Man, I love Apfelwein

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I just started a five gallon batch today. No modifications, just Ed's recipe to the letter. ( 6 gallon Better-Bottle too Ed!) I'm looking forward to the end results. Now it's time for patience.

Edit: I used the Montrachet Wine yeast but did not rehydrate it first. I wasn't sure if this would be a problem so I went back to Ed's recipe posted on the first page of this thread. He stated that he "Sprinkled the yeast into the funnel then rinse with the rest of the juice so all the yeast is now in the carboy". Can anyone tell me if not rehydrating the dry yeast will present any problems with the fermentation? Thanks.

John
 
johnsma22 said:
Can anyone tell me if not rehydrating the dry yeast will present any problems with the fermentation? Thanks. John

Welcome to the club! You'll love it. I never hydrate the yeast, so you are good to go. In a day, it will be bubbling like crazy.
 
EdWort said:
Welcome to the club! You'll love it. I never hydrate the yeast, so you are good to go. In a day, it will be bubbling like crazy.

Thanks for the reassurance Ed! Fermenting at room temp (~71˚F), just like you do. No reinventing the wheel on this one. I want to have a base for comparing mods to the recipe later on down the road. I suspect that I won't be changing a thing though.

John
 
lorenae said:
Well, you'd get apple wine. You'd have about 13% alcohol, and a dry wine that you could sweeten up. It would take a year or so to age properly (but you could probably drink it as early as 6 months.) You'd have to be sure to use Campden tablets, since you'd have it around longer than the low alcohol "apfelwein".

Lorena
Well I'm actually making an apple wine. With an OG of 1.100 it's going to take quite awhile to get good. I think I will bottle it in wine bottles. I've got my camden tablets for when I need them.
 
JohnnyK68 said:
Can plain sugar be used in place of the corn sugar?

If you haven't already, READ PAGE 37

That's not a swipe at you. That's aimed at everyone who might have gotten tired of reading part way through and skipped to the end. On p37, I have assembled a list of all the frequently asked questions and you will probably find it helpful.

To answer your question, using table sugar will result in a cidery taste which is largely considered an awful thing when brewing beer. However, this is not beer, this is cider. Some people have used brown sugar, which is just table sugar mixed with some molasses and have reported positive results. So maybe it will be quite tasty. Taste is a subjective thing, and ultimately that is for you to decide.

My apfelwein is now ready. I intend to bottle it tomorrow and, for priming sugar, I intend to experiment with table sugar, molasses, corn sugar, and apple juice concentrate. We will see how much of a difference that makes at the bottling stage.

Feel free to experiment. Cheers! :mug:
 
Toot said:
To answer your question, using table sugar will result in a cidery taste which is largely considered an awful thing when brewing beer. However, this is not beer, this is cider. Some people have used brown sugar, which is just table sugar mixed with some molasses and have reported positive results. So maybe it will be quite tasty. Taste is a subjective thing, and ultimately that is for you to decide.
I've been reading a book on home wine making (The Joy of Home Winemaking by Terry Garey and all of her recipes that require sugar call for regular granulated sugar. The book is about fruit wines and almost all recipes call for sugar. She mentions corn sugar and says some wine makers like it more but doesn't use it herself.
 
I made a 1 gallon batch as a tester (mainly cause all I could find was 10oz bottles), and I'm heading to Florida for 3 months of work. I was wondering if it would hurt it if I took it with me in my truck on a trip from South Dakota to Florida? BTW I can't wait to give this baby a try. Its coming along very nicely.

Batch info:
1 Gal.
2 3/4 cups dextrose
1/2 pack of Montrachet
Mixed 23 Dec
 
Hubby & I polished off my small 1 qt batch on New Year's Eve. Even though it was only 2-3 weeks old, it was so good that I'm eagerly waiting for my 2 gal batch to finish :)
 
RichBrewer said:
I've been reading a book on home wine making (The Joy of Home Winemaking by Terry Garey and all of her recipes that require sugar call for regular granulated sugar. The book is about fruit wines and almost all recipes call for sugar. She mentions corn sugar and says some wine makers like it more but doesn't use it herself.

Yep, I never even heard of corn sugar until I started making beer. Plain regular table sugar is what is used, almost universally in home winemaking. I'm no chemist, but I seem to remember that the sugars in fruit (fructose) are like the sugars in sucrose and the yeast deal with them the same way. Some use honey (mead), some use maple syrup, etc, but it's still pretty much mostly table sugar and fruit. And sometimes, lots of sugar. For example, if your fruit/juice is at an o.g. of 1.040, you'd add sugar (6.5 pounds) to bring it to 1.095.

