Man, I love Apfelwein

CornyKegs 728
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I have been messing around with the recipe (Original is still very damn tasty).
I added 2 gallons of peach juice with the last batch. Didnt leave enough headroom for krausen (is it called krausen with cider/apfelwien?) and my airlock blew out with krausen, I left it in place and ended up with fruit flies.

The carboy is clear of any bugs, but there are 20 or so flies flitting around the airlock.
Luckily my brew closet has a very active community spiders, so they have taken care of the flies.

Never had them pop up in the past.

Needless to say, I made this same recipe last year, and it was damn tasty. If I ever run into Ed Wort in Real life, I will give him a big gay hug, regardless if he wants it or not.

fwiw, I mixed up 3 gal apple juice, 2 gallons peach/apple mix, and 3 lbs dextrose, then backsweetened into the keg with 2L diet sprite. Pitched montrachet and a 30 day ferment. Force carbed in the corny.

Made a very darn tastey beverage.
 
I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, i used 2lbs brown sugar and a packet of US-05 i had lying around.

Sat in the primary 6 weeks and it's been in the keg a bit over 2 weeks now, pretty tasty!
 
Tasted mine after 3 weeks in primary. Already very dry with slight alcohol burn. It'll definitely mellow though and I can tell this won't last long after bottling.
 
Ive been reading on this and have seen people say that juice from concentrate is a no no...this is my first time making this and I don't see any real harm but figured I should ask
 
Wizord22 said:
Ive been reading on this and have seen people say that juice from concentrate is a no no...this is my first time making this and I don't see any real harm but figured I should ask
Click to expand...

I used concentrate on a 5 gallon batch and it works fine. In fact when I back sweeten I use a can of concentrate after I stop fermentation.
 
No problem. I think just about all the cheap store-bought juice I have used is from concentrate.
 
Yes, read the labels. Juice from concentrate is not necessarily bad, but if it has Sorbate to stabilize, it shouldn't be used. A lot of the Apple Cider you see in supermarkets is stabilized with sorbate,while the fresh apple cider from local producers tends to be 'cold pasteurized' and sometimes will spontaneously ferment. People say that the wild yeasts make the best cider, but anytime I had spontaneously fermented apple cider it was kind of NASTY. Maybe other bugs besides Yeast were in there too.
 
I used a 6 gallon carboy for my batch and added about 5.8 gallons of apple juice along with 2lbs of brown sugar and ~.4lbs of dextrose.
Measured the SG right after I pitched (DOH) SG - 1.064 @ 75F which adjusted should be 1.0657
The Kirkland apple juice I used has 27G of sugar in each bottle which I realized after.

I don't think it should matter much, but should I pitch another partial packet of yeast in? I am going to throw in some yeast nurtients (Fermaid K) to help it along and in case there's the smell.
 
ConnorPPrice said:
Here it is, same as the original recipe except I used nottingham yeast. It looks like it could just be sugar, the surface of the apfelwein is tough to see in the picture but it looks fine with just a few co2 bubbles here and there. I'm thinking that since I used nottingham it developed a bit off krausen and deposited some sugars on the glass.
Click to expand...

FYI, I used Nottingham too and have the same exact residue. Not sure exactly what it is, but to describe it, it looks like the white wavy streaks water leaves when dried in the sun on windows, only it's wet. I'm not worried about it in the least. There's a ton of moisture, vapor, evaporation, and condensation going on in the carboy, so it could be any number of things. But it's most likely very normal.
 
Came home earlier to a slight smell and saw the apple juice foaming through the airlock. When I added some Fermaid to it the yeast got happy REAL fast and apple foam was flowing out through the neck of the bottle faster so I had to throw on a blow off tube.
10 minutes later no foam just bubbles.

 
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I want to make this, but cannot read this whole thread LOL
1. The original post still make the best? Use apple top juice?
2. If I keg this, what PSI would I set it at? I only have a single regulator for my beer :(
3. Any suggestions, I see people putting in brown sugar?

TIA - Justin
 
I used the recipe as it was originally posted and it turned out great. I set my co2 at about 10 psi. I didn't know what to expect because I have never tasted any other example. I pictured that it would taste somewhat like a traditional hard cider, but it is totally different. It requires some aging, but it is very enjoyable !
 
So last week I opened a 2.5 year old bottle of my first batch of this stuff. The apple taste and aroma was brilliant, but unfortunately it had gotten decently oxidized in this time and also had a strong sherry taste I didn't much care for...

Anyone aging their apfelwein for extended periods of time, and if so what do you do to manage oxidation?
 
