Man, I love Apfelwein

[Leadgolem]

My apfelwein is like 2 months old. Has been bottled. But doesn't really have any flavor to it. Made it following all direction but cut it to one gallon. I did add cinnamon sticks and can taste the cinnamon tho. Do I just need to age more?

Yes. The flavor balance changes with age. I would say it tastes much more like apples after 4-6 months then it did at 0-2 months.

Everybody so far on this page is not bulk aging long enough. I would go 3 months at a minimum. that's when the apple flavor really starts to show back. I plan on making another batch with 1 gallon of cherry juice added to it. It is killer at 5 months bulk aging. Started my recent batch in January and will keg it in a few months. Build up an inventory and or dedicate a carboy to let this stuff age. It improves immensely. My batches are a little over 6 months old now.

Hmm, yes to the aging. Though I still don't agree that aging in bulk is imperative.

I propose an experiment. Pull off and bottle a gallon or 2. Bulk age the rest. Taste test in 3 months and let us know which is better.

That's a good idea. I doubt it will really settle the debate, but it would tell me which I prefer. I'll have to round up something around 3 gallons for bulk aging the next batch.

While 6 months is a long time, I've recently found irrefutable proof that age helps this. I bottled after letting it sit for 2 months. The day of bottling, roommate who is a big wine drinker really liked it. Popped open a bottle a week later, roommate said it was even better. I'll be letting the batch I have going now with wine-soaked raisins go for about 5 months and then bottle.

Then again, I thought this stuff tasted great at the 2 month mark, but age would make it taste even more glorious. So balance your patience against need to drink some of this stuff ASAP.

I would say two months is pretty much a minimum for a good flavor. The apparent alcohol continues to drop, and the taste keeps smoothing out. That increases the perceived apple flavor, as it's not fighting with the alcohol flavor/aroma much anymore. After about 6 months my batches have virtually no alcohol aroma. Still a very small amount of alcohol flavor, more of a nice burn then anything else though.

 

[reinstone]

Anyone know of a good apple juice to use for this that can be found in central il? Like at SAMs club or Walmart etc.

 

[betzbrew]

Anyone know of a good apple juice to use for this that can be found in central il? Like at SAMs club or Walmart etc.

If you're a Costco member or know someone who is, I've had great results with their store brand "fresh pressed" apple juice which is not from concentrate. My costco in NJ had it for $8.89/2 gallons.

 

[Leadgolem]

Anyone know of a good apple juice to use for this that can be found in central il? Like at SAMs club or Walmart etc.

Members Mark works fine.

 

[reinstone]

Members Mark works fine.

That will be it. Thanks

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Just got my apfelwein down to SG 1.000, so I capped it and put it in the cupboard to age a bit. Although, I did sample it and by my opinion this stuff is ready to go now! I don't know how I am going to get any of this to age and significant length of time. I'm hoping my other batch of cider will distract me for a while!

 

[ThatGeekGuy]

SWMBO has already informed me that she prefers HER Apfelwein sparkling, thank you. She thinks it is just fizzy cider and isn't aware of the added honey - and I couldn't bear to break that to her Should be pretty interesting come sampling time as she is a bit of a teetotaler at times.

Apfelwein, aka Pantydropper ....

 

[BamaProud]

I am making some Apfelwein today.

 

[bferullo]

It's very simple to make.

5 Gallons of Tree Top Apple Juice from Costco
2 pounds of Dextros (corn Sugar)
1 packet Dry Montrachet Wine yeast

1. Sanitize your carboy (I love my Better bottles) and big funnel.
2. Pour half of one gallon of juice in the Carboy. Then add 1 pound of Dextrose to the half empty bottle of juice. Put the cap on and shake it up to dissolve the sugar.
3. Repeat step 2 with another gallon of apple juice and the other pound of Dextrose
4. Pour the half bottles of juice/dextros into carboy
5. Pour the rest of the juice into the carboy saving about a quart
6. Sprinkle the yeast into the funnel then rinse with the rest of the juice so all the yeast is now in the carboy.

You can fit all the juice in it, don't worry.

Wait 4 weeks at least then keg, chill, & carbonate. I don't do a secondary, but you can if you want to age it beyond 4 weeks. I would not rack till it clears like the first bottle.

You can see the difference in the colors based on the date. The first bottle was made 9/12, the second on 10/5 and the third on 10/10. I use cheap Texas vodka for my airlocks. They burn through some during the first few days of fermentation, so I keep it handy there.

The end result is a crisp, dry, refreshing Apfelwein at 8.5% abv that rocks on hot summer days. SWMBO is loving it on tap. Her German mother is coming for Christmas, so I need to make sure I have enough to last.

Oh yeah, this makes a great Grog in the winter time.

Take a quart in a sauce pan, add some rum, turbinado sugar, and float a cinnamon stick in it and simmer for a while. Serve hot in mugs. It'll warm you right up.

1. Can I use a program like Beersmith to Scale down the recipe? --> say for making in a 3 gallon Better Bottle.
2. If I scale down the dextrose how badly will that affect the ABV? SWMBO is looking to have 5-6% ABV. I wasn't sure of the original recipe ABV.

