Man, I love Apfelwein

Im wondering how the California Ale yeast might do in there. Any thoughts? I have no clue. I was going to save it for an IPA or something...

It looks like my Apfelwein is ready to bottle. OG 1.071 on Dec 10th took the gravity Sunday and today and it is a constant 1.005. It seems most people get a lower FG, anything I can do to get better attenuation?

Edit: Or am I being impatient and should leave it in primary for a little bit longer?

unless you need your fermenter for something I would wait

Hoserama said:

unless you need your fermenter for something I would wait

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I will need it in about 1-1.5 weeks and can wait that long. Then I need it for use as a secondary for my IPA and dry hopping. Seems like fermentation is done, but hopefully it drops a little more in the extra time.


Just smashed the hydrometer too . Time to get a refractometer :rockin:.

avaserfi said:

It looks like my Apfelwein is ready to bottle. OG 1.071 on Dec 10th took the gravity Sunday and today and it is a constant 1.005. It seems most people get a lower FG, anything I can do to get better attenuation?

Edit: Or am I being impatient and should leave it in primary for a little bit longer?

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That sounds like good attenuation to me, at this rate you have yourself a 8.6% ABV (Beersmith) Apfelwein.

Panzermann said:

That sounds like good attenuation to me, at this rate you have yourself a 8.6% ABV (Beersmith) Apfelwein.

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True, I guess I was more focused on the lower FG of 0.997. Whatever the case I will let it sit in primary for another week before bottling. No rush.

Hey Ed...just thought I'd let you know my wife and I were over visiting relatives in northern Germany (near the north sea)...anyway, I ran into a little shop that had Geripptes and Bembels (sp?) anyway, I bought a Bembel and 6 cut glasses. I will post a pick here soon. The Bembel is actual black and says "Bembel with care" on it. I had to laugh, so that's why I bought it..now I have something to serve my Apfelwein in!!!

Dan

I just got my carboys and beer kit in tonight around 8:00 and had apfelwein started by 9:00. My first brew ever!

I thought Montrachet wasn't supposed to be this active? Anyone else seen this when making Apfelwein?

Paul

What kind of yeast did you use? I haven't made a batch yet, but from the pictures I have seen I noticed that its a pretty tame fermentation when using the dry wine yeast. If you used an ale yeast I would like to know how it comes out because I have some ale yeast that I would like to use, as long as it doesn't come out tasting like swill.

I used Red Star Montrachet as recommended by Ed. Never had this big a head before. There was a long lag between pitching the yeast (while filling the carboy with Apple juice) and the start of activity - about 36 hours. Maybe it was because the juice was very cold - about 40F when I put it in the Carboy.

Paul

RGH said:

What kind of yeast did you use? I haven't made a batch yet, but from the pictures I have seen I noticed that its a pretty tame fermentation when using the dry wine yeast. If you used an ale yeast I would like to know how it comes out because I have some ale yeast that I would like to use, as long as it doesn't come out tasting like swill.

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LayMeister said:

I used Red Star Montrachet as recommended by Ed. Never had this big a head before. There was a long lag between pitching the yeast (while filling the carboy with Apple juice) and the start of activity - about 36 hours. Maybe it was because the juice was very cold - about 40F when I put it in the Carboy.

Paul

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Yeah I made a batch yesterday and the day before (no deviation from Ed's recipe) and they both started fermenting at the same time. I think the first batch took longer to start because my juice was too cold. Yesterday when I did the second batch I warmed the juice up in a hot water bath till it was 60-65 degrees and I had fermentation within 12 hours.

2 batches of Apfelwein in two days, I'm getting off to a good start!

Thanks, EdWort! Das schmeckt mir aber gut!

I made my first batch of Apfelwein back in late October, and am about to bottle.

Results:

OG: 1.070... FG: 0.995 (but it is neither too dry nor too tart)

I used Montrachet yeast, but had little to no bad smell that others report. I did ferment cool in the basement, though (first couple weeks it was at 63, the last couple months it has been steady at 55).

