Man, I love Apfelwein

[Leadgolem]

Thanks for the response. Should I be adding campden tablets before bottling the still part?

You can if you want, it won't hurt anything. If your sanitation was ok, then you don't have to. It's unlikely you'll have any bad results if you don't.

 

[jstampler]

You can if you want, it won't hurt anything. If your sanitation was ok, then you don't have to. It's unlikely you'll have any bad results if you don't.

Won't it help stop the fermentation just in case its not 100% complete to avoid potential bottle bombs? Or am I thinking of something other than k-meta/campden tabs?

 

[Leadgolem]

Won't it help stop the fermentation just in case its not 100% complete to avoid potential bottle bombs? Or am I thinking of something other than k-meta/campden tabs?

Sure it will. Potassium metabisulfite kills yeast. Potassium sorbate interferes with yeast reproduction. That's what's usually in wine stabilizer.

If you're at FG, then you don't need to worry about it. Personally, I prefer to bottle pasteurize if I'm not sure I'm at FG. Or, if I want to bottle sweet. The effectiveness of the chemicals is dependent on PH, and a couple other things. Pasteurization is pretty straight forward, and will definitely kill the yeast or any incidental acetobacter or lacto that might be in the batch.

Generally, I don't do either. I bottle still once I'm sure I've got FG.

It's up to you. If it makes you more comfortable to use campden or a wine stabilizer, then go ahead. Nothing wrong with that. If you'd prefer to pasteurize, then do that. If you are confident that you are good when your batch is done, then you don't need to do anything but bottle.

There isn't any wrong way to do this. It's a matter of what works for you, and makes you the most comfortable.

 

[jstampler]

Sure it will. Potassium metabisulfite kills yeast. Potassium sorbate interferes with yeast reproduction. That's what's usually in wine stabilizer.

If you're at FG, then you don't need to worry about it. Personally, I prefer to bottle pasteurize if I'm not sure I'm at FG. Or, if I want to bottle sweet. The effectiveness of the chemicals is dependent on PH, and a couple other things. Pasteurization is pretty straight forward, and will definitely kill the yeast or any incidental acetobacter or lacto that might be in the batch.

Generally, I don't do either. I bottle still once I'm sure I've got FG.

It's up to you. If it makes you more comfortable to use campden or a wine stabilizer, then go ahead. Nothing wrong with that. If you'd prefer to pasteurize, then do that. If you are confident that you are good when your batch is done, then you don't need to do anything but bottle.

There isn't any wrong way to do this. It's a matter of what works for you, and makes you the most comfortable.

Sounds good. Thanks for your help. I'll keep some k-meta near by when I'm ready to bottle just in case I have any apprehension, otherwise I'll just bottle straight from the carboy and bottle age naturally.

 

[J187]

Just put my first batch of apfelwein in the carboy!

I am on the fence about carbonating... I THINK I'm hopeful that I will like it as a wine - dry, not carbed and in a wine bottle! I plan to wait 8 weeks and then carb a few bottles and try it both ways. Is there any reason why I can't basically keep this in the carboy? In other words, maybe fill a couple 750ml wine bottles and throw those in the fridge one week and then refill them when they are empty?

 

[Kdog22]

Just put my first batch of apfelwein in the carboy!

I am on the fence about carbonating... I THINK I'm hopeful that I will like it as a wine - dry, not carbed and in a wine bottle! I plan to wait 8 weeks and then carb a few bottles and try it both ways. Is there any reason why I can't basically keep this in the carboy? In other words, maybe fill a couple 750ml wine bottles and throw those in the fridge one week and then refill them when they are empty?

Only thing I would worry about with that is growing headspace and oxidation over time. General consensus is to keep it in the carboy as long as you can, then bottle since bulk aging is a good thing. Either way, when you're ready to bottle, i'd bottle all of it.

 

[podz]

Just put my first batch of apfelwein in the carboy!

