Well guys, if you remember I had made two batches of Apfelwein. One in September and the other in November. I am glad to inform you that I had a few small bottles of Apfelwein left from the September batch! Yes! The original Apfelwein without any cinnamon or other flavouring. This is just apple juice and dextrose in it. Although I regret to say that the apple juice I used isn’t that good. Probably because it is made from concentrates and seem to have this sour aftertaste. Furthermore, the colour of the Apfelwein isn’t as golden as I like. It is more to the dark brownish side. And it is 7 months old! Again, I repeat, this is a 7 month old Apfelwein! I bet you can just imagine how this aged apple wine would be - mellow, complex and all so wonderful. And I have to tell you, it is exactly that!

I opened a bottle of Apfelwein a few days back and I can’t stop thinking about it. This is a completely different drink as compared to those about 1-2 months Apfelwein. It taste so very smooth and goes down your throat very easily. If you dislike the sourness of the young Apfelwein, try aging it for a few more months and have a taste again. You will be surprised to find that the Apple flavour coming up when you drink it, instead of the sour aftertaste. Overall, it is wondeful. I never expected such a big difference when it comes to aging. I knew that it would be more mellow and complex, but I never expected it to be so much more! Furthermore, I cannot taste the bitterness in the drink as well! Just amazing what aging can do. I guess this would encourage you wine makers to age your wines. In fact, all wines must be aged properly before they become drinkable. The Apfelwein is no exception.

Anyway, as you guys know by now, I have stopped brewing beer and making wines already. The reason is because of my health. I am now spending my time trying to improve my health. The super high fever I had in September is reason enough for me to start concentrating on being healthy. Getting sick at my old age is something which could lead to even more problems. I also find it much more difficult to recover from my illness. I was down (weak) for more than 2 weeks from that fever. So I hope you guys don’t mind me talking about yogurt, kefir, salmon, tuna, nuts, milk and others.

Well, actually on Sunday but I am posting this blog to tell you guys about it today. Sorry about the delay. I have yogurt on my mind on that day. But today, it’s all about the Apfelwein. (See how it all rhythms!) This batch as started on the 18th of October and it was bottled on 23th of November. That is 5 weeks in the fermenter. Ahh….that means that it had time to mature in the fermenter. Actually it stopped bubbling actively after about 1 and a half weeks but I kept it in the fermenter for obvious reasons. For this batch, I have added 2 cinnamon sticks and the smell of the cinnamon is quite profound in the cider. When I did the bottling, I can smell the cinnamon in the cider easily.  However, it seemed to mask a little off the apple smell. So, I am not too sure whether adding cinnamon is a good idea or not. At the very least, it helps to take away some of the sourness of the very tart cider. One of the biggest complains of this Apfelwein is that it is a bit too sour, so the sweetness of the cinnamon would definitely help.

I bottled most of the Apfelwein in PET bottles. However, I worry that the smell of beer in the plastic bottles will affect the overall Apfelwein taste. No matter how I clean the bottles, there will always be some residual beer smell left behind. And I also worry that the cider smell will affect my future batches of beer. Anyway, I am out of options since I don’t have the space in my house for so many bottles. The most I can keep in my cupboards is about 60 PET bottles. I have about 15 glass bottles too. Most are from the Vitasoy Soya Bean Milk drink glass bottles. I have bottled about 8 bottles of Apfelwein. They will probably be left to mature for 6 months or more. Have you guys even tasted 8 month old Apfelwein before? I heard that it is just so heavenly! Edwort, the inventor of Apfelwein, usually keeps his Apfelwein for more than 4 months before he open the bottles for a taste. Who am I to go against the expert in Apfelwein?

If you guys are interested, I will most likely be making my Wheat beer this weekend. Well, I need to find some time to do it. The Cooper’s Wheat Beer kit has been sitting in my fridge for 2 months and I still had not touched the kit. And several of my friends have been complaining about the lack of beer for them to taste. But what can I say, I have been ill for 2 whole weeks, so I guess they will forgive me.  See you guys soon!

