Man, I love Apfelwein

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I just have to figure out how much juice to use. Can I go by the grams of sugar per serving on the label and "math it out" to figure out how much I need to use or is this not an accurate way of measuring?
 
Here's a really lousy video of the yeasties going nuts in my first batch of apfelwein.

I've never seen a fermentation quite like this.

This is looking down at the surface of the apfelwein in the carboy:

.
 
Has anyone ever made this with pure unfiltered juice? I'm assuming it will never clarify?

I did.
You should put a campden tablet in to kill off the wild yeast and wait 24 hrs, but it clears just fine...
And tastes better if you use a bunch of different kinds of apples.
 
Just added about 7oz of Wine Conditioner to mine today, after 6 weeks of fermentation and secondary transfer.

Gonna wait about a week, and then bottle it up for aging
 
Complete newbie here - just started up my own batch, as a matter of fact it was in the carboy within 6 hours of the equipment arriving at my house. Husband is really excited coz he's a big Strongbow/Scrumpy lover and is thrilled about the though of something dry.

Should be seeing something exciting in the carboy soon~

:mug:
 
Started up a batch last night:

  • 5 Gallons of Pasteurized Apple Cider from a local farm outside Boston: PH Balance 3.3 (Thinking its Cortland & McIntosh).
  • 2 Pounds of Dextrose supersaturated in as little water as possible. I know I should have used Cider, but I was excited. Next time.
  • Lalvin EC-1118 Yeast @ 64 Degrees Pitch Temp. Started in warm water 15 minutes before pitch. 6:30 pm Eastern, November 4th.
  • O.G 1.061
  • Bucket fermentor, with rum in the air lock. I didn't have any Vodka, and I thought Rum would be better than Gin. Don't like using sanitizer either.

Already bubbling a bit. Nothing too fierce. Never worked with a Champagne nor Wine yeast before, but I get the feeling it's supposed to be slower..?

I decided to go with the EC-1118 after hearing that the Montrachet yeast might toss off sulfuric smells (read that around page 35 of this thread). I don't know if that's been proven incorrect or what - I could only read pages 1-40 and the final pages here before I had to toss some yeast down and get this thing started. :)

Has it been a month yet?
 
It's a non-fermentable sweetener (usually lactose) combined with potassium sorbate in a clear syrup form. About $6 a bottle at LHBS. You use it to touch up a wine that ends up a little dryer than you prefer. It's just a convenient way to polish a wine before bottling, plus you can be a little more precise with your backsweetening. I have a wine in secondary that is a bit dry and I think it would benefit from being just the slightest bit sweet, so I'm planning to add just a bit of conditioner when I bottle in a couple of weeks.
 
Whats the downside for someone who's lactose intolerant? Anyone know if there's enough lactose in a serving that someone will leave the table with a belly ache? Or is it negligible?
 
So, I added priming sugar at bottling for mine to make it nice and fizzy.

A month later and still no fizz. Is it still too early? I would think a month should be enough time. I also added lactose to back sweeten but I wouldn't think that should make any difference.
 
What if someone was to pour the apple juice and sugar right on top of some trub? Do we think this would work? Sorry I haven't read through the mega thread to see if anyone has tried. I think I will give it a shot and see what happens.
 
What if someone was to pour the apple juice and sugar right on top of some trub? Do we think this would work? Sorry I haven't read through the mega thread to see if anyone has tried. I think I will give it a shot and see what happens.

