Apfelwein question...

mullimat · May 2, 2008

Made my apfelwein on 3/28 and just let it set. SG was 1.060 and OG was 0.093. Right now it's 5 weeks old and i just got ready to set everything up to bottle and popped the top and it had that strong overpowering alcohol smell. Now i have brewed for a little while and have pretty much found that that overpowering alcohol smell you normally get from beer that is not quite ready (although i could be wrong). Is this normal for apfelwein? Now i know there are going to be smartass comments about "it's got alcohol in it, so it's supposed to smell like alcohol :drunk:

" but this is WAY strong.

Jonnio · May 2, 2008

If those values are correct your pushing 17% alcohol and it will smell WAY strong. That batch will have to mellow for at least a decade before being drinkable, but I would probably start trying in 6 months.

mullimat · May 2, 2008

How are you getting that high a number? By my calculation i get about 8.78%.

Shonuff · May 2, 2008

Ditto on the 8.78%. Sounds like it's done. Bottle it up.

Yooper · May 2, 2008

No, 1.060 to .993 is not that high of an ABV, it's definitely less than wine! My wines start at 1.095 or so, so I have them at 12.5% ABV.

You are at about 8.8% ABV-

(1.060-.993) X 131= 8.7777% ABV.

I think that you're just getting the "sniff" that seems overpowering. It will be not-so-powerful after it has just a tad bit of age, and it's in a glass. That will disapate quite a bit!

Edit- Whoa- too slow!