Apfelwein didn't come out too great

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

honkey

Active Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2010
Messages
28
Reaction score
1
Location
Montgomery
I thought I would share with you guys the apfelwein that I just made that didn't come out all the great so that others can avoid doing what I did...
I used a Great Value brand apple juice cocktail that tasted really good and I thought would make good apfelwein. It was mostly apple juice, but it also contained grape juice, orange juice, and a few others that I can not remember. This juice is really sweet and tastes good. The SG of the juice was 1.050 without adding any corn sugar, so I needed less sugar to get to the SG 1.060. I used Montrachet yeast. It finished at 1.004, so the juice contained some kind of unfermentable sugar that is not in plain apple juice. The wine doesn't taste terrible, but is pretty watery compared to the regular apfelwein recipe. This will probably get drank, but it will likely be mixed with some sprite to give it more flavor. Like I said, I thought I would try to save some of you the time and money of using this juice when you see it in Walmart and think it will make a good apfelwein.
 
How long did you age it? Do you think more age would help improve things? Reserve a few for later tasting just in case. :)
 
It needs to say '100% juice' on the front for me to use it. If it doesn't then it probably says '30% juice' or '50% juice' on the back which give the watery problems since it can be 70% water.
 
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Apple-100-Juice-Punch-Blend-96-oz/10415873

That is what I uses. I thought of what it tastes like... A watered down Riesling. It is still young,.. About 1.5 months, but I have had apfelwein this young that had more flavor than this. I am thinking of ways to fill it out a little, but I am not sure yet... Don't get me wrong... I am sure this will be great with a little sprite, or maybe once I carbonate it, it will help. I really do feel that 100% apple juice is the better way to go though.
 
Back
Top