Apple Juice on a Wheat Yeast Cake?

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Doog_Si_Reeb

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Alright... I got the bug. I have been reading about Apfelwein on this forum and it sounds pretty interesting. I am getting ready to bottle a Spiced American Wheat (AHS) and am thinking about throwing 4 gallons of apple juice plus some sugar on the yeast cake.

Has anyone tried something similar? How did it turn out?
 
I did the opposite.

I was fermenting a few rounds of cider with WLP300 (Hefe yeast). Then, I mashed in my recipe for a honeywheat Hefe and as it was mashing, I went to the LHBS for the WLP300... and they were out of it!!!

So I siphoned the cider into secondary and added the fruit, and then used the cider's yeast cake for the Honeywheat Hefe.

If you're curious to know how it came out, I can go sneak a sample. It's just about done fermenting. I was going to grab a sample to take a grav reading in the next few days anyway. I think it should be in the clearing phase about now... I can let you know if I can detect any off flavors of cider...


However, you're going the opposite way. And beer has a much stronger taste than cider. And because Hefe yeasts flocculate so darn much, you'll have a hard time pouring out the last remnants of liquid without losing a ton of yeast.

My advice to you is to rack your beer to secondary and let it get a bit dirty. In other words, err on the side of siphoning too much beer. Suck up a bunch of the yeast too. It'll eventually settle out. Maybe you can use finings (gelatin?) if you feel like it for the beer. But this way you'll have the minimum flavor impact on your cider.

Just my $0.02.


Oh and also, the cider needs to bottle condition for about a month to get rid of a funky smell that seems to affect the cider when it's green. At least that's the case with WLP300.
 
Thanks for the info. Do you think it would work to "wash the yeast" and then throw it in with the apple juice? I haven't washed yeast yet, but I have read about it and this seems like a good reason to try it....

I was originally going to pitch some dry ale yeast, but I read that one person had good results using a Wheat Yeast and figured I would give it a try using the remnants of my American Spiced Wheat.
 
I did just that, but washed my yeast before dumping it back onto the apple juice. The only reason I did was because we'd just finished an over-hoped Liberty Ale clone and the hops were very pungent.

Washing was easy, I followed the directions from the wiki, using 22oz bombers to let it settle out.

If I had made a hefeweizen before it though, I'd have probably dumped the juice right on top of it. I don't think it'll hurt a thing. Especially a spiced wheat. Go nuts! What do you have to lose?

kvh
 
I just bottled my batch of apfelwein on top of a hefe yeast cake today, didn't wash the yeast. I'm trying a chilled bottle right now. Tasty now, but it isn't carbed either. With age it should be even better

Mine was on top of a 3638.
 
Thanks for the posts. I think I am going to dump the juice on the yeast cake tonight after I bottle the wheat. The coriander and orange peel may give it a little extra spice, which I like in cider. In about 4 weeks, I'll have to let you know how it comes out...
 
Just to follow up on this thread... I bottled the cider on Sunday and naturally took a sample for myself. The taste was very good and I could taste a hint of the orange peel and coriander that was used on the spiced wheat, previously brewed. Also, the FG was very near 1000, which is the lowest of anything I have brewed.

I can't wait to try it after it is carbonated! :rockin:
 

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