Apfelwein (German Hard Cider)
So, as some of you may know, I’ve been getting into homebrewing my own beer lately. I’ve successfully cranked out a batch of Oatmeal Stout and a Fat Tire Clone, both to great success. Not bad for a first attempt.
Over at HomeBrewTalk.com, which is a valuable resource of all that is homebrew, one of the most active posters and moderators over there, EdWort, kindly posted his recipe for homemade Apfelwein, which appears to be a legit German apple cider… somewhere between a wine and a cider so it would seem. This recipe was taken in by the community at HBT.com with rave reviews, people by the thousands were creating this and loving it. The recipe was very basic, and a great excuse for me to purchase a new Better Bottle, so we see where this is going.
What follows is the recipe, courtesey of EdWort and the HomeBrewTalk.com forums.
EdWort’s Apfelwein
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Red Star Montrachet
Yeast Starter: Nope
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: Nope
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.066
Final Gravity: 0.998
Boiling Time (Minutes): None
Color: Champagne
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): At least 6 weeks at 74 degrees
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): None
Ingredients
5 Gallons 100% Apple Juice (No preservatives or additives) I use Tree Top Apple Juice
2 pounds of dextrose (corn sugar) in one pound bags
1 five gram packet of Montrachet Wine YeastEquipment
5 Gallon Carboy (I use a Better Bottle)
Carboy Cap or Stopper with Airlock
Funnel
- First sanitize the carboy, airlock, funnel, stopper or carboy cap.
- Open one gallon bottle of apple juice and pour half of it into the carboy using the funnel.
- Open one bag of Dextrose and carefully add it to the now half full bottle of apple juice. Shake well.
- Repeat Steps 2 and 3, then go to step 5.
- Pour in the mixture of Apple Juice and Dextrose from both bottles into the carboy.
- Add all but 1 quart of remaining 3 gallons of apple juice to the carboy.
- Open the packet of Montrachet Yeast and pour it into the neck of the funnel.
- Use the remaining quart of juice to wash down any yeast that sticks. I am able to fit all but 3 ounces of apple juice into a 5 gallon Better Bottle. You may need to be patient to let the foam die down from all shaking and pouring.
- Put your stopper or carboy cap on with an airlock and fill the airlock with cheap vodka. No bacteria will live in vodka and if you get suckback, you just boosted the abv.
There’s no need to worry about filling up a carboy so full when you use Montrachet wine yeast. There is no Kreuzen, just a thin layer of bubbles.
Unfortunately, during my last brewing session, my scientific accomplice JoeC seemignly broke the hydrometer- which is a tool used to measure the original gravity of your fermentable mass, and ultimately your final gravity to determine you ABV. Well, mine is broken, so I couldn’t get a OG reading on this, but since it’s a pretty straightforward procedure and recipe, I think I’ll just try EdWort on this one and let her sit til’ she looks ready- approx. 4-6 weeks. Ideally, I’ll be bottling sometime in early April, but I just wanted to record my experience here- since it would seem I’ve misplaced my brewing journal- so this works.
Only notes to mention are that I used “Harvest Time” brand apple juice- which contains nothing but Apple Juice. Bonus. I had ten 1/2-gallon bottles- to which I poured the first gallon into the carboy to have a base for splashdown, and then poured half of a bottle in, dumped a bowl of dextorse into that half empty bottle, closed it up and shook and put aside. I repeated this process until all the dextrose was gone, then shooke it all again, and dumped into the carboy. Add yeast, then seal her up and try not to open it.
Gallery:
