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Beginning to wonder if this is malolactic fermentation. The juice/cider is cloudy. From my little bit of reading, it doesn't sound like MLF causes the cider to turn cloudy, but I could be wrong. If it's not MLF, I can't imagine what's going on. The cider/apfelwein fermented to point where...

Well, I've certainly spilled my share of apple juice on the floor of my brew room in my basement. I try to clean it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if I missed some. I suppose that LAB could have latched onto that and become more prevalent in the room. Don't know. To avoid this issue in the...

oljimmy, Thanks. I never thought about malolactic fermentation. The juice that I used was store-bought and pasteurized, but it was pure pressed apple juice with no other additive. Also, I did add malic acid to the juice to give the finished product a bit more tartness, so there was definitely...

+1 on giving it time. Twelve days is nothing. I usually wait a minimum of three months before drinking ciders made from ale or cider yeast and preferably wait five months. With apfelwein, it's minimum of six months, but should wait nine to 12. The key is getting a bunch of cider fermenting...

Have an apfelwein in a secondary. Just noticed to tonight that it has started fermenting again. Initial fermentation stopped in mid-December. I transferred to a secondary around the new year, so it's been in the secondary for a month and a half. There's practically no head space, and I...

Interesting. These are hops that I bought in bulk and then froze. I've had them for awhile and there were times that they were left at room temp for a couple of days. Actually, both times it was the carboy that I put the hops in first that went bad. I also used the same hops for both batches...

Thanks. Like a dumb ass, I forgot to mark the carboy last time where the beer went bad. This time, I'm going to just toss the plastic carboy. But I still find it odd that the infection(s) seems to happen when I dry hop. The beer tasted fine after fermentation and then went down hill after dry...

For the second straight brew, one of my carboys turned very cloudy while the other looked fine after dry hopping. (I do 10-gallon batches.) Can't figure it out. Both carboys are filled with beer that's done fermenting and has cleared up. I add hops from the same bag. Hops do their thing and...

Yooper, Thanks. From now on, I'll start my ciders in my 6 gallon better bottles and rack to my 5 gallon carboys. Live and learn.

Yooper, What if topping up requires 1/2 to one gallon of juice? Wouldn't that amount of juice kick-start fermentation again, leading to another round of lees and another racking requiring topping off. Couldn't you just top off with a little bit of juice - a cup or two - causing a very...

Thanks for the info. Cvillekevin, thanks, I'll hold off on back-sweetening wpl775. My next cider will be S-04, so I'll see where that finishes. Maybe I won't need it. I generally like my ciders on the dry side anyway. Yooper, et all, I'll give a try at some point at back-sweetening and...

Hey, I've seen this touched on, but I was hoping for a direct discussion. My plan is to let my cider ferment dry, which should take 2-4 weeks. Then, I'll rack to a secondary for another couple of months of bulk aging. Once that's done, I'll keg and back-sweetening with apple concentrate and...

Maybe my conversions aren't accurate, but isn't 3 oz equal to ~6 tablespoons. That's a lot of malic acid. I've seen a few recipes with 1 or 2 tablespoons for a 5 gallon batch, so 6 tbsp quite a bit - at least relative to those recipes. On the other hand, I've never had an actual English draft...

Just clean out my beer lines on my kegerator for the first time. Some BLC mix spilled out on to the top of the kegerator. No big deal, I thought. I just wiped it off. But now there is a white residue that won't seem to come off. I've wiped it with a cloth and water and then with sanitation wipe...

Been poking around looking for a nice cider recipe and found this one. Freezeblade was clever to use black tea and lime to reproduce the tannins and acid in English cider apples. However, I'm wondering why not just use tannin powder and malic acid? You can buy both from your local HBS or online...

I know that Edwort says that you don't need to rack to secondary, but cider people seem to swear by it, saying that leaving it on lees for too long makes for some bad flavors. So how come the apfelwein is different from the cider when it comes to racking to a secondary? Thanks.

Intrigued by the recipe. Has anyone gotten the amounts of tannins and malic acid down to the correct ratio? Also, should you make a starter for this recipe or can you just use one vial?

Yuri, Thanks. I'm on my way. I miss the stuff. Couldn't really find in the U.S. for a long time. Occasionally, I'd see it in a German store but it was crazy expensive.

I'm thinking of brewing up a batch of Edwort's Apfelwein. I used to live in Frankfurt and really enjoyed the apple wine. But looking at Edwort's recipe, he adds sugar and gets the ABV up to ~9%. I seem to remember the ABV of apple wine being around 5%-6% - and even then I'd off mix it with...

I'm thinking of brewing up a batch of Edwort's Apfelwein. I used to live in Frankfurt and really enjoyed the apple wine. But looking at Edwort's recipe, he adds sugar and gets the ABV up to ~9%. I seem to remember the ABV of apple wine being around 5%-6% - and even then I'd off mix it with...