Apfelwein

MiracleManS

This sounds too delicious to be true.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

Found it at random searching for brewing stuff...I will so do this.

WagsFTW

Yum! Let us know how it goes. Sounds delicious.

lmorchard

I've made three 5-gallon batches of this stuff over the past couple of years. If you can find apple juice on sale in 1/2 gal bottles, it's really cheap and easy. And the cheaper the apple juice, the better, as long as citric acid is the only preservative. The yeast + time is what makes it tasty and keen to drink.

As the recipe says, you just mix the juice, sugar, and yeast together with some vigorous shaking. Much, much easier than brewing most beers. I'll generally pour 1/2 of each bottle into the fermenter, then a good amount of the sugar into the bottle and shake it up before pouring the rest into the fermenter. That gets a pretty good mix of juice and extra fermentable sugars with each bottle.

What the recipe doesn't say is that it also helps to add some diammonium phosphate (yeast nutrient), which keeps the fermenter from filling your house with rhino farts.

You can bottle it to get it carbonated, or even keg it. If not carbonated, you could mix it with Sprite or 7up when you drink it. (The Germans do that, I've heard) It's a bit tart and dry to drink right after fermentation and doesn't taste much like apples. But, if you hide some away and try it a year later, it mellows out and the apple flavor returns. It's even better 2 years later. And, no matter when you drink it, it's got a pretty solid alcohol punch.