Well, I had just finished bottling my Mexican Cerveza and I had thought that this was it for the day. So I went out to the local supermarket to purchased some bottles of apple juice for the Apfelwein (Hard Apple Cider). I didn’t expect to be buying over 16 litres of juice in one shot! There were offers everywhere! I couldn’t believe it. First I went to Shop N Save and they had offers on Cyprina Apple Juice and I got 6 packs. Then I went to Sheng Siong, they had offers for Just Juice Apple Juice. I got 10 bottles of apple juice from them. And it was a big saving, about S$3 per 2 packets of 1 litre Just Juice. Normally, it would cost about S$2 per pack from most supermarkets. I was lucky to find such a deal today. Anyway, I guess I got a little carried away and I bought all the 10 bottles of Just Juice.  I had to take 3 seperate trips to the supermarket, which was actually quite near. But you have to understand, carrying 5/6 bottles (16litres in total) of apple juice is not as easy as seems. Okay, okay, I am weak.

In all, the actual “brewing” process took about an hour to complete. First I had to open up the bottles of apple juice, then pour the apple juice carefully into the fermenter, add dextrose, yeast and cinnamon sticks to the fermenter and then wait for it to complete fermentation. The problem with brewing with apple juice is well….the apple juice. It attracts insects easily so you have to be careful when you are pouring the juice into the fermenter. You certainly don’t want any apple juice to the spill on the fermenter or on the floor/table. But in all seriousness, pouring apple juice into the fermenter and not spilling any is impossible. This is because the opening on the juice pack is never perfect and thus when you pour, the juice tends to come out in spurts and this will easily result in spilling.

Anyway, enough of my whining, I will post the pictures of the Apfelwein brewing process.

Yes, these are the ingredients for making the Apfelwein.  That’s 6 litres of Cyprina Apple Juice, 10 litres of Just Juice Apple Juice and 8 litres of Ceres Apple Juice. The brown sticks are the cinnamon stick while the green package is the Cote des Blanc yeast. Oh, the small bottle is the yeast nutrients. I forgot to take photo of the dextrose. And I was told that this picture with so many packets of apple juice looks like some primary school lunch hall.

Well, this is the photos of the 1kg of dextrose. From what I am told, the alcohol content of a fermented apple juice is about 5-6%. So, if I add 1kg of dextrose, the final product will yield about 8% ABV. Isn’t it cool?

Yes, these are the Cote des Blancs yeast. As you can see from the photo, I am using 2 packets of yeast instead of 1. I am looking forward to the yeast having a head-start when they are producing alcohol, so why not 2 packs of yeast. The bottle with the $3.00 sign is the Yeast nutrients. These wonderful stuff will ensure that I get a healthy and vigourous fermentation so that we can get clean tasting alcohol without any off-flavours. We hate off-flavours here.

Cinnamon sticks. How many of you guys like Cinnamon Buns? If so, then I am sure that by adding some Cinnamon sticks into the brew, I will get a cider with some cinnamon sweetness, aroma and flavour.  I guess the main reason why I am adding the cinnamon stick is because the apple cider is just too tart and I am sure that most casual drinkers don’t like their wine too tart.

Yes, this is the Ceres Apple Juice I have been talking about. No sugar added 100% pure apple juice. I need to complain about NTUC and their way of handling apple juice boxes, they need to handle it with care. All the boxes I bought were dented at one side.

Yes, we are correct. It is made from pure apple juice. Wow, there is added Vitamin C and nature identical flavourant.Healthy!

Cyprina 100% Natural Apple juice. Nice packaging by the way.

Oh, this is made from apple concentrates. Too bad they don’t add any extra Vitamin C.  And why are they the most expensive of them all?

Just Juice Apple Juice. Really cheap this one. 2 for S$3. I don’t think that we can find any other brands which is so cheap out there. Only at Sheng Siong. I think Sheng Siong gets its supplies from Malaysia and this Just Juice is manufactured in Malaysia.

If I am not wrong, this is made from apple concentrates. Apparently Just Juice buys apple concentrates from somewhere and then add water and sell them as Just Juice Apple Juice.

Well, this is me attempting to rehydrate the Cote des Blancs yeast. Actually it is just a picture of a bottle half filled with water. Not too sure why did I take a photo of this.

Oh, this is  correct photo of me rehydrating the yeast. Made a big mistake by not sprinkling the yeast over the entire surface of the water and thus, we are seeing clumps of yeast whichstill may not get rehydrated.

Okay, as you can see above, I have filled the fermenter with all the 24 bottles of apple juice. It was tough work and I deserved a drink. Notice the foam? Well for your information, it was caused by those stupid small uneven openings of the packets of apple juice. Not too sure whether this will caused excessive oxidation to the juice.

