Better than Apfelwein...

[CvilleKevin]

Wheat yeasts, including 3068 and 3056 will kick up a lot more krausen than ale or wine yeasts. However, you dont necessarily need a huge amount of head space. Wheat yeast krausen is really foamy and will often expand to fill whatever available space you give it, but its fairly light and compresses easily. So you can use a blowoff tube that goes into a tall column of water, like a wine bottle. This will increase the pressure in the fermentation vessel, which will push the krausen down.

Below are 4 wheat batches from last year, where the krausen was about as heavy as it ever gets. As you can see, if it gets really heavy, you might have to change a blowoff bottle to keep from attracting fruit flies, but you wont lose much juice. I fill 6 gallon carboys to 5.5 gallons, which ensures that there will be at least 5 gal to completely fill the secondary after the crash. Most of the time, the krausen doesnt even reach the blowoff tube (like the one on the far right).

 

[hunter_le five]

Wheat yeasts, including 3068 and 3056 will kick up a lot more krausen than ale or wine yeasts.

Yeah, I just found that out the hard way. I made a batch last night with 3068, and this morning the airlock was filled with juice, the lid had popped off the bucket on one side, and there was krausen all over the floor. I figured I had plenty of headspace as I was using a 7 gallon bucket for 5 gallons of juice, but obviously I should have used a blowoff tube.

 

[hunter_le five]

Fermentation ended at 1.001 after just over 3 weeks in primary. Haven't had a chance to taste test it yet, but it sure smells good. I'm cold crashing it right now and I'll keg it in a day or two. Once it carbs up a bit ill report back on the taste.

 

[MedBrewer]

I started a 1 gallon batch of apfelwein today 1 gallon apple juice (no preservatives), about .4 lbs brown sugar, and safale 05 (american ale yeast 1/2 pack i had left over from my last 1 gal beer brew), I also added about 20 raisins. Any one brewed up a batch with american ale yeast and brown sugar?

 

[hunter_le five]

Turned out awesome with the 3068 yeast. I'll definitely be making this again.

 

[danorocks17]

I made the switch from Montrachet to Champagne yeast by necessity. I went to pick up some yeast at my LHBS and they were out of Montrachet, so I gave the champagne yeast a try. Haven't looked back since.

 

[ianoconnor]

Put this in the fermenter today:

4 gallons apple juice
1 gallon cranberry juice
3068

Looking forward to trying it.

 

[anbowden]

5 more months in the bottle and it should taste alright.

Hey Brandon, when you exclude the corn sugar, how long do you primary and how long do you bottle condition? I've got one batch going of just apple juice and I'll be doing another soon with the 60L and amber DME; I'm thinking this will be approx. 1 month in the primary and 1 month in the bottle?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[bembel]

I got mine in Germany. I don't know of any retailer here in the states that sells them. You can only find them in Apfelwein regions of Germany too. Mainly in about a 200 KM radius of Frankfurt.

The pitcher for ApfelWein is called a Bembel, do a search on Amazon or Google to purchase them, the glasses are 'geripptes' and come in .25, .33 and .5 liter sizes.

Here is a link for a local importer

http://www.germandeli.com/Keramik-Apfelwein-Bembel-1-liter.html

 

[DaMonkey]

Can you not delete a reply?

 

[IJesusChrist]

Awesome, thanks for the post. I came to this area to ask if anyone had tryed different yeasts with this recipe! My first batch is still fermenting, I made 5 galls with Montrachet, and a 1 gal experiment with EC1118 champagne. Curious to see how it pans out. Next time I'll try the weisen.
Thanks again,
John

How did this turn out? I plan to use ec-1118 for an apfelwein

 

[Phlosef]

Sorry to bump an old thread but I think this is the best place to ask.

I have a wheat beer with Wyeast 3068 in my fermenter that will be ready to come out next week. Can I pitch my apfelwein ingredients straight onto the cake immediately after bottling?

 

[Doopdoop]

Could any of you provide any input into whether or not I should bottle this? I started it on 10/18/16, tested its SG at 1.000 on 11/5, so I moved it down to a cellar on 11/6, but I figured that wasn't cool enough so I moved it to a cooler where its been sitting at 40 degrees since then.

Attached are some pictures. I've searched through this thread, but am curious if your guys' 3068 apfelwein came out this cloudy.

 

[buzzerj]

Would like to try a 5 gallon batch of this with 3068. Looks like fun. We have been doing batches with Vintners Harvest CY17 yeast. Going to keg a 6 gallon batch we started 8 months ago.

 

[buzzerj]

This thread must be kick started. We just tried a Blackberry/lime cider made by Blue Mountain Cidery (about 6.3% ABV) in Oregon. It was very good. It would be good to try to reproduce it with Airtight's method with the 3068 yeast with nutrient. For a 6 gallon batch maybe try 1-1.5 gallons of blackberry juice, 32-64 fl oz lime juice and the balance apple juice. Any ideas or experiences with something like this?

 

[Joemomma]

Started a batch last night (on the left) with hefe yeast and a half gallon pineapple juice. Hoping to get some pineapple and banana flavors on top of the apple. Can’t wait to keg and carb

 

[bembel]

To make excellent blackberry cider I suggest the following simple method I have personally used..

Make a 5 gallon batch of dry base cider using nothing but juice, when its done fermenting keg it and then

add just two 12 oz cans of Original Sin Black Widow - this will perfectly flavor, color and back-sweeten your batch to a well balanced, "fruit is there but doesn't dominate" cider.

 

[CKuhns]

+1 bembel

With the exception I add 3-4 Pounds fresh frozen blackberries to secondary for 5 days. Rack, cold crash to clarify and keg. Turns out amazing every time.

 

[Kees]

Going back to the opening post I wonder whether you can harvest Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephan Weizen Yeast from a bottle of Weihestenphan Weizen beer. I am asking because the Weihenstephan Weizen is readily available in the shops here.