Carbing Apfelwein

[jstampler]

I'm almost 3 weeks into my Apfelwein fermentation and it's beginning to clear. I'm going to leave it until the 6 week mark but it's time I start thinking about bottling. I plan on bottling 3 gallons still and then carbing the remaining 2 gallons and capping it in beer bottles. It's my first time making this so I want to figure out which way I prefer it.

I'm a little confused on how I will need to go about carbing this. I have dextrose, do I just put this directly into the carboy(how much dextrose?) or do I boil water and desolve it first? If so, how much water and dextrose would I need to use? Is there any easier way to carb than using dextrose?

Also, if I carb the remaining 2 gallons do I need to rack it off of the yeast into my primary bucket before bottling or can I just bottle right out of my carboy? I assume I'll have to wait a week or so before drinking once I bottle them?

Edit: If I want to age the still bottles, do I need to add anything to make sure they wont go bad if so, how is this done?

 

[dgr]

I would use 4 to 5 * 2/5 ounces of dextrose or about 2 ounces. Boil it in a cup or two of water for 10 minutes. Put it in a bottling bucket. Siphon 2 gallons on top of it and gently stir. Or pour the sugar water into 3 gallons of wine and gently stir. Do not do this from your carboy. You want to leave all the sediment behind.

An easier way would be carb tablets. I don't have any experience with them so will just say they are more expensive.

Your still apfelwein might not be "still" when you bottle it. Vintners degas their wines before bottling to get rid of dissolved CO2. You may have some residual CO2 left in it. You can bulk age it in a carboy or some growlers to help dissipate the CO2. Just get it off the yeast cake if you are aging more than a few months and put it into containers that limit the head space.

Apfelwein isn't really meant to be aged for years. If you want to go that route, read up on potassium metabisulfite (k-sorb) or campden tablets for adding sulfates into your wine. I think you'd want to use about 1/4 tablet per gallon. Be warned: some campden tablets dissolve like rocks in a sandbox. PULVERIZE and dissolve them in warm water and do not get any chunks into your apfelwein. I had a skeeter pee I had to filter because of this.