1st Apfelwein attempt

[skibummin]

I made a batch of apfelwein just over 6 weeks ago using Edwort's recipe. The Apfelwein had cleared nicely and I bottled today. I forgot to take a gravity reading until after adding my priming sugar and bottling the batch. I was surprised to find a FG of 1.016. I primed with 3/4 cup of table sugar in 8 oz of water. I racked on top of the priming sugar.

Montrachet should take this stuff down around 1.000. I am worried that fermentation was stuck and with rousing of the yeast and transfering to bottle I will end up with too much fermentation in the bottles and I will have 54 bottle bombs in my brew rack.

Any advice?

BTW I drank the last bit on ice and it was tasty but noticeably sweet.

 

[Wakadaka]

Yikes, I think you might have just bottled some bombs. I used the montrachet yeast, and it is under 1.000. The hard part about gauging apfelwein fermentation is that there is not any krausen. You might be alright, I am still on my first batch of apfelwein, but it seems very high for the recipe and yeast.

Did you add the same amount of sugar and everything? what was your OG.

 

[Clann]

If you were stuck when you bottled then there is a chance for bombs if fermentation restarts. Montrachet usually gets bone dry for me, last one down to .998. Put them somewhere you can control the schrapnel and whrn they are carbed to your liking then chill them and put that yeast to sleep.

 

[skibummin]

OG was spot on at 1.066.

Not sure if I should bag em up and hope they dont grenade or if I could get them back into a fermenter and pitch another packet of montrachet.

 

[skibummin]

I am thinking I should go back to the carboy and pitch a new packet of montrachet. My worry is oxidation but it seems that there is a lot of fermentation left and the oxygen should be used up in the process.

 

[Wakadaka]

Don't do anything right yet. You should have some time before the explosion. Some folks might think that pouring back into the fermenter is a bigger risk than it is worth, since you are probably going to be aging it for a while the oxygen will be worse on it than on a beer.

You might consider bagging them up just to be safe, and get them away from people and pets. Throwing them in the fridge once they are carbed should work if you have enough space. You will have very uneven carbonation most likely though.

Hopefully someone else will come in with some better advice and experience.

 

[skibummin]

Alright gents. I pulled a bottle and tested the gravity from there. 1.000 with priming sugar. My guess is my first sample was not properly mixed as it was at the bottom of the bottling bucket. Looks like crisis averted. Thanks for your help. Time to RDWHAHB.

 

[skibummin]

Still bagged em for safety's sake. With the obvious uneven mixing of my priming sugar I will at best have uneven carbing and bottle bombs are still a possibility. At least it is not the whole batch though.