Man, I love Apfelwein

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Ed, Checked the gravity today, it was 1.001. (after 22 days) So, I threw in 5 oz of priming sugar, and kegged it at 15lbs. (purged twice).

I'll try it in 30 more days.

:mug:
 
Hey guys,
I'm new to the whole home brewing thing and just made my first batch of apfelwein today. Is this stuff meant to be carbonized or is it ok flat too? If it should be carbonized (or is much better that way), could you give me some instructions, tips, links, etc. on how I would go about doing that? I appreciate any help! Thanks!
 
I discovered something delicious today. Maybe someone else has already tried this. I had leftover canned cranberry sauce, the jello-like kind, and put in in the blender with apfelwein.

I don't have the ratio calculated yet, but if you've got leftover cranberry sauce, give it a try.
 
Does this recipe work with any fruit juice? I am aging a pineapple/banana wine as well and it is completely clear after 2 months. Why is the apfelwein ready so much sooner? My receipe for the pineapple wine said to wait at least a year until consuming.
 
So, for the Apfelwien virgin looking to get his "Apple" :rolleyes: popped which is better to start with, fizzy or flat?

You can always find the n00b! He's the guy (Was me!....LOTS OF TIMES) recommending that you carb 1/2 and still 1/2!
Now I realize that after you've tasted 6 or 8 month old carbonated apfelwein....you're not likely going to recommend the flat verity. It's not bad by any means, but Come On! The fizzy kind is RIDICULOUS!
 
I discovered something delicious today. Maybe someone else has already tried this. I had leftover canned cranberry sauce, the jello-like kind, and put in in the blender with apfelwein.

I don't have the ratio calculated yet, but if you've got leftover cranberry sauce, give it a try.

As in, after the apfelwein was fermented? As a mixed drink of sorts? This would also make for an interesting pre-fermentation mix, but the result could be a bit tart...
 
Any word on whether calcium lactate will permanently sour apfelwein? The last post about it said it was improving with time, but I haven't seen anything about it since.

Also, what about calcium gluconate? Is that likely to cause any problems?
 
I discovered something delicious today. Maybe someone else has already tried this. I had leftover canned cranberry sauce, the jello-like kind, and put in in the blender with apfelwein.

I don't have the ratio calculated yet, but if you've got leftover cranberry sauce, give it a try.

I've got 5 gallons of almost 14 month old apfelwein that is finally ready for the keg, I want to split the batch and half of it will be flavored with either cranberry juice or raspberry juice (from concentrate)

Just wondering what would be the right amount to properly flavor 2.5 gallons?
 
God damn you ed wort! I had about 18 servings of ed worts apfelweins (I made) two nights ago and it still hurts...when will it end? Man I love this ****!
 
Kegged an 8 month old batch this weekend. Quite a difference. This was only my second batch. The first was an ale yeast of some sort, this time I used Cote de Blanc. Don't know if it's more the aging or the yeast, but this is much smoother. I should have started more a long time ago.
 
...I had about 18 servings of ed worts apfelweins (I made) two nights ago and it still hurts...


Lol, I have 3 pints and I can slightly feel it the next day... 5 and I'm miserable but will survive... 18 and I'd be dead for sure...
 
The dangerous thing about it is (at least the batch I made) the fact that it goes down like nothing. If someone just handed it to me, I wouldn't guess it had much if any alcohol in it.
 
so I must say...anyone considering this take this to heart - Remember to reserve judgment till after 3 glasses. It grows on you.

I have been keeping my hands off my first batch for 1 month and 2 days now. I go to check my gravity today since it looks to have cleared and it is at .996-998 so its done. I take a sip of what i poured into my hydrometer tube and spat it out! Oye...i had already bought enough to start another batch but was waiting to try this one first.

It was dry...and not sweet like I was used to (think woodchuck cider) It had a 'sourness' to it. I thought oh great somethin went wrong and it has an infection. But the thing has a 'winelike' smell, and does not even show a hint of any nasties growing.

so as i'm reading this thread seeing what people do to sweeten it, i take a few more sips. That nice apple twang at the end is kinda like oooh, hey! so while it only took me 3 sips from the sampling tube...If at first it's not your thing, try try again ;)

now i just need to finish my keezer so i can get the rest of my kegs flowing w/o party taps!
 
I made a cyser about a year ago and had the last one last night. I bottled it still but about 8 months into the lagering I discovered it had carbonated quite well. When I tried it at first it was eh, drinkable, not my favorite. As the year went on and I drank more of it, like homebrew, it got better each time I tried it. Last night was a treat, probably the best apple flavored beverage I ever ingested.

My questions to all you Apfelwien fans, if decided not to prime, will it overtime become primed on its own?

I also do not have dextrose at my disposal so I am using 4#s of Honey. This makes it more in the Cyser category but does not have the weight in Honey a trady cyser should. Will this be close to Apfelwien, has anyone tried this before?

-WW
 
reading up on apfelwein I can't wait for my inaugural batch to be done! my brother made a batch and brought it down for thanksgiving. it was still VERY green but showed a lot of potential. it was only sitting in the bottle for less than a week but we were too impatient to even let it carb before we tried one.

mine will be ready to bottle around new years and I'm thinking of starting another batch this weekend.
 
So I have had my Apfelwein in the fermentor for 16 days now. I had a slow start on fermentation and there was never a very vigorous portion. I see videos on here or youtube of the airlock going pretty good, 2 per second or so, but mine never got anywhere near that.

I think fermentation is pretty much done, but I don't know if it really got the gravity as low as it should have. My fermentation temp started in the mid 60s and it is starting to get even colder in the back room, so I put a brew belt on it and covered it with a towel and run the brew belt a couple of hours a day.