Lorena
 
Anyone get a headache the next day from this stuff? It seems like whenever a drink a bomber of it, the next day I wake up with a headache. Nothing else, just a normal headache.
 
Finally joined the Apfelwine club this morning.Used 12 cans of frozen TreeTop and 1.75# of corn sugar for 4.5 gals.We pitched with Montrachet.OG 1.067.An easy project for sure and now i don't feel like such an outsider;) .
Cheers:mug:
 
Congrats, Ed, on a VERY successful recipe! I thought the Caramel Cream Ale thread was the longest single recipe thread here, but this one is approaching twice the amount of responses!

Has no one else noticed the wicked hangover? I followed the recipe to the letter with the exception of Maker's Mark juice rather than TreeTop.
 
Wow, this has got to be the best recipe I've ever seen, easy, cheap, and delicious. I used an english ale yeast and the FG came out to around 1.003 so it still has a nice bit of residual sweetness. I think next time I'll try it with some better apple juice though, I used some cheapo from concentrate stuff. I'm also thinking of adding 2-3lbs of honey instead of the sugar. I think it would make a nice light cyser that wouldn't require any aging time.
 
If I was to sweeten a whole keg of it...how would I do it? It has been 4wks in the carboy and I pulled a sample with my thief and SWMBO said yuck. Should I not keg it yet and let it sit for a while? Will it mellow out?
 
MidRex said:
If I was to sweeten a whole keg of it...how would I do it? It has been 4wks in the carboy and I pulled a sample with my thief and SWMBO said yuck. Should I not keg it yet and let it sit for a while? Will it mellow out?

I'd give it 2 more weeks. In this thread somewhere, Digdan suggests that you can force condition and then add 2 frozen apple concentrates per 5 gallons to sweeten it.

In other words, let the hand play out before you draw the ace from your sleeve.
 
olllllo said:
I'd give it 2 more weeks. In this thread somewhere, Digdan suggests that you can force condition and then add 2 frozen apple concentrates per 5 gallons to sweeten it.

In other words, let the hand play out before you draw the ace from your sleeve.

I will let it sit 2 more weeks and then test again. So what you are saying is to force carb in my keg, release pressure, open keg, add can of concentrate, close keg, mix it up, and then put the gas back on? Would I have to do anything to the concentrate before adding it to the keg...thaw out, boil, etc?
 
MidRex said:
I will let it sit 2 more weeks and then test again. So what you are saying is to force carb in my keg, release pressure, open keg, add can of concentrate, close keg, mix it up, and then put the gas back on? Would I have to do anything to the concentrate before adding it to the keg...thaw out, boil, etc?


Well lets subpeona Digdan and get him on the record.
Post is here.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=174002&postcount=447


In another thread, I stated that I was going to add pinapple concentrate for a summer cooler. I'll post that when it actually happens.
 
Made two batches last night both 6 gallons with 2.5 lbs combination of light and dark brown sugar. One i pitched the montrechet and the other i pitched cotes des blanc. We shall see how it comes out. I think i will be using something at the end to kill the yeast and then sweeten with apple juice. We will see
 
Biermann said:
Mine's still not clearing. :mad:

Going to take a gravity reading tonight--if the fermentation is not stuck, I'm going to add some clarifiers.
I don't think finings will hurt a thing with this recipe - the flavor is a bit thin and dry (but TASTY!), so I doubt you'll "strip" much flavor with the finings.
 
As I mentioned in a previous post I started an apfelwein on Jan 2nd. No activity after 24 hours, but when I woke up the next morning it was fermenting like crazy! Twelve hours later and I began to notice the sulfur smell. Now it smells as though a rhino has been farting in my kitchen, LOL! I know that it has been stated that this will subside in a couple of days.

Someone on another beer forum that I frequent was discussing something similar to this so I posted my experience with the sulfur smell using Montrechet wine yeast in my apfelwein. He responded with this:

Add more nutrient. Apple wines are prone to it. It is caused by a by product of stressed malnutritioned yeast, and also excess sulphur on the fruit itself (farmers spray this on fruits and grapes in order to prevent spoilage) which in turn converts to Hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell) when you ferment. Certain times if you dont correct the problem, it will end up ruining the end product. By stirring with a copper spoon the hydrogen sulfide react with the copper neutualizing the hydrogen sulfide, but a healthy dose of nutrient will work really well for solving your problem.

My question is, is he correct? Can anyone here confirm this? Maybe on my next batch I will try adding some yeast nutrient to see if it has any effect on the production of hydrogen sulfide. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

John
 
We should also note which Juice we used and level or duration of smell.