yes, it works.
done it a few times....
perpetual cider.
I had pretty good luck with Nottingham dry brewers yeast (and I have tried a few). The first batch of scrumpy I made, April fool cider is what we called it.
Came out tasting like dry Jolly rancher candy.....
I didn't write down what I put in it, everyone said it would be crap but I had to try it. And naturally it was the best. I have made 15 batches now. I have tried champagne yeast, that makes the best apple champagne you ever had!
safale 4 and 5 work ok, both real dry.
WLP 001 CA Ale yeast works ok, you can add extra sugar and get up to about 9% ABW.
WLP English cider yeast is good but so close to safale 5 it really wasn't worth buying both.
For bottling, I have been using 2 quarts of pasteurised cider from the store for the capping sugar. most cider from the store has 1 oz sugar per serving.
2 qts is a little much for 5 gals, but about perfect for a full 6.5 carboy.
Never had one blow yet with the whole 2 qts in 5 gal. though.
You can do the same thing with cans of Dole pineapple juice.
Its called Swipe. Google it.
I use 4 gallons juice, 2 gallons water and 4 lb sugar. Pitch yeast same as the apple stuff. wait a month. no need to second as the degrading yeast has a lacto response and sweetens a little by sitting.
And I agree with the statement that the more time on the yeast the better.
2or3 months seem to make all this fruit stuff taste better.
:mug::drunk:
 
If you feed them, they will eat.

So, after the primary is racked, one could literally dump apple juice and dextrose on the trub and fermentation would restart?

Isnt all the yeast at the bottom dead? Or are there a few survivors after the Great Yeast Famine that are waiting with their hands out for more sugar?
 
So, after the primary is racked, one could literally dump apple juice and dextrose on the trub and fermentation would restart?

Isnt all the yeast at the bottom dead? Or are there a few survivors after the Great Yeast Famine that are waiting with their hands out for more sugar?

From what I understand the trub isn't dead yeast, it is just non active because there isn't enough food for them to fee off of so the fall to the bottom.

I was more concerned about off flavors from putting it on top.
 
The yeast cake left over when you rack your beer from the fermenter is some of the most viable yeast around. Lots of brewers who need a really high pitching rate for a big beer will brew a "small" beer, around 1.040 starting gravity, ferment it out, and then throw the wort from their big beer on top of the yeast cake from the small beer.

Some of the most vigorous fermentations and best attenuation I have had have been from using a previous yeast cake.

As far as off flavors, as long as you are using the cake from a fairly neutral ale, I don't see that you would have a problem.
 
Also, with the quality of modern yeasts, off flavors from autolysis doesn't seem to be much of a concern anymore. At least in the timeframes that homebrewers are concerned with. This is what I gather from reading, I haven't actually done any controlled experiments. I can say that I have reused yeast cakes lots of times and have had very good results.
 
Well I went ahead with it, threw together a 3 gallon batch. It is already showing signs of fermentation which is pretty sweet. Time will tell what it ends up like, thanks for all the help and quick replies.
 
I have a question concerning back sweetening some apfelwein. Litehouse cider is very, very tasty, I think they use honeycrisp apples, but they also use two preservatives in it. I know I can't use it to "make" apfelwein" but can I use it to sweeten apfelwein when I keg it?
Will the preservatives harm anything at that stage?

Bob ( enjoying a very dry one year old apfelwein at this moment. )
 
Well, just checked the gravity on it after a month in primary... 1.004. I think I'll need to let it sit another couple of weeks... gravity sample tasted like nothing else I've ever had before. Like a "hollow" apple cider with a sweet note and a nice warming alcohol note... I think a couple months in the bombers will do nicely...

Well, I've been reading and researching long enough, and have just finished pitching my first batch of EdWort's Apfelwien! Not sure how I could possibly have any questions after reading this entire thread... HBT rocks!

SG was a solid 1.075


UPDATE: this thing went CRAZY. 18 hours after pitching, the whole thing's spewing bubbles up the sides like a just-cracked bottle of Mountain Dew. I thought the Montrachet would take longer to "go", but it's burping twice a second through the S-lock and isn't showing any signs of slowing...

What do you guys use to get drool out of your carpet?
 
So, if I'm making, say my house ale and I brew a new batch everytime I bottle the last batch, I can just pour the new wort into the just emptied primary (with it's krausen stains and all)?

Splash?

Or do you put the new wort into a clean primary and shovel the newly emptied primary's yeast cake into the clean primary? I hope you tell me splash, that seems way too easy and economical! But either seems great.

