Quick Apfelwein Q's

[Justintoxicated]

Made Ed Worts last time and it came out really dry. Now that its a year old I'm starting to taste a little more apple but this time I don't think I want to use as much corn sugar this time.

Instead I had my GF pickup 2 apple juice concentrates from wallmart to mix into my costco not from concentrate apple-juice.

Actually that's my question, would 2 concentrates be enough or should I still add a lb or two of corn sugar?

Also if I'm going to add cinnamon sticks, how many? I'm thinking 3 sticks for 5 gallons. I might try dropping in a couple Vanilla beans I have left over too.

 

[Tom128]

I am new to brewing so I could be far off in the conclusion I have drawn on this but here is my tip for adding concentrate instead of some type of sugar.

I wanted to know a quick way to substitute more concentrate for less sugar in some recipes I have seen. Most recipes I see call for 2 cans of concentrate per gallon and some sugar on top of that. When trying to figure out how to shift sugar over to more concentrate, I used the grams of sugar in a can of concentrate compared to grams of sugar in cup of sugar.

The references I have found online such as domino sugar's website say that a cup of sugar contains around 250g of sugar, and my digital scale backed that up more or less. Most of the cans of concentrate I have purchased when you multiply out the sugar per serving, also have around 250g of sugar as well (average). Finally, two cups of sugar is around a pound of sugar.

Using these pieces together I swap a can of concentrate in for either 2cup/1lb of sugar if I feel like I wanted more fruit flavor. I have done a grape (red) wine and a blueberry pomegranate wine so far doing this. The red wine turned out really tasty, and the blueberry is still in secondary but my samples have been quite tasty too.

Next time I make Apfelwein (my first batch finished last week), I am probably going to put in a can of concentrate where the recipe calls for a pound of corn sugar.

 

[Heavywalker]

I have never added Cinnamon or vanilla but I do add 2 cans of concentrate and scale back the sugar a bit when I make it. It still takes some time for the apple flavor to come through.

 

[Justintoxicated]

Thanks guy's I'm going to give this a shot soon. The bottles from last year were a hit at mead day. I guess it was refreshing to drink something so dry after so many sweet meads

 

[TexasWine]

On my last batch I only used concentrate, and didn't use any additional sugar at all. I just took hydrometer readings as I went. I'd add a can to the juice, then take a reading, repeating the process until I got the gravity I was looking for (~1.066). Now the next time I make this recipe I can just dump in the same number of concentrate cans without even thinking about it.

Hope this helps.

 

[StoneArcher]

What was the number of cans? Also, whats the overall volume? So I can get a gauge on how many cans per gallon.

 

[Matteo57]

I used 2 or 3 (I forget) in a 5 gallon batch after it had fermented out and sat for a few months. Let them sit in there for about a month and it was way to much!
I would let it ferment, age, then add 1-2 and taste every couple days. Don't let it sit too long on the cinnamon!
Personally I would just make it normally and then each glass add a cinnamon stick and a touch of brown sugar and it is perfect in bout 5 minutes of sitting on cinnamon. Just of course use more cinnamon sticks this way

 

[TexasWine]

What was the number of cans? Also, whats the overall volume? So I can get a gauge on how many cans per gallon.

I added 8 cans of concentrate to my juice and got a total volume of 6 gallons. So:

8 cans x 12 fl oz/can = 96 fl oz
96 oz = 0.75 gallons
6 gallons - 0.75 = 5.25 gallons juice
8 cans / 5.25 gallons = ~1.5 cans per gallon juice

Each can had 29 grams of sugar.

 

[StoneArcher]

Perfect! I suppose each apple juice brand could have different starting gravity. But now you have provided a good grocery list for me to head to town with.

I will take readings as well. If you don't mind, next time you start a batch with whatever AJ you use, take a reading. Maybe we could all share what the OG is of just the particular straight AJ we use is? Actually it probably warrants a separate thread. If it hasn't been started before I take a reading, I will start a thread. Maybe all the AJ will have a close enough OG, which will be nice for a no instrument recipe.

This thread has inspired me. Thanks guys!

