Man, I love Apfelwein

DO NOT try and prime individual bottles....that's just asking for trouble.

Your first method is the best.

 

Adding sugar to each bottle is a PITA as well as potentially dangerous. Bottle half then add sugar to the bottling bucket to ensure even priming.

 

Thanks for the quick responses! Will try the half and half tonight.

 

That's exactly how it should smell, once any sulfur is released anyway.

 

How does this turn out after you age it?

 

Finally tried EdWort's Apfelwein. It's day three and the airlock is going like crazy and my whole bedroom smelled like sulfur with a hint of apple so SWMBO made me stash it in the basement. Is that normal? I don't really have any questions or comments beyond that, I mainly just wanted to announce my assimilation into the Apfelwein collective and be part of this ridiculously long thread.

 

Anyone try this with Lalvin Saccharomyces bayanus yeast? The LHBS was out of Montrachet, and owner suggested I used that yeast when I explained it was supposed to be a dry cider (around 1.000 FG). Hopefully this yeast will work fine because I just mixed up a 5 gallon batch of it!

 

I don't know, mine isn't mature enough yet, I've just read that it takes forever.

 

I think an experiment is in order: someone (hmmm, I wonder who.... .... ) should do a bunch of mini-batches, fermenting each with a different strain so they can be compared.

 

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=170171

 

No...It's not normal!






Most Women make you either take it to the garage or outside!:cross:

 

Last night I brought a few bottles of apfelwein to a dinner party, knowing my friend's wife would be there. She's from Germany, but has spent the second half of her life living here in the USA. Every time she visits home, she brings me a bottle of wonderful German brandy, so I wanted to do something for her. Well she lit up like a xmas tree when I told her I had apfelwein, and couldn't wait to try it.

To cut to the chase, she loved it, and said it was exactly like the commercial apfelwein she remembers from home. She even got rather emotional about it, which surprised me, but I'm sure she was sincere. Soon, all the guests were loudly "prosting" each other with apfelwein...considering that most of them were latino, this was rather amusing to hear!

I'm mailing her a printout of the recipe, hopefully she'll be making her own soon.

 

After reading through about 58 1/2 pages of this thread I noticed that I had to just post as everything has been asked, commented on and repeat...

I just started my cider last week using real apple juice that I pressed. I waited until the next morning to add the yeast and used Pasteur Champagne yeast. This is the style that I am looking for and I have more experience with wine than I do beer, so this is right up my alley. I am aiming for a very dry, crisp and refreshing cider that I will then carbonate similar to champagne.

Here are the questions that I am looking to get answered.

1. Has the bottle conditioning gotten figured out yet? For 5 gallons any thoughts on the amount of sugar?

2. What is the longest anyone has had this around in the bottle?

Thanks much for everyone. As I said, I got through a ton of pages and didn't yet see my answer. Sorry if you answer this for the hundredth time, but I am not going to read through 347 pages (took me five days to get through what I did)

Cheers,
Matt

PS...I am reading some wine forums too, but I think that in 350 pages, something might have been figured out

 

You'd think so right! Thing is we all drink up, drunk up...and forget whatever it is we learned,.....make some more and try again.

1 oz corn sugar per gallon works very nicely. I don't suspect you'll have it around very long for a while....because it takes a while to stock up enough that you have some to put back.

 

I think that I will make some more out of storebought juice that will go faster. I don't want to say that this is super special, but I put a couple days into harvesting and pressing this stuff. No 30 minute session on this guy, so I think I will save it a bit more.

Lastly I am interested in the aging potential.

 

Mmmmmmm...

Two days into my last batch made and the scent of the farts of a thousand rhinos is permeating the basement...

Life is good...

 

Just checked my apfelwein started on July 26. Gravity is .998. It appears cloudy in the carboy. Once I sampled my sample, I found it to be a clear straw to gold in color. The flavor on the front of the palate is delicious! Time to bottle and start afresh.

Again and again, many many thanks Ed Wort!

 

I have my 2nd batch fermenting. To be honest I don't recall how long its been sitting but between feb and march. Used 4#'s of corn sugar. I'm going to try n make it like sparking wine, bottle, mushroom cork, n carb. Going to make it ready for thanksgiving I hope. Besides its slight darkness its crystal clear! Looks sooo yummy!!

Slight off topic question... Can a high end capper bottle mushroom corks? I'm looking at buying one and don't wanna buy a wine corker. (will probably borrow one if I have to.

 

Man, I can't wait. My Apfelwein has been working since 8/2. I'll check the gravity next week and try a sample...

 

DeadDoc, have you bottled already and if so what is the carbonation like? How long in the bottle so far? What yeast did you use?

 

Thank god I didn't smell any sulfur. I would be killed on the spot.
I think what they say is right, use Yeast nutrients to prevent sulfur being released. And I am using the Cote des Blanc yeast.

 

I have not bottled it yet. I will bottle no later than October to at least have it a month to bottle condition. I'm looking at 3.0-3.5 vol of carbonation. Standard dry yeast Montrachet or what ever it is.

 

Primed and bottled my 5 gallons last night into 3 64oz growlers, 1 1 liter flip top, 16 grolsch flip tops and several 22oz bottles.

I saved 1 12oz bottle and chilled it. Served in wine glasses. The wife isn't sure yet. I love the stuff. I can't wait till it is carbed. I have to get started on 10 more gallons this week so I have more before I run out of the current batch.

Thanks again for sharing this recipe Ed.

 

Made my first batch tonight and followed the recipe exactly. I have one question, my basement temperature is usually 65-69, is that going to be a problem or slow fermentation? Thanks.

 

On the 25th I started a batch of this using 5 gallons of Mott's apple juice (from concentrate), two pounds of 10x powdered sugar and a vial of white labs Sweet Mead/wine yeast.
I'm afraid that I chose the wrong yeast for the job and will be left with something not fully fermented and too sweet, but I'll end up bottle conditioning it like I have been with beer and see what I end up with.
My LHBS only carries White Labs and my question is which of their strains would be most similar to the Montrachet yeast mentioned? Possibly the Champagne yeast, or the English Cider? (Sorry if this has already been discussed but pardon me for not looking through all 375 pages of this two year old thread)

 

Um....All the powdered sugar I know of is about 25# Corn Starch. I don't know what sof 10X is, or what it contains...but I don't think that Corn Starch is in Ed's list of ingredients.....Post a Pick...It may just settle out.

 

I believe "10x" sugar is another name for bartender's sugar, which is regular sucrose that has been finely powdered to help it dissolve quickly. If that's the case, SFsorrow's batch should turn out OK.

Personally I think Ed's recipe is perfection, I don't know why people stray from it.

 

I DO I DO!
I agree that Apfelwein is the "Beer" Than 'ol Ben was drinking when he said it was proof that God Loves Us. BUT! There is some serious allure to what I will forever call the EdWort Method. Not that you'll produce "Apfelwein" as that is a clone of a commercial product. But you gotta admit that Juice + Sugar + Yeast = GOOD DRINK....is pretty damn COOL

Disaster Averted!

 

Mine shrugged her shoulders and turned her soaps on.

 

Bingo! I figured it would be easier to dissolve the finer ground sugar given the larger surface area it had compared to normal sugar grains. Unfortunately there has been some settlement at the bottom of my carboy, I've shaken the thing every now and again over the past couple of days and a bit of it has dissolved out into the juice but there is still some settlement. There is no corn starch listed in the sugar.

I never intended to stray from his recipe, he just should have chosen a better yeast supplier :cross:

 

Ok...NOW LEAVE IT ALONE!!

As Revvy would say..."STEP AWAY FROM THE APFELWEIN"

You're good to go. The yeast will find that sugar and eat it too.

 

Well.... it will be a fully finish fermentation if the attenuation holds true. percentage from higher to lower gravity or something like that. A lower one will equal sometimes a sweeter product as there is still sugars left in the end product. A champagne yeast will generally attenuate higher and produce a more dry product. Best bet is to read the description of the yeast strain before using it to see what the general outcome will be. I used a sweet mead/wine yeast on a cider beer and it produced a stuck fermentation (was also a 1.118 SG six months down the road at 1.042..... and still waiting... I will shortly throw in some Wyeast Eau De Vie 4347 which is noted down below to hopefully dry it out as it is sweeeet!) I fixed that by giving it a decent low foaming action swirling.

You can try and pitch in champagne yeast say a month down the road after taking a reading.... if it isn't around 1.000 try the champagne yeast and that could knock it down... though as I have heard that isn't always the case. But remember... patience is a virtue... .and a godsend to brewing.

 

Umm as far as I can recall never had a sulfur smell.... as well as using yeast nutrients the 2nd time... the first batch I did use it and there was no smell at all.. the 2nd batch I cant recall.

 

bottled a 5 gallon batch with priming sugar tonight. Except for the first liter that I drank siphoned straight out of the carboy.

Great stuff, looking forward to the massive hangover in a few weeks. Will report back the morning after I forget my next post

 

Holy balls!!!!!! Just had my first one. No more 9 dollar Strongbow four packs.

 

Has anyone tried adding a can of frozen apple concentrate to the recipe to add more apple flavor??
I have make one batch according to the recipe and it was really good and everyone who tried it liked it. I plan on making another batch and was wondering if anyone has tried adding frozen concentrate to the recipe.

 

I've not found a description for Montrachet yeast yet thus I don't know what I am comparing it to. How does it behave?

Also, why is it a bad idea to move a fermenting carboy around?

 

Montrachet is a dry fermenting champagne strain, moderately alcohol tolerant (stops at around 14% ABV), and low in esters. Other yeasts will likely produce a different character, sweeter and/or more "fruity" from ester production than the original. That isn't a bad thing, necessarily..

 

Sorry I completely forgot about that one.

Well it causes aeration in the beer... after a point its bad.

I think I will try one with the Eau De View yeast. Just listened to it in a podcast Its a distiller yeast and can tolerate to around 25% in the perfect conditions.

Correct its not always bad its just different... could be very good.... you wont know till you try it. So let it sit for a month pull a sample out enough for a hydrometer reading or maybe a little more.... cool it down and try it. If you don't like the results you can try a dry(not physical but taste wise) based yeast.

 

Thanks to a deal I came across on Craigslist, I now have all my brewing equipment put together. So, I'm ready to brew my first beer. Well, ALMOST ready. I need to make something to drink while brewing my first beer. So....

I'm making EdWort's Apfelwein this weekend.