Man, I love Apfelwein

Alright it has been 3 days since making my first batch of this stuff, made it sunday night and it is in an ale pale wich does have more head space to fill up before the airlock starts bubbling I assume, It is NOT bubbling yet, what are your guys recomendations wait longer? Repitch? Or is it to late to repitch. I would have to go to the brew stor and get mor yeast to repitch.

What about opening it up to see if I can visually see any fermentation?

Thanks in adavnce

mot said:

Alright it has been 3 days since making my first batch of this stuff, made it sunday night and it is in an ale pale wich does have more head space to fill up before the airlock starts bubbling I assume, It is NOT bubbling yet, what are your guys recomendations wait longer? Repitch? Or is it to late to repitch. I would have to go to the brew stor and get mor yeast to repitch.

What about opening it up to see if I can visually see any fermentation?

Thanks in adavnce

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I think you're still okay. Are you above 65deg? I'd wait another day, maybe.

mot said:

Alright it has been 3 days since making my first batch of this stuff, made it sunday night and it is in an ale pale wich does have more head space to fill up before the airlock starts bubbling I assume, It is NOT bubbling yet, what are your guys recomendations wait longer? Repitch? Or is it to late to repitch. I would have to go to the brew stor and get mor yeast to repitch.

What about opening it up to see if I can visually see any fermentation?

Thanks in adavnce

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mine took like 4 or 5 days to get started.. leave it and if its still lifeless after 6 days, then you can worry

mines still in secondary and cloudy as hell.. gonna bottle it as it is in a few days tho!

Brewed my first 5 of Ed's Apfewein last night. What does dry cider mean? From what I am reading it will not taste like Hornsby. Could someone elaborate on the taste and what dry is. Thanks in advance.

Dry is the opposite of sweet in the wine world. Slight pucker in the mouth.

I made this on Monday and this afternoon it was going full tilt. Looks like someone lit a fire underneath my carboy and it's bloiling away. The airlock is bubbling every half second.

Wish I had this kind of fermentation on my last batch of beer...

EdWort said:

You hit the nail on the head. Kegs are not by design to be left sitting somewhere all alone and empty. Go for two batches, or even three at a time. It's great to watch how each phase is different when you have something to compare it to.

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Boy, I'd better get started, I have 6 empty kegs downstairs!!

I did not read the lable and just went out and got 4 gal of Zeiglers Apple cider. It has potasium sorbate in it, but it was already in the carboy when I saw this. So I tought I'd dump it last Sunday, but it started. It is going slow and steady now.

5 - 6 days is a long time. Everything was well sanitized, so I'll let it go and see what it tastes like before I bottle it.

Has anyone else had success with cider with a preservative in it?

Alright it is 6 days going on 7 tomorrow and I still have no airlock activity. I moved my bucket a couple days ago and accidentally pushed down on the lid, so I assume that would have pushed out and CO2 that was in there being built up.

What do you guys think I should do just wait it out a month, open the bucket up and repitch? I dont know what to do

mot said:

Alright it is 6 days going on 7 tomorrow and I still have no airlock activity. I moved my bucket a couple days ago and accidentally pushed down on the lid, so I assume that would have pushed out and CO2 that was in there being built up.

What do you guys think I should do just wait it out a month, open the bucket up and repitch? I dont know what to do

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At this point, it cannot hurt to toss in another 79 cent package of montrachet yeast. Don't push down on the lid anymore too. Too far and you can get a suckback on your airlock. Make sure you fermenter is in a warm area too 70-74 degrees would be good to get it started.

MOT: - I'd 2nd what Edwort said. My basement was 67-68 a little more than a week ago. Right now it struggling to stay at 60'F

Hell, I went out to get coffee this morning. It was only 16'F!!! You're north of me so I imagine your weather is much cooler.

Try to keep the temp up. If you can, run and get some yeast energizer or nutrient. Put at least 1/2 teaspoon per gal in the fermenter.... wait, let it settle in, make a yeast starter, just rehydrate the yeast, let it sit for a bit and pitch that. I would think that should get it going.

To All:
This morning I racked over my 2nd batch of Apfelwein to two 2ndaries, made with Cote Des Blancs, apple juice and apple concentrate.... at two weeks, it was has a very mellow apple flavor, not too sweet, no dryness to speak of at all. Very moderate! Mind you this was at the bottom of the carboy. My sample came from what was left in the racking hose. It was a little yeasty and warm, still pretty damn good.

I sanitized my blender, then pureed the Oregon strawberry & raspberry, poured it in the 2ndaries.... OMFG did it smell awesome when I racked over the apfelwein. Strong berry and apple essence... :fro:

I moved the 2ndaries to the top of my basement landing to get them chuggin' on the berries. Its at ~68'F. After today I'll move'em down stairs if its not too cold.

My two ales will be very crisp with this cold fermentation. The Nottingham yeast is barely kicking at 60'F. Its been 7 days so they are slowing down.

