Man, I love Apfelwein

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Threw together a 5 gallon batch, so easy its crazy. Its a good Idea I didn't know how to make this stuff when I was in high school. OG 1.0656
 
I kegged mine this week since my wife prefers her sparkling. It has only been 5 weeks but the wine has a weird aftertaste. Almost like industrial oil. I wonder what is causing that taste.
First I though about a contaminated CO2 tank but I am not sure this is possible and I have used the same CO2 tank on my Hefeweizen and there was no taste like that. Any ideas? I will definitely wait a few more weeks and see if that taste goes away or gets worse.

Thanks
Stefan
 
I quit reading at page 150. By the time I get to the end it will probably over 1100 pages so I have atleast 1000 to go. After taking a break at page 150 I felt compelled to start preparing for my second batch! I started my first batch on march 15th (11 days ago). It seems obvious from all this hype that I needed to do a second batch.

I anticipated making a second batch so I started out buying 4 pound of dextrose. The only thing I'm doing different this time is using an apple juice that I like more. My first batch was with Rougemont brand that I got from Costco for about $1 per L. Wasn't a fan of the flavor of that apple juice.

This time I purchased Allen's brand at around $1.25 per L. Allen's is one of my favorite brands so I will try to keep the brewing the same to see what kind of difference it makes.

I didn't use a hydrometer but Edworts recipe couldn't be much simpler so there shouldn't be many variables.

Anyone have good/bad opinions about Allens's brand for Apfelwein?
 
image-3539637395.jpg

Forgot to attach my current and next batch
 
So a quick question before I go and make this bad boy:

You say ferment @ room temp. I'm in Hawaii will mid/high 70's be an issue? Also the temp can fluctuate day to night by almost 10 degrees in my part of the island. Will this be an issue?

I really wanna put this into my spare carboy and sit on it for a while.
 
Hawaiibboy said:
So a quick question before I go and make this bad boy:

You say ferment @ room temp. I'm in Hawaii will mid/high 70's be an issue? Also the temp can fluctuate day to night by almost 10 degrees in my part of the island. Will this be an issue?

I really wanna put this into my spare carboy and sit on it for a while.
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Montrachet is supposedly good up into the mid 80s. Ranging from high 60s to high 70s would not be bad at all I think. It seems pretty bomb-proof.
 
bferullo said:
1. Can I use a program like Beersmith to Scale down the recipe? --> say for making in a 3 gallon Better Bottle.
2. If I scale down the dextrose how badly will that affect the ABV? SWMBO is looking to have 5-6% ABV. I wasn't sure of the original recipe ABV.
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I wouldn't add any sugar of any kind if I was you then. This stuff generally finishes pretty close to 1.0. Most commercial juice is between 1.030, or more commonly 1.050. That means at 1.0 for your FG your ABV would be between 4-6.7% depending our your actual OG-FG numbers.
 
Thunder_Chicken said:
Montrachet is supposedly good up into the mid 80s. Ranging from high 60s to high 70s would not be bad at all I think. It seems pretty bomb-proof.
Click to expand...

Baller! I will have to start two batches because I know I'll bottle one at 3mo then wished I waited...
 
made some about a month ago, getting pretty clear, seems to have stalled around 1.006 I still see a few bubbles up the side of the carboy, but SG hasn't changed in a week. is it done? temps in the house are around 67
 
I got 6 gallons going in a better bottle on March 10. Followed the recipe exactly, just added an extra gallon and an extra .4 pounds of dextrose. I am interested to see how I like it. I am going to let this one age in the carboy for awhile. I have read the first hundred or so pages so far of this thread and back then they were bottling it after just four weeks, but I am getting the feeling more recently people are aging it a lot longer. Will it be okay in the same carboy for 6 solid months?
 
I thought that is what I recalled reading thanks.
I just bought 2 1-gallon jugs from whole foods today. I'm thinking I'll test a few things out with them. I'm looking around for info on using maple syrup...
 
Just started my second batch of this stuff... The first batch went really fast. I made another cider in the meantime, but my wife likes this better. I did add an extra lb of sugar this time around. Hoping to get around 10 percent out of this batch.
 
i now have 20 liters brewing, this is my 3rd batch, back one is made with brown sugar, the one left of that with honey, the front right two are 3 weeks in, and i have 6 pints in bottles maturing, really is a great drink to make. :mug:

oh and 2 pots of traditional rice wine brewing away :)

20130402_092540.jpg
 
Hi guys, I made my first batch following the original recipe and its now 2.5 weeks into it and bubbling away. I cant wait. Bottle date May 15. I wanted to start another batch with honey and raisins but without reading over 1k in posts I would like to know if someone could pitch me the quick answer as to when to add them and if you need to filter, etc.. This is my second attempt at home brew so play nice. Thank you!
 
