Apfelwein in primary for 2 years

[Rowdy50]

I started 5gal of Apfelwein back on 12/11/2012 according to my label. 4.5c dextrose, 4.5c brown sugar, Montrachet. Since then, I changed jobs, moved twice, met a girl, dated, and got engaged. Lots of life and the apfelwein got ignored. After it fermented dry, I sealed it and it's just been sitting the garage. I have no idea what the OG was, since I didn't have a hydrometer back then.

I took a sample last night and it's not bad. Not great by itself. Got a lot better when I chilled it and cut it with a splash of apple juice.

Question is, what do I do with it now? Can this be saved? Rack to secondary and backsweeten with concentrate or juice? Just bottle it and hope conditioning for a month off the yeast cake will clean up the taste some? Ideas?

 

[Yooper]

I started 5gal of Apfelwein back on 12/11/2012 according to my label. 4.5c dextrose, 4.5c brown sugar, Montrachet. Since then, I changed jobs, moved twice, met a girl, dated, and got engaged. Lots of life and the apfelwein got ignored. After it fermented dry, I sealed it and it's just been sitting the garage. I have no idea what the OG was, since I didn't have a hydrometer back then.

I took a sample last night and it's not bad. Not great by itself. Got a lot better when I chilled it and cut it with a splash of apple juice.

Question is, what do I do with it now? Can this be saved? Rack to secondary and backsweeten with concentrate or juice? Just bottle it and hope conditioning for a month off the yeast cake will clean up the taste some? Ideas?

If it tastes ok, bottle it. If you want to sweeten it, that would be ok also. The taste probably won't "clean up", though.

 

[porterpounder]

Agreed that getting it off the cake at this point won't clean it up. If you like it still, backsweeten and bottle. The yeast will likely not be viable enough to carbonate spontaneously. Keep it cold just in case.

 

[Rowdy50]

Well, today I racked it into another carboy on top of 2 cans of apple juice concentrate. It smells like alcohol, not vinegar, so it could be worse. My hope is that the yeast will be so long-since dead that the juice won't restart fermentation and it will smooth out over a week or two. I've got an airlock on it in case anything weird happens. I'll sample it daily. If there's no activity in a week, I'll bottle it.

 

[Rowdy50]

FYI, I bottled this on 10/31. It actually carbed up after a week and now, 2 weeks later, this stuff tastes great.

So primary for 2 years, bottle with 2 cans AJC, and it carbs up and tastes great. I hope I can leave a few bottles laying around another 2 years.

 

[Hello]

Did you pasteurize the bottles or are they all in a refrigerator?
It is good that you managed to end with a good product.

 

[Rowdy50]

Right now they are just hanging out in a closet. The 2 cans AJC have carbed it up nicely without pasteurizing. I thought about it, but it hasn't needed it yet.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

I'd give some serious thought to pasteurizing your bottles.
The only thing you would be out is some water and a bit of your time. If the yeast are still viable, and it looks like they are, they'll keep producing CO2 until they can't anymore.

Congrats on having a 2 year old batch though. I wouldn't have the patience

 

[Rowdy50]

I may take some time tomorrow and do it. It's only been carbing for about 2 weeks, so maybe if I just leave it, it will carb up more and lose the apple taste. Can't hurt.

And I didn't really have the patience either. I just got distracted and sidetracked and never bothered to do anything with it in the meantime. Haha.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Winemaking (and beer too) is definitely a hobby for procrastinators

 

[MindenMan]

...hasn't needed it yet. Yet. Yet, may be the definitive term here. 3/4 cup of dextrose is pretty standard priming for a 5 gallon batch of cider. Some like more fizzy, some like less. 1-1/4 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate is supposed to be equal to 3/4 cup dextrose. You may be safe adding 2 cans of concentrate to 5 gallons of cider, I can't say for sure. I have had enough bad experiences with glass grenades from accidentally over priming beer, if anything seems too fizzy too soon - I will pasteurize just for safety's sake. I would ask Yooper what her opinion is, and then I would take whatever advice she gives you. She has 20 plus years experience with apple wines and hard ciders.

 

[phug]

Different apple juice concentrate may contain different sugars. Please check your brand and do the math to see how many vols of co2 you've committed your bottles to. If it's borderline... Then I'm of two minds how to handle it


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Rowdy50]

This has been bottled for a while now. I never did pasteurize the bottles and haven't had any issues whatsoever. It is bottled in 750ml pellegrino bottles with screw caps. It's carbonated like champagne. The stuff is delicious, like apple champagne. The pellegrino bottles are my current favorite for bottling cider. Seems pretty hard to screw things up with them. (pun?)