I figured the spent proteins from the first batch might mess w/the taste but I guess it will all settle back out with the new trub... how many times can you do this?
 
Yep just rack right into the dirty fermenter, it is that easy. If the gravity is similar you would be fine using the same yeast for several generations. There is a limit though. You'll start to get off flavors if you reuse too many times due to mutation of the yeast. Search the science section, I'm sure there are good resources for more info there. Also, you want to always go from lighter gravity to heavier if changing the style. If you do the opposite, you could be using overstressed yeast and get off flavors.
 
It's a non-fermentable sweetener (usually lactose) combined with potassium sorbate in a clear syrup form. About $6 a bottle at LHBS. You use it to touch up a wine that ends up a little dryer than you prefer. It's just a convenient way to polish a wine before bottling, plus you can be a little more precise with your backsweetening. I have a wine in secondary that is a bit dry and I think it would benefit from being just the slightest bit sweet, so I'm planning to add just a bit of conditioner when I bottle in a couple of weeks.


Thanks for the information.
 
Oh wow! I had, I think, my third or fourth bottle last night and it's been in the bottle for about a month.

Yow! Up until now it just tasted like dry white wine, but it finally started to carb and the apple taste is starting to come out. If it's this good after one month, I can't wait until it's 3-6 months old!
 
Yep just rack right into the dirty fermenter, it is that easy. If the gravity is similar you would be fine using the same yeast for several generations. There is a limit though. You'll start to get off flavors if you reuse too many times due to mutation of the yeast. Search the science section, I'm sure there are good resources for more info there. Also, you want to always go from lighter gravity to heavier if changing the style. If you do the opposite, you could be using overstressed yeast and get off flavors.

I usually wash my yeast and don't just toss right on top of a cake. The times I have done it, it's when I'm brewing one of my favorites and I throw the same style on top. Like you said, you want to go to a lower abv style b/c you don't want to overwork the yeast, but I've got a question for you. I'm brewing Brandon O's graff (I know this is the Apfelwine thread, but is it really that different?) I have a porter that I'm planning on racking into the keg in a couple of days. The porter was about 1.060's and I'm thinking the graff will be about the same. I'm planning on making the graff that same day that I transfer the porter. Should I just throw the graff on top of the "nottingham" cake or should I just pitch a new packet of nottingham (after all it is only a dollar, but I'd like to be as efficient as possible).

Any opinions would be great.

Thanks,
J
 
I usually wash my yeast and don't just toss right on top of a cake. The times I have done it, it's when I'm brewing one of my favorites and I throw the same style on top. Like you said, you want to go to a lower abv style b/c you don't want to overwork the yeast, but I've got a question for you. I'm brewing Brandon O's graff (I know this is the Apfelwine thread, but is it really that different?) I have a porter that I'm planning on racking into the keg in a couple of days. The porter was about 1.060's and I'm thinking the graff will be about the same. I'm planning on making the graff that same day that I transfer the porter. Should I just throw the graff on top of the "nottingham" cake or should I just pitch a new packet of nottingham (after all it is only a dollar, but I'd like to be as efficient as possible).

Any opinions would be great.

Thanks,
J

id just pitch a new packet of notty. I typically only wash yeast from my fav liquid cultures. As for dry yeast i find its just easier to pitch it and forget about it
 
id just pitch a new packet of notty. I typically only wash yeast from my fav liquid cultures. As for dry yeast i find its just easier to pitch it and forget about it

Yeah, why stress over a $1.50. I agree that liquid yeasts are too expensive not to wash.
 
Well, I'm joining the apfelwein club tonight. 5 gallons of treetop cider purchased, unfortunately it was about $5/gallon at my grocery store. So my total bill's closer to $35 for 5 gallons, but that works out to around 66 cents per bottle, a damn good deal regardless.

I've decided to use my bottling bucket as the mixing chamber. I'm going to dump in the sugar, then dump all the apple cider on top of it. Then I'll stir with a sanitized stir-stick. I'll then dump my Montrachet yeast into the empty carboy and rack the "wort" on top of it.

