New development in Apfelwein!

[Theblindguy]

As some of you know I made this post about a week ago.

Ok so I was out of town and decided to have my friend start a batch of Aphelwine for me. He has helped me brew before so I thought this would be easy for him. So I gave him simple instructions..5 gal of apple juice, 2lbs of corn sugar and add champagne yeast. Well he thought the 4lb bag of corn sugar that I left on the counter was a 2lb bag. (since I do so many kits with all the ingredients measured out beforehand he just dumped it all in thinking this was the case.) Also instead of using the champagne yeast I left he just used some regular Ale yeast.


So how bad will this be?

So fearing that the brew wouldn’t ferment and be open to infection (due to using ale yeast and so on) I decided to open her up and take a peek. No infection/bad smell and definite signs of fermentation.

What I want to ask you guys is about this crazy change in color. The thing went from just apple juice color to a color and consistency resembling light yellow orange juice. The smell it is giving off might be best described as a strong candied-apple type scent with a hint of freshly baked bread. I know fermentation is active because tons of bubbles were constantly rising to the surface but do you guys think I still need to add that champagne yeast to it or is 1-2 weeks to late to add or unnecessary?

Any thoughts as to what is going on here?

Best regards

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

You will be fine. Many people have used a wide variety of beer and wine yeasts to ferment apfelwien with success. It will be different than Ed's original recipe, but it will be an alcoholic apply conconction so you probably can't have gone too wrong.

Perhaps ThortheMighty can weigh in... I know he has some experience with turbocharged nungrundle curdling apflewein

 

[SporkD2]

As some of you know I made this post about a week ago.



So fearing that the brew wouldn’t ferment and be open to infection (due to using ale yeast and so on) I decided to open her up and take a peek. No infection/bad smell and definite signs of fermentation.

What I want to ask you guys is about this crazy change in color. The thing went from just apple juice color to a color and consistency resembling light yellow orange juice. The smell it is giving off might be best described as a strong candied-apple type scent with a hint of freshly baked bread. I know fermentation is active because tons of bubbles were constantly rising to the surface but do you guys think I still need to add that champagne yeast to it or is 1-2 weeks to late to add or unnecessary?

Any thoughts as to what is going on here?

Best regards

My thoughts, your making some delicious NEW alcoholic beverage. I would leave it alone unless you get a really high FG. If the yeastys cant handle all that sugar you may need to add those other yeast.

Keep us updated for sure

 

[Freezeblade]

Well, the toxicity level of ale yeast is much lower, and with the added sugar you're going to have alot of sugar left over when the yeast dies. If you're going for a sweet finished afelwein then this'll work great, if not then you're going to have to pitch in some champagne yeast to get it to finish, and you'll end up with a very high alcohol abv that will require lots of aging. It really all depends on your OG though, did you take a reading?

 

[Revvy]

Perhaps ThortheMighty can weigh in... I know he has some experience with turbocharged nungrundle curdling apflewein

What happened to "Captain Nunderwear?" Haven't seen thor in awhile.

 

[malkore]

ap-fel-wein

there's no H.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

perhaps TheBlindGuy has indeed made aphelwein (pronouced aweful-wine)...

j/k

 

[CBBaron]

With 4# of sugar in the batch it will be somewhat stronger but that should still be below the tolerance level of the Ale yeast so it should still be dry. The Ale yeast will likely leave a different flavor but it will probably still be good.

Your apple wine changed color because of the explosion of the yeast population that is in suspension in the must. This changes the transparent liquid translucent and gives a very different appearance. It happens in beer also but apple juice is much more transparent than wort.

With the higher alcohol content it will probably be best to let this one age longer than normal. It is likely you will have some hot alcohol flavors early that will mellow with age. You are pretty much at a common wine ABV level, so you will need to treat it more like a wine.

Craig