Man, I love Apfelwein

[stever1000]

Any comments from Canadians on where to get 5 gallons of juice? I'm running into the same problem as others: I don't want to buy 23 individual containers...

Thanks!

 

[philford]

I've had good success with subtype which can be bought at Wal-Mart or superstore in 1 gallon bottles. President choice at the Superstore is good too. I usually buy whichever of those is on sale.

 

[JonLaw]

Question guys... I don't want to read through 1297 posts to find if anyone made a change to the recipe that put this over the top. So can some one post the current recipe? Thanks

 

[jpb2716]

Question guys... I don't want to read through 1297 posts to find if anyone made a change to the recipe that put this over the top. So can some one post the current recipe? Thanks

I'm pretty sure the original recipe is still the most popular recipe. That's the one I used.

 

[benco]

Question guys... I don't want to read through 1297 posts to find if anyone made a change to the recipe that put this over the top. So can some one post the current recipe? Thanks

If you haven't made it before this recipe is solid and easy to make. I have made this many times for my wife, she loves it. I have experimented by adding 2 to 3 pounds of brown sugar, I've tried different yeast and have added some pomegranate juice to it. I've keg some at one month, 3 months and nine months. She likes it dry, so I don't back sweeten. I think the longer it sits and you start drinking it you think there is not much of a alcohol taste in it and then it just sneaks up on you and your toasted.

 

[andrewmaixner]

Question guys... I don't want to read through 1297 posts to find if anyone made a change to the recipe that put this over the top. So can some one post the current recipe? Thanks

My tweaks have only been detrimental. Stick with the original

 

[stever1000]

If the ingredients in the apple juice are "water, apple concentrate, Vit C" how will that vary vs. "apple juice, Vit C" ? I realize the first one is less pure, but will it change the OG or final taste that much?
Weighing out the costs of one vs the other....

 

[benco]

If the ingredients in the apple juice are "water, apple concentrate, Vit C" how will that vary vs. "apple juice, Vit C" ? I realize the first one is less pure, but will it change the OG or final taste that much?

Weighing out the costs of one vs the other....

I'm not sure what your asking, do you mean you concentrate vs. liquid juice? I've only done juice with vit. C.
I wished I had access to some real cider, but not here where I'm at!
That's a good question, maybe the concentrate has to many variables when you start mixing with water for your batch. I have no idea! I'm just rambling.

 

[stever1000]

Yeah sorry for the confusion I meant the difference between pure juice, and juice that has added water.

 

[Raenon]

Yeah sorry for the confusion I meant the difference between pure juice, and juice that has added water.

What you have there isn't juice with added water, it's juice from concentrate.
As in they took natural juice, removed the water, shipped it somewhere, stored it for some time, then added enough water to being it back to a federally regulated sugar content, which is an average of natural sources.

Although clearly there is some room for flavor loss through that product, it still has everything needed to keep yeast happy, and will behave, more or less, like fresh. Even the vitamin c that's in both is fine.

And just to be clear- American style clarified apple juice has already been messed with quite a bit. If it was REALLY fresh, it'd have some amount of pulp and haze and a bit of bite.

The real beauty of this recipe is that it's very forgiving. Apple juice from concentrate still produces good Apfelwein, with a nice apple flavor and aroma, with time.

 

[stever1000]

Thanks for your informative reply. Ill stick with the pure juice to get maximum benefit.

 

[Raenon]

Certainly nothing wrong with using the best possible ingredients, but again I'd make the case that this very recipe is designed to work well with the cheap stuff. I save the good stuff for sweeter wines.

 

[homebruguru]

used eds original recipe: bottled this yesterday and it was a little dry so I backsweetend with welchs %100 apple juice concentrate (in the pop can) not the frozen. tastes really good and with age can only imagine it getting better

 

[jammin]

If the ingredients in the apple juice are "water, apple concentrate, Vit C" how will that vary vs. "apple juice, Vit C" ? I realize the first one is less pure, but will it change the OG or final taste that much?
Weighing out the costs of one vs the other....

short answer no. the only critical thing to ensure is that the juice is preservative free.

you really ought to own and use a hydrometer though. you can then measure the alcohol potential in the juice (sugars) and add dextrose/sucrose to reach your desired ABV

 

[TheBigLebrewsk1]

I dropped an oak spiral into mine today. Going age it 2 months then bottle it still. Will wait another 3 months before sampling.

 

[davidst]

I've only made two batches of this so far, once with corn sugar and one where instead of the corn sugar, I added a few cans of concentrated apple juice. I've found that I like the 2 month old apple juice with concentrate more than my 4 month old apple juice and corn sugar (granted it's more tart but I guess that helps to hide the green flavors). Has anyone else tried this?

 

[stever1000]

I made this yesterday with 5 gallons of the SunRype brand pure juice. Added in 2.5lbs of dextrose because my first gravity reading came up as 1.050 and I thought maybe my juice wasn't as sweet as the others. Turns out the carboy hadn't mixed completely because now my OG is 1.070.
I'm excited to try this in a few months! I'm just going to let it sit and forget about it.
I used EC-1118 yeast because I couldnt find the other stuff. When should I take a SG reading to ensure that fermentation is happening?

 

[bransona]

I made this for swmbo for Valentine's day. Just went in bottles a few days ago. Tastes a little buttery, but is great overall. Can't wait to get some age on it.

