My first Apfelwein (A few Q's)

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
H

HH60gunner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
387
Reaction score
15
Location
Tucson
Hey everyone,

Normally I'm a beer guy but these apple wines sounded good so I decided to give it a go. I used 3 gallons of tree top and 2 gallons of trader Joes unfiltered organic apple juice. I went with the Red Star Montrachet yeast which is now chugging away. Here are my questions.

How long should I let it sit on the yeast cake? 1 month? More?

After that should I rack to secondary for further aging or rack to bottle to bottle age?

How long should I let it bottle age. I'd like to let it sit for at least 6 months... is that about right or should I go more or less?

To sweeten it up do you recommend lactose or splenda? If so when? during bottling?

Should I even bother sweetening it up?

Would standard beer bottles be ok for this or should I go get wine bottles and a corking setup?

Any other helpful tips?
 
Ok,

So I pitched the yeast in last night. Today it's churning vigorously however; there seems to be an egg type smell almost. I know some yeasts can produce that, but is it normal with Red Star Montrachet? Will the smell go away over time?
 
Search for "Rhino farts." It seems to be the norm for Montrachet and warm-ish ferment temps. It'll go away.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I use a 6-1/2 gallon glass carboy, it holds around 7-gallons, 6-ounces when full. I fill up to about 7-gallons, 2-ounces (see the "Marking Your Carboy" thread in the DIY forum) for the primary, I use Ec-1118 for yeast, and even though I've never had a foam-over I still leave that little bit of headspace. And since I use fresh apple cider (a lot of orchards in the family, YEE-HAAA!!!) and pectic enzyme, I get about 1-1/2 to 2 inches of lees. So, what i do is wait for the active fermentation to stop (no time limits, ya just never know, go with the flow, and I keep it about 64*F) and then rack to another 6-1/2 gallon carboy, and use more cider and dextrose to take it up to the neck of the carboy. I keep the airlock on all the time. The "secondary fermentation," if it can rightly be called that, it far less vigorous, I don't use pectic enzyme in the secondary, and i leave it on the lees (FAR less lees, nothing I'd give a second thought to!) for another 6-months minimum. I overcome the itch by getting more going, asap. As I stated, I use EC-1118 and I've never had a rhino-fart incident.

Bottle it at 6-months or later, then let it stay in the bottles. Longer bulk = better.

I know I may get flamed for recommending Truvia*. It get praised and bashed at the same time everywhere online. As far as I'm concerned, the sugar alcohols in it are just the ticket -- they WERE sugar, but have been fermented, and now non-fermentable. Combined with stevia extract, I like it. But that's just me. That being said --- I go by the seat of my pants. IF it needs it, I use it. I've only used it a couple of times, and honestly it was purely a matter of opinion, and the fact that some I had/have is very dry and some people don't like it dry, so -- some of each on hand.

You'll be perfectly fine bottling in beer or wine bottles. Might I suggest, for simplicity and economy's sake, that you consider a Colonna Corker/Capper combo? Again, a search (especially in the Winemaking forum and the Bottling/Kegging forum) will yield you a ton of information. I have one and I love it. I used to use just an Emily capper for beer bottles, but i couldn't use stubbies or most European (think Stella Artois) bottles. The Colonna combo (they also sell a capper-only, I do NOT recommend that as a stand-alone) works very well for capping and corking.

Patience, I guess, is the best "other helpful tip" that i can think of. :)

hope this helps!

- Tim
 
Rossnaree said:
Search for "Rhino farts." It seems to be the norm for Montrachet and warm-ish ferment temps. It'll go away.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I use a 6-1/2 gallon glass carboy, it holds around 7-gallons, 6-ounces when full. I fill up to about 7-gallons, 2-ounces (see the "Marking Your Carboy" thread in the DIY forum) for the primary, I use Ec-1118 for yeast, and even though I've never had a foam-over I still leave that little bit of headspace. And since I use fresh apple cider (a lot of orchards in the family, YEE-HAAA!!!) and pectic enzyme, I get about 1-1/2 to 2 inches of lees. So, what i do is wait for the active fermentation to stop (no time limits, ya just never know, go with the flow, and I keep it about 64*F) and then rack to another 6-1/2 gallon carboy, and use more cider and dextrose to take it up to the neck of the carboy. I keep the airlock on all the time. The "secondary fermentation," if it can rightly be called that, it far less vigorous, I don't use pectic enzyme in the secondary, and i leave it on the lees (FAR less lees, nothing I'd give a second thought to!) for another 6-months minimum. I overcome the itch by getting more going, asap. As I stated, I use EC-1118 and I've never had a rhino-fart incident.

Bottle it at 6-months or later, then let it stay in the bottles. Longer bulk = better.

I know I may get flamed for recommending Truvia*. It get praised and bashed at the same time everywhere online. As far as I'm concerned, the sugar alcohols in it are just the ticket -- they WERE sugar, but have been fermented, and now non-fermentable. Combined with stevia extract, I like it. But that's just me. That being said --- I go by the seat of my pants. IF it needs it, I use it. I've only used it a couple of times, and honestly it was purely a matter of opinion, and the fact that some I had/have is very dry and some people don't like it dry, so -- some of each on hand.

You'll be perfectly fine bottling in beer or wine bottles. Might I suggest, for simplicity and economy's sake, that you consider a Colonna Corker/Capper combo? Again, a search (especially in the Winemaking forum and the Bottling/Kegging forum) will yield you a ton of information. I have one and I love it. I used to use just an Emily capper for beer bottles, but i couldn't use stubbies or most European (think Stella Artois) bottles. The Colonna combo (they also sell a capper-only, I do NOT recommend that as a stand-alone) works very well for capping and corking.

Patience, I guess, is the best "other helpful tip" that i can think of. :)

hope this helps!

- Tim
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise. I'm glad to hear that the rhino-farts as you call them will go away. It had me worried that I would be trying to pawn off crap aroma apple wine to my friends lol. Oh, I also forgot to mention that I added 2 pounds of corn sugar to the initial mix as well. I was going off of someone else's recipe except changed it from all tree top to a mix of two brands. It was the recipe sticky'd in the wine section so I figured it was probably good. Once again thanks for the advise.
 

Similar threads

G
Aging and pasteurizing new cider in a mini-keg
Replies
1
Views
489
CKuhns
CKuhns
F
A few questions on treating, force carbonating and bottling temps
Replies
4
Views
640
Fixerman
F
P
A few beginner questions...
Replies
9
Views
1K
PeterG
P
W
Cider from pulp?
Replies
2
Views
795
madscientist451
madscientist451
SoCalPlumber
Plumber's Cider
2 3
Replies
86
Views
3K
Fixerman
F
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top