Now after adding the dextrose (which dissolved pretty easily), the yeast nutrients and the cinnamon stick, I pitch the yeast and cover the fermenter. Notice that I didn’t have an airlock on. I am going to let it breathe for a few hours first before I attach the airlock. This is what Wine makers normally do. So, I guess why not try it here. Should have some good effects on the wine at the end.

And thanks for reading. I am going to let this ferment for about 4 weeks or so. Then hopefully, we are going to have yet another great tasting alcoholic beverage to enjoy.

PS: By the next day morning, the apfelwein has started bubbling. The sweet smell of apple juice fills the entire room! Ahhh….life is great!

If you guys don’t know what those are for, you haven’t been reading this blog. LOL! It is meant for making some delicious hard apple cider - Apfelwein. Yes, after the little taste test by my friends, it has been a great hit. Now everyone is asking me to make them some. So being a great guy, I am very much obliged to make Apfelwein for them. And I am fully booked till Christmas as making the Apfelwein requires quite a lot time waiting for it to ferment and mature.If you aren’t into homebrewing, you will not understand the time and the effort needed to get the correct temperature for making the Apfelwein. It seems easy enough, but remember, getting 24 litres of Apple Juice back home within a car is very tedious. And I am getting old.

Anyway, the main reason why I bought the Ceres Apple Juice is because NTUC is having offer for the Ceres brand. So it cost about S$1.80 per 1 litre pack of juice. That is much cheaper than the usual price of S$2.10. Remember, I will be making 24 litres of the cider, so the amount saved is quite signifcant. However, I will definite not limit myself to just the Ceres Apple Juice. The reason is because I am afraid that just using one brand of apple juice, I might not get the correct taste for my Apfelwein. Might be too sour or too bitter depending on the type of juice used. So it would be more prudent to use 2 or 3 different brands of apple juice, like what I did before and hope that the different flavours will mask out the unpleasant ones. I think another brand which I will be using should be the VeCool Fuji Apple Juice as well as Harvey Fresh Apple Juice.  I really like the Harvey Fresh Apple Juice. It taste very “appley” and even though there is no sugar added, it taste quite sweet. It is made from crushed apples, unlike the rest of the Apple Juice which are usually made from Apple Concentrate. The VeCool Fuji Apple Juice is another great choice because it is supposed to be made from Fuji Apples, which is one of my favourite fruits. I just love Fuji Apples!

And this time, I will be making all of the Apfelwein carbonated. Unless the resulting Apfelwein is going to be sweet, there is no other way about it, especially when we are talking about those “wines” made from juices. There will always be some residual sourness in the cider if you ferment it dry and although it is not really extremely unpleasant, it can be be considered as an off-flavour. And not everyone likes sour. So, the fizz will help mask the sourness. Furthermore, carbonation helps to bring out the aroma of the apple cider. I never considered myself any expert in ciders, but I have to agree that drinking ciders carbonated is a lot better than drinking a still cider.

Well guys, if you remember about 2 months back, I made the Apfelwein (Apple Wine), which is actually a hard apple cider. It is supposed to be some sort of German style of cider which is easy to drink and extremely refreshing. This kind of drink is exactly what we need right here in Singapore. The weather is warm, dusty and with a cool refreshing alcoholic beverage, life can be good. And so I made the Apfelwein for my friends to enjoy.

So two days ago, I bought a few bottles of the 2 month old brew to them to have a taste test. I had expected them to dislike it. First of all, it has a slight sourish aftertaste, which is typical of most ciders. Secondly, it is made from apple juice and it has that apple aroma which a lot of Singaporean drinkers don’t like. They would prefer bitterness than sourness in their alcohol drink. But I was pleasantly surprised that they love it and some of them asked me to make more for them to enjoy during the Chinese New Year holidays. Being a kind and generous person, I said of course I would make for them. The Apfelwein recipe is very easy. Just apple juice, some dextrose and yeast. If you have all the necessary equipment to brew, you should have no problems making this Apfelwein. No boiling, no fuss. Just a lot of apple juice, a little patience and you will have great tasting apple cider to enjoy.

