Man, I love Apfelwein

Ah finally, stopped bubbling yesterday, 56 days, racked today. FG .998-.997

well it has been 8 days since i started my Apfelwein and the ferment is already slowing down my ferment has been running at about 74*f steady. what is the quickest anyone has had this ferment. I followed ed's recipe to the letter except it is a 2.5 gal batch. SWMBO and i just tried a little sample and it is already starting to dry out but it has excelent flavor.

I have a batch of apfelwein and a batch of beer fermenting at the moment. Apfelwein fermentation is just so dignified compared to the beer- tiny little bubbles with no kreusen. It's clearly a classier beverage.

sflcowboy78 said:

"The easiest way to spot a wanker in a pub is to look around and find who's drinking a Corona with a slice of lemon in the neck."
-Warwick Franks.

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Yes, REAL men drink it with lime

real man don't drink anything under 4% ABV and anything you can clearly read a newspaper through

sirsloop said:

real man don't drink anything under 4% ABV and anything you can clearly read a newspaper through

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Not claiming it is a fantastic beer, but it makes a great sit back on a nice summer day beer. And its 4.6% thank you very much haha And its clarity allows you to drink beer no matter what, it will never block your line of sight

4% of that alcohol comes from rice husk tho!!! HAHAH!

After reading to page 60 and post #1771 (every single one of them), I started some last Thursday. I am determined to make it through the entire thread, before asking any questions. Hope it comes out good.

Just a quick question. Last night I made 2 gallon batches of apfelwein. One using Ed's recipe and the other using nottingham yeast. The AJ I bought was unfiltered 100% organic apple juice not from concentrate. After everything was prepared, I drank the last of the remaining juice. It was extremely sweet. Not really the tart, crisp apple juice that I prefer. Will my final product still be on the dry side with the monratchet yeast even though the just was really sweet?

Don't worry, that sweetness will ferment away completely! Was your OG inline with Ed's recipe?

Yeah, OG was right where it should be.

I can't find the proper original SG in the OP, nor the whole first page. Mine was 1.072, is that right?

1.063 if Ed's recipe is followed to the T. Some variance can be expected based on the juice used. That's actually why I asked. I thought the extra sweetness could be attributed to a juice with a little more sugar.

Thanks. I'm guessing my higher G is from the juice being unfiltered.

sirsloop said:

real man don't drink anything under 4% ABV and anything you can clearly read a newspaper through

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If by that you mean, "Real men who cannot wear fitted shirts", then you are right.

The rest of us like to balance it out a bit with some lighter stuff to keep our FG from going off the charts.

Wow, thanks for the recipe Ed.

I have a 2.5gal batch that is coming along just fine. I followed the recipe per Ed's directions without modification.

2 weeks in the fermenter @ 68 degrees. I took a gravity reading today of 1012(OG of 1062).

Of course I drank the sample and it was delicious. I wish I had made a 5gal batch now.

I imagine that I will probably have a carboy full of this stuff all the time

2 weeks to go before bottling....I hope I can wait that long.

blacklab said:

If by that you mean, "Real men who cannot wear fitted shirts", then you are right.

The rest of us like to balance it out a bit with some lighter stuff to keep our FG from going off the charts.

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Uh, drinking too much will tend to lower one's specific gravity, since lipids are lighter than muscle mass. Now, if you're talking total mass...

Now back to the original discussion...

steve

I made a gallon of Apfelwein to try out and for not being a wine or champagne drinker I was amazed at how drinkable this was. My only regret is that I only made 1 gallon.

I am going to throw together another batch with Nottingham and compare.....thanks for the recipe!!!

not bad tried the Apfelwein as a whim experiment. have to say it's not too shabby. next time i believe i'll jack the dextrose tho. kegged, carb'd and on tap

brewhead said:

not bad tried the Apfelwein as a whim experiment. have to say it's not too shabby. next time i believe i'll jack the dextrose tho. kegged, carb'd and on tap

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Try substituting the dextrose with honey... adds great flavor! If yoy want higher ABV go with champagne yeast

Yes, honey adds a decent flavour to this recipe!

To add notes about my Simply Apple recipe, it is done, but turned out cloudy. (But, I'm not going to complain!)

I fermented it out completely, using Nottingham, and it tasted too dry. I sweetened it with a pound of honey, and let the yeast stir that in, then stopped fermentation with K-meta and K-sorb. I was able to find 3 more bottles of Simply Apple, at work, and added them to the carboy. (For some {like my wine thief} reason, this stuff keeps evaporating, and all 3 bottles fit.)

Tasted some today, and this stuff is ready to bottle! The next time we get in more Simply Apple juice, I'll make 2 carboys full! I may need to buy more carboys!

steve

Well I used very very cloudy organic cider on my first few batches of cider and it had a lot of sediment. But just like anything else, over time even that cleared up, so try giving it some more time before you bottle and you will have delicious perfectly clear Apfelwein on your hands.

My O.G was spot on at 1.063. Using Montrachet gave me F.G. of 0.99 which puts this at 9.6% abv. Does this sound right? I've seen a lot of people say they get around 8.5%.

Tusch said:

Well I used very very cloudy organic cider on my first few batches of cider and it had a lot of sediment. But just like anything else, over time even that cleared up, so try giving it some more time before you bottle and you will have delicious perfectly clear Apfelwein on your hands.

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I used motts cloudy unfiltered apple juice and it never fully cleared up.
after 4 months in the primary it looked the same as I bought it, only lighter in colour.

