Man, I love Apfelwein

Mason jars will work if you just want to back sweeten, I bottled about 1/3 of mine in mason jars, if you're looking for carbonation you'll need to use a keg or beer bottles to hold the pressure.
I might also add some k-meta or sorbate at the end of my next batch, I ended up with a little bit of yeast/trub in the bottom of my back sweetened bottles this time.

 

Here is my 5 gallons of apple cinnamon wine... Had 3 cinnamon sticks in primary on 4/22 (pitch date) and I think they are completely dissolved by now. It's clear enough to bottle.

Has anyone made this before? It's still dry, but has never been sampled yet (I lost track of it). Is it good dry or better sweet?

 

detlion,
Both ways are best. Home brewing is great like that! Try it and see what you like. If you want it sweet and carbonated in the bottle, that complicates things.

 

Thanks! When u guys carbonate, the priming sugar is just a form of simple syrup right? Thanks

 

Most people mix a sugar with some water and bring to a boil. The most popular are corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar or honey. If you Google "priming sugar calculator" you will get a lot more choices though.

 

What should the OG be on this if I followed the original recipe? I forgot to measure.

Also, I measured the gravity today and it was 3 lines below 1.000 and 2 lines above .990. I've never had anything below 1.000 so I don't know how to read that.

 

That would be .994

 

RockinDaddy,
My OG was 1.066. I finished* right at 1.000 and ended up with ~8.7% ABV. If I had gone down to .994, ABV would have been ~9.5%

*finished. I quit measuring when I had three readings in a row of 1.000. It could have gone lower as I let it clear for two weeks after the SG stopped changing. Total time in brew bucket was 24 days.

 

I prefer to bottles still and dry. Then keep a bottle of apple pie syrup around, in case I'm in the mood for something a bit sweeter.

Most of my batches have finished between 0.994-0.998. Though I did have one finish at 0.992. I thought it was done, until I had a cork blow on me.

 

I just got my first batch of this in the carboy, looking forward to trying it out in several months. I think my wife is as excited about this as I am, so that's a double bonus!

 

Anyone ever try this with sweet cherries? The original recipe plus 3-5lbs of sweet cherries? I can't find tart which is why I am thinking of sweet cherries. Also how long to let them all sit? The duration of the aging process? 3-5 months?
Thanks!

 

Loving this stuff so far! My in-laws don't seem to like it because it isn't anywhere sweet enough for them, but I've shared it with a few co-workers as "payment" for things like carpooling and such, and have had nothing but positive feedback!

on a side note...I had a batch of cider going that just wasn't fermenting very quick. Using a small yeast starter, it went from a SG of 1.059 to 1.051 in about a week. After reading the ingredients, I realized that the cider I purchased contained Potassium Sorbate...crap. After the first two batches of Apfelwein, I noticed the size of the yeast cake in the bottom. I decided to leave a bit of Apfelwein in the bottom to swirl around to suspend the yeast cake, and dumped it in to the Cider. After 2-3 days, it's down to about 1.01, and with a bit of backsweetening the wife (and likely the inlaws) absolutely love that as well!

Just one more use for Apfelwein, at lest until it's fresh cider season anyways!

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/unicorn-blood-356892/
For fruit solid additions I like to add the fruit after it's hit FG. Then leave it all together for two weeks. For cherries, I then remove and squeeze the fruit. Returning the liquid yielded by squeezing to the batch.

I'm glad it came out well. Yeah, potassium sorbate interferes with yeast reproduction but doesn't actually kill it.

 

I figured that out through all the reading I did (after the fact though, of course). Figured my billions of Apfelwein yeast cells could do better than simply ending up down the drain!

 

Just took a sample of mine after 4.5 weeks in the bucket. Tastes very dry and sour/tart, and the sample read 0.998. Will take another one near the end of the week to see if it's done fermenting. It's a little sour for my liking, I just want some sweetness to take the edge off, I'm not looking for Woodchuck's sweetness or anything. Plan is to pick up some lactose and take a sample and figure out my ratio, and add that and priming sugar when I bottle. Sounds like this is an appropriate way to sweeten a little, and bottle carb without (hopefully) bottle bombs?

 

You need to let it sit three times as long as you have, the sour/tartness will smooth out with aging. It's excellent left dry once it is done aging, be patient and you won't have to mess with sweetening.

 

Can I prime and bottle and then let it sit for another couple months, or does it need to age in the fermenter?

 

Keep it in your fermenter. Mine is at 2-1/2 months right now, I plan on keeping it in there another few months. I'm in no rush.