Anyway, it is important to know how to drink the Apfelwein. This beverage should be drank cold. Preferly ice cold. I am sure that most of us don’t like the residual sourness of the apples. If the drink is ice cold, the sourness will not be so profound as the distract the drinker. Plus with carbonation, the aroma of the apples will help musk any sourness. Yes, that means that it should be carbonated and cold when served. Next, you should drink it straight up. You fill your glass to the top with the Apfelwein. In one shot drink about 1/2 of the drink. Rest for like 5 seconds and then drink the rest. After this, you should stop for a while and feel the kick of the potent Apfelwein and you will suddenly feel the Apflewein flunging itself into your senses. Beware, it can creep up to you suddenly so don’t  drink too much. Oh, since this is a cider, you should be prepared for a painful hangover the next morning. I have tried to reduce the hangover effect by ensuring that there is less impurities in the cider, so as some of you guys might know, it is not easy when dealing with apples. Apples unlike malt (for making beer) lacks the necessary nutrients for making a healthy brew, so it is very important to add some yeast nutrients to the must. And keep the temperature on the lower range so as not to create any off-flavours and impurities.

Okay, those Edwort’s Apfelwein have been sitting in my cupboard for about a month now, getting all carbonated and maturing as we speak. However, I took one out and had a little taste test yet again. I am sure that after maturing for a month, the flavour should have changed quite significantly compared to the first time I took a taste test. And I wasn’t disappointed. The taste of the Apfelwein was definitely better than before.

I was told one of the most important thing about hard ciders is to ensure that there is good carbonation. This will really bring out the apple flavours in the cider. They were right. With bubbles you can really taste the “appley” flavour coming out of the cider. Previously when I tried a sample, it wasn’t fully carbonated thus the cider had a less profound apple flavour but now, it was just great. Only problem is that the sourish aftertaste still remains. Perhaps it is the apple juice I had used for this cider. If the original apple juice is sour, then I am pretty sure there will still be some residual sour taste in the end. Too bad. I hadn’t tried drinking all of the apple juice I used so I have no idea whether some of the juice had been sour. Anyway, those are all without any sugar added, so some sourish flavour should be expected from natural apple juice. If you have been drinking apple juice which tasted very sweet, then most likely they have either artifical sugar added or pear juice added. I have seen some Japaneseapple juice which tasted rather sweet and they do add pear juice into the mix.

And the bitterness I felt in the end from my previous brew is now gone! Hooray. I had thought that this bitterness would not fade but surprisingly it did. Perhaps the carbonation helped masked the bitterness. The end result is that the Apfelwein was extremely refreshing and I like it much better now. Hopefully it will get even better with more aging. However, I think it is now ready for mass drinking with my friends. Good times ahead!

Yes, I finally opened a bottle of my Edwort’s Apfelwein and took a real sample. For all that is worth, the taste was pretty okay and considering that it has only been in the bottle for 1 week, I am sure that it will get better. And the carbonation was a bit too little. I am rather surprised to find the Apfelwein has too little carbonation, felt like it was a still wine. The PET bottle I use to contain the Apfelwein was rather firm when I pressed on it but alas, there will still very little carbonation. And the bubbles that were formed will quickly disappear. I believe that it is because unlike beer, apple cider doesn’t retain bubbles since it has very little body just like sparkling apple juice!

For the taste, I have to say it is like between a cider and a plum wine. You can definitely feel the sourish aftertaste at the back of your tongue when you drink it and there will always be a slight bitterness at the edge. Not too sure how to put it correctly, but it is like after eating something sour and at the end of it you bite the seed (which is usually bitter) like of feeling. Not very sure whether I like it. But from what more experienced had said, you will need to drink about 3 glasses or more before you can pass any judgement on this Apfelwein. But I really doubt that I have the ability to drink 3 glasses straight! Probably get drunk before the second glass. And not to mention, a massive headache the next day. Wuhahaha, don’t you just hate to have that intense headache when you wake up in the morning. Seems that apple ciders will provide a lot of impurities which will cause those hangovers.

Well, please enjoy the following pictures:

Yes, you can see a little carbonation. But that’s about it. And when you drink the cider, you don’t feel the fizziness at all. This pictures was taken just moments after I pour the Apfelwein onto the glass and there is just a few little bubbles left.

Another view of the Apfelwein. The colour is actually quite nice. You can’t really see it from this picture but the colour is beautifully golden. By the time I took this picture, there is hardly any carbonation left.

