Apfelwein questions

[wehumble]

Hello all,

I couldn't resist making my own batch of the famous Ed Wort's Apfelwein for a friend of mine who is a cider fiend. For my first try, I went for a standard EWA, with the Montrachet yeast. I think it's about ready for bottling, but I have a few questions first;

1. Is 5 weeks in the carboy sufficient? Are there any pros to leaving it in longer?

2. Anyone ever start the next batch by pitching directly on the yeast cake? Any downsides there? I just happen to have a bunch of apple juice and corn sugar taking up space in the basement.

3. Has anyone noticed a significant difference between bottled and kegged Apfelwein? I'm going to bottle the bulk of it, since the cider fiend doesn't have a keg setup. But *I* do, so I was wondering if I should throw some in a keg.

4. Has anyone tried this recipe without carbonation, so it's truly an "Apple Wine"? Any good? Just curious.

 

[Evan!]

Hello all,

I couldn't resist making my own batch of the famous Ed Wort's Apfelwein for a friend of mine who is a cider fiend. For my first try, I went for a standard EWA, with the Montrachet yeast. I think it's about ready for bottling, but I have a few questions first;

1. Is 5 weeks in the carboy sufficient? Are there any pros to leaving it in longer?

2. Anyone ever start the next batch by pitching directly on the yeast cake? Any downsides there? I just happen to have a bunch of apple juice and corn sugar taking up space in the basement.

3. Has anyone noticed a significant difference between bottled and kegged Apfelwein? I'm going to bottle the bulk of it, since the cider fiend doesn't have a keg setup. But *I* do, so I was wondering if I should throw some in a keg.

4. Has anyone tried this recipe without carbonation, so it's truly an "Apple Wine"? Any good? Just curious.

1. It should be. Take a sample. How clear is it? It should be sufficiently cleared by now. I think I bottled my first batch at 5 or 6 weeks, and it's great.
2. Well...you could. I don't see why not. But montrachet paks are like $0.79, so for the risk of contamination, however low it may be, I usually just pitch a new pak into a sanitized carboy.
3. Never had it kegged so I can't speak to that.
4. My first batch didn't carbonate very well, and it's excellent. In fact, the wife prefers it with almost no carbonation.