Man, I love Apfelwein

Todd said:

Will ascorbic acid prevent the yeast from growing? Every type of apple juice I've found contains it.

Alright, I found a couple posts that say this will not hurt, can anyone confirm for me before I go buy it?

Click to expand...

Won't hurt. The juice I used for the batch that is setting in my fridge right now had ascorbic acid.

This sounds great. I want to try this today, and have a question about bottling. Do you, or don't you need to prime to bottle? I have some 2 ltr PET Mr. Beer bottles that I'd like to put this in after fermintation.

Thanks

I've been on the road for over a week. I can almost fit 5 gallons in my carboy. With the Montrachet yeast, there is very little foaming, so don't worry about a blow off. It does like to bubble though.

Everyone's should be starting to clear in the next week or so.

Well I got mine together today. I used 3 gal of apple juice, 1 lbs of dextros, and the Montrachet yeast.
Still looking for an answer on bottling (priming vs. not priming).

JnJ said:

Well I got mine together today. I used 3 gal of apple juice, 1 lbs of dextros, and the Montrachet yeast.
Still looking for an answer on bottling (priming vs. not priming).

Click to expand...

I bottle without priming. If I wanted to prime, I'd just add some more juice, but at 8.5% it's still tasty uncarbonated as it is in Europe.

If you want it sweet, add a little 7-UP or Club Soda if not, you get bubbles, plus you cut the alcohol a bit which makes it stretch on a hot day. Germans do this all the time, especially if they have to drive later.

Thanks, mine should be a little lower than 8.5% with 3 gal of juice and 1 pound of dextros correct?
I hope it taste like it did in Germany (spent 6 years there), I had it a few times.

JnJ said:

Thanks, mine should be a little lower than 8.5% with 3 gal of juice and 1 pound of dextrose correct?
I hope it taste like it did in Germany (spent 6 years there), I had it a few times.

Click to expand...

Yep, it should be a wee bit lower. Be sure to wait at least 4 weeks and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Ed, do you have to "kill" the yeast before bottling if you are not going to carbonate? My LHBS said to kill the yeast like you would for a regular wine, I know nothing about wine so either he was confused about what I was trying to make or I don't know how to explain what I'm trying to do.

Thanks.

Well I made mine on Saturday, and I have no activity in the airlock. It has clouded up and there is the smell of solfur, so I will assume I have a leaky lid on the fermenter.

At what point does the apfelwein start to clear, mines two weeks old and still bubbles every 15 seconds or so, I used
4 Gallons Tree Top
3 # Brown Sugar, Disolved in 1 Gallon of simmering juice
1 Package of champagne yeast
1 Tablespoon Cinnimon

After 1 week it tasted like hornsby's!
But it is still cloudy?

Primary 1:
Primary 2:
Primary 3:
Secondary 1: Gingerbread Brown Ale
Secondary 2: Apfelwein
Secondary 3: Dunkelweisen
Bottled: "Coco Joe" Chocolate Coffee Brown Ale

cookinwood said:

At what point does the apfelwein start to clear, mines two weeks old and still bubbles every 15 seconds or so, I used
4 Gallons Tree Top
3 # Brown Sugar, Disolved in 1 Gallon of simmering juice
1 Package of champagne yeast
1 Tablespoon Cinnimon

After 1 week it tasted like hornsby's!
But it is still cloudy?

Click to expand...

You've still got a couple of weeks. Your yeast is in suspension and hard at work.

Ok, I'm a little concerned with my Apfelwein. It's been in the primary since last Saturday. I never saw airlock activity, but figured I had a leaking lid because I did get the solfur smell and it clouded up. Does the solfur smell indicate fermentation? The smell is gone now.

JnJ said:

Ok, I'm a little concerned with my Apfelwein. It's been in the primary since last Saturday. I never saw airlock activity, but figured I had a leaking lid because I did get the solfur smell and it clouded up. Does the solfur smell indicate fermentation? The smell is gone now.

Click to expand...

I think you will be fine, just let it go for a few more weeks. The sulfur smell does come from the fermentation, your lid was probably leaking. At least mine smelled like sulfer for a few days. Mine are almost done, another week or two and they will be ready.

Just assembled mine last night with Ed's original recipe. It's not fermenting yet, but I bought an extra packet of yeast, so if it doesn't start by tonight I'll repitch.

