Man, I love Apfelwein

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The dextrose is to add fermentable sugars. If you don't add any then you'll have a lower ABV%.
 
HexKrak said:
The OP says 6-8 months is when it really hits it's stride. 1 month is around the minimum.
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Thanks! I'm going to give this a try. Though Im now thinking I'm going to use my own apple juice that im going to press this weekend.
Is there anything i should do to the juice im pressing? before adding yeast sugar etc?
 
herminator said:
Thanks! I'm going to give this a try. Though Im now thinking I'm going to use my own apple juice that im going to press this weekend.
Is there anything i should do to the juice im pressing? before adding yeast sugar etc?
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You might want to sulfite it with Campden tablets to kill off any wild yeast or bacteria, (then wait 24-48 h before pitching) but many contend that it is JUST these wild beasties that make the best cider.

You might also want to add some pectinase (aka pectic enzyme) at the beginning of fermentation to help clear the final product)

A nice cider making reference:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/cider.htm
 
Recluse said:
You might want to sulfite it with Campden tablets to kill off any wild yeast or bacteria, (then wait 24-48 h before pitching) but many contend that it is JUST these wild beasties that make the best cider.

You might also want to add some pectinase (aka pectic enzyme) at the beginning of fermentation to help clear the final product)

A nice cider making reference:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/scrumpy/cider/cider.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks again.
I have campden tablets & Pectolase. With the campden tablets, do I need to mix with water before putting into the juice? or do they go in as a tablet form?
Also can I add Pectolase at the same time?
Sorry for all the questions im just a newbie and a little unsure. :eek:
 
herminator said:
Thanks again.
I have campden tablets & Pectolase. With the campden tablets, do I need to mix with water before putting into the juice? or do they go in as a tablet form?
Also can I add Pectolase at the same time?
Sorry for all the questions im just a newbie and a little unsure. :eek:
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Crush them and dump in the powder.
 
To Rack or not to Rack. My juice has been cooking for 25 days now and it looks like the yeast has dropped out. Looks pretty clear. I assume I have a nice cushion of CO2 still sitting on top for protection. I have about the same head space as Ed's photo's on the first page. I was thinking of racking but then I would have to top it off, right? Even if I leave it should I top it off? Taking SG reading will let air in. What is best to top with, water?
 
If im to buy my apple juice to make Apfelwein. Can it be from concentrated? some are 100% apple juice from concentrated im a bit lost on which to buy. Being from England it's harder to buy in bulk like 1 gallon tubs.
thanks
 
If im to buy my apple juice to make Apfelwein. Can it be from concentrated? some are 100% apple juice from concentrated im a bit lost on which to buy. Being from England it's harder to buy in bulk like 1 gallon tubs.
thanks
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The stuff I bought said... Hansen's All Natural 100% apple juice from concentrate. The ingredients were... Water, and apple juice concentrate. The only acceptable additive is Ascorbic Acid, which is a form of Vitamin C. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. :) I'm rushing out the door as I type this.
 
rsa said:
To Rack or not to Rack. My juice has been cooking for 25 days now and it looks like the yeast has dropped out. Looks pretty clear. I assume I have a nice cushion of CO2 still sitting on top for protection. I have about the same head space as Ed's photo's on the first page. I was thinking of racking but then I would have to top it off, right? Even if I leave it should I top it off? Taking SG reading will let air in. What is best to top with, water?
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Let it sit. No need to rack until bottling time. I typically have left mine in primary for 8-12 weeks and then bottled.
 
pkincaid said:
The stuff I bought said... Hansen's All Natural 100% apple juice from concentrate. The ingredients were... Water, and apple juice concentrate. The only acceptable additive is Ascorbic Acid, which is a form of Vitamin C. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. :) I'm rushing out the door as I type this.
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Thanks. If anyone could possibly look at this link for some apple juice and tell me if this will be ok to use?

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesc...glife_Fruit_Juice/Princes_Apple_Juice_1L.html

Thanks as always
 
can someone a summery of the last few pages of posts. Let's try to get 1-694 in four sentences or less.
 
I'm sure someone will bite my head off for saying it this way....but
If there is ANYTHING other than Apple Juice, and or Water, and or Ascorbic Acid. Don't use it. This stuff seems to be ok :)
 
Drank my first batch last night for Halloween. I don't feel so good today. I used brown sugar, and I could taste the molasses, not sure I liked that part. Next time it will be original recipe.
 
Ampsonic said:
Drank my first batch last night for Halloween. I don't feel so good today. I used brown sugar, and I could taste the molasses, not sure I liked that part. Next time it will be original recipe.
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Your whole batch? WOW! impressive.

My 2nd batch was with the brown sugar as well (2lb I think and some corn sugar still) and I thought the originial batch was better too.
 
I think the ABV on the original recipe is supposed to be around 8%.

I was wondering how high you could push that. I mean what about five pounds of sugar? How about ten? I wonder how high the Montrachet yeast would go.
 
Montrachet will probably go 14% (it is a Wine Yeast after all!). EC-1118 will easily go to 16% and I think is rated at 18% alcohol tolerance. Might need to have a good nutrient schedule though to keep them happy that long since Apple juice alone is lacking in a lot of the nitrogenous nutrients.
 
