Will I contaminate my Apfelwein?

So I decided to try making some Apfelwein. I went to my local home brew store, and they only sell their corn sugar two ways. in 5oz sealed bags for priming, and in bulk. Well the recipe calls for 2lbs of corn sugar, so without even thinking about it I measured and purchaesd 2 1lb bags of the bulk sugar.
What I just realized is that the recipe calls for adding sugar directly to the juice. there is no boil. So if there is any bacteria or anything in that bulk sugar I got from an open bag I',m just asking for an infection.
I'm thinking I can't use the bulk sugar.

Thoughts???

I had the same problem...i just boiled some water and mixed the corn sugar in and dissolved it. I have also just mixed the sugar right out of the bag and dissolved it in one the gallon jugs i just opened. No infection to date

I rarely (if ever) boil sugar for my wines and ciders. So far, so good. I've never heard of a single bacterial infection from sugar.

ive made a few batches of apfelwein and just added the sugar directly and never had a problem. if it was dme then i would be worried but i would just say follow the recipe.

I just can't stop thinking of the open bag of bulk sugar with the scoop in it, and who knows how many hands in it before mine. Call me paranoid, but...
Does anyone think it would hurt to dissolve, and boil the sugar in a gallon of the juice for about ten minutes first? I'd use water, but I don't want to water down the final product, and I have no idea what effect if any boiling the juice might have on it. But don't they have to boil it when they pasteurize it?
Bleh...!

You can boil it if you want - a short 5-10 min boil shouldn't have much effect... just make sure to stir frequently so that the sugars don't caramelize.
Personally I wouldn't worry about infection from bulk sugar - the yeast take over so quickly that even if there are a couple bugs in the sugar they don't have a chance. Many people have done the apfelwein with bulk corn sugar and I haven't heard of any problems.

agusus said:

You can boil it if you want - a short 5-10 min boil shouldn't have much effect... just make sure to stir frequently so that the sugars don't caramelize.
Personally I wouldn't worry about infection from bulk sugar - the yeast take over so quickly that even if there are a couple bugs in the sugar they don't have a chance. Many people have done the apfelwein with bulk corn sugar and I haven't heard of any problems.

Click to expand...

+1, I would't even be concerned, I think it is much harder to infect your beer/apfelwein than you may think. Your applejuice is more than likely pasteurized, and once you pitch your yeast, they will normally take foothold in the fermenter before any wild yeasts or bacteria do. Yeast many times will out-compete those nasties, so throw a little caution to the wind and RDWHAHB. Dump that sugar in!

Don't boil. Not a problem.

Made it last night. No boiling! Thanks!

Sugar is a preservative. High concentrations create osmotic pressure and desiccate cells. That's why it is used in jams, jellies and preserves. There might be other unwanted stuff in the bulk sugar, but you don't have to worry about bacterial infection of your apple juice from it.

Chad

Chad said:

Sugar is a preservative. High concentrations create osmotic pressure and desiccate cells. That's why it is used in jams, jellies and preserves. There might be other unwanted stuff in the bulk sugar, but you don't have to worry about bacterial infection of your apple juice from it.

Chad

Click to expand...

Precisely. Since sugar is, well, 100% sugar, the water activity is 0.0. There is no microbe known to man that can survive at water activity below 0.5, and most things die at 0.8. Honey has a water activity of 0.5-0.7, so you could likely also add that directly without any sterilization technique.

rocketman768 said:

Precisely. Since sugar is, well, 100% sugar, the water activity is 0.0. There is no microbe known to man that can survive at water activity below 0.5, and most things die at 0.8. Honey has a water activity of 0.5-0.7, so you could likely also add that directly without any sterilization technique.

Click to expand...

Oh they can survive...spore forming bacteria and such can survive, just not replicate. They survive as an endospore, if given the proper chemical signals to induce the endospore transformation. But they wouldnt survive enough to replicate in the presence of a highly replicating yeast colony.

rocketman768 said:

Precisely. Since sugar is, well, 100% sugar, the water activity is 0.0. There is no microbe known to man that can survive at water activity below 0.5, and most things die at 0.8. Honey has a water activity of 0.5-0.7, so you could likely also add that directly without any sterilization technique.

Click to expand...

JefeTheVol said:

Oh they can survive...spore forming bacteria and such can survive, just not replicate. They survive as an endospore, if given the proper chemical signals to induce the endospore transformation. But they wouldnt survive enough to replicate in the presence of a highly replicating yeast colony.

Click to expand...

What about extremophiles? There always seems to be something living under conditions that are supposed to be unable to support life

Thanks for the Chemistry/Biology lesson!