Man, I love Apfelwein

[BrewerBear]

I brewed a 5 gallon batch of this and after I bottled it up in 12 oz bottles and 1 L fliptops, I put it aside to "age" as recommended. Tasted good after a few months so I was satisfied. Before I could finish all of it, I moved to a new place, but I still own the house I moved from, basically using it for storage. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how this may taste), I forgot to bring the brew with me though since I had a pretty decent pipeline going and it just got overlooked. It is now 3 years later and when I went visited the house the other day to go to the basement to get some Halloween decorations, I found a dusty case under the stairs!

Here's the question: think it's safe to drink?

I'm meticulous when it comes to sanitation and everything. Bottles sealed and it looks like the gaskets on the fliptops are still intact.

I don't see any reason not to drink them. If you are worried send me some to sample.

 

[Neil-ohki]

According to the sticky thermometer on my carboy, my apfelwein is chugging away at about 82F. I note that Montrachet has a temperature tolerance of 58-86F(or thereabouts). The heat in my apartment is centrally controlled (residence-style apartment), and all the rooms are basically the same temp.

Should I be trying to cool this off somewhat? It's my first attempt at making anything, so I'm a bit anxious about stalling out or weird flavours developing.

 

[Neil-ohki]

I've managed to get it down to 78F. The airlock is starting to release some really nice apple smells!

Man, I can't wait to try this stuff!

 

[RauelDuke]

Couple of questions, is this supposed to be carbonated and if so to how many volumes? This is my first time making Apfelwine so I'm not real sure. Plus I'm still kind of a noob.

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

I have some I started in July. Racked about two months ago and am needing the carboy. How much sugar do most add to back sweeten if allowed to ferment dry? Mike

 

[d10coalpusher]

Got a 5 gal batch going yesterday and its bubbling nicely this morning. Only thing I did different was used 3 lbs dextrose, 2 tsp yeast nutrient and 1 1/2 pks Montrachet yeast. The half pack was left from some soda pop I made for the kids so I poured it in. Start SG was 1.08 with a potential alcohol of about 11%. Can hardly wait till it ages and is fit to drink.

 

[dixiedeerslaya]

going to start a slightly modified version of this this weekend. i want it to have a holiday spice to it. thinking of using brown sugar in the initial fermentation and maybe backsweetening afterwards with a little bit of brown sugar. going to make it more of a wine than a cider. shooting for around 12-14% abv.

my question is when do i need to add the cinnamon and how much? ill be making a 5 gallon batch. also, ground cinnamon work in substitute of a cinnamon stick?

 

[opus345]

I found a dusty case under the stairs!

Here's the question: think it's safe to drink?

I'm meticulous when it comes to sanitation and everything. Bottles sealed and it looks like the gaskets on the fliptops are still intact.

I wouldn't chance it, instead send it to the Opus Apfelwein Testing Lab. I will send the lab's address via PM.

I have had 12 year stout that was stored in flip tops and while it had some oxidation, it actually still tasted like an OK stout. I wouldn't serve it to friends, but I eventually drank it all.

I think your 3 yr Apfelwein might be very good. Go for it!

Opus

 

[sallykalou]

In the primary since 10 sept, should I bottle age this or leave it in the primary to age? No airlock action now, I have both bottles, and the primary which I'm in no rush to get back.
I tried some, and it was rather tasteless, although with an alcoholic aftertaste to it.

Primary, secondary, or bottle now?

 

[opus345]

In the primary since 10 sept, should I bottle age this or leave it in the primary to age? No airlock action now, I have both bottles, and the primary which I'm in no rush to get back.
I tried some, and it was rather tasteless, although with an alcoholic aftertaste to it.

Primary, secondary, or bottle now?

I'm just thinking about bottling the latest batch that was in primary since August 7.

I would wait another 4 weeks to bottle.

 

[sallykalou]

Will it benefit from me waiting longer than 4 weeks?

 

[BrewerBear]

yes

 

[jarett]

Way too many cloves. Most people put 2-3 in max and many think its too much, at 8 i hate to break it too you but its going to be undrinkable for a very very long time...fish some of them out if you can somehow lol.

I don't know... I made a one gallon batch with two cloves and it's actually very tasty. I did also put in a little more than the proportional amount of sugar so there may be some extra sweetness offsetting the cloves. Since I put two one gallon I think the eight in five gallons might be ok.

I also kept the fermentation to a tight six weeks. I worry (maybe unnecessarily) that leaving any extra organic matter in there too long will create off-flavors.