I left it alone (except for an occastional gravity reading) for 3 months, and now...

The color lightened to a pale straw, and is now almost crystal clear. The aroma has a subtle hint of apple, and the taste is SPECTACULAR - more wine-like than cider, and very close to the Apfelwein I had in Hessen (actually, this is better IMHO).

I've been told by SWMBO to make sure we always have some of this on hand!

Vielen Dank, EdWort!
Prost!

WeinstrasseBrewer said:

Thanks, EdWort! Das schmeckt mir aber gut!

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I took German back in high school, but I'm having a hard time understanding why "aber" instead of "sehr" fits there. (I'm trying to learn, not correct, in case it sounds that way.)

Can someone explain why "aber" (meaning "but") would take the meaning "very" instead of "sehr" (which literally means "very")?

Not really related to Apfelwein, I suppose...

Danke!

Hegh,

I'm sure a native speaker will correct me, but here goes...

It's colloquial, not grammatically correct. I heard it quite a bit in my times over there in case such as, for example if you see a cute puppy: "Du bist aber süss!" or "Well, aren't you sweet"

A similar (though old fashioned) use in English might be something like: "He whipped him, but good."

this may not apply to your recipe, but when making apple mead ( cyser ) make sure that your apple juce is 100% with no preservatives. I wonder what this would be like with white labs sweet mead yeast?

WeinstrasseBrewer said:

Hegh,

I'm sure a native speaker will correct me, but here goes...

It's colloquial, not grammatically correct. I heard it quite a bit in my times over there in case such as, for example if you see a cute puppy: "Du bist aber süss!" or "Well, aren't you sweet"

A similar (though old fashioned) use in English might be something like: "He whipped him, but good."

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This is spot on as an explanation, not a native speaker myself but lived there for a good few years and I still speak it daily at work.

WeinstrasseBrewer said:

Hegh,

I'm sure a native speaker will correct me, but here goes...

It's colloquial, not grammatically correct. I heard it quite a bit in my times over there in case such as, for example if you see a cute puppy: "Du bist aber süss!" or "Well, aren't you sweet"

A similar (though old fashioned) use in English might be something like: "He whipped him, but good."

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Thanks! Although I don't study any more, I still think about it sometimes

Hello all! I've just started my first solo brew, and as you can probably tell, it was Ed's apfelwein. Stuck as close to the recipe as I could - my FLHBS didn't have Montchartret, so I used Lavlin EC-1118. Two pounds of corn sugar, 6 gallons of "Berkley & Jensen" apple juice (water, concentrate, and ascorbic acid), some yeast nutrients and energizer - and watch out world! Specific gravity was 1.065, potential alcohol was 8.5% - exactly on spec. I'm looking forward to this.

Thanks for the recipe, Ed!

(PS: Yes, I did join the forum just because of this thread. )

Where do you get those orange lids on that carboys in the picture on page 1 of this thread? pretty neat looking

Those are carboy caps. I use the same thing though mine are red. The 6.5 gallon size fits a 6 gallon BB.

I threw my Apfelwein together (EdWorts recipe but I added 1/2 gallon of pear nectar) on December 28th.... it fermented good and hard and was at 1.000 a week ago. It now bubbles once every 90 seconds. It's still cloudy but I'd love to get this bottled up to try by the first week of February. Do you think I can go ahead and bottle it? I plan on using priming sugar for carbonation just like beer.

I bottled my first batch tonight.

My final gravity was .0998

Looked like coors when it came out. Very clear.

The last bottle I filled was only 3/4 full. So I decided to not let it go to waste. This stuff is potent. I drank it a bit fast and I feel like Ed just flew first class from Texas, and sodomized my liver.

Cannot wait until its bottle carbed.


Oh, and I bottled about ten 22oz bottles. After drinking approximately 10oz, I have a feeling that was a mistake. I was going to give them away. But I have a feeling it would be fairly dangerous at that quantity

My god this thread has gotten huge!