There's a number of things you can do. Minimizing headspace is the most basic measure, but you'll get better results with other methods.

Purging the bottle with CO2 should help quite a bit. Also, a decent dose of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as an antioxidant.

Even the position of the bottle can help a bit. Storing it upright instead of on its side (reducing the surface area exposed to oxygen) should at least extend its life somewhat.
 
I'm just about ready to brew up my first batch of this wonderful looking recipe. I was wondering if anyone had any complaints of using regular granulated sugar instead of Dextrose? How will this impact my brewing? Also, anyone thought about using a different yeast to get more ABV or a little more sweetness in the finished product? Brewing day is either later today or tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck!
 
Don't think the yeast choice is going to affect your abv much unless you add more sugar. All mine have come out 1.001 or less. Montracet is good to around 14% if memory serves, a good bit beyond the recipe.

Granulated cane is fine. Some say it's a bit more winey but I've never heard complaints going that rout. Never tried the brown sugar tho. Would imagine you get close with regular came save the tiny molasses addition which most browns contain vs table sugar.
 
Edwort you totally destroyed me last night with this recipe of insanity.

THIS STUFF IS DANGEROUS - BE CAREFUL EVERYONE!

Ugghhhh. My liver gave me a good talking-to this morning.
 
Colesrt8 said:
So how has anyones turned out that has used some apple juice concentrate in conjunction with the juice
Click to expand...

I have searched the thread, but haven't found the answer. I have seen some people prime with concentrate, but what about using juice, but adding additional concentrate for extra fermentables. The concentrate could be added instead of the sugar, or even with it to really boost the ABV to more wine-type levels.

Anyone doing this?
 
Accidic said:
Don't think the yeast choice is going to affect your abv much unless you add more sugar. All mine have come out 1.001 or less. Montracet is good to around 14% if memory serves, a good bit beyond the recipe.
Click to expand...

Yeast will absolutely alter it, if you go from Montracet to, say Notty or US-05. If folks want more sweetness, 05 or WLP001 can make for some nice residual sugars.
 
BeerWard said:
I have searched the thread, but haven't found the answer. I have seen some people prime with concentrate, but what about using juice, but adding additional concentrate for extra fermentables. The concentrate could be added instead of the sugar, or even with it to really boost the ABV to more wine-type levels.

Anyone doing this?
Click to expand...

I haven't see anyone try this out, but I may very well give it a shot with my next batch. Interesting idea. If I do, I'll be sure to report back :mug:.
 
Alter the flavor or alter the abv? I've done several including monty, L1v, muntons, and champagneand they were the ~~same abv until adding extra sugars.
 
Sharing some results here. I made two 6 gallon batches about 4 months ago. In one batch I used Cotes de Blanc yeast and in the other I used Premier Cuvee. Both batches had 8 cups of table sugar and 2 tsp yeast nutrient.

When I bottled I used 1.5 TBS table sugar in each 2 liter bottle. The Cotes de Blanc batch did not carb at all in 1 month. The Premier Cuvee batch carbed nicely in 2-3 weeks. I rehydrated another packet of Premier Cuvee and using a sanitized eyedropper put 2 squirts (how accurate is that?) into each bottle of the Cotes de Blanc batch. In a few days I saw visible signs of renewed fermentation and after 2 weeks the bottles are rock hard. It seems that the Premier Cuvee handled the alcohol content a bit better.

I love this stuff!
 
Accidic said:
Alter the flavor or alter the abv? I've done several including monty, L1v, muntons, and champagneand they were the ~~same abv until adding extra sugars.
Click to expand...

Well, varying from various champagne yeasts won't change a whole lot of either. My point was that shifting from a champagne yeast to a standard ale one can make a huge difference in both ABV and flavor. Particularly if you go from Montracet to something like WLP001 (which admittedly, is just one I tossed out as a random example).
 
Strange. I've not had a lot of difference between the ale and wine yeast except for flavor. Both have fermented down to bone dry (~1.0 fg) but w/2lbs I only get about 9abv. I've got some wlp001 in the fridge tho so maybe I'll go with it in my next batch.
 
smagee said:
I haven't see anyone try this out, but I may very well give it a shot with my next batch. Interesting idea. If I do, I'll be sure to report back :mug:.
Click to expand...

I now have an open fermenter and will be trying the juice plus concentrate version as well. I just have to decide how much of concentrate to go.
 
I separated mine as sugar contents and use beer target to good effect. I can get those if you want them but I don't know if it's the same across all vendors. I doubt it.