Has anyone else experienced this? I know it doesn't have a very big krasen layer, but I am just talking about the airlock activity or lack there of.

I guess I can take a gravity reading and see where it is at, but what if it is not very low? Do I repitch at this point?
 
Don't repitch, you should be fine.

This one is always fairly weak for me, give it time and it will finish out.
 
I've got some Kolsch yeast that I am planning to use for this, does anyone think that's a great/horrible idea before I go ahead and possibly ruin a batch?
 
Oh well, too late... I made it, so don't tell me if it's gonna be horrible now 'cause I'll just dread the result for the next month or so :p
 
It probably won't be an issue if you left sufficient headspace, it won't blow a stopper, but it might foul an airlock.

With Montrachet, you get a little bit of foam, I got like 4 inches.




I made this mistake with my present batch. I left an inch and a half of headspace. Since I forgot to add the last 1/2 pound of sugar until the end.


The headspace has since dissapeared and is now creeping up into my airlock. I have a feeling that I will be swapping out the airlock and making a trip to wally world for a turkey baster tonight. See if I can pull some of the must off and give my airlock supply a break.


BTW, how long does the active fermentation last? I am fermenting at 62 F right now.


I am getting excited to try this. I only have 27 more days until the projected finish date. :eek:
 
Started a batch about 2-3 weeks ago and it's still bubbling about once every 3 seconds. Not sure how batch size effects it, but if you have a 5 gal batch and it stops after a week you might wanna break out the hydrometer and check for stuck fermentation, and/or make sure the bung is in tight.
 
I just want to say...prost to Edwort on this recipe!!! I made my first batch of this earlier this summer, and after consuming most of it within two months I was only "moderately" impressed. But, I bottled a few 24oz. before killing the keg and I'm SO glad I did. I have to say, after 2 months of aging, the taste if FANTASTIC. Thanks!
 
I just want to say...prost to Edwort on this recipe!!! I made my first batch of this earlier this summer, and after consuming most of it within two months I was only "moderately" impressed. But, I bottled a few 24oz. before killing the keg and I'm SO glad I did. I have to say, after 2 months of aging, the taste if FANTASTIC. Thanks!

Thanks. Patience pays off with Apfelwein. Get some in the pipeline and forget about it for a year.
 
I noticed today that Wal-Mart has Treetop "apple cider" containing 100% apple juice. For $3.50 a gallon. Later in the day I stopped by Safeway and they had Treetop "Apple juice" containing 100% apple juice. For $5.00 a gallon.

Walmart is definantly the place to pick it up, around here that is. Do not know if the "cider" part is a labeling gimmick, since I cannot tell the difference without the lable.


I bought out the cider gallons while I was there. Figured If I did not make up another batch, my kids could drink the cider. So nothing is wasted. :D
 
So I gave my Boss a bottle of Apfelwein for her Birthday.
It's been a week and she is still reeling from it's evil effects.

Thank you.
Thank you.


and as I thought she would, she has asked for a case. LOL

Guess I need to make another batch.
 
I put together a batch on Friday using EdWort's recipe, but I swapped out the Montrachet for a liquid Kolsch from White Labs, and I used Adam & Eve apple juice because TreeTop is not available on this side of the country. It still hasn't started bubbling.

The guy at the LHBS said I just needed to warm it up and toss it in, so I left the tube in my pocket while I put everything else together; it was probably at least 75* by the time I pitched it.

I think perhaps it is not warm enough to get the yeast going. The temperature in the basement where my carboy is sitting is around 65*, although that was checked back in October and it may be down to 60* now. This morning I propped the carboy off of the floor with some cement blocks and some cardboard for insulation, figuring the floor is probably more like 50*.

Since it hit 72 hours with no activity, I've been stirring up the carboy by picking it up by the handle and swirling it back and forth to suspend the yeast. Did that twice last night and once this morning.

Any thoughts? If it hasn't started by Thursday, I'm planning to try putting a heating pad around the carboy for a couple hours. Do you think I need to get some new yeast and repitch? Is it likely the temperature thing? Does anyone think it will start on its own with a few more days?
 
Hegh don't worry too much about it, the yeasties are more resilient than you might think. It took a solid 4 days before mine started to show any airlock activity at 60*. If you've boosted the temp up to that you should be just fine.

Kegged my own a few days back, and it's caused me nothing but headaches (in a good way). I've had to resort to drinking this out of a wine glass, so I can monitor how much I'm drinking a little closer.
 
Has anyone ever fermented in the jugs that the apple juice comes in? I was thinking instead of tying up a carboy for a month, I could just ferment in the apple juice containers and maybe even try different yeasts out.
 
What is the longest someone had to wait for the Apfelweind to clear? What impacts the time needed to clear?
Tx
 
Well, last night after about 100 hours from pitching time, I saw some small white colonies forming on top of my apfelwein. This morning (109 hours), there was a solid white ring about two inches away from the edges of the carboy. Wanted to take a picture, but my camera battery was apparently dead.

Now the question: Should there be a thin white film forming on top like this? Is that just the beginnings of a slow-forming krausen (using Kolsch yeast)? Or is there some kind of infection going on?

I don't think lactobacillus could take hold, since there's no lactose in there, but nothing else I've seen pictures of would even be similar. My guess is slow-forming krausen.

EDIT: Cool, I hit 50 posts with this one :)
 
In the north east shop rite has Natures Own apple juice for 1.99 for a 1/2 gallon. Best of all it is one of the scarce brands that is an all american apple juice. I never buy the stuff with concentrate from china.
 
Hegh I've had the same type of white ring when it first started fermenting. That turned into a small layer of krausen. Congrats on your fermenting apfelwein.
 
Back
Top