I am on the fence about carbonating... I THINK I'm hopeful that I will like it as a wine - dry, not carbed and in a wine bottle! I plan to wait 8 weeks and then carb a few bottles and try it both ways. Is there any reason why I can't basically keep this in the carboy? In other words, maybe fill a couple 750ml wine bottles and throw those in the fridge one week and then refill them when they are empty?

You need to get yourself 5 of the 1 gallon carboys and rack your batch to all of them, and then airlock them all. Drink a gallon at a time as you get ready - just remove the airlock and pop it into the fridge.

 

[Leadgolem]

You need to get yourself 5 of the 1 gallon carboys and rack your batch to all of them, and then airlock them all. Drink a gallon at a time as you get ready - just remove the airlock and pop it into the fridge.

Drink a gallon of apfelwein in one sitting? Challenge accepted. Well, not really. That might kill me...

 

[slunkmonky]

Sure it will. Potassium metabisulfite kills yeast. Potassium sorbate interferes with yeast reproduction. That's what's usually in wine stabilizer.

If you're at FG, then you don't need to worry about it. Personally, I prefer to bottle pasteurize if I'm not sure I'm at FG. Or, if I want to bottle sweet. The effectiveness of the chemicals is dependent on PH, and a couple other things. Pasteurization is pretty straight forward, and will definitely kill the yeast or any incidental acetobacter or lacto that might be in the batch.

I'm drinking a glass right now that I think I overkilled a bit. I used sorbate and I pasteurized.

I did 3.5 gallons of juice and a pound of corn sugar. I let it FG out. Then I added sorbate and a half gallon of applejuice making the final volume 3.5 gallons of dry apple wine and .5 gallons of straight up juice. As soon as I added the fresh juice to the carboy with the sorbate, I started bottling and bottle pasteurized the whole batch. The yeast had but a mere hour at most to start working on the new apple sugars.

I ended up with a sweeter "wetter" apple wine. After months of aging, none of them have been bottle bombs or came out sparkling.

Perhaps the sorbate was too much and pasteurizing alone would have been fine. But I don't taste anything off putting in it. And it is only slightly less good at making me completely drunk out of my mind with the extra unfermented apple juice in the mix.

I let people taste is as much as possible, usually non-brewer/vintners. I never get a bad review. I think the dryness of regular FG-and-then-bottle-and-age apple wine puts some people off because, for the uninitiated, they assume it's going to taste like apple juice with vodka in it as opposed to apple juice where yeast ate the sugar and made alcohol in it's place. So, as I often do, I play to the cretans and make cretan wine. Like Chuck Barris made TV shows. Give em what they want!

But I actually enjoy drinking it like this myself, and I've brewed Mead and apple wine before without sweetening and enjoyed those as well. So what does that say about me? As long as I'm happy! That's what!

Sorry for any off-putting tastes in my post. But as of press time, I'm drunk out of my mind. Cheers!

 

[Tom128]

My first batch of this is finished. Very dry, below 0.990 even (lowest mark I have). Very tart and a bit of an alcohol bite that I assume will go away as it ages. I think I will let most of it age in a smaller container, but I am having a get together in a few weeks and will let people have some of it then. I think I want to bottle and carb about a dozen of them too just to see what they are like cold and carbed.

I have never bottle carbed before and since I am only bottling a few I dont want to add sugar to the entire batch so I was going to just put some sugar into the bottles. Any idea what a good amount of sugar would be per bottle? Thoughts on taste when light vs high carbed? I was thinking like 1/3-1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar per bottle.

 

[Leadgolem]

I'm drinking a glass right now that I think I overkilled a bit. I used sorbate and I pasteurized.

I did 3.5 gallons of juice and a pound of corn sugar. I let it FG out. Then I added sorbate and a half gallon of applejuice making the final volume 3.5 gallons of dry apple wine and .5 gallons of straight up juice. As soon as I added the fresh juice to the carboy with the sorbate, I started bottling and bottle pasteurized the whole batch. The yeast had but a mere hour at most to start working on the new apple sugars.

