Man, I love Apfelwein

[Jcbrown360]

I was rummaging through my closet tonight and came across a plastic apple juice jug with an airlock stuck in the top. Curious is moved the dead laptop and hand vacuum out of the way to discover a jug with the words apfelwein 1/24/13 scrawled on a piece of duct tape. I quickly sanitized the funnel, strainer, and my one gallon mead jug. I poured about 3 quarters of beautifully clear apple cinnamon heaven into that jug. A small taste revealed a taste that was amazingly sweet, quite dry, and very boozy. All I can say is this Christmas dinner is gonna be nuts!

Nice find

 

[Thirdthorpe]

So I was studying for finals a couple weeks ago and decided a glass of apfelwein sounded good to take the edge off the ominous feeling of impending doom I was experiencing. I thought it was a bad idea to get TOO bombed so I thought I'd try mixing my apfelwein with a bit of ginger ale I had sitting in the fridge. Holy balls was that good. Half an hour and one liter of AW later I was trying to study with one eye closed. Moral of the story is, AW and ginger ale go together really well.

 

[wburns]

6 weeks in still bubbling away. Normal?

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

View attachment 166830

6 weeks in still bubbling away. Normal?

Bubbles mean nothing. What is the gravity?

 

[wburns]

I'll check it in the morning and report back

 

[Kdog22]

After bulk aging for 6 months in the secondary, I bottled 5 gallons worth of the Apfelwein last night. I filled 22 wine bottles and a 6 pack of beer bottles and had a large leftover cup of wine to reward myself with at the end of the bottling. This stuff is crystal clear, purdy color and tastes great.

I'm giving about half of this away for christmas gifts this year. I'm keeping the pretty looking (brand new) clear bottles on the right for myself.

 

[stmizell]

After my experience with bottling apfelwein this week, I worried about those bubbles. Ours carbed up and blew the corks after bottling.

 

[wburns]

Started at 1.058 it's at 1.010 now, started it 11/1/13. My house is around 62 degrees inside (I prefer cooler temps), so I did have a heater (brew belt style) on the last week. It seems to have an active ferment going and it's definitely never stopped gassing out.

Thanks
Will

 

[Kdog22]

After my experience with bottling apfelwein this week, I worried about those bubbles. Ours carbed up and blew the corks after bottling.

Those couple of bubbles were just from the sanitizer I used on the bottles and racking eqiupment. My Apfelwein was 6 months old when I bottled last night and I didn't sweeten it, so i'm not worried at all about it carbing up.

 

[finsfan]

Started at 1.058 it's at 1.010 now, started it 11/1/13. My house is around 62 degrees inside (I prefer cooler temps), so I did have a heater (brew belt style) on the last week. It seems to have an active ferment going and it's definitely never stopped gassing out.

Thanks
Will

You were right to heat it up and just wait it out. It could take another month to finish out, its always a guessing game so just use the gravity readings and you should be fine

 

[Matteo57]

So i made a batch of 4 gallons of this stuff back in July. Then 4 months later, I added 3lbs of cherries I pureed. Never really saw second fermentation take off. Maybe the yeast was old? Along with the cherries, I added a new packet of us-05, but since the beverage was already around 7% alc not sure if the yeast was really able to take off from that either. Anyways, I just took a gravity reading and it was 1.003. I'm guessing it's done but I know this stuff can get down to .999 or so also....
Should I bottle this with only light sugar expecting it to drop a point more or two in the bottle than extra or should I just bottle as usual?
Thanks!

 

[munro]

Made a 5 gallon batch with 2 lbs dextrose and 2 lbs brown sugar. My og reading seemed very low and I looked at the bottom of carboy and lots if undos solved sugar. Anyone have a rough idea what og might be or final abv would be if it ferments out like a typical batch? It seems people have used similar recipes before

 

[munro]

Btw the fermentation bubbled up like crazy unlike a typical batch

 

[DRonco]

I used one pound dextrose and one pound Brown sugar in five gallons. Og: 1.067 eight weeks later it was 1.002. That would put it at 8.6%

 

[wburns]

You were right to heat it up and just wait it out. It could take another month to finish out, its always a guessing game so just use the gravity readings and you should be fine

Thank you!

 

[ringo8553]

If I want to carb in mini-keg..what amount of sugar should I use?

