Bottled The Apfelwein!
1346 days agoWell, I just bottled my Apfelwein yesterday morning. It has been in the fermenter for about 3 weeks already. Yes, I had said that I wanted it to ferment for 4 weeks but due to the fact that next week I will most probably be very busy, I decided to bottle it yesterday. I must say, it was definitely fun. This is the first time I ever done a Apple cider (or Apple Wine) so I was not very sure about all the steps in bottling. But luckily, it was pretty smooth, except the problem with several of the clear bottles which couldn’t be easily capped with the capper I had bought.
I had bottled most of them in the PET bottles (just like for beer) and several in clear 330ml bottles as well as a few in wine bottles. The ones I bottled in the wine bottles will not be carbonated as the wine bottles cannot handle carbonation. All the rest will be fizzy, just like I like it. Yes, I will have to age them for a few more months before I can drink them. When I tasted a sample, the flavour is a bit too harsh, probably because of the high alcohol content in the wine. And it didn’t have the apple flavour I had expected it to have. Worse of all, I did find some buttery aftertaste which is a bit of a turn off. I was warned in the beer brewing about this buttery taste due to the Cote des Blancs yeast, but there wer some in the forum who said that the yeast can produce a very smooth wine. Perhaps they were talking about a few months down the road?
Anyway, I have taken a few photos of the bottled Apfelwein and you can take a look at them below
That’s the Apfelwein in clear glass bottles. Too bad, my capper cannot work for some of these bottles.
That’s two bottles of Apfelwein in glass bottles. The red stuff with handles is the corker used to cork the wine bottles. Basically what you have to do is the put the wooden cork in the “squeezer” and then squeeze it by pushing the two handles together till the cork is small enough. Then you place the corker on the glass bottle and push the handle down to “insert” the cork into the wine bottles. Takes a lot of strength and some good balancing skill but it is doable. Hehehe, if I can do it, most of you sure could. I am skinny and weak remember?
Another view of the Apfelwein in green glass bottles. Well, I am patient enough to leave these Apfelweins alone for a few months and forget about them.Then I will go and have a taste again. Hopefully it will turn out drinkable. I really hate to waste so much of my effort, time and money to make this Apfelwein and nobody is willing to drink them. Let’s keep our fingers cross.
