apfelwein fermentation ?

I brewed my first apfelwein 21 days ago today. I am familiar with beer and fermentation and would expect low - no airlock activity within 3-4 days after pitching. my question is this after 21 days iam still getting fairly regular bubbling in my air lock about 1 bubble every 25 seconds. i am using lavlin ec-1118 yeast and I am fermenting 5 1/2 gallons at 68-70 degrees constent. 21 days seems like a long time to me but hey what do i know this is a first to me. any thoughts?

Ciders take a long time to finish. They're slow and steady but they always win the attenuation race.

Have you been keeping track of the gravity? That will give you a much more accurate picture of where your apfelwein is at. FWIW, my experiences: I started my first apfelwein about 7 weeks ago, and it was cloudy for the first three weeks. Sometime around the fourth week it cleared up completely, and since then airlock activity has been very slow. I believe that now it is just off-gassing CO2.

Blanchy said:

Have you been keeping track of the gravity? That will give you a much more accurate picture of where your apfelwein is at. FWIW, my experiences: I started my first apfelwein about 7 weeks ago, and it was cloudy for the first three weeks. Sometime around the fourth week it cleared up completely, and since then airlock activity has been very slow. I believe that now it is just off-gassing CO2.

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I'm at that point now it's cleared and airlock activity has been at 0% at least to my viewing. I have not been keeping track I was going to take my first reading 6 weeks in on april 15th. I think it's nearing completion though. I can't wait to try this !!!!

Interesting. After two weeks mine was no longer bubbling. It still tasted pretty sweet so I let it keep going and tried it again a week later. It had dropped from about 1.006 to 1.002 and was noticeably less sweet. I'll be testing it again next week, but it's so low that I think it should be ready to bottle at just a little over a month. I used a half and half mix of montrachet and muntons, though, so that probably changed things.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I am using Nottingham Ale Yeast, so that makes a difference. What kind of yeast did either of you use?

Blanchy said:

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I am using Nottingham Ale Yeast, so that makes a difference. What kind of yeast did either of you use?

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I used lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast it was an equivelent to redstar montrachet and is supposed to have a higher attenuation with more of a temp swing tolerance.

mine took over 7 weeks to finish

I'm about to hit 7 weeks. Still not done. It's cold in Oregon, we're a bit more sluggish up here =P

+1 on using Hydrometer, it's the only way to know for sure Take 3 readings over 6 days. If the SG doesn't change it's done, but in my opinion it usually takes at least 4-6 weeks at optimal temps until the yeast has done its work.

Just remember that Ec-1118 will ferment out dry (1.000 or lower FG) just like Montrachet. If you want it sweeter you can cold crash and drink it still or bottle condition then pasteurize or back-sweeten. There are informative stickies on these options!

Apfelwein is assuredly a patience game. From what I have read it only gets better the longer you can wait. And who can do that?

Enjoy your brew!