On another note, does pro-mash work well for things like this?
 
Any of you keg this at 12PSI / beer PSI? I don't really want to bottle this (lazy) and would like to keg, but I only have a single regulator. TIA - Justin
 
I prefer using apple juice concentrate to corn sugar, one 12 oz.can equals approximately 6 oz. of sugar. I find it to be smoother than corn sugar and drinkable about 4 weeks earlier than the corn sugar. Keep in mind that I prefer mine to be at least 9 months old. Your taste may vary.

BeerWard said:
I have searched the thread, but haven't found the answer. I have seen some people prime with concentrate, but what about using juice, but adding additional concentrate for extra fermentables. The concentrate could be added instead of the sugar, or even with it to really boost the ABV to more wine-type levels.

Anyone doing this?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks a lot, Ed. I made this for SWMBO and now I have permanently lost a fermenter to apfelwein. I like it, she's psycho for it. I even asked "are you sure you don't want to age this for another month or two?"

Her response, "WHY!?!?" :drunk:

Good stuff, man.
 
Accidic said:
Strange. I've not had a lot of difference between the ale and wine yeast except for flavor. Both have fermented down to bone dry (~1.0 fg) but w/2lbs I only get about 9abv. I've got some wlp001 in the fridge tho so maybe I'll go with it in my next batch.
Click to expand...

Interesting; perhaps *my* experience is the anomaly. I've only tried the ale yeast once, and while it still fermented relatively dry, it came down in the range of 1.007 as I recall. My typical montracet batches finish up in the vicinity of .96ish.
 
shadohman said:
I prefer using apple juice concentrate to corn sugar, one 12 oz.can equals approximately 6 oz. of sugar. I find it to be smoother than corn sugar and drinkable about 4 weeks earlier than the corn sugar. Keep in mind that I prefer mine to be at least 9 months old. Your taste may vary.
Click to expand...

So do you use 5-6 cans of concentrate in addition to juice to make 5 gallons?
I agree that some aging is the way to go.
 
It was difficult to go through all 800+ pages of this forum, but I was wondering if anyone has experience with adding fruit, like blackberries or blueberries to the mix. I've just bottled my second batch, and was looking to start a third with a bit of a twist. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
 
smagee said:
Interesting; perhaps *my* experience is the anomaly. I've only tried the ale yeast once, and while it still fermented relatively dry, it came down in the range of 1.007 as I recall. My typical montracet batches finish up in the vicinity of .96ish.
Click to expand...

If you answered this already then I apologize but which Ale yeast did you use? I got the impression the 001 in your previous post tho. There is another thread in the Cider forum (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/) on yeast results for Apple that had some suggestions but IIRC that guy had gotten pretty dry product in most cases as well.

I'd be interested in a slightly sweeter end product without the hassle of pasteurizing and my wife has a bit of an aversion to the stabilized product (although I personally believe most of it is in her head). I've used Muntons which works well for Perry (keeps the sugar additions from being winey) but I wasn't enamored with the Apfelwine output. I've also tried a small batch of s05 and ended up with really dry (1.0) results but it didn't stand out (ala I liked the monty better) and honestly I'd just rinsed the fermenter out and dumped it in following a batch with Monty so there may have been leftover yeast in it that took it beyond the 1.007ish range. I've currently got some canned WLP001 and s05 and the higher end Muntons (there's a deluxe Muntons???) and a Coopers (which seems to be a definitive NO for this). I need to clear out/bottle my current batches before I can give them a shot though. I may order some s04 but I've drug my feet as I don't typically make/like that beer style.
 
Accidic said:
If you answered this already then I apologize but which Ale yeast did you use? I got the impression the 001 in your previous post tho.
Click to expand...

My memory's a bit fuzzy as it was a couple years back and I seem to have lost my notes, but I'm fairly certain it was 001. I gave it a shot because its attenuation is lower than that of Notty or US05 and I'd hoped it would retain a sweeter finish. I actually liked the result moreso than that of using champagne yeast, but the larger collective of consumers disagreed, so my subsequent batches have stuck with Montracet, as it's the crowd favorite. It sounds like it might be the right choice for you, however, at least assuming that my results weren't just a random occasion of crummy yeast underattenuating (I've no idea if it was old yeast at the time, nor whether I used a starter, for what it's worth).

Looking back at the experience now, it seems odd that there would be such a difference for 001, as it isn't really listed as an underattenuator. You might consider trying 002 as well, although that's fairly similar to US04. I think the fruity esters that can come from it should balance well with the apple character, especially if it ferments relatively warm.
 

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