Ordered my kit! (and an Apfelwein question)

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injendsm

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I finally ordered my homebrew kit from Midwest. I went with their Intermediate kit with better bottles & took them up on an awesome promo offer of a 32oz bottle for $1.50. I'm planning to make a batch of Ed Wort's Apfelwein shortly after the kit makes its way here but I need some help.

Where can I get 100% apple juice with no preservatives or additives? I went to Costco earlier looking for some but the two choices they had (Motts and Kirkland) said 100% but didn't say there weren't any preservatives or additives. I wasn't sure if they would work so I decided to play it safe and ask the experts. Thanks for all the help so far.
 
Tree Top brand apple juice is what we all use around here. :mug:
I got 1.5 gallons of Apfelwein going on my kitchen counter right now!
 
Runyank said:
Tree Top brand apple juice is what we all use around here. :mug:
I got 1.5 gallons of Apfelwein going on my kitchen counter right now!
Click to expand...

That's the one Ed Wort listed in his thread and the one I went looking for but didn't find. Does Whole Foods carry it?
 
Good call on the kit! I got the same one. The only other things that I really needed to get to go with it was a kettle, a big stirring spoon, and a "thief" for getting samples and checking gravity. Other than that, the intermediate kit is really complete. The thief isn't necessary, but it's pretty handy.

If the juice doesn't say that it has preservatives, it can't have preservatives. "100% apple juice" is fine. Are you going to be doing a 5 gallon batch of apfelwein in a carboy or are you just going to do a small batch? If you're going small, check a whole foods or other health foods store... they should have gallons of apple juice in glass jugs like this:

http://www.brew-winemaking.com/productimages/6261.jpg

Midwest sells that for 4 bucks... or you can get one full of apple juice for $6 or $7! I picked up a couple of those, added some corn sugar and yeast, and let em rip. When they're done I'll have a couple carboys for test batches and starters, essentially for free.
 
the mott's is fine. i used mott's 100% apple juice from concentrate. if you read the ingredients on the back, the only additive is ascorbic acid, which is vitamin C and that's just fine. i got the gallon jugs from walmart on sale for like 3 bucks a piece. it's happily bubbling away.
 
as long as the ingredients doesn't list anything besides apples, water (if from concentrate), and ascorbic acid, its fine.
 
injendsm said:
I went to Costco earlier looking for some but the two choices they had (Motts and Kirkland) said 100% but didn't say there weren't any preservatives or additives.
Click to expand...

As others have indicated, the ingredient panel should reveal whether or not there are additions other than ascorbic acid (which is fine).

My Costco carries Treetop in 2x1gal bundles for something like $7.50. Or sometimes you can catch a loss-leader sale at the local grocery store. Earlier this year Kroger had a sale where the half-gallons were $1, making the batch $10. Woo-hoo!
 
Hopaholic said:
Good call on the kit! I got the same one. The only other things that I really needed to get to go with it was a kettle, a big stirring spoon, and a "thief" for getting samples and checking gravity. Other than that, the intermediate kit is really complete. The thief isn't necessary, but it's pretty handy.

If the juice doesn't say that it has preservatives, it can't have preservatives. "100% apple juice" is fine. Are you going to be doing a 5 gallon batch of apfelwein in a carboy or are you just going to do a small batch? If you're going small, check a whole foods or other health foods store... they should have gallons of apple juice in glass jugs like this:

http://www.brew-winemaking.com/productimages/6261.jpg

Midwest sells that for 4 bucks... or you can get one full of apple juice for $6 or $7! I picked up a couple of those, added some corn sugar and yeast, and let em rip. When they're done I'll have a couple carboys for test batches and starters, essentially for free.
Click to expand...

I'll be doing a 5 gallon batch of it. If "100% apple juice" is ok, then that's good news because the nearest Whole Foods is a bit of a drive.
 
$10 a batch! you lucky dog. I am going to bottle my first batch of EdWorts Apfelwein this week. It is clear and it is going to be tremendous!

oh to the original poster: as stated before, just look at the ingredients for water and juice from concentrate. thats 100%.
 
Used langers (from concentrate) on my first batch. Turned out well. Man that crap is powerful (had first drink of it last night - went into fermenter in december, saving the rest for a family gathering in may...)

Using Kirkland (not from concentrate) on my second batch. Went into the fermenter last night, so I'll know in a month or so how it turns out.
 
If I go buy a few of those jugs, do I just divide the recipe evenly with the new amount? What about the yeast? Just estimate and put a little in each one? Would like to get this going today and whole foods is less then a mile away.

Or if I was really desperate could I just use growlers?
 
mosquitocontrol said:
If I go buy a few of those jugs, do I just divide the recipe evenly with the new amount? What about the yeast? Just estimate and put a little in each one? Would like to get this going today and whole foods is less then a mile away.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't use the growlers... you need some way to rig an airlock...If you don't have an airlock, put saran wrap over the mouth of the jug and poke a hole through it with a needle. It's really easy to modify any of the lids to take an airlock though.

But, yes, simple division is your friend.

If you are using only two one-gallon jugs, I'd suggest just splitting the yeast pack between them... otherwise, divide the yeast accordingly up to five.
 

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