 

[BrewerBear]

No problem to scale it,sugar is .4 lb per gallon

 

[BamaProud]

Threw together a 5 gallon batch, so easy its crazy. Its a good Idea I didn't know how to make this stuff when I was in high school. OG 1.0656

 

[Texastrooper]

I kegged mine this week since my wife prefers her sparkling. It has only been 5 weeks but the wine has a weird aftertaste. Almost like industrial oil. I wonder what is causing that taste.
First I though about a contaminated CO2 tank but I am not sure this is possible and I have used the same CO2 tank on my Hefeweizen and there was no taste like that. Any ideas? I will definitely wait a few more weeks and see if that taste goes away or gets worse.

Thanks
Stefan

 

[assmanfrom1973]

I quit reading at page 150. By the time I get to the end it will probably over 1100 pages so I have atleast 1000 to go. After taking a break at page 150 I felt compelled to start preparing for my second batch! I started my first batch on march 15th (11 days ago). It seems obvious from all this hype that I needed to do a second batch.

I anticipated making a second batch so I started out buying 4 pound of dextrose. The only thing I'm doing different this time is using an apple juice that I like more. My first batch was with Rougemont brand that I got from Costco for about $1 per L. Wasn't a fan of the flavor of that apple juice.

This time I purchased Allen's brand at around $1.25 per L. Allen's is one of my favorite brands so I will try to keep the brewing the same to see what kind of difference it makes.

I didn't use a hydrometer but Edworts recipe couldn't be much simpler so there shouldn't be many variables.

Anyone have good/bad opinions about Allens's brand for Apfelwein?

 

[assmanfrom1973]

Forgot to attach my current and next batch

 

[Hawaiibboy]

So a quick question before I go and make this bad boy:

You say ferment @ room temp. I'm in Hawaii will mid/high 70's be an issue? Also the temp can fluctuate day to night by almost 10 degrees in my part of the island. Will this be an issue?

I really wanna put this into my spare carboy and sit on it for a while.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

So a quick question before I go and make this bad boy:

You say ferment @ room temp. I'm in Hawaii will mid/high 70's be an issue? Also the temp can fluctuate day to night by almost 10 degrees in my part of the island. Will this be an issue?

I really wanna put this into my spare carboy and sit on it for a while.

Montrachet is supposedly good up into the mid 80s. Ranging from high 60s to high 70s would not be bad at all I think. It seems pretty bomb-proof.

 

[Leadgolem]

1. Can I use a program like Beersmith to Scale down the recipe? --> say for making in a 3 gallon Better Bottle.
2. If I scale down the dextrose how badly will that affect the ABV? SWMBO is looking to have 5-6% ABV. I wasn't sure of the original recipe ABV.

I wouldn't add any sugar of any kind if I was you then. This stuff generally finishes pretty close to 1.0. Most commercial juice is between 1.030, or more commonly 1.050. That means at 1.0 for your FG your ABV would be between 4-6.7% depending our your actual OG-FG numbers.

 

[Hawaiibboy]

Montrachet is supposedly good up into the mid 80s. Ranging from high 60s to high 70s would not be bad at all I think. It seems pretty bomb-proof.

Baller! I will have to start two batches because I know I'll bottle one at 3mo then wished I waited...

 

[Kampo]

made some about a month ago, getting pretty clear, seems to have stalled around 1.006 I still see a few bubbles up the side of the carboy, but SG hasn't changed in a week. is it done? temps in the house are around 67

 

[Tike_1206]

I got 6 gallons going in a better bottle on March 10. Followed the recipe exactly, just added an extra gallon and an extra .4 pounds of dextrose. I am interested to see how I like it. I am going to let this one age in the carboy for awhile. I have read the first hundred or so pages so far of this thread and back then they were bottling it after just four weeks, but I am getting the feeling more recently people are aging it a lot longer. Will it be okay in the same carboy for 6 solid months?

 

[BrewerBear]

It will be fine that long or transfer if you want.

 

[Tike_1206]

I thought that is what I recalled reading thanks.
I just bought 2 1-gallon jugs from whole foods today. I'm thinking I'll test a few things out with them. I'm looking around for info on using maple syrup...

 

[Carros]

Mixed up another 6 gallons of this tonight, while enjoying a 13 month old bottle. Fantastic stuff.

 

[Rys06Tbss]

Just started my second batch of this stuff... The first batch went really fast. I made another cider in the meantime, but my wife likes this better. I did add an extra lb of sugar this time around. Hoping to get around 10 percent out of this batch.

 

[DakotaPrerunner]

The light was fading fast here in the great NW, but I snapped this shot of a young apfelwein.

 

[lakeslad]

i now have 20 liters brewing, this is my 3rd batch, back one is made with brown sugar, the one left of that with honey, the front right two are 3 weeks in, and i have 6 pints in bottles maturing, really is a great drink to make.

oh and 2 pots of traditional rice wine brewing away

 

[cpesko]

1 year in fermenter. You think this is still drinkable?

 

[mike_in_ak]

Three guesses

 

[kapbrew13]

1 year in fermenter. You think this is still drinkable?

How's it taste?

 

[LBussy]

1 year in fermenter. You think this is still drinkable?

Drink it and tell us. No reason it should not be just because of time - assuming it was treated correctly otherwise.