Apfelwein ferments out at 10 days?

Recipe followed to the T, Mott's apple juice. 70-72F. Stopped bubbling and started to clear at day 9. Today (day 10) I took a reading...which turned into a couple pints. Pretty much tanked off them, and damn was it good. I'm used to drinking anything that ferments around the house and am not picky, so if it tastes this good at 10 days I'm going to be in heaven in a few months.

It's around 1.010 at the moment, just about there. Isn't that unusually fast?

I'm not complaining, in fact I have to stop myself from calling friends over and siphoning the entire thing off now.

SMOOTH thanks Edwort

Toppers said:

It's around 1.010 at the moment, just about there. Isn't that unusually fast?

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It will probably get down to 1.000, or even lower. Personally, I'd just walk away from it for a full month or longer. Of course I've got a couple of aged, chilled kegs, as well as a case of bottles. Makes the wait effortless.

Agreed...you want it to get down to 1.000 - .998 or so. Put it in a closet and forget about it for 2 months. The wait is totally worth it.

Oh I am walking away. The way I stay away is to go out and get the materials for another batch to keep my mind off it lol.

Just seemed unsually fast that 5 gallons would ferment out this quick AND taste good, I was a little surprised. My past batches of unfiltered juice + premier cuvee took 3 weeks to stop bubbling at same temps and tasted like sour ass.

You better start batch number 2 and 3 right now.

Mine went down to .996 in 9 days.

I asked this earlier, but in my infinite stupor I forgot to take an OG...I used 5 gals AJ and 2 lbs Corn Sugar...any one want to chance a guess to my OG?

Doing another one with cider and sweet mead yeast this weekend...

Other bottled stuff is tasting great.

EdWort said:

You better start batch number 2 and 3 right now.

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All over it. Btw, I made a 4 gallon batch and chucked 1 gallon of this ghetto raspberry juice in there awhile ago (the from concentrate kind) and it's heavenly.

Only with Apfelwein recipe can you input store bought junk and receive gold, nice.

I think that has happened to my 3 gallon batch of cider also. sadly I dont have a hydrometer so I hope its done? the stupid aquarium hydrometer is full of it im sure. Oh well, I guess anything left will still ferment in the secondary.

I am looking at starting batch 2,3,..
A few serious questions:

1. What yeast would do well at 75-86 ambient temperatures? Swamp coolers are great, but a pain with work schedules and life getting in the way, I have a fermentation fridge, but that is used in high turnover right now to meet all the summer parties. Otherwise I may have to wait to get to our cooler times of 70's to meet the demands for this.

2. Has anyone found a good air freshener to deal with the rhino farts. I have brewed for over a decade, and some really weird stuff but this can choke me with a good whiff of it. Sounds silly but if you live in a small area this is a knock-out.

Homebrewer_99- I used the same recipe and my OG was 1.059.

Thanks, Ben...

Kauai_Kahuna said:

Has anyone found a good air freshener to deal with the rhino farts. I have brewed for over a decade, and some really weird stuff but this can choke me with a good whiff of it. Sounds silly but if you live in a small area this is a knock-out.

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I don't know what type of air-lock you are using, but try taking a piece of rubber tubing and putting it over the air-lock. Put the other end out of a cracked window or through some sort of hole in the house. (You could run it along the dryer vent, etc.) If you are crafty, you can use one tube through the wall with splitters and valves, so all the beers/wines/farts go outside. Works really well!

The problem I had with my Apfelwein was after about 3 weeks to a month it was clearing. So I took a reading thinking it would be done. 1.030!! I just spun the carboy from left to right a couple times, and within a few hours, the yeast was back in suspension, and krausen was forming. It tasted really good, but it was kinda sweet. I can't wait til its done!