Apfelwein

From Wikipedia:

Apfelwein (German, apple wine) is a German variant of cider made out of apple. It has an alcohol content of 5.5%–7% and a tart, sour taste.

Why do we care?

I don’t think there is a whole lot to tell from last night so I’ll give you the whole story. In college like many kids we experimented, unlike many kids we experimented with making wine in our dorm room. My first and best batch went like this. I got a new 5 gallon bucket and cleaned it out, cut a hole in the lid and ran a garden hose out of the lid and into a cup of water. I duct taped all around the lid/hose connection to seal it up. Then I dumped in a ton of strawberries, 5 lbs of sugar, a packet of bread yeast, and filled the rest of the bucket with water. I stuck it in the corner of my closet till it got really stinky then took it to Heath’s house and put it on her porch. We waited a long time then opened up the bucket and ladeled it out. It was a bit funky but good enough to drink the whole bucket and make several more of various flavors.

I’ve been thinking about picking up a new hobby of brewing good beer for a long time and I am hoping Apfelwein will be a good first step in that direction. It’s still more like a wine then a beer but it is alcohol and i think will get me going.

Last night Peanut had soccer practice so I had to really rush dinner. I made up some ground turkey tacos in crunchy shells. They were loaded with meat, beans, rotel, lettuce and peppers. We ate super quick and then jumped in the van and sped off to practice. We got to practice like 5 minutes early. Pumpkin and I stayed in the van and sped off to Bacchus & Barleycorn a somewhat nearby brewing supply store. We got there minutes before close and I was tempted to look the store over to get an idea of what I was getting into but I hate making people wait to close so instead I just told the lady what I needed.

A packet of special wine yeast and a bag of dextrose (corn sugar). Pumpkin and I paid and left and then sped off to a Walmart grocery market for the next ingredient. We found the juice isle did a little calculator fun then bought 7 jugs of 100% apple juice.

The cashier commented that my baby must really like apple juice. Then we rushed back to soccer practice and caught the last 5 minutes. Peanut was a sweaty mess and had run his little but off. We went home and he showered then had an ice cream and played some Nintendo DS. I rushed to the basement and put a coat of primer on the other side of my shelf boards.

Then took out the trash and collected a pile of pop tabs for Peanut’s school.

Heath and Peanut put his lunch together then read some and got Peanut in bed and Pumpkin fed again. While our primer was still drying we watched the last of the True Blood disk and had a glass of sangria. Then Heath and I headed downstairs and Pumpkin went to bed. The primer had dried so I got started on a coat of Peanut’s room blue on the shelves. Heath got out some polyurethane and started sealing the doors so they would not become more distressed.

Then she moved on to the cabinet. Anywhere we had put down the wax paste and then painted over it was really easy to scratch off the black paint. The poly should help seal it down and leave it looking just like it did when we finished painting.

Once I was done with the shelves I started getting some brewing stuff together. I’m not going to invest in a cool carboy bottle quite yet.

So instead I used a 5 gallon bucket. I cleaned it out real good, cut a little hole in the lid and found some hose that will fit just right. Then let everything sit in bleach overnight to kill any bacteria.

I probably could have gotten things started but I wanted to read up a bit more on the process first and make super sure that there would be no bacteria getting in there and making things rot instead of the yeast making things turn to alcohol.

Once Heath and I were done for the night with our projects we headed back to the TV to catch up on some shows and have some bowls of ice cream/raisin bran. Then went to bed.