 

[Justintoxicated]

I think each can makes a solution that is 29g of sugar per serving.

so mix 3 cans of water to one 12oz can of concentrate = 48oz of juice, and 4x29g sugar = 116g of sugar per can which is roughly .25lb of sugar per can. So 4 cans to get about the fermentables in a lb of corn sugar.

So I'm thinking to do 5 cans of juice, and then probably still add the 2lbs of corn sugar as well. That should give it a nice boost in apple flavor and alcohol content over my first batch I would think?

 

[StoneArcher]

As a matter of fact; I think that it will give about the max of apple flavor that you could get, without using actual apples. Actually, I don't know if using apples would give you more flavor than the AJ and concentrate.

 

[TexasWine]

I think each can makes a solution that is 29g of sugar per serving.

so mix 3 cans of water to one 12oz can of concentrate = 48oz of juice, and 4x29g sugar = 116g of sugar per can which is roughly .25lb of sugar per can. So 4 cans to get about the fermentables in a lb of corn sugar.

So I'm thinking to do 5 cans of juice, and then probably still add the 2lbs of corn sugar as well. That should give it a nice boost in apple flavor and alcohol content over my first batch I would think?

Oh yes, my bad. 29 grams per serving. But, each can has 6 servings:

6 x 29 = 174 grams = 0.38 lbs of sugar

BTW, I used the Kroger brand of FAJC.

 

[TexasWine]

Perfect! I suppose each apple juice brand could have different starting gravity. But now you have provided a good grocery list for me to head to town with.

I will take readings as well. If you don't mind, next time you start a batch with whatever AJ you use, take a reading. Maybe we could all share what the OG is of just the particular straight AJ we use is? Actually it probably warrants a separate thread. If it hasn't been started before I take a reading, I will start a thread. Maybe all the AJ will have a close enough OG, which will be nice for a no instrument recipe.

This thread has inspired me. Thanks guys!

Glad I could help. I used Tree Top AJ and the Kroger brand FAJC.

A thought on comparing the OGs of the various brands of AJ. While I've never looked into it, isn't it possible to calculate the gravity if you know the volume and the sugar content of a serving? If so, all you would need to do to compare the OGs would be to scour the internet for the published nutritional data. Set up a spreadsheet with the calculation and BAM, you're off to the races.

Thoughts?

 

[StoneArcher]

I think you are correct, unless there is something chemically magical about listed sugar content and fermentable sugar being measured by hydrometer.

I would think that any sugar that is listed would be the same value when measuring via hydrometer, right?

For example, lucrose is measurable by hydrometer, but not fermentable. Or am I wrong? I would think that they would list lucrose in the nutrition info. I know little of the chemistry of sugars, so I may be way off base here.

 

[StoneArcher]

Ok, so I just re-read my post. It sounds confusing. Even if there is non fermentable sugars in there, we wouldn't know the difference unless they don't register on hydrometer as well.

I agree, calculating by the nutritional info will get the same results. I believe.

 

[TexasWine]

Ok, so I just re-read my post. It sounds confusing. Even if there is non fermentable sugars in there, we wouldn't know the difference unless they don't register on hydrometer as well.

I agree, calculating by the nutritional info will get the same results. I believe.

I have no idea if non fermentable sugars register on a hydrometer. It is a very interesting question though. We should be okay on that front any way because we all use 100% AJ with nothing added except the occasional vitamin C.

 

[Justintoxicated]

Oh yes, my bad. 29 grams per serving. But, each can has 6 servings:

6 x 29 = 174 grams = 0.38 lbs of sugar

BTW, I used the Kroger brand of FAJC.

good catch, and 29g is exactly the same as the wallmart stuff I picked up. Still thinking to use 4 cans and 1-2 lbs of corn sugar though.

 

[Justintoxicated]

damn, well I made this up but apparently my OG never recorded in my google docs. I used 5 gallons kirkland applejuice (well 4.5), 1 lb corn sugar, and 4 cans of concentrate. But I lost my OG reading

Actually I found a sticky that has 1.059 written on it, but that seems low top me since without the 4 cans of concentrate and just 1 more lb of corn sugar I was at 1.058 the first time. Or maybe that does sound correct?