Yet another view.

I am not too sure of what to make of this. I will probably keep this aged for about a few more weeks and then crack open a bottle and have yet another test of the wine. Yes, I am sure it will get better with age. Hopefully.

Well, 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.

You guys remembered the Apfelwein (Apple Wine) I am making about 2 weeks back? Well, today I went to check it and realize that it is rather quiet. It has been fermenting furiously for the past 2 weeks like nobody’s business. The airlock was bubbling crazily. However for the last 2 to 3 days, nothing seems to be going on in the must. Silence. Well, this is definitely a good thing. It means that the majority of the primary fermentation is complete. For those who don’t understand, it means that the yeast in the must have finished eating the sugars and converting it to alcohol. But does that mean that it is complete?

No! It is not! To make good alcoholic drinks like beer and wine (most of the time anyway), we should let it age for a while. Why? Well, first of all, if you don’t, the beer/wine will taste green. There will be a slight sourish flavour. And if you are making wine (with a much higher alcoholic content than beer), the alcohol will give your wine a very strong alcohol bite which can taste rather bad. If you allow the beer or the wine to age properly before consumption, you will find the taste smoother and more complex. This is the result of the yeast, after eating away all the basic sugars, will then proceed to consume the more complex sugars which will produce a more “complex” beer/wine. The yeast will also clean up after itself, eating away it’s own by-products which would normally taste unpleasant. And yes, this is definitely desirable. I have always felt that aging really helps the final product. I had an Australian Pale Ale which was aged for 5 months before I had a taste and it was the best I ever tried.

So I will be bottling this Apfelwein when it is ready. From what I read from the forums, it should take about 4 weeks in total for it to ferment in the primary. And after that, I will bottle it and let it age again for another month or so before drinking.  However, I am not sure whether I should carbonate it or not? I wanted it to taste like a real wine but I am afraid that it would be too bland without the fuzziness. Well, I will cross the bridge will I reach it. No point worrying about it now.

How many of you guys heard before of Glutinous Rice Wine or Jiuniang? It is an traditional Chinese alcoholic drink made from fermenting glutinous rice and it is supposed to be very healthy and nutritious. I have been told that mothers are given small amounts of the rice wine to built up resistant and good health after birth during confinement. Not sure whether this is really that true or not, but who am I to argue with tradition? I mean, if someone gives you alcohol (a sweet nice tasting one at that), why complain? Just drink it. I guess a lot of Singaporean Chinese are just a bit obsessed with this confinement thing, which I think is a bit ridiculous. I mean, what’s the difference between staying in a hot, stinking room and going outside where the air should be much fresher and cleaner other than being allowed to drink rice wine eh?

Well, I have been thinking of making some Glutinous rice wine myself. And from what I read, it isn’t that difficult at all. The recipe just calls from Glutinous rice which is cooked (with a steamer) and allowed to cool. Then after transferring the rice to a fermentation vessel, yeast is added to it. After which a few days later, you will get Glutinous rice wine! It is a cloudy slightly sweet stuff. However, I heard that if you do it this way (without some sort of mold to help convert the rest of the starch to sugar), you will get less alcohol. It should hit about 8% ABV. I believe that if you use the mold (Koji) to help convert the starch in the rice to sugar, you will get a stronger drink. Of couse it will take much longer due to the time it takes to convert starch to sugar by the mold and the corresponding time taken to convert the extra sugars to alcohol.

Oh, and if you are into cooking, this rice wine is used in many Chinese recipes. If you have eaten rice wine chicken or any of those food stuck full with the wine, you will definitely appreciate the wine. Luckily in Singapore, we often have the opportunity to taste such dishes as they are pretty common here. Delicious! Even with the poor quality of food served in Singapore nowadays,the rice wine seems to help camouflage the poor quality chicken and help bring out the exotic aroma of the dish. And when I say it is delicious, I mean it. Once you tasted dishes cooked with rice wine, you will never forget the taste.

The sad part about all these is that not many Singaporeans drink this. When I visit the alcohol beverages section of the local supermarkets, I seldom see rice wine being sold. Yes, there are sake available but even those are few. I guess that is surprising as what the current Japanese craze in Singapore, sake is not even popular. Chinese Rice Wine is usually found in the cooking section of the supermarket.  Well…