Add both when you add the Sugar(dextrose) , the honey will just be another fermentable sugar. (you might want to cut back on the dextrose accordingly) The raisins are a yeast nutrient. Lots of people boil them first to sterilize, cut them in half using and on sanitized equipment and add them.
 
LBussy said:
Drink it and tell us. No reason it should not be just because of time - assuming it was treated correctly otherwise.
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Yea it taste fine. Been air tight except one siphon because I put it in a 15 gallon demijohn. Just didnt know if it would turn to vinegar or go bad.
 
I'm thinking of making some apflewein, but using the bottling sugar I have laying around and boiling it like a brew and using ale yeast. Getting 6 gallons and boiling it down to 5. What do yall think?
 
cpesko said:
Yea it taste fine. Been air tight except one siphon because I put it in a 15 gallon demijohn. Just didnt know if it would turn to vinegar or go bad.
Click to expand...
Possible, but not typical. Unless your sanitation was a little off.

jeuentes said:
I'm thinking of making some apflewein, but using the bottling sugar I have laying around and boiling it like a brew and using ale yeast. Getting 6 gallons and boiling it down to 5. What do yall think?
Click to expand...
Boiling apple juice isn't usually the greatest idea. Over about 160f you start losing flavor.

If you are wanting something with a more concentrated apple flavor, I would add frozen apple juice concentrate instead of sugar.

Happy brewing. :mug:
 
If I brew a 6 gallon batch of this will 1 packet of yeast still be sufficient? Im new to brewing and would rather buy the 6 gallon better bottle becuase I feel it would be a better addition to my limited equipment.
 
MooseRider said:
If I brew a 6 gallon batch of this will 1 packet of yeast still be sufficient? Im new to brewing and would rather buy the 6 gallon better bottle becuase I feel it would be a better addition to my limited equipment.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the addiction. :mug:

BrewerBear said:
Yes,one pack is fine.
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And, +1 on one packet being fine.
 
I have 2 Carboy's, dating from Dec and January, they're both bulk conditioning, still on the yeast cake. I'm storing them in the room i use for fermenting, therefore a constant 70f. I have another room i keep at 64f, I was wondering if I should move them into the colder storage for the remainder of their stay with us :) ??
 
timcadieux said:
I have 2 Carboy's, dating from Dec and January, they're both bulk conditioning, still on the yeast cake. I'm storing them in the room i use for fermenting, therefore a constant 70f. I have another room i keep at 64f, I was wondering if I should move them into the colder storage for the remainder of their stay with us :) ??
Click to expand...

I would think that the 70F sounds a little warm for storage, but only by a few degrees. Cold will drop your yeast really nicely, but will slow down the aging (from both the temp and loss of yeast)

If you like how it tastes right now, go ahead and move to cold, then keg/bottle... but I'd leave it "warm" for a few more months yet.



On my own note, I just started 24 gallons this week. Used a mixture of corn sugar, a little light brown, and sucrose. Just used up some old bags to make up my total sugar weights.
Picked up the gallons of apple juice from Wal-Mart for ~2.50 apiece.

This is all being made to be given away as wedding favors when I get married this summer. Plan is to force carb in a keg and then bottle in 1L swingtops, with instructions on the label to drink on our 1st anniversary :)
 
I'm curious to know the taste of this at 6-12 months.. I see everyone say it tastes like a dry white wine with an apple taste.. would you say it would make a good house white wine? Wondering if this could be a good replacement versus actually making wine(which I haven't done yet)?
 
When I started my carboy was topped up fine. Is it usually to lose volume like that? Should I top up? It's been fermenting for like 5-6 days.

image-4205166551.jpg
 
carlk47 said:
I'm curious to know the taste of this at 6-12 months.. I see everyone say it tastes like a dry white wine with an apple taste.. would you say it would make a good house white wine? Wondering if this could be a good replacement versus actually making wine(which I haven't done yet)?
Click to expand...
Yes and no. The flavor is definitively good enough, but a bit to distinct in my opinion to totally replace white wine. I would say the flavor would tend to overwhelm delicate flavors, fish, vanillas, etc... It should be fine with something with a stronger flavor, chicken, or pork. Probably a little weak, unless you make a spiced version, for beef.

Ridenour64 said:
When I started my carboy was topped up fine. Is it usually to lose volume like that? Should I top up? It's been fermenting for like 5-6 days.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't bother. The liquid probably just dropped in temperature a little.
 
Leadgolem said:
Yes and no. The flavor is definitively good enough, but a bit to distinct in my opinion to totally replace white wine. I would say the flavor would tend to overwhelm delicate flavors, fish, vanillas, etc... It should be fine with something with a stronger flavor, chicken, or pork. Probably a little weak, unless you make a spiced version, for beef.

I wouldn't bother. The liquid probably just dropped in temperature a little.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks! I'm gonna let it sit in there for like 6 months I just didn't know if it could oxidize or something from not being topped up.
 

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