Man, I love Apfelwein

[Leadgolem]

Thanks, man. I sampled it for the first time today. It could very easily be 12%, dry as a popcorn fart though.

If it's to dry, try backsweetening with some splenda. Or, if you are going to pasteurize, some apple juice concentrate.

Honestly though, I usually just keep a bottle of simple syrup around and bottle still and dry. That way you can sweeten in the glass to taste for each person, or mood.

 

[finsfan]

Took a gravity reading the other day and it is down to 1.002 after 3 weeks and is starting to clear up a lot

 

[jstampler]

If it's to dry, try backsweetening with some splenda. Or, if you are going to pasteurize, some apple juice concentrate. Honestly though, I usually just keep a bottle of simple syrup around and bottle still and dry. That way you can sweeten in the glass to taste for each person, or mood.

About how much Splenda do you use to sweeten a 5 gallon batch.

 

[Leadgolem]

About how much Splenda do you use to sweeten a 5 gallon batch.

It varies a lot with taste. Most of one of those bags that is equivalent to 5lbs of sugar is usually about right for me.

 

[Inkdrop]

I gotta try this one.

 

[Recluse]

So, everyone here always said that Apfelwein gets better with age, and really hits its stride after a year or more. I always save a bottle to test this hypothesis, and, quite honestly, my bottle primed sparkling apfelwein always seemed better when relatively young.

Just now I opened a bottle of still Apfelwein bottled in February 2010 from my very first batch, and NOW I am a total believer!!! Smooth as silk really apple-y tasting and more complex notes than ever before. I bottled 2 750 mL wine bottles of still Apfelwein from this batch and now I wish I had bottled more. It is REALLY good. Going to have to start keeping a few non-carbonated bottles from every batch to age out.

 

[aboutlastnite]

Hello, new to the forum and new to brewing. I'm sure the answers are somewhere in these 1000 + pages, but I cant find the scaling of the 5 gallon rec ipe to 1 gallon. Just do a swag on the dextrose and half pack of yeast ? Thanks.

 

[bleme]

Hello, new to the forum and new to brewing. I'm sure the answers are somewhere in these 1000 + pages, but I cant find the scaling of the 5 gallon rec ipe to 1 gallon. Just do a swag on the dextrose and half pack of yeast ? Thanks.

Divide everything by 5

 

[Goofynewfie]

Divide everything by 5

Except the yeast

 

[bleme]

Except the yeast

The yeast works fine divided by 5 as well.

 

[Hello]

Except the yeast

I saw this recommendation elsewhere and did a 1 gallon with a full package of yeast. Let me just say it was horrible. I won't pitch a full package of yeast to 1 gallon of anything ever again.


I bottled my apfelwein. I wish I had made it even sweeter because the person I made it for may not like it. It is delicious to me but not as sweet as I think she wants it. Bottled it with 64 oz of apple juice and 12 oz of dextrose. Should be pretty well carbonated and will pasteurize in the next night or two.

 

[iluvmysh]

I just wasn't sure if there was a major taste difference where using EC-1118 produced a totally different product. If it's very close, I'll just keep using the EC-1118. Here is the difference between my 3.5 week old batch with EC-1118 and my 2.5 month old batch with Montrachet:

are those just regular water dispenser 5gallon plastic bottles?
if so, do you have issues cleaning them? do they say 1 at the bottom? all of my bottles say 7.

 

[finsfan]

are those just regular water dispenser 5gallon plastic bottles?
if so, do you have issues cleaning them? do they say 1 at the bottom? all of my bottles say 7.

I believe they are both better bottles for fermenting beer and wine

 

[TexasWine]

Hello, new to the forum and new to brewing. I'm sure the answers are somewhere in these 1000 + pages, but I cant find the scaling of the 5 gallon rec ipe to 1 gallon. Just do a swag on the dextrose and half pack of yeast ? Thanks.

Another little tip. You can search an individual thread for the information you seek by using the search feature in the forum.

 

[iluvmysh]

I believe they are both better bottles for fermenting beer and wine

thank you.

