Apfelwein not clear after 6 weeks?

[MikeinAK]

I made my first batch of EdWort's infamous Apfelwein six weeks ago tomorrow. I followed ed's recipe exactly. I had it in my temp controlled area for the first two weeks. The temp was 68. I brewed a weizen and needed to make room in the fermentation closet. The rest of the time its been in area that stays a pretty constant 58 degrees. Long story short, I want to brew this weekend and need the carboy to keep the pipeline going. I'm going to carb the whole batch.

So my question is, do I bottle now or should I rack to a 6 gal and wait till it clears?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[velotech]

what's the gravity reading? seems a little cool temp for fermenting apfelwein. i would wait until clears, but you need a gravity reading to see how close you are.

 

[MikeinAK]

I didn't want to risk oxidation and contamination to take a sample. Plus, I'm being lazy. I'll take a reading to see where I'm at. If it needs more time, I'll rack it to the 6g carboy.

 

[bob1852]

what's the gravity reading? seems a little cool temp for fermenting apfelwein. i would wait until clears, but you need a gravity reading to see how close you are.

yup. Ye Ole Apfelwein does a little better at 72-75 degrees. It'll still get there at your room temps, just give it awhile longer - not only is it clearing, but your getting a little bulk aging in as well

 

[TXCrash]

No worries - my first took a couple months to clear and is dangerously good. Second batch is still chugging along 6? weeks later. Third batch is a couple weeks along...

Temps here are cool - as long as your sanitation practices are good, you're fine.

 

[Texron]

I started two batches on March 15th and they are both still very far from being clear. I can't see my hand at all through the liquid and mine has stayed between 70-75 degrees F. I'm wanting to take it to a flying meet in the middle of June so I hope it clears soon enough for at least a month of bottle conditioning.

We shall see.

 

[MikeinAK]

Well I took a reading and it was .998. Tastes pretty good so far. Since I need the space, I'm gonna bottle it tomorrow. I don't know much about wine, but could the slight cloudiness be from the temperature drop? In my hydro jar it looked pretty clear. I think I heard that temperature can do that with wine.

 

[rsmith179]

I racked my apfelwein after a month in the primary carboy to a secondary for another month of clarification and aging. Turns out great. Never had a problem with it not clearing up within those two months.

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

I think montrachet stops working below 59, but with that gravity reading it is done. I am only guessing here, but maybe that has something to do with it not clearing. I'd wait another 6 weeks to bottle it anyways, it tastes better after some bulk aging.

 

[Nebuch]

After 6 weeks I couldn't wait any more, so i put the carboy outside for two days. It's around 5 degrees C outside and it cleared up a lot.

 

[Texron]

As I mentioned mine was so cloudy you can't see through the carboy. One of the guys at the LHBS suggested adding a little pectic enzyme and swish it around in the carboy to mix it in. I did so last night. That kicked off a furious "bubbling" action that I think was entrapped carbon dioxide. This morning they both look as if they are just a few days into fermentation so I may have "re-started" the fermentation for a final run. The SG last night was 0.998 and it tasted pretty dry so there shouldn't be too much left to ferment.

Its going to be interesting to see how this turns out. But when I free up the carboys I'm thinking about going ahead with another batch and maybe experiment adding some blueberries or something along that line.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I ferment mine cold at around 62ºF. Mine is just starting to clear from Ed's Apfelwein day January 24, 2008. I just raised the temp to 73º for a week or so to get the last couple points out of it and to help it clear up. Then I will crash cool it and into the keg it goes.

It isn't weird for it to take a long time and will likely taste better because of it.

 

[Revvy]

Mine took about 2.5-3 months to be able to read a newspaper through...so a few weeks ain't nothing....Besides that no one but me would even drink it til it was in the bottle for nearly a year, then everyone loved it...Before that they called it rotgut and rocket fuel...So honestly you guys who like to rush through this are missing out..

This is in many ways more like a wine, than a beer and if (many of us) leave our beers alone for a month in primary, then why would anyone think that something this high of an abv would not require more time?

Really, seriously, patience!

 

[MikeinAK]

So my question is, do I bottle now or should I rack to a 6 gal and wait till it clears?

/QUOTE]

Better to bulk or bottle age?

 

[Tusch]

I prefer to bulk, plus it helps to prevent any sediment in the bottle.

 

[Texron]

My beer making club had a meeting Friday night and a lot of the members brought some of their home-brewed beer for everyone to try. One of the guys brought an apple wine or hard cider as he called it that had aged for about a year. It was incredibly good. His was just made from apple juice without the added sugar so it had a little less kick and he had back sweeted it with apple juice concentrate. It was really good. If his is an example of what long term aging will do for you I think it would be worth the wait.

 

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Make some beer while you wait, that's what I do. I like to let my Apfelwein go at least a month after it clears, that to me is the bare minimum time to wait to bottle. It will get crystal clear, almost glowing.

 

[captianoats]

Just go pick up a cheap 5 gallon water bottle and rack into it and let it sit for awhile. It's cheap, and better then letting a gallons worth of air into the bottle with it.

No, I'm not wanting to start yet ANOTHER water bottle debate, but I've used one for several apfelwein batches and never had any off flavors or any ill effects.

 

[MikeinAK]

Thanks for all the replies. Yesterday was too nice outside not to brew. I ended up racking the apfelwein into a 6g carboy to bulk age for a while. I purged the carboy with co2 to minimize oxygen pickup. I'll just wait awhile longer till it clears and then I can bottle.

 

[Dionysos911]

So is it safe to age in primary? I currently have more carboys than kegs so if I can age it in there and transfer a bit before serving, well that would just be super!