 

[1Q84]

Glad I checked this thread. My batch has been in the fermenter for a month as of today. Still have held off taking a sample, and I guess I'll let it sit for at least another month. Just wanna have it ready for the holidays.

 

[Sean0718]

Can I bottle/cork this? Also, I read that you can carbonate this, where do I find that information?

Thanks!

 

[dunbar171]

After letting my first batch of this sit for about 8 months I refer to it as drunk juice!! Yum..

 

[AMonkey]

Having trouble finding an answer. Read the first 50 pages or so and tried a search. I want to bottle and carb with a can of apple concentrate. Will this work? I followed the recipe but used 2lbs brown sugar instead. I don't want bottle bombs but am not sure how concentrate would work. Thanks!

 

[fosgate]

My god this site is evil. Going through a brewing course and just got into brewing and came over here to share a link when I found this thread. I have not had this stuff since I was stationed in Germany 92-94 and hit the Apfelwein Fest in Trier GE. Street vendor near the Roman Aqueduct gave us a free full glass which we quickly drank and reached into our pockets to take a few bottles back with us to Strassberg Kassrne. I remember waking up the next morning feeling fine but thirsty. Drank a couple glasses of water and started getting a buzz again. Someone told me the reason was because of all the sediment in the wine was still in our stomach and still had alcohol in it. Dunno, but I remember being pretty messed up for a couple days from that stuff. Man I miss that. Guess I'm going to have to make a batch of this too.

 

[opus345]

Search the thread for bottling posts using terms like carbonate or prime, etc. Here are a couple thread links that talk about it:

572: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/index58.html#post187034
902: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/index91.html#post221703
905: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/index91.html#post221740

 

[opus345]

Can I bottle/cork this? Also, I read that you can carbonate this, where do I find that information?

Thanks!

One more tidbit, if you plan to carbonate, do not use wine bottles/corks. Use beer bottles/crowns, flip-top bottles, or champange/corks. Use a bottling environment that will handle the contents being under pressure.

 

[booherbg]

I'm the guy who made the spiced version w/ cloves/spices, honey in place of sugar. I bottled this last week. I ended up back sweetening it with 8oz of lactose (non-fermentable) and priming with 6oz of priming sugar (6.25gallon batch). I also re-applied the spices in a tea format for good measure.

It tasted really good, not boozy at all. It definitely needed the back sweetener as I think the honey and spices dried it out (probably didn't need to add any spices before fermentation, they weren't really coming through). Excited to see where it ends up. Definitely a bit of a concoction.

Anyone else backsweeten with lactose and carbonate??

 

[booherbg]

Yee Haw! I think you will end up naming it "The Clove Bomb" Apfelwein batch. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks! Maybe I'm doing something wrong... cloves are tiny little black things right? I hardly got any flavor at all from them in the 6.5gallon batch. Maybe they were too old? Hmm. Or maybe they're so powerful I'm mistaking them for the "dry" character :cross:

Also worth mentioning: The "protein" or whatever from either the honey, spices, brown sugar, or all of the above did cause a blow-out with my non-krausen Montrachet yeast. Found that pretty interesting. After 24 hours they all rose to the top, foamed up, and my blow-off tube worked fabulously. But after they vacated the vessel, there was just fermentation and no krausen. Very strange.

Also fermentation started up *immediately* upon adding priming sugar. That was interesting never seen that before.

Final Recipe:
6gallons of kroger 100% apple juice
3lb of honey
1lb of dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg. 8 cloves.

honey + brown sugar + few pints of juice on stove top to a boil, added cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Threw all of it into the fermenter, topped off to 6.5gal.

Fermented out 3 weeks w/ montrachet yeast. Needed blowoff tube.


At bottling, primed with 6oz of priming sugar, backsweetened to taste with 8oz of lactose (non-fermentable sugar). Added another 1.5tsp of cinnamon, 1.0tsp of nutmeg since the spice really didn't come through. No more cloves added

 

[txlonghorns23]

I made an account just to post on this thread!!!

Anyway, I started this process about three weeks ago. This is my first attempt to make wine. I decided to do this because it looks pretty easy. I used a 5 gallon plastic carboy with

5 gallons of Simply Apple
2 pounds of dextrose
1 pound of lactose
and I forgot the yeast I used :/

I know these questions are probably answered and I will go through the 1000 pages of this thread to see if they are there, but here are my questions:

After 3 weeks, is it supposed to still be cloudy? I know it was originally said that after 4 weeks its good to go, but I didnt think it should be this cloudy


The bubbling stopped last week. Does this mean its done fermenting?