 

[BoostEd6]

First batch of Apfelwein brewed today. Only change I made was using brown sugar.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1455508661.955876.jpg

 

[hifidelity]

I just checked on my 5 gallon batch of apfelwein brewed(?) on 12/26/15 and it has cleared up beautifully. I tasted it on 1/26/16 and it was pleasantly drinkable, but not near as clear and had some sulfur funk in the nose. I'm going to check gravity/taste it again on March 26th and see how it's progressing.

I used Mott's apple juice and 35 ounces of corn sugar (bought in 5 ounce bags from my LHBS). OG was 1.066 and the gravity reading on January 26th was 1.003.

 

[gregsatt]

Ok, don't flame me for asking this, but I'm getting fat drinking all of my wonderful cider. What are the calories in our homemade apple cider if we don't add back any sweetener?

I was kind of figuring that the yeast ate up most, if not all, of the sugar content.

Any thoughts?

 

[davidst]

Alcohol has more calories per gram than sugar: this post says about 156, the post above it says 190, I don't know which is correct.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=527241&postcount=2619

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

I've had 2 gallons of apfelwein in a small bucket fermenter for 3 weeks. It's my first non-beer fermentation. I pulled my first sample for a SG reading, then proceeded to start drinking the sample.

The first third tasted like rocketfuel, while the last third was quite mellow and delicious.
Did the alcohol tend to float to the surface in my sample (and in the fermenter)?

 

[tagillis]

Greg, I hear ya man. Give this calculator a shot. It should help you estimate the calories. http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

 

[Dominic1920]

I've had 2 gallons of apfelwein in a small bucket fermenter for 3 weeks. It's my first non-beer fermentation. I pulled my first sample for a SG reading, then proceeded to start drinking the sample.

The first third tasted like rocketfuel, while the last third was quite mellow and delicious.
Did the alcohol tend to float to the surface in my sample (and in the fermenter)?

I've had this very same experience when taking a sample with a wine thief. I've wondered what it is too. Why would it have different body and taste from the same sample? though I noticed it more with mead than wine.

 

[heckofagator]

Going to try this for the first time.

Just to confirm, will the ingredients list tell you if there are any preservatives? I am considering using Publix 100% Organic Apple Juice, and I think all that's listed is water and "apple juice from concentrate".

Also, I have two 5L fermenters I'm going to use. One I was thinking std recipe and the second I was going to substitute an equal amount of brown sugar for the corn sugar. Sound ok?

Can I split 1 packet of Montrachet Wine Yeast between the two or is that too much for a 1g batch?

 

[tagillis]

As long as it says water and juice (or some slight variation...filtered, pasteurized, concentrate, etc) you should be good to go. You want to watch out for things like sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate. Your yeast won't reproduce in those environments.

Re: pitch rate, you could be pitching more than "ideal", but tough to say without knowing your original gravity. I believe the yeast calculator over at Mrmalty has a dry yeast tab (sorry, can't verify on my phone right now) http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

I'm a fan of your two batch idea. I like to experiment any chance I can get, especially by splitting up from the same source. This will be a good chance to isolate flavor and ABV% differences between the two sugars since everything else will be the same.

Let us know how it turns out. I'm planning on brewing a batch next weekend. Going to split it into two batches-- one regular and one super spiced. Then I can blend the two to find the "ideal" balance for future, larger batches.

 

[JRay88]

I'm almost ready to bottle my gallon that I started back in the end of last year. I'm thinking of carbonating a couple bottles and leaving the rest uncarbonated. How should I go about doing this? I've got some Ez-cap beer bottles I assume should be able to handle the pressure of carbonation? Do I add the sugar when I bottle it? Or should I bottle my non-carbonated first, then add sugar to the remaining and bottle? I appologize if the answers seems obvious, this is my first brew ever. Thanks for the help!

 

[andrewmaixner]

I'm almost ready to bottle my gallon that I started back in the end of last year. I'm thinking of carbonating a couple bottles and leaving the rest uncarbonated. How should I go about doing this? I've got some Ez-cap beer bottles I assume should be able to handle the pressure of carbonation? Do I add the sugar when I bottle it? Or should I bottle my non-carbonated first, then add sugar to the remaining and bottle? I appologize if the answers seems obvious, this is my first brew ever. Thanks for the help!

Easiest options when bottling small amounts, is Carb tabs / Carb drops. If you don't want to spend a couple dollars on those, you can use 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of sugar to hit standard carb level, but your results will be less consistent because measuring sugar by volume doesn't account for compression:
http://homebrewmanual.com/priming-sugar-carbonation/

Note that a approximate quick reference formula is: 3/4 cup in 5gal is almost 3/4 tsp in 1 bottle. There are 48 tsp per 1 cup.
48 12oz bottles = 4.5 gallons, so that's a simplification on the HIGH side of carbonation. I usually get 52+ bottles from a 5gal batch.

 

[JMM1980]

Hey, guys. I've searched this thread and honestly I'm still confused as shit about whether or not to degas this.

Bear with me please, let me see if I understand this.

If bottling with a cork, degas. By degassing, it will not have as much of the "cider" feel to it.

If bottling in, say, 22 oz beer bottles, it is not necessary to degas? Is this correct?