 

My $0.02 on sweetening bottle-carbed apfelwein: since you will always pour this into a glass to serve, pour it over ice, add an ounce of apple juice to it. It tastes exactly like the Somersby cider that is so popular on restaurant patios right now (they serve it on ice).

Personally, I prefer it dry and bottle-carbed, but the ice cold sweetened sparkling version was pretty tasty too.

 

I'm at about 5 weeks in since I put everything together. Fermentation has stopped and it's slowly aging and clearing. Cannot wait to give this a try. I'm having a hard time deciding weather or not to bottle the whole batch still or try carbing a gallon or two when the time comes.

 

How much of that initial 54 L batch do you have left? ;-)

Myself, I break the batch into smaller jugs with airlocks when it hits 1020 and cold crash the small jugs as needed.

 

I bottled my 5 gallons of apple/cinnamon wine tonight (with 3 cin. sticks). It was amazing. I left it dry. The cinnamon flavor came through just right, not strong at all. It's been in the carboy since 4/22 (pitch date). I forgot to campden the batch in the bottling bucket . It should be good though! Stored away until Christmas this year, I can't wait!!!

 

If you decide to put cinnamon sticks in the bottle, make sure to split them lengthwise. Otherwise when they unroll in the liquid they will be impossible to remove from the bottle.

 

Not for this batch. The flavor was spot on for me, not too strong but still a nice little warmth to it, even without backsweetening. If the cinnamon fades after some time in the bottle, my next attempt will take the advice of using sticks in the bottles. Thanks!

 

Do you guys normally worry about adding campden tablets to this recipe at some point in the process if bottling still?

 

Zero.
I'm fighting a losing battle to get to try the 8 month old version. It is just too damned tasty at about 2 months, and we have too many friends who visit often and like it.

I'm going to buy a couple 54L demis and do some bulk aging, try to build up an industrial quantity of this stuff that can withstand the demand.

 

I'm at 1.002 after 6 weeks and it tasted very sweet to me. Am I crazy or does this really dry out as it ages?

 

Yeah, it's sweeter early on, but dries out as it continues fermenting/aging. My first hydrometer sample was way sweeter

 

Yeah, it usually finished under 1.0. So very dry. Some of that "it reminds you of something sweet, but doesn't have any sugar in it" flavor comes back as the alcohol mellows.

 

SWMBO was drinking a still version of this tonight. I think I may have to cut her off of this! @$/^!

 

Whaaa? Cut a woman off booze? Which one of you lost your mind first?

 

Hmm, still deciding if I want to keep my still or carbonate it. I know it's all taste preference, I am sure it is good either way! Its only been three days since it started bubbling......I need a Flux Capacitor....

 

Quick question for all you who've made this successfully : Mine has been in the primary (bucket) for 5 weeks. Should I continue to age it in the primary, or would I be fine to bottle it (with priming) and let it age in the bottle for another couple months?

 

This is what I'm worried about as SWMBO would prefer it to be very dry. She's been looking forward to this because of her gluten issues. I tend to enjoy the process more than the product.

 

Whoops, I filled up my 3 gallon carboy for my third batch and found out my airlock was missing its top and the 'umbrella' piece that goes over the small tube. Thus mostly worthless. I covered the top with aluminum foil and thought I'd get a new one the next day. But it took 3 days to get a new top. In retrospect I should have used the aluminum to recreate the umbrella part of the airlock too.

Anyway, my krausen, foam on top has been a grey brown color, instead of white. The smell is fine, but I'm wondering if its contaminated and I should throw the whole thing out?

Whats the word on a brown foam? I put a half cup boiled unsulphured dark raisins, nutmeg, cinnamon and a vanilla bean into this batch, so maybe its normal??

 

It's probably just the additions you made. I just started a new batch with cinnamon sticks in it, the krausen is brown. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

+1 Yup, sounds like the cinnamon to me.

 

I could not get anyone that tried the apfelwein to say they liked it ( too dry, sour ect) leaving me with 10 16oz bottles just sitting in my garage since I didn't want to give anymore out. I had a empty keg so I decided to dump in all the bottles and add in a can of apple raspberry concentrate along with it put it on CO2 and now a week later it's fully carb'd and I can't keep the wife off the tap and my neighbor even brought over his mug a couple times today to fill up while he was working on his shed. Guess I know what I'll be doing next time I make this. Great for the perfect summer weather we are having now.

 

I do half and half. Bottle the still first, then I do half of the priming sugar you'd need. I dump rest of sugar into the next batch. Figure if someone doesn't want it still, you have carbed too.

 

Thanks. I have high hopes for this spiced batch.