Man, I love Apfelwein

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So far, I've made one 5-gallon batch of cider, and 2, 5-gallon batches of cyser. With each, I used wyeast yeast strains (Cider, and Dry Mead, respectively). I started a 1 gallon batch of this apfelwein about a month ago, and it's already the best apple-based alcohol I've produced. It's smooth and clean and tasty, with no off flavors. Very impressed with the redstar Montrachet yeast, compared the the others (wyeast) I've tried. Like a Mix between a white wine and a cider. Stating another, larger batch soon. Cheers.
 
lowelldw said:
I made an apple wine 4/27/14....checked FG 8/17/14 and tasted it.

The SG went from 1.084 to a FG at .990

I like the taste...not sweet...and I would call it dry.

Do I need to bottle or can I just serve/pour to glasses??? It is a 1 gallon jug.
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I would bottle or put it into another container to get it off the yeast cake.
 
Soooo after(not) reading this entire thread(man its LONG)Ive made the jump and made me some. I used a champagne yeast(LHBS didnt have the recommended yeast) but other than that I followed the recipe to the letter. Heres hoping it turns out fine.
 
Just started my first batch friday.

5gal winco foods 100% apple juice
Red Star Pasteur red wine yeast
2lbs cane sugar
OG= 1.052.

I tried to follow the original recipe but, I just wasn't able to get some of the ingredients and I was anxious to get it started, so I improvised. I guess we will just see how it turns out
 
Put it in a keg last night after being in primary for a month. The color is a nice clear yellow, lighter than the juice I started with.

Tastes good and you can feel it after 2 glasses.
 
I made a bunch last year and wasn't a big fan. Over the weekend I bottled another five gallons and sipped on a glass from last November. Tasty! This stuff definitely improves with age.
 
whattheheld said:
Just started my first batch friday.

5gal winco foods 100% apple juice
Red Star Pasteur red wine yeast
2lbs cane sugar
OG= 1.052.

I tried to follow the original recipe but, I just wasn't able to get some of the ingredients and I was anxious to get it started, so I improvised. I guess we will just see how it turns out
Click to expand...

That seems realy low for an OG. Usually apple juice from the store is around 1.05 right out of the jug. Did you mix well?
 
Ed, I've got some in the secondary right now. I tasted it at transfer and it was tasting great! I hope it stays almost as sweet, but it's still bubbling away in the secondary. I transferred too early. after about 2 weeks, but I needed my primary.
 
Almost four weeks later, and my Raspberry Apfelwein is still producing very tiny bubbles that I can only see by shining a flashlight on my carboy.

Once all has settled for about a week, I'll bottle and then try to leave it alone for a month.

Lord, grant me patience, RIGHT NOW! :D
 
GenIke said:
That seems realy low for an OG. Usually apple juice from the store is around 1.05 right out of the jug. Did you mix well?
Click to expand...

Ya thats what I was thinking as well. I thought I mixed well but I took the reading from the bottling spigot since I'm using a bottling bucket... Maybe that threw my reading off.
 
Ok despite the warnings at the beginning of this topic, I'm calling EdWort & all the rest of the contributors motherf**kers. This stuff is GOOD!

Put it all together on June 1st, only change was that U used brown sugar. Sat in primary until a week ago, when I back sweetened with 3 cans of AJC. I took 3 gallons and moved it off the yeast, added wine conditioner and will bottle later as a still apple wine for my sister in law.

The other two I bottled without the wine conditioner and filled a soda bottle to use as a tattletale. Tonight it was hard as a rock so I chilled it and one other bottle. Tastes like drinking a Granny Smith. Smooth with a good bite of tartness and a little alcohol follow through. Not heavy carbonation, just a touch that kinda perks everything up.

And it is potent! 3 bottles and I'm getting pretty loopy. Stuff sneaks up on ya. So tanks to everyone who has offered their experience to this.

I'm going to pasteurize the bottles tomorrow and start another 5 gal!


Sent using magic pixie dust
 
I started out making it like the directions said. I still make 5 gallon batches that way, but I usually have 5-10 96 oz bottles fermenting with the cap loose. About 50/50 on whether I add sugar or not. I find that I end up with people vomiting if I leave the alcohol high.:) I've probably brewed 100 gallons or so this way in the last year. I send a lot of it home with people. I haven't had any infections or funny flavor. I carbonate in the apple juice bottles most of the time and I haven't had any issues with them. I just let them ferment out and then back sweeten, screw the lid on, and toss them in the fridge. I feel them daily to see how they are doing. I use Montrachet yeast normally because it brews well for me 80+ degrees. The Wyeast Sweet Mead isn't that good in my opinion. I didn't like the aftertaste.
 
Sorry if this has been asked before (I searched but could'nt find anything) being new to this forum, I'm not sure how to find this out, but I really want to make this and was wondering if I could use something besides corn sugar, because I'm not finding dextrose around here anywhere. Will cane sugar be a substitute?
 
Dominic1920 said:
Sorry if this has been asked before (I searched but could'nt find anything) being new to this forum, I'm not sure how to find this out, but I really want to make this and was wondering if I could use something besides corn sugar, because I'm not finding dextrose around here anywhere. Will cane sugar be a substitute?
Click to expand...

A lot of people use brown sugar.
 