Hey Ed. I know you stated 8.5% with your recipe that I followed. Have you ever taken an og/fg on it and did it compute to this abv? I'm a numbers geek and my og was 1.062 and fg to 1.000 would be around 8.14% according to promash. I know it's dry but have you tested fg ever? What'd you end up at? Not that it matters; just curious.

Mine is clearing up nicely now at about 25 days in the primary. Haven't snuck out a taste yet.

You guys were right about the sulfur this yeast produces. It STINKS! The day after it really started bubbling it smelled so bad in the basement I thought the sewer had backed up. SWMBO was not amused.

No I'm not dead, I'm having problems with my DSL!!!


Anyway, I originally posted that I put one can of concentrate in a 6 gallon batch and the more I thought about this, the more I thought that I don't think I would have wasted the time with one can, so it must have been 3 cans. I know the way my OCD mind works with numbers and 3 cans makes waaaay more sense.

Either way, my next batch (had a starter going all week) this weekend will contain 3 cans of concentrate.


I'll keep you posted.

Bottled the apfelwein this morning.

Damn good stuff!

I used a pound of dark brown sugar in 2.5 gallons of natural apple juice (cheap, store-brand, $1.39-per half gallon stuff, but all natural). Nottingham dry yeast.

Had a nice aroma and nose that I can only describe as wine-line (as opposed to cider-like). Not sure if it was just the alcohol, or what. Perfect level of sweetness, not cloying at all, but not overwhelmingly dry. The level of sweetness of a youngish, sweet red wine. Still have plenty of apple flavor. Very drinkable, likely TOO drinkable. Perfect, I thought.

Primed and waiting, although honestly I could drink it non-carbed. I used a little bit more priming sugar than I usually would (a half-cup corn sugar for the 2.5 gallons), I want this to be a little effervescent (sp?).

The only issue I had was the little soda bottles I bought (Orangina, I think, little 6oz Italian sodas) won't talk new bottle caps with my wing capper. Had to quickly sanitize the last of my swing-tops, and I may have oxidized when I moved them from the small bottles to the swingers. Eh, it won't last long enough for them to go stale.

Ok guys,

It's almost four weeks for some of you. Anyone bottle/keg yet?

EdWort said:

Ok guys,

It's almost four weeks for some of you. Anyone bottle/keg yet?

Click to expand...

Mine still has a few weeks - can't wait to try it.

Damn you all, making it sound so good. This will be one of my next couple of brews.

rdwj, you'll have to bring some to our get-together.

Cheesefood said:

rdwj, you'll have to bring some to our get-together.

Click to expand...

I'd have to bring the whole keg - no bottles - lol!

I hope I like it because it couldn't be easier to make.

Absolutely. Took longer to sanitize the gear than it did to "brew." The bottling turned into a PITA for me today, but that's not an issue for you guys.

Plus, it cost me like ten bucks, total, for 2.5 gallons. 5 x $1.39 for the juice, plus a buck for yeast, and maybe a buck for a pound of brown sugar.

Next up for the small carboys is a mead of some kind, but I imagine the other will have some apfelwein aging more often than not. See what you started, Ed!

EdWort said:

Ok guys,

It's almost four weeks for some of you. Anyone bottle/keg yet?

Click to expand...

I "assembled" mine on Oct 21 so I'm going to wait another week or two. My Fermentation temp. dropped to about 66* for a couple days, so I hope that didn't slow it down too much.

Planning on bottling mine, now it's just a debate whether or not to prime.

rdwj said:

I'd have to bring the whole keg - no bottles - lol!

I hope I like it because it couldn't be easier to make.

Click to expand...

Your tone implies that it might be a problem. Don't worry, we won't send you home with a heavy keg.

I've assembled all of the ingedients and I'm going to do Ed's original recipe tonite.

Cheesefood said:

Your tone implies that it might be a problem. Don't worry, we won't send you home with a heavy keg.

Click to expand...

No, not at all! I don't mind bringing it. I'm not sure if any establishment we visit would look too kindly on me dragging in a keg and a bottle of C02 - lol.

Perhaps I'll invest in a growler or something like that. I've been meaning to get a beer gun, but SWMBO has me on a short leash recently. Just sunk a bunch of cash into my basement bathroom.

