My Apfelwein Tastes...Vurpy

I just kegged my second batch of apfelwein and my hydro sample has a sour acidic taste similar to a vurp (a little bit of vomit with a burp) followed by a strong yeast flavor. From what I've heard, this sounds similar to autolysis except not nearly as bad/strong. It isn't repulsive, but at this point I do not want to drink it.

I'll give some of the details of the process/recipe for this batch: 5 gallons of apple juice (only additive was vitC) along with 3(I'm pretty sure) cans of concentrate and 2 pounds of corn sugar. Montrachet. The OG was 1.077. It spent 7 weeks in the primary. During active fermentation (first 3 or 4 weeks) I had it mid 60's, then as it cleared I allowed it to come up to 70-75. I remember pulling a hydro sample after it was clear and it came in at 1.001 or 2, and it tasted fine. Today it is brilliantly clear, and the FG read 1.000 for an ABV of 10%.

My last batch was 5 gallons of juice plus 2lbs of table sugar and montrachet. It spent 5 weeks at 70 then got bottled. After three weeks in the bottle it was delicious. To me it tasted the way other people described apfelwein after aging. In other words, it tasted like it had already been aged. I don't know if I just got lucky on that batch and this one is green the way a-wine usually is, or if maybe a small amount of autolysis had begun to occur due to high ABV, elevated temps, and prolonged primary.

No theories? This is a bummer as my first batch is almost gone and I was counting on having a 2+ month old batch ready to drink when it ran out!

I did my first batch and it tastes pretty good, I did almost the same. Except, I added 2lbs of dark brown sugar 2 lbs of corn sugar, 2oz of lactose and used lavlin 1118 champagne yeast. Mine is about 12.5 and just getting to about 3 weeks in bottles, nice small bubbles and tastes great.

Dumped. After a small sample today to re-evaluate its potential I pulled it from the keezer and we sat down in the beer room and had a chat. I explained to the keg of apfelwein that we at HBT have a general "no-dump" policy, but in today's brewing climate, where keg turnaround is at an all-time low here at Coastarine Brewing, we just don't have the resources to support a long term keg commitment that looks like it's going nowhere. Besides, we have eager upandcomers ready for the keg, like this Belgian pale for instance, just dying to get cold and bubbly.

Freeing up this keg allows me to keg the Belgian Pale, which is ready for drinking. Having another keg with a ready beer in it allows me to pull the winter brown from the lineup for room-temp aging. I think it's a good decision and I stand by it.

could have at least transferred to a bucket or something, then racked your belgian. Hope you sanitized the keg real well just in case.

Strange. I have had carboys sit for over 4 months at 68-78 degrees depending on the time of day and never have had such a reaction. Than again, I have only used Tree Top Apple Juice in the gallon jugs. In over 200 gallons of Apfelwein since 2006, I have never had a bad batch.

Could one of your cans of concentrate been bad? That's my only guess, as this stuff is pretty much fool proof if your sanitation practices are up to snuff.

I'm pretty positive that it wasn't infected. The keg is getting an oxyclean soak right now and will of course be sanitized before the belgian goes in it. It may have been sub-par ingredients. It was just nasty, and it could be the concentrate, and maybe the extra strong recipe was just a bad idea. I decided to make my next batch just apple juice and S-04, plain and simple, so it won't be as alcoholic and there's less room for a screw-up. I think that makes it cider and not apfelwein.

I'm not too broken up about it. With any luck my cider will be done soon.

It's possible some of the sulfur from fermentation was still stuck in the booze. degassing *might* have helped, but no guarantee. Same with aging. I'd probably have ended up dumping it as well.

Sorry for your loss. Now you have another jug to make a new batch yes?