I used Tree Top from Costco, low sulpher smell and not for very long.
 
johnsma22 said:
My question is, is he correct? Can anyone here confirm this? Maybe on my next batch I will try adding some yeast nutrient to see if it has any effect on the production of hydrogen sulfide. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

John


johnsma22,

I have a cider recipe in homebrewing for dummies that uses Nottingham. They call for a yeast nutrient. The quote about malnutritioned yeast makes sense to me, its a kin to the foul odor of autolysis (Yeast Cannibalism). The recipe I have has no added sugar.

5 gal cider
Nottinghams
2 oz yeast nutrient

I plan to make Ed's recipe as it stands, then try the nutrient on batch 2. What could it hurt? Maybe less chances of a hangover. :drunk:
 
BTW, I had a buddy that stated empathetically that you should not try this stuff out of the fermenter due to the disappointing and disgusting taste. What's up with that??

And noone really answered the question about my clarity problem. . . Add finings or just wait??
 
Couple questions..

Has anybody done Ed's recipe with Montrachet down in the low 60's?

I was thinking about the headaches commented about, it made me think about fusel alcohols. I couldn't find an ideal temp range for this yeast strain.

Who has had good success with bottle carbonating too? Many stated it was not carbed enough.

I know Toot said around page 37 - 1/2 cup for 5gal was this enough sugar?

Thanks!!
 
johnsma22 said:
My question is, is he correct? Can anyone here confirm this? Maybe on my next batch I will try adding some yeast nutrient to see if it has any effect on the production of hydrogen sulfide. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.


This confirms Johnsma22 comments about yeast nutrient. It should help abate formation SO2

http://www.lesaffreyeastcorp.com/wineyeast/products.html

Look for 1st yeast nutrient. "Superfood"
 
Picked up "Apfelsaft und hefe"

I picked up apple juice, corn sugar, Montrachet Yeast and some 2oz of nutrient.

Depending on any feedback on carbonating, I'm ready to go with Montrachet or Nottingham, with Nottingham the usuall 3/4 cup. The other ?

I can't carb with Ed's draft suggestions. All I have is empty bottles and corn sugar!! Any thoughts if I pitch Montrachet? 1/2 or 3/4 cup for 5 gal???
 
what SG should we be at to carbonate? I don't have a keg either, but I have some leftover dextrose from my new batch. I just don't know where to stop so I can add it. I have 1 gal cooking with nothing but the apple juice and 1/3 lb of dextrose added. Used lalvin 71b-1122 yeast and 1 tablespoon of nutrient. OG at 1.055.

Thanx
mike
 
Schlenkerla said:
Couple questions..

Has anybody done Ed's recipe with Montrachet down in the low 60's?

I was thinking about the headaches commented about, it made me think about fusel alcohols. I couldn't find an ideal temp range for this yeast strain.
Oddly enough, I'm the one that mentioned the headaches, and I fermented mine at exactly 60 F.
 
MLynchLtd,

I read somewhere to take SG readings 3 days in a row. If it doesn't change, its done.

How much sugar to carb is my question too.
 
Biermann said:
BTW, I had a buddy that stated empathetically that you should not try this stuff out of the fermenter due to the disappointing and disgusting taste. What's up with that??

And noone really answered the question about my clarity problem. . . Add finings or just wait??
Read about a dozen posts up, I answered your question about finings. If it wasn't clear...add them.

I tried this multiple times during hydrometer samples, and it was GOOD! In fact, I probably sampled too often because it was so good!
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Oddly enough, I'm the one that mentioned the headaches, and I fermented mine at exactly 60 F.

Yuri

I wonder if its the SO2 from the yeast. SO2 is used as a preservative in some wines and cheap ciders.

I'm going to add my nutrient on my batch for sure. Did you see this link?

http://www.lesaffreyeastcorp.com/wineyeast/superfood.html


That answers my question about 60F working....
 
Schlenkerla said:
Yuri

I wonder if its the SO2 from the yeast. SO2 is used as a preservative in some wines and cheap ciders.

I'm going to add my nutrient on my batch for sure. Did you see this link?

http://www.lesaffreyeastcorp.com/wineyeast/superfood.html


That answers my question about 60F working....
Hmm...good link. Go for it, and let us know how it works!
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Read about a dozen posts up, I answered your question about finings. If it wasn't clear...add them.

I tried this multiple times during hydrometer samples, and it was GOOD! In fact, I probably sampled too often because it was so good!

Sweet. I'll add finings tomorrow and taste it tonight. :mug:
 
Schlenkerla said:
How much sugar to carb is my question too.

I did the normal for a batch of beer; 5 oz? Anyways, it's not really carbed at all. I just have this feeling that it won't respond the same as beer (or 7up) for that matter. If I kegged it then... Anyways theres my take :). Its good though without being amped up with co2.

Also, you PM is full ;)
 

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