apfelwein....or not

[aaronwillen]

Whenever I brew a darker beer I always brew up something a little more to swmbos taste too to be fair. Over last weekend i made up a batch of apfelwein and pitched a white labs cider tube. A few days went by with nothing at the airlock. I figured that the yeast was dead..as I ordered it from NB and its been pretty cold out. Went to the LHBS and picked up a smack pack of cider yeast...it swelled and i pitched it 2 days ago. STILL nothing at the airlock. What is the deal??? I couldnt find any good non concentrate apple juice so I used apple cider. I was thinking maybe this stuff has some sort of preservatives which is killing the yeast? Any ideas?

 

[bernerbrau]

I couldnt find any good non concentrate apple juice so I used apple cider.

Is the apple cider pasteurized? If not, did you use campden tablets to kill off any infections before pitching?

I was thinking maybe this stuff has some sort of preservatives which is killing the yeast?

What's on the ingredient list? I believe ascorbates are about the only "approved" preservatives for making ciders/apfelweins.

 

[Tusch]

Yup, if your juice had anything other then acorbic acid/vitamin C you may have issues. The only way to know for sure what was in it is to check out the package. Oh and did you add the normal two lbs of dextrose?

 

[JesseRC]

Sorry, but what do you mean by "non concentrate apple juiec". I just made some apfelwine, I thought I was supposed to look for 100% apple juice , from concentrate was ok?

 

[Tusch]

From concentrate is fine as long as it doesn't have preservatives.

 

[JesseRC]

right, When i went to the store , most were all preservative free, only had absorbic acid, which I heard was fine, but they were all from concentrate. OP was saying he was looking for juice that wasn't from concentrate. Where do you find that at?

 

[Tusch]

I often see juice just at the local grocery stores that are not from concentrate. I have used both and haven't seen much of a difference.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

I can't imagine at this time of year you'd find any cider that didn't have some kind of preservatives in it. That thing isn't going to take off it it had some in it. Just go out and grab some apple juice.

 

[aaronwillen]

hey there...yeah the only applejuice i could find without driving an excessive amount was that crap that doesnt even need to be refrigerated who knows...anyways the cider was made with some local apple cider from some farm....not totally sure what preservatives are in it. blah thanks for the advice!

 

[Tusch]

Call up the farm and ask them what additives they use. If they don't add any preservatives, you might not have a problem. And keep in mind, sometimes the fermentation process will take a bit longer to hook on.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

right, When i went to the store , most were all preservative free, only had absorbic acid, which I heard was fine, but they were all from concentrate. OP was saying he was looking for juice that wasn't from concentrate. Where do you find that at?

I used Tree Top (as per Ed Wort's recipe) and it was "100% apple juice from concentrate." I had no problems whatsoever with it. Martinelli's apple juice is NOT from concentrate, it's great juice, but expensive. Most juices on store shelves are from concentrate, but not all. I've also used FAJC (Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate) with no problems. As long as it has no preservatives (other than ascorbic acid) you should be fine. If you go the FAJC route, you might boil your water (NOT the juice) to sterilize it, or use campden tabs. If you have a water softener, or if your water is really full of minerals or chlorine, you might want to try to correct it, it's all entirely up to you. Ed's apfelwein is kind of hard to screw up if you follow his directions. Regards, GF.