I ended up with a sweeter "wetter" apple wine. After months of aging, none of them have been bottle bombs or came out sparkling.

Perhaps the sorbate was too much and pasteurizing alone would have been fine. But I don't taste anything off putting in it. And it is only slightly less good at making me completely drunk out of my mind with the extra unfermented apple juice in the mix.

I let people taste is as much as possible, usually non-brewer/vintners. I never get a bad review. I think the dryness of regular FG-and-then-bottle-and-age apple wine puts some people off because, for the uninitiated, they assume it's going to taste like apple juice with vodka in it as opposed to apple juice where yeast ate the sugar and made alcohol in it's place. So, as I often do, I play to the cretans and make cretan wine. Like Chuck Barris made TV shows. Give em what they want!

But I actually enjoy drinking it like this myself, and I've brewed Mead and apple wine before without sweetening and enjoyed those as well. So what does that say about me? As long as I'm happy! That's what!

Sorry for any off-putting tastes in my post. But as of press time, I'm drunk out of my mind. Cheers!

Sounds like you're having fun. Good for you.

I keep a bottle of either simple syrup or apple syrup around so I can sweeten in the glass to taste. It's also nice for other still wines if I'm in the mood for something sweet. It's nice for mix drinks too, for that matter.

My first batch of this is finished. Very dry, below 0.990 even (lowest mark I have). Very tart and a bit of an alcohol bite that I assume will go away as it ages. I think I will let most of it age in a smaller container, but I am having a get together in a few weeks and will let people have some of it then. I think I want to bottle and carb about a dozen of them too just to see what they are like cold and carbed.

I have never bottle carbed before and since I am only bottling a few I dont want to add sugar to the entire batch so I was going to just put some sugar into the bottles. Any idea what a good amount of sugar would be per bottle? Thoughts on taste when light vs high carbed? I was thinking like 1/3-1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar per bottle.

Priming sugar calculators are good.

Lets see. 1 gallon is 128 oz. So you get 10.66 12 oz bottles per gallon. That makes each 12 oz bottle 0.0938 gallons. At 2.5 volumes with a brew at 75f that calculator gives you 0.1 oz of sucrose per bottle. I would find that difficult to add accurately. Personally, I'd take the volume you intended to bottle carb and calculate your sugar based on the total volume of the brew you want to carbonate. So, if you want say a gallon of brew carbonated you would want 0.9 oz sucrose. That's a little easier to measure then 0.1 oz.

I prefer my co2 at 2-2.5 volumes. That's pretty much middle ground. High would be 3-3.5. The higher carbonation is a little more common with something like cyser. IMO, the extra carbonic acid in solution much over 2.5 is a little to much tang. Usually apple juice has been treated with ascorbic acid to make it more acidic. That way it doesn't have to be pasteurized at as high of a temperature and doesn't lose as much flavor during the process. You get carbonic acid whenever you carbonate a water based liquid, it turns into co2 gas but still registers on the tongue as an acid besides producing the fizz.

Enjoy!

 

[podz]

Drink a gallon of apfelwein in one sitting? Challenge accepted. Well, not really. That might kill me...

I can easily drink a gallon, together with my wife, during the course of one evening. Doesn't even come halfway close to killing us ;-) Not even the slightest trace of a hangover the next morning.

 

[munro]

Made first batch tonight. Used 1 kg dextrose and used lalvin ex-1118. See you in three months. Making another batch next week for christmas. Plan to carb.

 

[J187]

Ok, I'll bottle it all at once, but I'm still thinking wine bottles for most of it and carbing the rest in beer bottles. Anyone think of any reason not to use wine bottles with corks? If I used a wine bottle, opened it up and had a couple glasses, how long do you think it would keep in the fridge with one of those air purging battery operated wine stoppers?

 

[Kdog22]

I've had my Apfelwein going for over a month now. If I intend to have this bottled and ready to hand out as Christmas gifts this year, how long would it take to build proper carbonation if I bottle carb a gallon or two? If I bottled at the end of november, would that be sufficient?