 

[aboutlastnite]

I saw this recommendation elsewhere and did a 1 gallon with a full package of yeast. Let me just say it was horrible. I won't pitch a full package of yeast to 1 gallon of anything ever again.


I bottled my apfelwein. I wish I had made it even sweeter because the person I made it for may not like it. It is delicious to me but not as sweet as I think she wants it. Bottled it with 64 oz of apple juice and 12 oz of dextrose. Should be pretty well carbonated and will pasteurize in the next night or two.

This was the main reason for my question, wasn't sure on the yeast amount, most of my recipe browsing pretty much says "pitch the yeast", most times not saying the amount, so you guys got me on the right track, thanks for the quick replies. Also is it ok to ziplock and refrigerate the leftover yeast to use later, or just trash it.

 

[Hello]

This was the main reason for my question, wasn't sure on the yeast amount, most of my recipe browsing pretty much says "pitch the yeast", most times not saying the amount, so you guys got me on the right track, thanks for the quick replies. Also is it ok to ziplock and refrigerate the leftover yeast to use later, or just trash it.

I'm not saying anyone is wrong, just saying I tried this on a 1 gallon batch and it was horrible to me. I read that if you seal the package in something air tight it will be okay for up to 7 days. That is what I read about US-05 on their website. I would say stick it in a zip loc bag and stick it in the freezer. Use within 7 days.

 

[Hello]

are those just regular water dispenser 5gallon plastic bottles?
if so, do you have issues cleaning them? do they say 1 at the bottom? all of my bottles say 7.

Bottles with a #7 on the bottom apparently aren't good. Supposedly they may contain BPAs. I wouldn't ferment anything in them at all. That is just me.

 

[bleme]

Also is it ok to ziplock and refrigerate the leftover yeast to use later, or just trash it.

The manufacturer says to refrigerate up to 7 days. I have had mine live in the freezer for 3 months without an issue. That is completely anecdotal evidence though. Obviously, the sooner you can use it, the better.

 

[Leadgolem]

I saw this recommendation elsewhere and did a 1 gallon with a full package of yeast. Let me just say it was horrible. I won't pitch a full package of yeast to 1 gallon of anything ever again.


I bottled my apfelwein. I wish I had made it even sweeter because the person I made it for may not like it. It is delicious to me but not as sweet as I think she wants it. Bottled it with 64 oz of apple juice and 12 oz of dextrose. Should be pretty well carbonated and will pasteurize in the next night or two.

Interesting, I wouldn't even blink at pitching a whole 5 gram packet of dry yeast into a 1 gallon batch. It would depend on the gravity though. I usually use a pitching rate calculator though. You wouldn't really need that much yeast for a 1 gallon batch unless your gravity was around 1.150.

This was the main reason for my question, wasn't sure on the yeast amount, most of my recipe browsing pretty much says "pitch the yeast", most times not saying the amount, so you guys got me on the right track, thanks for the quick replies. Also is it ok to ziplock and refrigerate the leftover yeast to use later, or just trash it.

If you are using montrachet it probably came as dried yeast. I would say that dry yeast should still be good for at least 6 months if you just tape the packet shut and stick it in the fridge. I've used dried yeast that was in my fridge for a year after it was opened. It had clearly lost some viability, so I needed twice as much as usual, but it still worked just fine.

 

[Kdog22]

1 full standard packet of dried yeast, like montrachete, can be used in a 1 gallon batch with no ill effects. You don't need that whole packet of yeast but it won't hurt at all if you dump the whole thing in. I do all the time for my 1 gallon batches of wine.

 

[Recluse]

I too have pitched whole packets of yeast into 1 gal ferments of Meads, Ales etc with no apparent ill effects. Some of the meads were undrinkable, but I think that had less to do with the yeast and more to do with inexperience.

That said, I recently made an experimental 1 gal batch of "Cranberry Wine". Basically fermented cranberry juice. I rehydrated ~ 1/2 packet of Montrachet for it, and put the leftover yeast in the fridge sealed in a Ziplock bag. About a month later, I got around to making a second batch of the same stuff, and used the remaining Montrachet. It was fine.