 

[Sheboyganjohn]

Made my first batch last January. Left it in the fermenter for three months. Bottled it up, half still, half carbed, and let it sit. Tried them both in mid summer. Were o.k. but not what I thought was great, had a slight harshness to them. Let them sit unit deer hunting in late Nov. Now we have something to talk about. We were fighting over it in deer camp. Now I cannot tap a wine bottle by myself otherwise I drink it all. The carbed stuff is good too, but I like it still. Nice crisp and dry with a clean finish. About time to fire up another batch before I drink everything I have.

 

[David-in-Oregon]

I just bottled my first 5 gal batch after letting it ferment for a little over 3 months. It was nice and dry as I like it, but I wanted a little more carbonation so I primed it with 5 oz of sugar before bottling.
I'm hoping I don't have to pasteurize to prevent bottle bombs, but since this is my first time brewing anything, I don't have any experience. Any advice?

 

[BrewerBear]

You will be fine

 

[bleme]

5oz is what most of the beer kits ship with, so it is a pressure the bottles are designed to handle. I prefer my beers with 4oz or less but 5oz will be fine in a cider.

 

[high5apparatus]

Just mixed up a other batch. This one with nice and cloudy pressed apple cider that was on sale. I added brown sugar and honey instead of corn sugar. The current batch I'm drinking that was aged with bourbon soaked oak chips has me thinking I'll oak this batch too.

 

[Boins]

30 days into my first batch and fermenting is about done.

Few questions:

Should I transfer to another carboy for conditioning or just let it set in my primary?

I bottle my cider and like carbonation. Do I have to bottle now and back sweeten for carb? Or can I let this batch sit longer and condition for a few weeks/months and still be able to back sweeten to get carb when I bottle down the road?

 

[David-in-Oregon]

Thank you.

 

[David-in-Oregon]

5oz is what most of the beer kits ship with, so it is a pressure the bottles are designed to handle. I prefer my beers with 4oz or less but 5oz will be fine in a cider.

Thank you.

 

[jab007]

I normally let mine sit in the same carboy for about 3-4 months. Then I back sweeten to get carb and bottle. Letting it sit in the same carboy will not harm it, I've left it in the for up to six months... Turns out great. I can do that because I'm not a drinker. I give most of it away except for a few bottle I keep for sampling. The best thing to do is either make two batches at once that way you can let one sit longer to get a better result.

30 days into my first batch and fermenting is about done.

Few questions:

Should I transfer to another carboy for conditioning or just let it set in my primary?

I bottle my cider and like carbonation. Do I have to bottle now and back sweeten for carb? Or can I let this batch sit longer and condition for a few weeks/months and still be able to back sweeten to get carb when I bottle down the road?

 

[Boins]

I normally let mine sit in the same carboy for about 3-4 months. Then I back sweeten to get carb and bottle. Letting it sit in the same carboy will not harm it, I've left it in the for up to six months... Turns out great. I can do that because I'm not a drinker. I give most of it away except for a few bottle I keep for sampling. The best thing to do is either make two batches at once that way you can let one sit longer to get a better result.

Answered my question. Thanks!

 

[SaguaroMan]

Does anybody recommend a yeast starter with this? I went to my LHBS and since they didn't have Montrachet yeast, they gave me some Red Star Pasteur Red dry wine yeast

Quickly, before zee Germans get 'ere...

 

[BrewerBear]

A starter is not needed for this brew.

 

[JBrist0w]

Just made this last night. Used 2lbs of corn sugar, 3 cans of concentrate, and as much apple juice as I could fit in a 5 gal carboy ( just under 5 gal). I also threw in 3 cinnamon sticks. Put them in with about a quart of juice on the stove and simmered for a few min while I got everything else ready.
Got an initial SG reading of 1.070 so if it ferments dry it should be about 9.5% abv.
Used Montrachet yeast.

Can't wait to try it in a few months.

 

[DSmith]

I've got a tradition to make a batch over the 4th of July weekend and let it sit for 6 months and bottle on New Years. I'm looking forward to bottling this, and still have a few left from a year ago. It does get better with age.

The only recipe changes I make are:
Use wine yeast nutrient
Aerate with a drill/paddle prior to pitching yeast
Temperature control the fermentation to the high 60's
Re-yeast with Lalvin EC-1118 (1 gram/5 gallons, rehydrated), prime for 2.5 vol CO2