I did a search for Premier Cuvee... too many pages....

Can anybody tell me how the Cuvee compares to the Monty or Cotes taste-wise?

I picked up 4 packs; 2-Monty & Cuvee. Gonna a side by side. Just curious on the results.

Thanks!

Dang - I googled premier cuvee cider and I got redirected back to HBT!!! :rockin:

Looks like a bunch of people used the yeast. No one reported back on how it turned out though.

from searching this thread. These people used that yeast.

Remilard 11/21/08
bkvail 11/19/08
portlandbeergeek 10/02/08
ArcaneXor 3/24/08

and BlindlemonLars mentioned it back in 07


You might get a response from one with a pm. :shrug:
Those batches should have finished and been consumed.

I only made it through the first couple of hundred pages. But I did not see a pic of the finished product from anyone other than ED.

So here goes.

Looks yummy, I still have to wait about two more weeks to bottle, then a couple more to carb oh well, hopefully it is good, I started another batch 2 days ago...

hungrymonkey said:

from searching this thread. These people used that yeast.

Remilard 11/21/08
bkvail 11/19/08
portlandbeergeek 10/02/08
ArcaneXor 3/24/08

and BlindlemonLars mentioned it back in 07


You might get a response from one with a pm. :shrug:
Those batches should have finished and been consumed.

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Thanks for the leg work!

Henny said:

Looks yummy, I still have to wait about two more weeks to bottle, then a couple more to carb oh well, hopefully it is good, I started another batch 2 days ago...

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I bottled 3 days ago. It is very drinkable with no carb. I have been adding sprite for a little sweetness though.

Yes, I am impatient.

I'm making my first batch of this on Saturday. It's primarily for my mom since she has been bugging me to make some sort of hardened apple cider, so I had her go buy the ingredients I needed for it. I told her specifically to get 100% pure apple juice with no additives or preservatives. What she brought me was 100% apple juice from concentrate. Is this gonna work or will I need to take it back and exchange it?

JMSetzler said:

I'm making my first batch of this on Saturday. It's primarily for my mom since she has been bugging me to make some sort of hardened apple cider, so I had her go buy the ingredients I needed for it. I told her specifically to get 100% pure apple juice with no additives or preservatives. What she brought me was 100% apple juice from concentrate. Is this gonna work or will I need to take it back and exchange it?

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If its not pasteurized you might hit it with camden tablets. It will work. Every time I used canned juice I got an infection after few months, but it was not pasteurized.

I used the canned concentrate in place of corn sugar.

Schlenkerla said:

If its not pasteurized you might hit it with camden tablets. It will work. Every time I used canned juice I got an infection after few months, but it was not pasteurized.

I used the canned concentrate in place of corn sugar.

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Thanks It is pasteurized. That will save me a trip to the other side of town...

My stuff has been bottled for a little over 6 weeks and it tastes twice as good as when I first bottled it.

How much carbonation can beer bottles handle? I put a 3/4 cup of dextrose in 5gals. and it isn't as carbonated as I'd expect. I'm thinking for my next batch I'd like to make a couple bottles have about 2-3x as much carbonation, just to see how I like it. Will it burst?

Decided to start 6 more gallons.

I was thinking of bottling this in wine bottles with corks, without carbing of course.
Anyone see issues with that?
Is traditional Apfelwein carbed or not?

Brewer_Steve said:

I was thinking of bottling this in wine bottles with corks, without carbing of course.
Anyone see issues with that?
Is traditional Apfelwein carbed or not?

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This is what I just did (Sunday, I think). One of the corks popped out, so that bottle is in the fridge and will be consumed shortly, but the rest seem fine.

I started my first 5.25gal batch on 1-18. Already clouded up and looking good.

My sams club only sold in 96oz bottle 2 packs. I didn't use the 8th bottle because I want to transfer it out of my primary in the near future.

Just recovered from overconsumption. Having it on tap might be a mistake. Yet I am purchasing ingredients for a second batch.