FYI,

I just racked my 6 gallon batch into a keg. I did a taste test using a half cup of Apfelwein. I started out with 1/4 tsp of splenda added, tried 1/2 and then 1tsp per half cup. Turned out 1/2 tsp per half cup works out just about right...a touch under what I would call perfect sweetness. You can always add more...

Anyways....

1tsp per cup...16 cups per gallon... works out to 16tsp per gallon or 1/3 cup of splenda per gallon. A 6 gallon batch took 2 cups.

Mine fermented down to .998 and turned out to be 8.3% ABV.

After reading, and reading, and reading, and reading, I've finally decided to give it a shot. Got a starter going and am going to put it all together on Easter.
Belgian Strong Ale yeast
5 gallons Organic apple juice (local store brand)
1 pound light brown sugar
1 pound dark brown sugar
Time

Looking forward to this and hope to keep it in constant rotation. Thanks to all before me who have posted such usefull information.

A few days ago I started my fourth batch of apfelwein, this time with 5 gallons of Kedem kosher Apple Juice and two cans of concentrate. So without even paying attention I made a kosher drink for passover! I have another similar batch going with cote des blancs yeast, so I can do a side by side test with my other batch, which used lalvin d-47. Anyone do taste tests with different yeasts yet?

mike

I think the Jews would find good reason to not make Beer kosher for passsover. If they have problems with bread being leavened, I think they would have problems with beer being fermented. You would need to drink unfermented beer.... aka wort

Jews are just all around yeast haters one week a year

sirsloop said:

I think the Jews would find good reason to not make Beer kosher for passsover. If they have problems with bread being leavened, I think they would have problems with beer being fermented. You would need to drink unfermented beer.... aka wort

Jews are just all around yeast haters one week a year

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Actually, Red Hook Ale Brewery is a Certified Kosher Brewery, so I think yeast has nothing to do with being Kosher.

Kosher and Kosher for Passover are two separate things. It was kinda a joke anyways...

They have kosher for passover concord wine... they just have beef with leavened bread. Figure if they didnt want to wait for the bread rise, they sure as hell didnt want to wait around for their beer to ferment. Ehh... doesnt make sense to me.

Have a Happy Easter! Gotta Black Forest Ham cooking for dinner to go with some potatoes & green beans, and I'll wash it down with some Apfelwein.

I'm sanitizing two kegs right now and have two carboys ready to keg this afternoon. I'll then make a 6 gallon batch to split into two 3 gallon kegs for picnics this summer.

I'll break out the portable kegerator and will be read to go.

sirsloop said:

Kosher and Kosher for Passover are two separate things. It was kinda a joke anyways...

They have kosher for passover concord wine... they just have beef with leavened bread. Figure if they didnt want to wait for the bread rise, they sure as hell didnt want to wait around for their beer to ferment. Ehh... doesnt make sense to me.

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What, you haven't heard of He-Brew? The Chosen Beer? I like their Messiah Bold, myself. And though I've never kept kosher in my life, it is kosher (but not for passover).

couple of photos.
bottle on the left is with dextrose and lavlin ec-1118
bottle on the right is with brown sugar and 1 cinnamon stick - it is a little sweeter.

the cinnamon version in the glass

thanks again ed - this stuff is great!!!
note both are bottle carbed

Sweet! Stuff looks mighty nice! I just kegged 10 gallons.

Whoo Hoo!

I picked up a Final Gravity Hydrometer at Morebeer.com since it has larger graduations and is easier for a blind guy like me to read. Pretty sweet.

Here's the final on my just kegged Apfelwein. 0.998 is pretty dry.




I have a refractometer, but it requires some calculations to get F.G. I've broken so many hydrometers (during the brewing process) , I decided to go with the refractometer and it's been very handy.

Final gravity readings are less hectic with less equipment all over, so I took the chance to buy my last hydrometer. I must say, I'm impressed with the ease of reading this puppy. The scale range is only .990-1.020, but the individual gradients are extra large allowing for an easy read.

So, I've got some Apfelwein on tap and need to bottle it. I'm wondering if it would be possible to put it in a wine bottle with my beer gun and cork it. I think it would look nice, but I'm not sure if it would store well. Any suggestions??

If its carbonated you are not going to want to cork it w/o champagne bottles and wire locks on the cork.

rdwj said:

So, I've got some Apfelwein on tap and need to bottle it. I'm wondering if it would be possible to put it in a wine bottle with my beer gun and cork it. I think it would look nice, but I'm not sure if it would store well. Any suggestions??

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I've thought about this too. Champagne is the way to go. If you have a bench capper you might be able to cap them. The swage on the capper might need to be bigger.

You might be able to contact a wedding hall and see if they have a bunch of champagn bottles you can get on the cheap...