And then the game of extreme patience begins.

edit: Despite the simplicity of this process, I still managed to spill about 6 ounces of cider all over the floor.
 
I started my first 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein last week on Friday, October 30th. Following EdWort's advice, I just bought a second 6 gallon Better Bottle and will be starting my second 5 gallon batch of Apfelwein tomorrow. I am following EdWort's recipe almost exactly. The only difference is that my cheap Nature's Nectar Apple Juice from ALDI has Absorbic Acid (Vitamin C) in it. Hopefully, my 10 gallons of Apfelwein will turn out tasty in a couple months. I'm looking for something that my wife and her girlfriends will like and that I will enjoy even though I am primarily a beer drinker. They love sweet wines like Moscato so I I guess I may have to sweeten it?
 
hi guys, am i in trouble? i pitched EC1116 wine yeast yesterday but no bubbles and yeast floating i think it's dead also could be because it was about 1-2 years in my fridge. Anyway i panic'd and had no yeast on hand so i put in a little bit of bakers yeast and it took off right away what will my final product taste like im going to back sweetin with 3.5 litres of apple juice and kegging it?

second question totally off topic but let's say you back sweetin with apple juice that contains sorbate would the sorbate in the apple juice you add stop fermentation from restarting and would it be safe to bottle?

thanks guys
 
Well, I'm joining the apfelwein club tonight. 5 gallons of treetop cider purchased, unfortunately it was about $5/gallon at my grocery store. So my total bill's closer to $35 for 5 gallons, but that works out to around 66 cents per bottle, a damn good deal regardless.

I've decided to use my bottling bucket as the mixing chamber. I'm going to dump in the sugar, then dump all the apple cider on top of it. Then I'll stir with a sanitized stir-stick. I'll then dump my Montrachet yeast into the empty carboy and rack the "wort" on top of it.

And then the game of extreme patience begins.

edit: Despite the simplicity of this process, I still managed to spill about 6 ounces of cider all over the floor.

Yeah, it costs about $5 at my grocery store too. DONT BUY IT FROM THE GROCERY STORE!! Go to walmart or something. Walmart sells TreeTop 100% Apple Cider for like $3.:mug:
 
hi guys, am i in trouble? i pitched EC1116 wine yeast yesterday but no bubbles and yeast floating i think it's dead also could be because it was about 1-2 years in my fridge. Anyway i panic'd and had no yeast on hand so i put in a little bit of bakers yeast and it took off right away what will my final product taste like im going to back sweetin with 3.5 litres of apple juice and kegging it?

thanks guys

It'll be alright.
Notes from batch 3, the fleischmann's yeast batch said:
Tastes a little bready but drinkable.
 
Bottled my Apfelwein today! 3 gal batch started on 29-August-2009. Bottled 1/2 gallon still and primed the rest with 3 oz Dextrose boiled in a pint of water.

SG= 1.063 FG=0.998 for ~ 8.5% ABV

The Hydrometer sample tasted really good! If it only gets BETTER from here, I am an Apfelwein convert. Hoping it carbonates up nicely too and I will have my Woodpecker Cider clone with double the alcoholic goodness.
 
Made my first batch of Apfelwein tonight. Same recipe as EdWort's excpet I added the same yeast nutrients I add to mead. Can't wait to try it.
(5 Gallon batch in the fermentation chiller at 63F)

Thanks for the recipe EdWort! :tank:
I plan on calling you a MoFo later ;)
 
I have had my 5 gallon batch going for about 6 weeks now.

Is there any advtange to keeping it in the carboy now, Or will aging it longer in the bottle instead be just as good? I just kinda need my carboy but if the carboy would be better then aging then the bottle Ill just leave it alone. any thoughts?
 
I have had my 5 gallon batch going for about 6 weeks now.

Is there any advtange to keeping it in the carboy now, Or will aging it longer in the bottle instead be just as good? I just kinda need my carboy but if the carboy would be better then aging then the bottle Ill just leave it alone. any thoughts?

I was wondering the same thing...
 
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