A question for the AW experts...I had 15 gallons of the stuff aging/fermenting at a time a while back. Then my keezer ran out of CO2, and I kept using what I had in bottles. Well I filled my tank for the keezer and finished off the bottled AW. But I just realized I have a 5 gallon carboy sitting there untouched at room temp. I'm not worried about bacteria of course, but looking at my label I realized it was pitched in mid April!

Since we are nearing mid Sept I'm wondering about it...you guys think it is fine taste wise? Anything I need to do or worry about or let it ride?
 
Edbert said:
A question for the AW experts...I had 15 gallons of the stuff aging/fermenting at a time a while back. Then my keezer ran out of CO2, and I kept using what I had in bottles. Well I filled my tank for the keezer and finished off the bottled AW. But I just realized I have a 5 gallon carboy sitting there untouched at room temp. I'm not worried about bacteria of course, but looking at my label I realized it was pitched in mid April!

Since we are nearing mid Sept I'm wondering about it...you guys think it is fine taste wise? Anything I need to do or worry about or let it ride?
Click to expand...

I'd say give it a taste!
 
I made 5 gallons of it in a plastic #1 pete water jug. It tastes pretty tart, is there a way I can fix this? or will it drop out on it's own? I used motts 100% apple juice.
 
It's just stating give it time. The taste changes dramatically as it finishes, again after it ages a bit, and yet again if you backsweeten it a tad. Reserve judgment on tartness til it's done, then asses if it still needs any adjustments :)
 
Dabbling in apfelwein has turned out to be a lot more fun than I had anticipated. Rather than repeat the tried-and-true original I've been experimenting with different recipes. It's so simple that I just do whatever seems like a good idea at the time. My favorite so far...by a long shot...is 3gal good-quality apple juice plus 3lb clover honey. Primaried for 8 weeks and bottled with a bit of priming sugar. (Technically I think that's a cyser, but I'll discuss it in this thread because it's this thread that made me do it.) I'll be the hero of Thanksgiving this year if I can keep some around that long. That's a big "if."
 
So after consulting many recipes, I made a simple apfelwine/cider using 5 gallons of 100% juice, 2 lbs of sugar and some US05.

First off, right out of the fermenter (21 days) it finished right at 1.004. It tasted fantastic but there is one small issue.

Much like the first white wine I made from a kit, it has a pretty bad smell. I can really describe it but it's unpleasent. I siphoned it into a keg and have it carbing at 12 psi. Is there something I am missing to get that smell out of there?
 
I made some of this stuff about 5 years ago using table sugar. I tried if after 6 months and wasn't impressed. Tried another bottle at the one year mark and it wasn't much better.

Last night I opened a bottle from that batch in 2009 and it's great. Dry, crisp, clean apple flavor. I sweetened it with a little syrup and it's awesome. :mug: Thanks, Ed!
 
brewhead05 said:
Can someone advise on the amount of table sugar needed to prime/add when bottling to give a sparkling effect.

Many thanks.
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Typically I use 1 oz (by weight) per gallon. Usually use Dextrose, but you should be OK with the same amount of table sugar. I tend to like my Apfelwein pretty sparkling, so this is just a bit over the usual priming amount I see recommended.
 
Saw at walmart last night they had great value apple juice on sale...

$1.98 for 3Qt jugs....or $2.64 p/ Gallon..

Seems like a steal...Going to be grabbing some my self this weekend.
 
atimmerman88 said:
Saw at walmart last night they had great value apple juice on sale...

$1.98 for 3Qt jugs....or $2.64 p/ Gallon..

Seems like a steal...Going to be grabbing some my self this weekend.
Click to expand...


Nice.

I usually buy from Sam's or CostCo. They sell it in 2-banded 1 gallon bottles (meaning you have to buy 6 gallons) and I think it works out to a little over $3.00 per gallon.
 
I was fishing around my beer room and there wasn't anything I could get into, ready to drink. How did that happen?

So, I got into the apfelwein. I really hate to open a beer before it's time.

This apfelwein was OK when I bottled it 8/6/2014. I didn't think it was fabulous. Just OK. A bit harsh.

Six weeks old now it's better. I had two and a half pints... Wow.. I was toast. It's very easy to go down. Still needs time. I bottled it all in pint easy caps and 22 ounce bombers. I wish I had done some 12 ounce bottles.
 
frankjones said:
I was fishing around my beer room and there wasn't anything I could get into, ready to drink. How did that happen?

So, I got into the apfelwein. I really hate to open a beer before it's time.

This apfelwein was OK when I bottled it 8/6/2014. I didn't think it was fabulous. Just OK. A bit harsh.

Six weeks old now it's better. I had two and a half pints... Wow.. I was toast. It's very easy to go down. Still needs time. I bottled it all in pint easy caps and 22 ounce bombers. I wish I had done some 12 ounce bottles.
Click to expand...

Time is your friend frankjones ... :D
 
I don't know if i posted this earlier but i like to use 3 gals apple, 2 gals grape. makes for nice color and flavor ... and a hella headache ... :D
 
brewhead05 said:
Can someone advise on the amount of table sugar needed to prime/add when bottling to give a sparkling effect.

Many thanks.
Click to expand...

First, are you doing a 5 gallon batch?? i use 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming same as beer.
which yeast did you use? I use the Montrechet champagne yeast. that will, when fully carbonated, give you that sparkle you are looking for ... cheers, Papa.
 

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