FINALLY .... I got a batch going today. Man that was the easiest brew session yet!!! Can't wait.
Jimi

Instead of adding sugar, why not add more concentrate? Then it would have a higher ABV and still taste like apples. I started four liters yesterday with six liters worth of tree top, and a cup and a quarter brown sugar. That stuff's gonna be awesome!

This looks very tasty. Id very much like to try it for my next batch. What PSI are you serving it at?

Well, I might as well jump on the bandwagon. I have a small carboy sitting empty and think I'll take a shot at the_bird's recipe since I have some Nottinghams in the fridge and I'd have to order the wine yeast or wait until saturday to go to the LHBS.

I'm not much of a wine-drinker so I'd like mine to be a little sweet. Have we come to a conclusion in 11 pages on how to accomplish a little sweeter Apfelwein? I plan on using brown sugar, but should I also do a small concentrate addition? (maybe 1 can to 2.5 gallons?)

Whew, just read 11+ pages of posts and now I'm dizzy and i want to make some of this stuff (which would also probably make me dizzy!).

Flyin' Lion, how much was the Better Bottle at Weekend Brewer?

I was down at The Compleat Gourmet in Carytown yesterday and saw 1 gal growlers for like $4 bucks. Do you guys think I could use those and just split up the batch and yeast?

todd_k said:

Flyin' Lion, how much was the Better Bottle at Weekend Brewer?

Click to expand...

5 Gallons are $20, 6 gallons are 23.50. I went with the 6 gallon bottle not realizing that you don't need all that head space with wine.

Another week and I'll be bottling mine.

Well its been a month for mine which was the original recipe posted. FWIW for you hydro folks: OG 1.062 & FG .994 (8.2%) I took a sip and it is tangy which is good for me as I don't like sweet much. Now I got to figure out if I really want to keg it or bottle it. I'm kegging my red and weizenbock tonight as well.

Man I wish I had three taps.

How did you calculate that? I got:
(1.062-.994)(105)(1.25)=8.9%

Mine really won't be ready till next week, but I got impatient and stole a sample with a sterilized turkey baster. This is pretty tasty and sweeter than I expected, not overly sweet though.

For the record rabbits seem to be afraid of it, as ours ran away when I offered her a sample.

mew said:

How did you calculate that? I got:
(1.062-.994)(105)(1.25)=8.9%

Click to expand...

Promash - not sure of they're calculation model...

Flyin' Lion said:

Mine really won't be ready till next week, but I got impatient and stole a sample with a sterilized turkey baster. This is pretty tasty and sweeter than I expected, not overly sweet though.

Click to expand...

did you use the dry wine yeast (montrachet or whatever it was)? The wife didn't like and thought I should sweeten it up a bit. I'll have to cruise thru this thread but I think I saw someone mention adding something; perhaps a can of apple concentrate when kegged or splenda. This thread is way too long

Got my mini-batch "brewed" tonight in an old Mr. beer fermenter I had laying around (2.25 gallons). Just sanitized and dumped as did the original poster. Didn't boil anything, so hopefully no infections over the month. Went with the following:

2 Gallon 100% Apple Juice
1 Can Apple Juice Concentrate
3/4lb. Dark Brown Sugar
Nottingham Yeast
For hydro folks like myself, OG was 1.067, which seemed pretty close to "perfect" for this brew.

Hopefully this turns out OK! And if not, it came to a total of $9.99 at GIANT Foods and a pack of Nottingham I had in the fridge. Now, the wait begins.

desertBrew said:

Well its been a month for mine which was the original recipe posted. FWIW for you hydro folks: OG 1.062 & FG .994 (8.2%) I took a sip and it is tangy which is good for me as I don't like sweet much. Now I got to figure out if I really want to keg it or bottle it. I'm kegging my red and weizenbock tonight as well.

Man I wish I had three taps.

Click to expand...

This is my first non-beer brewing experience. Are you bottling with 22 oz'ers and crowns or some other situation? Letting then carb or keeping it flat?

My first impression is that I'm going to rack to a keg and break in my newly acquired Blichmann Beer Gun. If I wanted to keep it flat, what would I use to kill off the yeast?

Still have 4 weeks to go but I can't wait.