Also, once bottled in beer bottles, how long will it stay carbed assuming it was capped and sealed right?


Thanks!

 

[Leadgolem]

Ok, I'll bottle it all at once, but I'm still thinking wine bottles for most of it and carbing the rest in beer bottles. Anyone think of any reason not to use wine bottles with corks? If I used a wine bottle, opened it up and had a couple glasses, how long do you think it would keep in the fridge with one of those air purging battery operated wine stoppers?

There is no reason not to bottle in corked wine or belgian bottles. I've got 20ish bottles of still cider bottled that way. They sure do make a nice presentation as gifts.

How long will it last? Not very long, somebody will drink it. Seriously, I've had a bottle in the back of the fridge with a standard stopper in it for a month without it going off. Cider of any kind doesn't seem to be particularly prone to oxidation. The aroma had faded somewhat.

I've had my Apfelwein going for over a month now. If I intend to have this bottled and ready to hand out as Christmas gifts this year, how long would it take to build proper carbonation if I bottle carb a gallon or two? If I bottled at the end of november, would that be sufficient?


Also, once bottled in beer bottles, how long will it stay carbed assuming it was capped and sealed right?


Thanks!

Probably, if you are concerned put the bottles someplace warm for a couple weeks. The top of your fridge is probably good. The compressor in the fridge and the elevation usually makes it about 7f warmer then the rest of the house.

Alternately, you could bottle in the beginning of September. I don't know anybody who has had it take more then 3 months to fully carb.

How long is the carbonation going to last? Uh, a long time. I've got some sparkling that's about 12 months after bottling and it is still nicely carbed.

 

[Kdog22]

Probably, if you are concerned put the bottles someplace warm for a couple weeks. The top of your fridge is probably good. The compressor in the fridge and the elevation usually makes it about 7f warmer then the rest of the house.

Alternately, you could bottle in the beginning of September. I don't know anybody who has had it take more then 3 months to fully carb.

How long is the carbonation going to last? Uh, a long time. I've got some sparkling that's about 12 months after bottling and it is still nicely carbed.

I have had the intention to store the bottles in a dark closet (room temp 73F) until it's time to taste test and/or hand out as gifts. I think, just to be on the safe side, i'll bottle mid september Thank you, sir.

 

[littletommy]

I just got my second 5 gallon batch of this going today, 3 weeks after starting the first. First batch followed the recipe to a T, this one I used a pound of corn sugar and a pound of light brown sugar, and threw in 2 small cinnamon sticks. Can't wait to taste it, the first batch smells awesome!

 

[Ridenour64]

Hey guys. I'm just looking for some advice. I started a 6 gallon batch in march of this year. Added all the ingredients right to the carboy, and it has been sitting there ever since. So that's about 5 months it's been sitting on the lees and everything.

I'm just wondering what I should do. I am looking for a more quality Apfelwein experience. I'm looking at these options.

1. let sit on the lees for a while longer, 8 months + maybe?

2. Rack into a new carboy and age it out.

3. Rack into bottles now. ( I am afraid of having sediment on the bottom of my bottles tho.)

4 any other recommendations you guys might have.

From your guys past experience, how long should I really wait to start drinking this stuff? I read that it says it gets better with age. But how long until it starts to get good? Im willing to wait.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

Damn you EdWort, damn you to hell.

Polished off my last bottle of Apfelwein only to realize I had just experienced it's greatest flavor yet after 10 months in the bottle. But I did not brew a second batch right after the first!

I know I was warned, but I did not heed the warning.

Dammit.

 

[Tom128]

This stuff improved in flavor significantly in just two weeks so far, it's impressive. It was a bit too intense alcohol/less apple flavor but I just drank some and its getting quite nice now. The bottle I drank was also bottle carbing for just 5 days but it already has a nice amount of carbonation. So far I like it much more than when it is still.

