Anyone ever make Apfelwein in the original bottle?

Ok, so how lazy are you? Does anyone ever make Apfelwein or cider in the original tree top (or other) bottle? My local supermarket has 2 gal plastic organic apple cider jugs on sale for real cheap and I was thinking "hmmm... I could add sugar, yeast and just plop a drilled bung and airlock on the top of that."

Anyone ever try that or does everyone have 7 carboys around just itching for a job?

BrewOnBoard

I have done that before with good results. It's great for small batches.

Oh, and I only have 6 Better Bottles sitting around.

I did it the other day but didn't go so fancy as to use an airlock. Foil's just fine round these parts...

...these parts meaning my closet.

EdWort said:

Oh, and I only have 6 Better Bottles sitting around.

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Oh, if only I could afford just one...

have made quite a few small batches in the original containers usualy either drill out the lid for an airlock with a light adhesive to keep it in place and leak free, or just use drilled bung, depending on what i have on hand

I ferment in a BB, but then transfer to the original sanitized bottles the AJ came in. With the exception of a few carbonated bottles as an experiment. This stuff doesn't last long enough to require glass and fancy equipment. LOL

I found some fresh pressed unfiltered cider in 1 gal glass jugs. I just poured a bit out for headspace, sprinkled in the appropriate amount of dry yeast and let 'er rip. Two weeks later I bottled it with priming sugar. Worked great!

Hikeon3 said:

Oh, if only I could afford just one...

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Man, they're like 20 bucks. You can afford that.

I've used this 1 gallon jug with great success, although with a fair amount of pectin in it, but it was still delicious.

I have a gallon of fresh cider from an orchard sitting in my basement.

I bought it on election day, and it's been sitting in my basement, chillin ever since. So far, it's cleared pretty well. I'm waiting until may to open it.

b

Works great. If you don't want to bother with a stopper and an airlock, you can use a balloon with a pinhole or two in it. That will act as a suitable one.

I've got these going right now:

This sounds like an awesome way to try this out.

Any word on exactly how much to take out so that the sugar fits?

i.e. 1 gallon would need 2/5lb (6.4oz or 181g) of Dextrose (Corn Sugar)...

That isn't very much... maybe just a small drink worth?

How much of the yeast would you use? eyeball it and throw in half a packet? 1/4 packet?

For those that have tried this with the foil airlock, no problems I assume? I don't have an extra bung that will fit the costco applejuice thingys we can get here in Japan I don't think...

Pour off about half a cup to a cup worth of juice, depending on head space. Use this to get a gravity reading on the juice alone. 6.4oz of dextrose works out to be almost exactly a cup if you don't have a scale handy. I couldn't find my postal scale, so I just used a cup worth and it came out just fine. Add the sugar, put the lid on, and shake the hell out of it to get it all into solution.

Crack it back open, and pour off just enough to get another gravity reading. Then pitch your yeast into it directly, there's no need to hydrate. I got fermentation starting within 2 hours doing this.

Before i got these airlocks i was using foil and it worked fine. Just divide the yeast evenly between your jugs, you dont have to worry about over pitching.

Awesome. I don't know what I would do without the helpful people here... probably be less drunk.. :cross:

Open bottle, pitch yeast, stick in airlock.
I bought 2 different kinds of Cider from Trader joes. 2 bottles each, mixed two of them together and poured them back in. The two native ones I just pitched yeast and jamed in the airlock. I think the most work I did was splitting up 1 packet of yeast into 4 equal parts.
Came out drinkable. needed to age longer than I gave it.
But it didn't last.
Next time I'll try adding sugar.