottle in glass if I could.

I was able to find corn sugar and followed Edworts recipe exactly. After a day or so it began vigorously bubbling and has been for 3 days now. I have a 3 piece airlock on it filled with vodka. From what I understand vodka evaporates quickly and the more its bubbling the quicker it will evaporate. My question is, I will be gone for 5 days this coming weekend. Will I be ok leaving the airlock or do you think it will dry out before I come home?

jstampler said:

I was able to find corn sugar and followed Edworts recipe exactly. After a day or so it began vigorously bubbling and has been for 3 days now. I have a 3 piece airlock on it filled with vodka. From what I understand vodka evaporates quickly and the more its bubbling the quicker it will evaporate. My question is, I will be gone for 5 days this coming weekend. Will I be ok leaving the airlock or do you think it will dry out before I come home?

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You'll be fine.

jstampler said:

I was able to find corn sugar and followed Edworts recipe exactly. After a day or so it began vigorously bubbling and has been for 3 days now. I have a 3 piece airlock on it filled with vodka. From what I understand vodka evaporates quickly and the more its bubbling the quicker it will evaporate. My question is, I will be gone for 5 days this coming weekend. Will I be ok leaving the airlock or do you think it will dry out before I come home?

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Just a little tip. You don't have to use vodka. I just fill my airlock with water and add a pinch of k-meta or sodium metabisulphite. It takes a long long time for my airlocks to go dry.

I only use spirits in my airlock if I'm having issues with fruit flies.

Leadgolem said:

I've got a gallon of a batch I ran out of bottles for in a musselmans plastic apple cider jug. After 6 months in the jug, I've got a hint of cardboard. The same batch in glass does not have this flavor.

It's up to you, but if you're not going to drink it within 6 months or so I'd bottle in glass if I could.

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Helpful, thanks.

Here's my 1 gallon. Was in the jug for a about 3.5 months because I couldn't get around to bottling it. The bottles on the right came out a little bit cloudy because I accidentally stirred up some of the yeast and sediment when moving to the last bottle.
Forgot to take an OG measurement but FG came out to about 0.998. I should be safe from having to pasteurize or bottle bombs right?

Took a sample and I can definitely smell the effects of the extra sugar. A little bit more tart than I thought but not bad still.
These bottles are going into hiding now. Can't wait to taste them in 6-8 months.

Hi guys! I've been following this thread for some time now and just yesterday bottles by 20th gal thus far.

Just wondering if anyone here has any experience repitching?

I just dumped the sugar onto the lees and topped it off with a fresh batch of apple juice.

In any case, I'll be sure to share the outcome

Cheers!

I am going to be working with a 6.5 gallon Carboy, I understand (or think to understand) that the mesurements are .4 (4 ounces) of Dextrose to every gallon. So for 6.5 Gallons would 3 pounds of Dextrose suffice or will it effect the taste ("tart" as I read two posts up)?

Is there an OG/SG that anyone possibly has to ensure consistency and accuracy? (used the search option couldn't find it)

Also, is the measurement moved to a full cup of Dextrose for bottling or does it stay at 3/4s? Thanks!

Wineomatic said:

I am going to be working with a 6.5 gallon Carboy, I understand (or think to understand) that the mesurements are .4 (4 ounces) of Dextrose to every gallon. So for 6.5 Gallons would 3 pounds of Dextrose suffice or will it effect the taste ("tart" as I read two posts up)?

Is there an OG/SG that anyone possibly has to ensure consistency and accuracy? (used the search option couldn't find it)

Also, is the measurement moved to a full cup of Dextrose for bottling or does it stay at 3/4s? Thanks!

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If the original recipe calls for 2 lbs in a 5 gal batch, that is 32 ounces of dextrose, right (16 ounces to a pound)? divided by 5 gallons, that is 6.4 ounces per gallon. so you should use 41.6 ounces in a 6.5 gallon batch, or about 2 and a half pounds. That is what I use in my 6.5 gallon batches.

*Ed buys his dextrose by the 1lb bag, but I buy mine by the 10kg (22.5lb) bag, and since my wife has a digital scale for baking, and I've been also making apfelwein in a 54L demi, I've had to do a few calculations...

Starting batch #3. Good things from last 3 gallon batch- using Nottinham yeast, adding raisins (after boiling them) for taste and yeast nutrient and less rhino burps. The bad I added too much sugar, I put in 2#'s into a 3 gallon carboy. I let it brew longer -for 3 months, it tastes fine, got good reviews from drinking buddies, but tasting it away from peer pressure I see the back end is sharp and musty, too much sugar. I also used cheap apple juice, Motts which had lots of vitamin C which could lead to tartness.

This time I'm going back to Trader Joe's fresh pressed, using there MacIntosh juice. I notice it has less sugar then other brands, only 25 grams per 8 oz, vs 30 in other brands and no vitamin C, which could come back to bite me later due to no preservative qualities. Still the juice by itself tastes very good.

This batch 2 3/4 gallon TJ MacIntosh fresh press apple juice, nottingham yeast, roughly 8 oz of dextrose, roughly 8 oz of light brown sugar, 5 oz of non sulphured raisins, 1 vanilla pod, one ball nutmeg, one cinnamon stick and 1 packet of nottingham yeast.

I'm thinking dextrose is a fast neutral sugar, light brown sugar is slower and leaves a bit more color and flavor, lastly the raisins will a bit of sugar and flavoring throughout the whole process as well as keep the yeast happy. Also as a cooking theory to make the best, use the best ingredients. So $2.99 a half gallon fresh press vs $1.39 Motts.

I borrowed a neighbors hydrometer, I got a reading of 1.49 that seems low, but I'm chasing flavor now, not alcohol content.

New to this guys. So, made my batch about a month ago. It's in a 6 gallon carboy. Followed the recipe to the t. It blew the airlock off! I wasn't gonna bottle till oct/nov. is it ok to leave it in that same carboy all that time? Will it go rancid in there? Thanks

thefojizzle, it'll probably be fine in the same carboy but I'd probably rack it to a new one at the 3 month mark just to be safe. I left my batch in the same bucket for about 3 months before I bottled it and it came out great.

cool thanks endorphine44. do you think I can make a priming sugar and instead of putting it in bottles, that it would work if I put it in mason jars to give as gifts? thanks