I bottled a batch of Apfelwein last weekend that I have had in primary for 10 months. Has anyone let it sit that long? It's been at a nice 61-63°F and came out at over 8%. I added nearly two cups of priming sugar because we like ours bubbly...

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
just started another batch off
was wondering about racking it onto some raspberrys in secondary?
anyone else tried some kind of fruit flavouring (that isnt apple ;P)
 
Mine has been in Primary for a month, but I think I am going to move it bottles and let it condition for it's remaining months there. Has anyone noticed a discernible difference between bottle aging and aging over the yeast cake in primary?
 
I'm not scared of yeast cake - frankly I've let lots of brews sit in primary for extended periods without a noticeable difference. I recently bottled a mead that sat in primary for over year and that seems to be the trick to making good mead. It was great.

I figure it couldn't hurt the apfelwein, particularly in glass.

I'm just wondering if anyone actually has had a negative experience with extended aging on the yeast?
 
Effington said:
I'm not scared of yeast cake - frankly I've let lots of brews sit in primary for extended periods without a noticeable difference. I recently bottled a mead that sat in primary for over year and that seems to be the trick to making good mead. It was great.

I figure it couldn't hurt the apfelwein, particularly in glass.

I'm just wondering if anyone actually has had a negative experience with extended aging on the yeast?
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I'm not scared of the yeast cake either....just wondering for the sake of freeing up my fermentor. Dwelling on wether sitting on the cake for an extended period of time adds anything, or will it age just as well in bottles on a shelf?
 
I had to go grocery shopping today, and the good Langer brand juice I like was on sale for $2.50 per gallon. I left the store with five gallons and headed to my LHBS for sugar and yeast. I will be making my very first apfelwein tonight!
 
Effington said:
I bottled a batch of Apfelwein last weekend that I have had in primary for 10 months. Has anyone let it sit that long? \

This week for mine is 22 weeks. :tank: going to bottle this batch for the holidays next week. Next batch i plan on kegging, although ive never done that before. (im a wine maker from the sister site winemakingtalk.com)
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Sly22guy said:
Effington said:
I bottled a batch of Apfelwein last weekend that I have had in primary for 10 months. Has anyone let it sit that long? \

This week for mine is 22 weeks. :tank: going to bottle this batch for the holidays next week. Next batch i plan on kegging, although ive never done that before. (im a wine maker from the sister site winemakingtalk.com)
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That's about half the time I left mine sit... I guess it could be gross or phenomenal. We shall see!

And remember, for primaries and secondaries, Craigslist is a goldmine....
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Effington said:
That's about half the time I left mine sit... I guess it could be gross or phenomenal. We shall see!

And remember, for primaries and secondaries, Craigslist is a goldmine....
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I remember seeing someone let it go for 11-12 months and it was fine when it came out. Can't remember how far back it was, though... I've been tracking this forum for like 150 pages.
 
Hegh said:
I remember seeing someone let it go for 11-12 months and it was fine when it came out. Can't remember how far back it was, though... I've been tracking this forum for like 150 pages.
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This batch was started 11/21/09 and bottled 10/24/10 - so, 11 months.

I used Lalvin K1V yeast and got it up to 8.4%.
 
I was reading the label on my apple juice, it says “Refrigerate after opening & drink within seven days.” I may be in trouble!:D
 
Quick question on this recipe, my first attempt at it.

In the instructions, it referred to fitting in all but a few ounces (into a 5 gallon carboy). Well, that's what I did. The juice went right up the neck, and I plugged the airlock in.

Put this together last night and just checked on it. No activity yet, but not worried about that. But, I do have a completely full airlock now. I guess that I filled it so high, it just pushed right up into the airlock.

Looking back now, I see that in the instructions there was still a couple of inches of airspace left in the carboy. Should I get the wine thief and pull some out to give it a little room, or leave it alone?
 
I've made this stuff 3 times. I had small blowoffs for two of the batches. I used Montrachet for one and a champagne yeast for the other. Both blowoffs were large enough to cause a mess and get swmbo on my case, so I would definitely pull some out if I were you.
 
Bottled up a 7 months in the primary apfelwein tonight and am celebrating with a 20 month old carbonated apfelwein.

Thanks Ed!

DSC00294-1.jpg
 
So the normal recipe is around 8% I am going to make a batch using 10lbs of table sugar. I figure this will ferment out very dry so after a couple months or more in primary I will add sorbate to kill the yeast then backsweeten with frozen apple juice concentrate when I keg it? What do you guys think?
 
woopig said:
Quick question on this recipe, my first attempt at it.

In the instructions, it referred to fitting in all but a few ounces (into a 5 gallon carboy). Well, that's what I did. The juice went right up the neck, and I plugged the airlock in.

Put this together last night and just checked on it. No activity yet, but not worried about that. But, I do have a completely full airlock now. I guess that I filled it so high, it just pushed right up into the airlock.

Looking back now, I see that in the instructions there was still a couple of inches of airspace left in the carboy. Should I get the wine thief and pull some out to give it a little room, or leave it alone?
Click to expand...

Suck some of that out quickly, before it starts to show activity! You'll have a huge mess otherwise.
 

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