Also, the was no sulfur smell. Could this be because of the apple juice I used or did I do something wrong?


I am sorry for the stupid questions. Like I said, this is my first attempt and I want to try to learn as much as I can about the process

 

[opus345]

Longhorn,

First, welcome to HBT, we're glad your here.

Second,

I have read reports of 4-8 weeks before it will clear. Mine have usually cleared within 6 weeks. I have never used a non fermentable sugar/sweetener during fermentation, so this may change the clearing timeframe.

I think the sulfur smell is a function of the yeast used. I use Lalvin D47 and have never had sulfur smells.

The release CO2 is a visible sign of fermentation, but fermentation can and does happen without the bubbling. The best way to be absolutely sure when fermentation has stopped is to test the gravity on three successive days. If the gravity does not change, fermentation has ended. You can purchase a Hydrometer($10-20)/Refractometer($30-150) to perform the gravity tests.

 

[ArrogantDusty]

If you are still around the site when you taste this stuff, you'll have to let me know how it tastes. I wanted to use simply apple for my next batch. I love that juice but for some reason did not use it for this batch.

 

[fosgate]

Just ordered the stuff to make this swill last night. Place I ordered from have the 5gal PET Carboy for 25% off. Not the "Better bottle" brand but I couldn't say no to that and their shipping costs.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=12929

 

[txlonghorns23]

Longhorn,

First, welcome to HBT, we're glad your here.

Second,

I have read reports of 4-8 weeks before it will clear. Mine have usually cleared within 6 weeks. I have never used a non fermentable sugar/sweetener during fermentation, so this may change the clearing timeframe.

I think the sulfur smell is a function of the yeast used. I use Lalvin D47 and have never had sulfur smells.

The release CO2 is a visible sign of fermentation, but fermentation can and does happen without the bubbling. The best way to be absolutely sure when fermentation has stopped is to test the gravity on three successive days. If the gravity does not change, fermentation has ended. You can purchase a Hydrometer($10-20)/Refractometer($30-150) to perform the gravity tests.

Im guessing I can get a hydrometer at my local HBS? Thank you for the answers. I was a little worried because our air conditioner broke last week and the temperature got up to like 86 or 88 for a day or so. I didnt know if that could have killed the yeast.

One more quick dumb question: Will the wine clear up as much as typical apple juice or the apple juice I used? Like Simply Apple in the bottle is already not that clear so will the wine end up looking like it?

If you are still around the site when you taste this stuff, you'll have to let me know how it tastes. I wanted to use simply apple for my next batch. I love that juice but for some reason did not use it for this batch.

Of course! Well remember I added 1 lb of lactose to it so its a little different from the original recipe

 

[irchowi]

Im guessing I can get a hydrometer at my local HBS? Thank you for the answers. I was a little worried because our air conditioner broke last week and the temperature got up to like 86 or 88 for a day or so. I didnt know if that could have killed the yeast.

One more quick dumb question: Will the wine clear up as much as typical apple juice or the apple juice I used? Like Simply Apple in the bottle is already not that clear so will the wine end up looking like it?




Of course! Well remember I added 1 lb of lactose to it so its a little different from the original recipe

it should be as clear as the original juice, especially if you pasteurize or cold crash since all the live yeast in suspension will die/go dormant and fall to the bottom of the bottle.

 

[Multiplexin]

Hello! This is my first post here

I started a three gallon batch of apfelwein, mostly following EdWort's recipe, ten days ago and it is already clear (see my brew log in my signature for pictures and details). I tasted a few sips tonight and it really wasn't too bad - I don't have a superb pallet, but it was reminiscent of a dry white wine with some tropical flavors. SWMBO agreed.

I strayed from the recipe in that I re-hydrated the yeast and added apple juice to the re-hydrated yeast incrementally to acclimate it and I also used energizer and nutrient after the lag period.

I'm guessing my unusually fast fermentation and clearing is due to the temperature (75-79 degrees F), acclimated and re-hydrated yeast, and nutrient and energizer additions. I'll probably bottle it after about another month in the BetterBottle.

Anyone else have an experience like this? Also, I had Chimay blue for the first time tonight - it was glorious!

 

[springmom]

Fixing' to pull the trigger on this and looking forward to the product!!!