 

[Jcbrown360]

Just started my first batch today. Hopefully going to start a second batch in a couple weeks. Thanks for the recipe.

 

[Amazer]

Just started my first batch (5 Gal.) yesterday. Used Ed's original recipe and added 4 tsp of yeast nutriants just to give it some help. Took seven hours for the bubbles to start and today it looks like its boiling in there. I have never seen so much activity, now the wait for this to finish.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

2 bottles down...EdWort, see you in hell. Only Satan himself could create such a tempting concoction.

 

[BamaProud]

Bottled my 2nd batch yesterday(pitched March 24th so ~4 months bulk aged) ...and added a unsweetened/still gallon from my previous batch(pitched Feb 21). This 6 gal batch is all carbonated and sweetened. Still have a few bottles of the 1st batch so I hope to get some good age on the 2nd batch.

Also started Skeeter Pee from the yeast slurry my pipeline is starting to take shape.

 

[detlion1643]

2-3 weeks after bottling my apple cinnamon batch, I only have 12 bottles left of 24 bottled. Arg, people won't keep away from it. I think the apple cinnamon is a bigger hit than the straight apple I did. Although, I did do the normal 2 lbs sugar + 4 cans of extra concentrate. The flavor is out of this world!!!

The other night I drank half a bottle, then when I woke up and realized the whole bottle was gone. No alcohol flavor but bit me in the ass!!!

 

[Leadgolem]

2-3 weeks after bottling my apple cinnamon batch, I only have 12 bottles left of 24 bottled. Arg, people won't keep away from it. I think the apple cinnamon is a bigger hit than the straight apple I did. Although, I did do the normal 2 lbs sugar + 4 cans of extra concentrate. The flavor is out of this world!!!

The other night I drank half a bottle, then when I woke up and realized the whole bottle was gone. No alcohol flavor but bit me in the ass!!!

Try a little nutmeg and a tiny bit of clove too. You won't taste them, they will just make it seem like the cinnamon is more complex.

 

[dave8274]

I discovered this tread last Saturday. Since then, I've skimmed through the entire thing, purchased 2 Better Bottles, 16 gallons of apple juice, and started 2 batches of the original recipe and 1 batch of a cider with Nottingham yeast and no added sugar.

Hope this stuff is good!

By the way, I'm fermenting this in my basement which is about 65-68 degrees. I didn't use yeast nutrient, and haven't had any 'rhino fart' issues. There was only a slight sulfur smell on day 2 and 3 if I put my nose right up to the airlock. I wonder if it's mostly a temperature thing.

 

[Leadgolem]

I discovered this tread last Saturday. Since then, I've skimmed through the entire thing, purchased 2 Better Bottles, 16 gallons of apple juice, and started 2 batches of the original recipe and 1 batch of a cider with Nottingham yeast and no added sugar.

Hope this stuff is good!

By the way, I'm fermenting this in my basement which is about 65-68 degrees. I didn't use yeast nutrient, and haven't had any 'rhino fart' issues. There was only a slight sulfur smell on day 2 and 3 if I put my nose right up to the airlock. I wonder if it's mostly a temperature thing.

To some degree yes. With warmer temperatures you have more yeast activity, so you get pretty much all your sulfur compounds in a short amount of time. If they are produced over a longer amount of time they could be present, but at levels that are difficult to detect.

I looked for, but was unable to find, a reference that had good data on a variance in the total amount of sulfur compounds produced being effected by temperature.

Another thing that varies is the nutrient content of the juice. Different varieties harvested at different times of the year and processed in slightly different ways are going to produce juices that are a little different. Not in any way that's important to a human, but to yeast on the other hand...

 

[wildozarkwine]

The first wine I ever made was an apple wine, used the same basic recipe. Didn't know what I was doing, just got a gal. of juice, added some sugar and yeast and let it go. Excellent first try. Time to go juice shopping.
The only yeast I have on hand is Lavin 1118 and 71B, will one of these work ok for this?