Man, I love Apfelwein

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Store has some 1gal apple juice jugs that are PETE so I'm gonna stop by and grab one or two to try this out (Leave them in there, I have too few carboys :( )
 
Oops! I did a good job of forgetting about my Apfelwein instead of eagerly checking it every 5 seconds. So I left in the primary carboy for about 8 or 9 months now instead of transferring it to bottles to age. It's been sitting at room temp (TX room temp) away from sunlight the entire time. I had planned on carbonating half of it and bottling the rest in wine bottles to leave them sit for even longer. Will I run into any problems doing it this way or did I leave it in the primary for way too long?
It was my first try at this and I'd hate to find out that it took me 9 months to fail. Thanks for your help.
 
I am a newbie so sorry if this is stupid. I just got a kit and am going to make some apfelwein from store bought juice. Do I need to add campden tablets?:confused:
 
Do you sanitize the apple juice bottles before you pour them in? I am making my first batch in my Mr. Beer, and of course, the plastic ring from the apple juice fell right in. I pulled it out (my hands were sanitized), but now I'm worried about infection...
 
Ampsonic said:
Do you sanitize the apple juice bottles before you pour them in? I am making my first batch in my Mr. Beer, and of course, the plastic ring from the apple juice fell right in. I pulled it out (my hands were sanitized), but now I'm worried about infection...
Click to expand...

I usually spray some star-san on the bottles before opening them.

Since you didn't leave the thing in the bottle, I wouldn't worry about it. Think of the volume of particulate matter that may have fallen off of that, versus the amount of yeast you are pouring in. The yeast should kill anything that small, especially since you removed the source.
 
I made a 5 gallon batch with honey and a 5 gallon batch with 6 lbs of sugar. Should I add 10 gallons to the count?
 
We've recently bottled a first batch of Apfelwein after five weeks. There are indications that live yeast is still running around in the bottles. I'm wondering if the cause might be slow fermentation? our yeast? or another factor?

We used grocery store juice, bleached white sugar (with a blending of brown sugar -- against advice I've seen), and Red Star Champagne yeast. As I said it was in the carboy for five full weeks at an average temperature of 70 degrees. A week before bottling the SG was 1.003ish. Note: we did not use priming sugar on this batch.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I did try to google for this information but it's tough when the thread is so long.
 
I think the minimum recommended time is 2 months in the fermenter and 3 months or longer is better. 5 weeks I am pretty sure you still have active fermentation going on.
 
5 gallons apple juice
2# golden brown cane sugar
1 packet montrachet

Put this is the primary last night. Lot's of bubbles today. Love putting my ear up to the better bottle to listen to the fizz.

My OG was 1.060
 
Doing 10 gallons this Saturday with Fresh Apple Cider, Brown Sugar, and Montcharet (sp?) yeast. Cant wait till xmass to put on tap!!! I have talked with some "old timers" here and they all said back in the day they would do this very recipe but add raisins. Searching this thread is close to impossible so anyone who reads this, have any of you tried this???
 
Would fermenting this in a 5 gallon sparkletts bottle work or do you think since it sits in there for so long it could turn out kinda funky?
 
We are enjoying a few glasses right now. I made mine with fresh pressed cider, sugar and yeast. I left it in the secondary for . . . six months. I poured five gallons into a corny keg, added two cans of apple juice concentrate, and some sorbistat. Gassed it at 20 psi for a week and chilled it. This stuff is great. I'll be buying more apple cider this week. This stuff is now a "family" favorite, right along with my Niagara/Concord blend.
 
tasted mine after two months in the primary...

pretty harsh tasting... hot alcohol that warms all the way down. Couple of friends liked it as did the GF, so it's not a waste. I'll leave it in primary till the end of september before bottling....
 
Made 5 gallons last week. Only had one lb of corn sugar so the alcohol will be a little less but thats fine by me. Can anyone guess where the abv should fall? I didn't do any measurements since I just broke my hydrometer.
 
boostsr20 said:
Made 5 gallons last week. Only had one lb of corn sugar so the alcohol will be a little less but thats fine by me. Can anyone guess where the abv should fall? I didn't do any measurements since I just broke my hydrometer.
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Well, apple juice all by itself should be around 1.04-1.045 and 1 lb dextrose is about 43 points/gal, so about 9 points in 5 gal. I estimate a starting gravity around 1.049-1.055.

With 2 lb dextrose or 1 lb Dex + 1 lb sugar, mine usually starts at about 1.062-1.064 and goes to about 0.998 for ~8.5% ABV

With 1 lb Dextros and OG of 1.055 to FG of 0.998 would be around 7.5% ABV give or take.
 
Cool, thanks a lot man! I'm hoping since its weaker it will start to be more drinkable a little sooner since I'm anxious to try it. How many volumes of carb have you all found good?
 