I use a full packet of Montrachet, EC-1118 or RC-212 in Apfelwein whether I make 3, 4 or 5 gallons (depends on which carboy is available) and notice no problems.

Most dry yeasts are so cheap, it doesn't matter if you even throw out the rest of the packet, and most say they are good for 10 gallon batches anyway, so I am over-pitching with the usual 1 packet to 3-5 gallons anyway.

 

[Wulvaine]

Bottled a batch yesterday (my first time bottling, so I accidentally stirred up the yeast a bit before getting a flow going, but I'm not too concerned about it; I generally pour anything I drink anyway, and a little yeast won't hurt me!). Now that my secondary was free again, I racked my previous batch (the one I mentioned here as being stuck a couple weeks ago) and inoculated with EC-1118 to try and restart it; the original ferment was Montrachet.

It's been less than twenty minutes since I added the yeast, and the airlock is already starting to pop; it would seem the EC-1118 is happy.

 

[Hello]

I must have used a bad batch of something then. It was foul, muddy, and gave me a belly ache. It wasn't apfelwein though, that could explain it. I won't bother doing that again, ever. It seems I'm alone in this thought though.

I bottled my apfelwein on Saturday and made one plastic bottle as my carbonation tester. It felt nearly rock solid so I tested a 12 oz bottle. It is still as can be. I'm kind of bummed. Hoping it does whatever it wants to do in the next few days.

 

[Recluse]

I must have used a bad batch of something then. It was foul, muddy, and gave me a belly ache. It wasn't apfelwein though, that could explain it. I won't bother doing that again, ever. It seems I'm alone in this thought though.

I bottled my apfelwein on Saturday and made one plastic bottle as my carbonation tester. It felt nearly rock solid so I tested a 12 oz bottle. It is still as can be. I'm kind of bummed. Hoping it does whatever it wants to do in the next few days.

Hmmm... Not sure what to say about your test bottle, but I have never had Apfelwein carb up sufficiently until at least 10 days post bottling... Give it time...but I can see the problem if you are planning to pasteurize for a sweeter product..

 

[Kdog22]

I must have used a bad batch of something then. It was foul, muddy, and gave me a belly ache. It wasn't apfelwein though, that could explain it. I won't bother doing that again, ever. It seems I'm alone in this thought though.

I bottled my apfelwein on Saturday and made one plastic bottle as my carbonation tester. It felt nearly rock solid so I tested a 12 oz bottle. It is still as can be. I'm kind of bummed. Hoping it does whatever it wants to do in the next few days.

Some wines can take a long time to fully bottle carb. Especially if you're comparing bottle carbing to beer brews. The CO2 gases given off in the bottle will build up pressure inside the bottle and fill the little airspace at the top. At a certain point, the gases will have no where else to go but down into the wine and that's where you start to get the carbonation into your wine.

Basically, you can have a plastic bottle feel hard and carbed with pressure but it has not yet had time to "mingle" back down into the wine just yet. At least, that's how I understand it.

Give it some time

 

[Grimster]

Give it some time

And that is my main flaw with this hobby, patience, I have none. I've got a tripel in secondary I am just itching to keg up but I know, if I give it just a little more time it'll be better for it. Then once I keg it, I know, if I can just wait at least a week to try it, rather than starting to draw "samples" before it's even carbonated much less somewhat conditioned, I'll get much better beer for it.

First world problems I guess

 

[Wineomatic]

Has anyone tried with the main sugars? Brown, Corn, Pure? Any noticeable differences?

My first batch I did with dark brown sugar and it gave it a maple back flavor, wasn't bad at all!

But yeah, any other noticeable differences?

 

[finsfan]

Has anyone tried with the main sugars? Brown, Corn, Pure? Any noticeable differences?

My first batch I did with dark brown sugar and it gave it a maple back flavor, wasn't bad at all!

But yeah, any other noticeable differences?

I used corn sugar for mine (dextrose) which I believe is what the OP recipe calls for

 

[Wineomatic]

I used corn sugar for mine (dextrose) which I believe is what the OP recipe calls for

How was the flavor, how was the taste? Did you feel it was crisp, sweet, tart?