Man, I love Apfelwein

i have 5 gallons going with Tree Top applie juice, corn sugar and Red Star Montrachet.

its been going since Wed night, bubbling strong now. Looks like a carboy full of fizzing ginger ale.
but, my whole garage has a slight sulfur twang. i took a whiff of the airlock: peeeeee-yew!

 

So, I'm 3 weeks down on my ferment. Looking pretty clear. I could use that carboy. Suppose it's ok to rack to a serving keg?

KD

 

I'd wait that 4th week then go with it. U can but the quality will be higher the longer you wait.

 

Here's the problem I'm finding with Apfelwein, it goes too fast, I'm down to my last five bottles and it's really tasting good. I varied the receipe a little. I substituted dark brown sugar for the corn sugar and used cote de blanc yeast, it's not as dry as the montrachet. I think the only way I can age this a little longer is to keep making batches every six weeks after I bottle and free up the carboy. By the way this thread is getting a bit long. Ed, you created this monster, I think you should go through it and write "Apfelwein for Dummies".

 

Dedicated carboy is the way to go. After I rack I start the next one a day later.

 

What if I just rack it and let it age another week or two in the keg? I suppose I wouldn't have to rack again, just pull the sediment off the bottom. Will that work?

 

I fixed that for ya!

 

Like the Kahuna says, 2-3 dedicated is the way to go.



Just get it started and forget about it for a few months. Keg then repeat!

 

I've searched and searched and can't seem to find an answer for what I'm looking for. It's likely somewhere in this thread, but since I can't search within the thread I have to ask.

Many folks have mentioned using apple juice or concentrate to prime apfelwein to carb it. What would the ratio be?

Yes, I could keg it. If I had the space to set up a kegging system. Or the disposable cash to purchase it with. just had to head off that one since it's many folks favorite answer to any carb question.

 

You can search within the thread. Look up top.

 

Ahhh, totally missed that one. Thanks! That's been frustrating me for a while. I'd search the site and it would tell me that my answer was SOMEWHERE within a 47 page thread. hehehe

 

When you find it, post it here and I will add it to the first post.

 

I can't find it. I find people talking about doing it, but not with numbers. Different concentrations of sugar from one brand/variety of juice might be an issue now than I really use my brain on it. It might just come down to having to read the nutritional label for sugar content and figuring out how much sugar there is per ounce of juice and formulating it from that. As many times as I've heard people suggest priming with juice so that you're adding more apple instead of just more sugar, maybe priming with sugar is just plain easier in the end. If anyone on here has primed with juice, I'd just love to hear about how they did it and how much of what they used.

On a related note, I'm thinking about picking up some fructose to use instead of the dextrose in my batch. Mainly because I can pick up fructose granules on the way home from the radio station today instead of running down to Homebrew Heaven after my day job on tuesday. From what I hear, it should work just the same. I've found the co-op up here has tons of great stuff I can use. Gotta love them hippies and their products.

 

When I'm in this forum, I feel like I should call you Mr Wort or just Sir heheh

 

Okay, sorry if this is a duplicate question . . . tried a couple searches and couldn't come up with anything useful. I just mixed up my first batch of apfelwein. I shook the hell out of my jugs that had sugar in them and they appeared to be completely dissolved when I dumped them into the carboy. But after a few minutes I noticed that some was settling out on the bottom. I've filled the carboy pretty full . . . not sure if I can effectively shake w/o sloshing some out. Should I give it a shot anyway or will the sugar dissolve itself gradually during fermentation? (I seem to remember something from a high school science class about solutes and liquids naturally reaching equilibrium on their own . . . but maybe I was dreaming.)

 

TRUST ME when I say they are ALL duplicate questions! Don't be sorry...be glad you know where to find the answer.

IT"S FINE! The yeast will happily eat that sugar right off the bottom of the fermentor.

 

ChshreCat -

I have no idea who the poster was, or what page the post was on, or even if the results were satisfactory, BUT, I do recall that someone DID add ONE can of thawed apple juice concentrate to his bottling bucket for the purpose of bottle carbonating his Apfelwein.

For whatever that's worth,

Pogo

 

I remember (I SUCK AT SEARCHING) that he used the grams of sugar on the label as a basis for his calculations too.

 

Hi ChshreCat: An idea that might work for you is to take a SG reading on a measured quantity of reconstituted apple juice & log both the measurements & SG. Now start with the same amount of water & slowly dissolve your fructose into it & take SG readings as you go, making sure to log the amounts added, until the SG of the fructose/water solution is equal to that of the apple juice, or RECONSTITUTED frozen apple juice concentrate. Be sure they are at the same temp. So if 10 Oz concentrate makes 48 Oz reconstituted juice; how much fructose would be in 48 Oz of your water/fructose solution? That answer should tell you (fairly accurately) how much fructose is in a can of frozen apple juice concentrate AND (if you divide by 48) you'll know how much per Oz. I honestly don't know if there would be a significant difference between fructose, sucrose, or dextrose when it comes to carbonating, maybe one with more experience than I on types of sugars & carbing will jump in here. Hope you find this info useful. Regards, GF.

 

I'm getting really into this apple wine. My first batch's air lock is still bubbling away at about once every two seconds now and I just started my second batch 6 days after my first and decided to mix things up a bit. I used 2 pounds of turbinado sugar, 5 gallons of natural apple juice and white labs Champaign yeast 9WLP715.
Would the choice of sugar (ie cane vs corn) drastically alter the taste in the apple wine? I'm guessing: no.