Closures;

Bottles: Large & Small


Real Ghetto Cheap - 2 liter bottles

Eurotrash Cheap - Green 2 liter bottles.

Carbonator caps.


Standard Beer Bottle

Im gonna kick off a batch of this stuff tomorrow... but I got a question for ya'll... I did have a quick look through the thread... but couldnt find the answer...

The sugar that goes in this... 1KG of dextrose, right?

Did i read somewhere, something about using Maltodextron instead of/as well as the dextrose... something like a 600g dextrose/400g maltodextron blend?

Would this be a good or bad idea to try that?

I dont know why... but the idea's just stuck in my head... no idea where it came from... probably a stupid question... but i had to ask anyway...

Cheers

Chrus

The equivalent of 1kg = 2.2lbs YES - Dextrose.

If you add this it will be close to the original recipe only slightly higher in ABV. The original calls for 2lbs.

Maltodextrine will do nothing for acohol since its not fermentable. It will add some body, mouth feel and a little sweetness. How much to add? I can't tell you.

For beer 8oz - 233g is typical for body-mouth feel improvements. Taste not being a factor I don't think. If it taste is what you're after (Sweetening) I think splenda at bottling/kegging time is the best bet. I think 1/3 cup per gal is recomended ~ 78ml sugar per 3.7L Apfelwein.

The best advice is to follow the recipe as noted on page 1, post 1. Be advised it will be dry and kick-a$$ strong. Although you won't know that by the taste the alcohol is virtually undetectable.

Thanks mate... I think ill just go with the 1kg of dextrose.

Schlenkerla said:

The best advice is to follow the recipe as noted on page 1, post 1. Be advised it will be dry and kick-a$$ strong. Although you won't know that by the taste the alcohol is virtually undetectable.

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Great advice! I use corn sugar (dextrose) because it is 100% fermentable, dissolves practically instantly, and does NOT add any body or flavor.

Some folks have strayed from the recipe either by desire to experiment or they simply did not have the listed ingredients.

While this is a brain dead simple recipe, it does require patience.

And if you are new to it, don't forget the 3 glass rule before passing judgement. :cross:

I found Treetop!! It's on now!

I almost hate to post on this enormous thread. I tried to read it all...got to page 55 and forgot half of what I read....

I have everything for Ed's Original recipe...What is the best way to bottle? And was there any preference to prime before bottling.

I am jumping on the bandwagon and starting mine this week

i bottled both my batches in beer bottles and primed at the regular rate of 3/4 cup dextrose/5 gallons.
both are nice and fizzy

Holy long thread Batman. I made it through many pages, Edwort, but what I really want to know is does this taste like a hard cider? I looooove hard cider and actually tried to make it last fall with fresh, unpasteurized cider. I didn't know anything about brewing at the time and ended up dumping it. What I've learned since then.....

PenPen said:

Holy long thread Batman. I made it through many pages, Edwort, but what I really want to know is does this taste like a hard cider? I looooove hard cider and actually tried to make it last fall with fresh, unpasteurized cider. I didn't know anything about brewing at the time and ended up dumping it. What I've learned since then.....

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This tastes just like German Apfelwein

The closest hard cider I have had is Scrumpy Jack's which is pretty dry.

The key is to understand that it is not sweet, so if you are expecting that, don"t.

It will grow on you after 3 glasses though.

Hi Edwort, I am bottling mine tonight! Been in barrel for about 2 months!!!

Started my first batch of this about an hr ago. Thats a hell of a lot of apple juice. One thing i was dissapointed with, was the fact that the girl at the checkout who sold us the juice... she acted like it wasnt a strange thing at all for anyone to be buying 25L of juice... I dunno... i was kinda expecting some comment...

Anyway... its in the carboy fermenting now... off to a good start... had airlock activity withing about 10-15 mins..

I dont wanna wait for it though... i just wanna be able to drink it now... it looks so good...

Chrus

Chrus said:

Started my first batch of this about an hr ago. Thats a hell of a lot of apple juice. One thing i was dissapointed with, was the fact that the girl at the checkout who sold us the juice... she acted like it wasnt a strange thing at all for anyone to be buying 25L of juice... I dunno... i was kinda expecting some comment...

Anyway... its in the carboy fermenting now... off to a good start... had airlock activity withing about 10-15 mins..

I dont wanna wait for it though... i just wanna be able to drink it now... it looks so good...

Chrus

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I've bought this much juice before outside of making this stuff..

Kids go through a hell of a lot of juice so it makes sense to buy it by the gallon

Chrus said:

Thats a hell of a lot of apple juice. One thing i was dissapointed with, was the fact that the girl at the checkout who sold us the juice... she acted like it wasnt a strange thing at all for anyone to be buying 25L of juice... I dunno... i was kinda expecting some comment...
Chrus

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She obviously hasn't had her training on watching out for terrorists.

Terrorist's have been known to buy large quantities of apple juice. Watch it!