Hmmm that is unfortunate, I guess I just got lucky. From what I read, I guess it is kind of hit or miss.

dpt222 said:

My O.G was spot on at 1.063. Using Montrachet gave me F.G. of 0.99 which puts this at 9.6% abv. Does this sound right? I've seen a lot of people say they get around 8.5%.

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You did the math right, but that's a really low final gravity. 0.999 is fairly standard for this recipe.

I started my second batch of this on Saturday. I did the first batch last year with the Lalvin D-47 and was really happy with it. This time I got Montrachet, and I just opened my fermenting room and was greeted with the classic elephant fart stench. I think the next batch I'll try the Montrachet again, but I'll toss in a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, just to see what difference that makes.

OK, so I searched this thread and didn't find that anyone had used Safale US-05. Plenty of S0-4 and US-56 references though.

I just made two 1gal batches with US-05 (the red one).

Recipie:

1gal Dominick's brand Apple Juice
1can Tree Top Concentrate
0.25 lbs dextrose (only one batch got this, and I don't know which, they look identical)
Plenty of shaking
Safale S0-5

(edit) Upon further searching, Yooper may have made some with US-05.

Hello all, I started a batch of Ed Wort's Apfelwein about 9 days ago.
Followed the recipe to the letter except I used Cote Des Blancs yeast.

its mostly still cloudy with a slightly clearer layer on the top but the bubbling has all but stopped and there is a layer of something along the bottom.

Am I doomed?

As long as you were pretty sanitary, its kind of hard to screw up. The layer on the bottom is the yeast, dead cells, and their waste from eating all the sugars up. That is called the lees, no worries there. Also, while that was a pretty fast fermentation, you sound fine. It will begin to clear over time, and it often does this top to bottom. Give it some time, don't touch it and it should be crystal clear and delicious soon.

Crazytwoknobs said:

OK, so I searched this thread and didn't find that anyone had used Safale US-05. Plenty of S0-4 and US-56 references though.

I just made two 1gal batches with US-05 (the red one).

Recipie:

1gal Dominick's brand Apple Juice
1can Tree Top Concentrate
0.25 lbs dextrose (only one batch got this, and I don't know which, they look identical)
Plenty of shaking
Safale S0-5

(edit) Upon further searching, Yooper may have made some with US-05.

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FYI, US 05 = US 56.

They changed the number for some reason.

IMHO, the best dry stuff around.

Yay.

thanks for the speedy reply.

I wonder if the speedy ferment has anything to do with the rather high temperature 72-80 in the room.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dpt222
My O.G was spot on at 1.063. Using Montrachet gave me F.G. of 0.99 which puts this at 9.6% abv. Does this sound right? I've seen a lot of people say they get around 8.5%.

You did the math right, but that's a really low final gravity. 0.999 is fairly standard for this recipe.
__________________

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You know what, I forgot to add that last 0.009 in the figure. That thousandth really makes a big difference...a 1.12% difference. Thanks for the help, I guess I'll settle for 8.4% abv

Thanks Blacklab, that cleared up some confusion on my part!


Also, Since I posted, both have started airlock activity and visible bubble formation at the top....

That's only like 2 hours.....

blacklab said:

FYI, US 05 = US 56.

They changed the number for some reason.

IMHO, the best dry stuff around.

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I can't say with any degree of authority, but ther rumour I've heard, is that a liquid yeast maker, who makes a 1056 yeast, that is the same strain as US-56 and US-05, complained about US-56's name. So, they had to change it to US-05.

Yes, Y-1056 and Safale US-56, (or US-05) are the same strain.

steve

Aha, cool.

I used about 1/3 of an 11.5g packet in each carboy, but I had it sitting at the bottom *before* adding the juice/concentrate/sugar mix. It seemed to suspend more yeast right away than the batch I did a few days ago where I added the yeast after the carboy was full. Of course that batch was in a 5gal carboy, and these are 1gal.

It was just really cool to see how quickly the bubbling started.

I just decided to make a small one gallon test batch. I used a little more than 1/2lb of corn sugar and accidentally dumped in about 3/4 of the cote de blanc yeast packet. Should I expect any problems? I did a little shake it it immediately clouded.

I just pulled off a sample of the Apfelwein that I started on the 1-10-08 and it has a slight aftertaste and odor of the elephant farts that it made in the first few days.

The OG was almost the same as in Ed's recipe, 1.062 and now it is at 1.005. Has anyone else noticed this slight off taste? Will it go away by the time it clears, or is there the possibility that I have an infection on my hands?

Thanks.

cfy7 said:

I just pulled off a sample of the Apfelwein that I started on the 1-10-08 and it has a slight aftertaste and odor of the elephant farts that it made in the first few days.

The OG was almost the same as in Ed's recipe, 1.062 and now it is at 1.005. Has anyone else noticed this slight off taste? Will it go away by the time it clears, or is there the possibility that I have an infection on my hands?

Thanks.

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It'll go away, don't worry. You're not even done fermenting yet. It'll finish right around 1.000

adso81 said:

I just decided to make a small one gallon test batch. I used a little more than 1/2lb of corn sugar and accidentally dumped in about 3/4 of the cote de blanc yeast packet. Should I expect any problems? I did a little shake it it immediately clouded.

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No worries, there are few disadvantages to over pitching, sometimes it is necessary. Let the yeast do their work than rack it off after primary fermentation.