apfelwein question (bottleing)

Ok I am ready to bottle my first batch of apfelwein, it has been in the primary for 4.5 months. What I want to do is carb half and still bottle the other half in wine bottles. Is this correct? Prime the full batch with 3/4 cup corn sugar bottle half of it in beer bottles then add 2.5-3 campden tablets to the remaining must wait 1 day and then bottle the remainder in wine bottles. I realize that this will increase the sweetness in the wine in the wine bottles some if I wanted it dry I could just wait a week or so before bottling the remainder in the wine bottles.

TIA
Storm

sounds about right. Why waste priming sugar though? I would just do half of it at a time.

It sounds like you'll have some exploding wine bottles.

If you add priming sugar, you'll cause fermentation to restart.

If you want to sweeten half, you'll need to add sorbate along with campden in that batch, wait three-five days (to ensure that no fermentation will restart), then sweeten as desired. After that it can be bottled in wine bottles if you want.

Wine yeast is very tolerant of sulfites, and so adding only campden will not stall the yeast. Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, but it inhibits reproduction. That's why you stabilize before sweetening. Sweetening first will allow yeast reproduction to get started before you can stop it.

I've never used camden. I see people using it for cider recipes all the time. I guess I assumed it killed the yeast. I can't remember what I use at home...potassium metabisulfate maybe? Sounds somewhat right...

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

I've never used camden. I see people using it for cider recipes all the time. I guess I assumed it killed the yeast. I can't remember what I use at home...potassium metabisulfate maybe? Sounds somewhat right...

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Potassium metabisulfite IS campden. It doesn't kill wine yeast- that's why you can use it during racking to help prevent oxidation and to help preserve the wine. It kills other microbes fairly well, though, so it's used to sanitize must in the beginning. It can also be used a sanitizer, but that's a MUCH higher concentration than you'd actually use in mead, cider or wine.

Potassium sorbate doesn't kill yeast either, but it inhibits reproduction. It works better in the presence of sulfite, so it's used in conjunction with k-meta (campden). Since the yeast can't reproduce, fermentation effectively can't restart.

Neither one actually kill the yeast, though.

Ahhh.. That clears things up a bit for me.

I had a beer that spawned some wild yeast, and when I asked my LHBS what they had that would take care of it... he said the metabisulfate would kill 99% of what's in my beer. I figured by adding it, I was killing the yeast...but I guess I just put them on pause. Thanks for the info. Learn something new everyday.

YooperBrew said:

It sounds like you'll have some exploding wine bottles.

If you add priming sugar, you'll cause fermentation to restart.

If you want to sweeten half, you'll need to add sorbate along with campden in that batch, wait three-five days (to ensure that no fermentation will restart), then sweeten as desired. After that it can be bottled in wine bottles if you want.

Wine yeast is very tolerant of sulfites, and so adding only campden will not stall the yeast. Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, but it inhibits reproduction. That's why you stabilize before sweetening. Sweetening first will allow yeast reproduction to get started before you can stop it.

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Yooper thanks for the reply.

If I am reading this correctly then; I want to add the campden tabs first, bottle half in the wine bottles, THEN add priming sugar and bottle in the beer bottles? I never wanted to sweeten the wine I just figured that the tabs would kill the yeast and I would in effect sweeten the still wine.

Do I even need to add campden tabs at all then?

Storm

stormrider27 said:

Yooper thanks for the reply.

If I am reading this correctly then; I want to add the campden tabs first, bottle half in the wine bottles, THEN add priming sugar and bottle in the beer bottles? I never wanted to sweeten the wine I just figured that the tabs would kill the yeast and I would in effect sweeten the still wine.

Do I even need to add campden tabs at all then?

Storm

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No need for campden, unless you're planning on storing this a long time. You can just bottle half, then gently stir in the priming solution (boiled in a little water) and then bottle the rest.

YooperBrew said:

No need for campden, unless you're planning on storing this a long time. You can just bottle half, then gently stir in the priming solution (boiled in a little water) and then bottle the rest.

Click to expand...

As above, I am think of bottling in both beer bottles (carbonated) and wine bottles (still).

I am still pretty new to all this stuff, so, I am wondering, is there any harm in adding Campden?

I read somewhere that 10% ABV is sort of the minimum recommended ABV for storing a wine. At 8.5% ABV, I would think that Campden would help with worry-free storage.

And what is meant by "a long time"? Greater than a year?

And while I am at it, at what point does further aging of Apfelwein not yield a better Apfelwein?

etisdale said:

As above, I am think of bottling in both beer bottles (carbonated) and wine bottles (still).

I am still pretty new to all this stuff, so, I am wondering, is there any harm in adding Campden?

I read somewhere that 10% ABV is sort of the minimum recommended ABV for storing a wine. At 8.5% ABV, I would think that Campden would help with worry-free storage.

And what is meant by "a long time"? Greater than a year?

And while I am at it, at what point does further aging of Apfelwein not yield a better Apfelwein?

Click to expand...

I'm curious about this too.