The Bar Towel

Planning to make a batch of the much talked about apfelwein. Has anyone made this, or something similar, and have a suggestion on a source for bulk amounts of pure not from concentrate apple juice?

i use wellesley from zehrs. as a bonus it comes in 1 gallon glass bottles that work great as 1 gallon carboys!

I used a Vinoka Hard Cider kit that I won last summer, and a kilo of honey from the rockies in Alberta to make 2.5 gallons of really strong cyser back in Nov. The OG was 1.112, and I used a red wine yeast that supposedly has a tolerance of 14%. I was hoping to end up with something semi-sweet, which is how I like my strong meads and ciders. Well it fermented down to 1.001, with an abv of 16%. It tastes pretty good, though it is obviously a tad boozy. I'll bottle it up in a month, and I was thinking of backsweetening with some demerara sugar (I added a small amount of brown sugar to my sample last night, which I think made it even better).

The Vinoka kits are surprisingly decent. I have tasted the base kits made as 5 gallon batches, and they are good, but I would just stick with the apple flavour.
http://www.vinoka.com/ciderpressciders.htm

I also made a "new england cider" in Nov 08. Pressed my own apples, then added demerara sugar and raisins to secondary. Ended up around 9% and feremented to complete dryness. It is very champagne-like; highly carbonated, very dry and tart, lots of interesting aromas that don't necessarily scream "apple." My friends and family who enjoy champagne love it.

If I was going to do it again, I'd really like to see how some Dark or D2 Belgian Candi Syrup would work instead of the sugar and raisins.

matt7215 wrote:i use wellesley from zehrs. as a bonus it comes in 1 gallon glass bottles that work great as 1 gallon carboys!

here is what i just made

3 gallons Wellesley apple cider, 100% apple juice, pasteurized
1 pack Lalvin K1-1116

1 month primary, 1 month secondary

OG 1.050, Grav @ bottling 0.998

~7% abv

i bottled mine still but its showing minimal carbonation after 1 month in bottles. its dry, funky, and tart with apple still showing.

for future batches i wont do a secondary and just let it sit for 2+ months in primary.

I'm hoping my mead moves down a little bit. Is pretty insane right now. Sitting around ~19% ABV. Just started another one that will have some Montmorency cherries added to it. I need to get on doing a cider for the spring. Anyone know anywhere in TO to get the Wellesley, if thats the best option?

viggo wrote:I'm hoping my mead moves down a little bit. Is pretty insane right now. Sitting around ~19% ABV. Just started another one that will have some Montmorency cherries added to it. I need to get on doing a cider for the spring. Anyone know anywhere in TO to get the Wellesley, if thats the best option?

i get mine from zehrs for $6.49/gallon

matt7215 wrote:

viggo wrote:I'm hoping my mead moves down a little bit. Is pretty insane right now. Sitting around ~19% ABV. Just started another one that will have some Montmorency cherries added to it. I need to get on doing a cider for the spring. Anyone know anywhere in TO to get the Wellesley, if thats the best option?

i get mine from zehrs for $6.49/gallon

No Zehr's in Toronto

viggo wrote:

matt7215 wrote:

viggo wrote:I'm hoping my mead moves down a little bit. Is pretty insane right now. Sitting around ~19% ABV. Just started another one that will have some Montmorency cherries added to it. I need to get on doing a cider for the spring. Anyone know anywhere in TO to get the Wellesley, if thats the best option?

i get mine from zehrs for $6.49/gallon

No Zehr's in Toronto

wow

I used Rougemont 100% pure juice from concentrate. In the 'Club Pack' section at Zehrs they had 4x2L for around 11 or 12 bucks. In Toronto, maybe check out Loblaw's.

I'm fermenting with Lalvin EC-1118.

Apple Factory in Brampton (Boivaird & Missisauga Road) likely has pure unpasteurized juice, if not then check at Al Ferri's on Heritage road (or any of the half dozen other orchards on Heritage

icemachine wrote:Apple Factory in Brampton (Boivaird & Missisauga Road) likely has pure unpasteurized juice, if not then check at Al Ferri's on Heritage road (or any of the half dozen other orchards on Heritage

Even at this time of year? I figure unpasteurized juice would spoil/ferment by now (unless stored really cold under sterile conditions). Sorry, I really don't know much about apple production.

markaberrant wrote:

icemachine wrote:Apple Factory in Brampton (Boivaird & Missisauga Road) likely has pure unpasteurized juice, if not then check at Al Ferri's on Heritage road (or any of the half dozen other orchards on Heritage

Even at this time of year? I figure unpasteurized juice would spoil/ferment by now (unless stored really cold under sterile conditions). Sorry, I really don't know much about apple production.

The PC fresh pressed cider is still showing up at value mart... I think expiry dates are about 1 month. Perhaps the raw apples are frozen?

I made some in the fall & siphoned off a gallon for the holidays. It's really dry & tart... I'm not overly fond of it... I'll see how it ages.

Derek wrote:I made some in the fall & siphoned off a gallon for the holidays. It's really dry & tart... I'm not overly fond of it... I'll see how it ages.

The more dry/tart a cider is, the longer it needs to age. I usually wait a year before drinking any (yes, even standard cider). The tannin and acidity gives it a long shelf life anyways, so I don't see any hurry trying to choke it down prematurely.

So what are peoples thoughts on minimum fermentation time? The impression I've gotten is that 4 weeks is the absolute minimum, but 6 weeks is much better. And that after that it just contiunes to improve. So I was planning to keg in early April, which would be around 6 weeks. Would that be a mistake, or just not optimal?