 

Well, my apple juice says it has 27 grams of sugar per serving. Serving size is 8 ounces. So that should be 3.375 grams of sugar per fluid ounce of juice. That is, with the assumption that they're all fermentable sugars. If I'm right, fructose, glucose and dextrose are roughly interchangeable because they're both monosaccharides that can be used by yeast. Sucrose is a disaccharide, so it's not the same. (I'm new to this, so someone tell me if I'm wrong) So, if I want to carbonate 5 gallons of apfelwein to say.... 2 volumes, I would want 5.5 ounces of sugar. That's about 155 grams. So, I would want 40 ounces of juice. LOL that's a bit much, I think. Unless using concentrate makes it more manageable, I think I'll just carb with sugar.

 

how much does a can make? about/.....40 oz? sounds about right?

Crap Cat! At Least Alton Brown gives us the:
WARNING SCIENCE CONTENT AHEAD!

Mononutsacks, Soluable Dexofcards,interchangeable so on and so fourth.....

It's apfelwein.....not rocket science.

 

3.375g of sugar per fluid ounce is 3.375/28 = 12% sugar by weight, which should be 12* Brix which is about 1.048 if you float your hydrometer in it.

Corn sugar one ounce per gallon is normally used to carbonate which is 44 pts/lb/gallon so one ounce/gal is 2.75 grav pts/gal, so you would use about 14 grav points of corn sugar to carbonate 5 gallons.

Assuming I haven't screwed up the math yet 48 grav pts/gal of the apple juice would give you 14 grav points if you use a little over a quart.

Or just use the sugar.

 

BigK: What can I say? I'm a geek.

My math could be off by a factor of 22.

22oz of Pyramid Broken Rake.

That I was drinking.

While trying to do math.

 

Saccharomyces: I think we're onto it here. Just use the sugar. heheh

 

I think I found the post I was refering to...

The above post by "rod" was one of several in a thread called "Priming Apfelwein" started by "grrtt78", if I'm able to read my own notes!

But, there must be other posts related to this same subject, because as Big K mentioned, somewhere there is a post about all of the grams per this and that, and it is not part of this particular thread above!

Cheers,

Pogo

 

I knew I saw it somewhere, but wasn't able to find it when I was directly looking for it. Thanks Pogo.

 

Ed or Hey You! works just fine. Looks like the answer found you.

 

I like apfelwien just the way it is ( with the exception of the time that i used cote de blancs) but anyway has anyone tried using like 3-4 gallons of apple juice and the other 1-2 gals using some other fruit juice, i was thinking about trying this but didnt wanna ruin a batch

 

Shouldn't you be doing by volume and not by weight or are you doing the conversion to volume for the rest of the math? bc I'snt everything else volume based? I myself would stick to volumetric only as everything else is delt with by Vol.

Yes Aplfewein Variations... id recommend trying a 1oz part combination of them first to see how they taste. So if u do 3-4 gallons of apple juice thats 3-4 ounces and then then 1-2 gallons of something else then add 1-2 oz of that drink and just try to taste if u like it before fermented. As sated all over probably something might sound great until you actually try it.

I will probably always use the Montrachet as it will keep the cost down (think its $.50 a packet) and it seems to work well

 

I'm trying with this grape, apple and pear juice blend next:




Already bought 40L of it on sale. The juice itself is quite good, but I won't be able to appreciate the resulting wine until november, my fermentors are in use right now. I'd like to try the low acidity apple juice also, I like the stuff and I'm curious how it would turn out.

 

what are the results people had when using cotes de blanc, this is what i have going now and im beginnig to question whether i should have used it.

 

it ends up closer to a tart cyder than Apfelwein. It's good though, you'll not regret it.


and just for the record, I'm kegging and carbing all my apfelwein now. I finally decided it's better that way.

 

I have all my apfelwein ingredients together (including cotes de blanc yeast) and am thinking about picking up a can of something non-apple just to mix it up a little. I'd been planning on starting it over the weekend, but we weren't able to decide until last night just where to put it during ferment. We're a little spacially challenged in our apartment.

 

I opened the first bottle last night of carbed Apfelwein. It was a great success with the family very dry with a hint of Apple. I have 1/2 carbed and 1/2 still. The resounding response was the carbed was the winner. So I guess the next batch will be kegged and carbed.

 

we just drank some of our first 5 gallon batch and damn!!! this stuff is pretty good. We kegged it last nite and will post a response on what we think whether its better carbed or un-carbed. Regardless....:rockin::cross:

 

Does Apflewine need to be "degassed"? Mine has been in the fermenter for about 1.5 weeks now, and just wondering if I should let it sit, or be degassing it every now and then.

 

Apfelwein will get YOU gassed...but you don't need to degas IT.

 

Yeah, well after looking at the variations i saw people were using blueberry juice, well seeing is how i have a almost endless supply of blueberrys frozen from my yard. I was thinking i could boil like gallon of them with a gallon of water and a pound of brown sugar then straining it and mixing it with the rest. would this work with acid blend and pectic ensyme and all that stuff?

 

I say after boil keep them in the fermenter for at least a month then u could rack off into a 2ndary would help keep the flavor in their. As I have read with doing longer fermentation flavors tend to dissipate more if they are not present. Now you might need a few pounds to equal out a good strong gallon of the juice but im not sure... never used fruit. Or you could just send all your blueberrys to me and I will test it out!