There was a brewers festival in VT this past weekend, and about 5 cider producers were there, ( Woodchuck and Farnahm Hill being the largest)

not really a fan of either of these, but there was a newcomer
, called Original Sin, that made a 6% cider out of 100% Granny Smith and Montrachet, it was fantastic, ( an carbonated) I have to admit, it made me think about going back to the drawing board.

I asked the owner a bit about the process and he mentioned that they cold fermented for over 2 months??


any one else have experience cold fermenting?

I would LOVE to copy this style of wine
 
At work we are going to start distributing Crispin. The Brut is but the light is pretty sweet. They also have 3 artisan bombers. One uses a an ale yeast and molasses.
 
after seeing this thread at the top for forever, I've finally given some thought towards making some apfelwein.

HEB sells this awesome organic 100% apple juice under their central market brand name that (how conveniently!) comes in a one gallon glass jug.

Think I'll pick up a few when I go into houston at the end of the month, and make this one and maybe another recipe that I've read involving a more caramel apple flavor.
 
okay, so I have had my apfelwein goin for just over 3 weeks now and the fermentation has already petered out. It wont be a month in the carboy til Monday and its supposed to go for about 6weeks. Has anyone else had their yeast fade this early and if so do you think its good to bottle at this point to age as its no longer fermenting via the yeast activity?
 
I am going to do a batch of 3 gallons apple juice, 1 can 100% pineapple juice, and 1/2 gallon cranberry/raspberry, I am only gonna use 4 gallons of liquid cuz I am making it in a 5 gal bucket. I figure the pineapple juice might add some extra sweetness which would be good I think.
 
Something amusing happened today with a test sample of apfelwein. A few months I put a 100ml sample of apfelwein in a 12oz grolsch type bottle. It sat on a closet shelf until I just opened it to clean and reuse the bottle. As soon as I released the bail on the cap, there was a very loud pop and entire cap/bail piece shot across the room and bounced off the ceiling like a champagne cork. :eek: :D
 
Any specific fermenting temp for this? Or just basically let it sit and do it's thing.
 
IPAAAA said:
Any specific fermenting temp for this? Or just basically let it sit and do it's thing.
Click to expand...

The latter one, yeah. Very first post on this thread says "Ferment at room temperature." So that's 22*C, or 71-72*F. That's usually where I keep it at, maybe a bit lower in the winter, and it turns out great.
 
Recluse said:
Well, apple juice all by itself should be around 1.04-1.045 and 1 lb dextrose is about 43 points/gal, so about 9 points in 5 gal. I estimate a starting gravity around 1.049-1.055.

With 2 lb dextrose or 1 lb Dex + 1 lb sugar, mine usually starts at about 1.062-1.064 and goes to about 0.998 for ~8.5% ABV

With 1 lb Dextros and OG of 1.055 to FG of 0.998 would be around 7.5% ABV give or take.
Click to expand...

I used my refractometer on Mott's and Jerkin's Apple juice... It was about 1.073!!! Both of them! Maybe a refractometer measures differently? Didn't measure with sugar because it was above the max measurement...

making 10 g...
 
Reno_eNVy_446 said:
The latter one, yeah. Very first post on this thread says "Ferment at room temperature." So that's 22*C, or 71-72*F. That's usually where I keep it at, maybe a bit lower in the winter, and it turns out great.
Click to expand...

Read over that part....thanks.
 
Nerdie said:
I used my refractometer on Mott's and Jerkin's Apple juice... It was about 1.073!!! Both of them! Maybe a refractometer measures differently? Didn't measure with sugar because it was above the max measurement...

making 10 g...
Click to expand...

You must be reading it wrong. My Motts has a sugar content on the label of 28 g/8oz. This works out to almost exactly 1 lb/gallon. Sucrose is 45-46 points, so I would expect a gravity of 1.045-1.046. A lot of references show Apple juice/cider at around 1.040-1.044 so this is pretty close.

There are, of course other sugars in apple juice so this isn't exact, but close enough.

Assuming the gallon weighs about 8 lb, 1 lb/gal = ~12 Brix or around 1.048 not counting temp corrections and rounding errors.. In any case, 1.073 is WAY off.

Most references I have seen give apple juice/cider at about 11-13 brix
 
Just sampled a batch of the unfiltered organic applejuice from Trader Joes (1 gallon, EC-1118) which left a HUGE lees ( almost 3/4 of an inch )

the aroma is fantastic, but there is NO flavor whatsoever, like plastic flavored water?

I added about 10oz of dextrose as well when I pitched it

Anyone have any ideas, I was kind of hoping using top shelf juice to start would have benefits, looks like Motts wins?
 

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