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Author Topic: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen  (Read 3242 times)

Offline nicneufeld

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Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« on: January 04, 2011, 02:30:22 pm »
I'd been intending to brew something like this for a while...I was going to brew a basic weizenbeer but I thought I'd throw a little twist in:
5# domestic wheat malt
4# domestic pils malt
Mashed 60min at around 150degF
Boiled 60 min, 2ml of Hopshot extract added at beginning of boil.
During cooling, added 4 12oz cans of frozen apple juice concentrate (this would reconstitute to 1.5 gallons)
Had an OG, if I recall, of 1.065.  I'm thinking the apple flavor will be subtle if there at all, owing to how well the stuff tends to ferment, but a subtle apple hint would be welcome in the beer.  In primary now, almost ready for racking...yeast used was Danstar Munich.

Offline beerocd

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2011, 06:36:24 pm »
I think you're making GRAFF.
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Offline Kaiser

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2011, 07:28:27 pm »
I think you're making GRAFF.

What's GRAFF? I looked it up in Google but the first page didn't show meaningful results, so I thought I'd ask.

Kai

Offline beerocd

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2011, 07:57:39 pm »
copied without permission...

To avoid any continual debate on the "cider" moniker for this recipie

I propose we call it something totally different...

Are any of you ladies and gents familiar with Steven King's
"Dark Tower" series of books?

anyway - in this series, in addition to common wines and beers a made up drink called "Graff" Graff is commonly served at bars and events. the only discription of it describes it as a "strong apple beer"
not a cider or wine, but a "beer" - evidently while being quite quaffable, it packs a bit of a punch, and Gunslingers (the protagonists of the series) tend to enjoy it in moderation because of this "sneak up and bite you" property of the drink.

I think we should name Brandon's invention Graff - as the ingredient list he has posted makes me think of this "strong apple beer" described in Steven Kings Series of books.

what do you think... wanna call it Graff?
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Offline beerocd

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2011, 08:01:19 pm »
again no permission, but at least the "inventors name is credited at the bottom...

Well it's definately not apfelwein. I prefer cider to apfelwein.

Here is the recipe. Use 4 gallons apple juice. I use fresh pressed.

.5 lbs crystal 60L and 1oz torrified wheat steeped for 30 minutes at 155 in .75 gallons of water. Sparge grain sack with .25 gallons of 170 water.

Add 1lb amber DME and 1lb Light DME and boil with a half oz of your favorite hops for 15-30 mins depending on how many IBUs you like.

Ferment at 64-68 degrees with safale-04, Nottingham, or safale-05.

This recipe can be found in the cider section. The name of the recipe is GRAFF.

Just a note, if you use cheap juice it will have a lot of sourness and tart for the first month after fermentation then mellow out. Fresh pressed doesn't take near as long to mellow out, like 2-3 weeks from start of fermentation.

Last edited by Brandon O; 06-11-2009 at 08:32 AM.
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Offline tygo

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2011, 08:15:39 pm »
I thought of the Dark Tower series immediately when I read your post but I wasn't sure if there was an actual beverage that King had purloined for the books.
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Offline Kaiser

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2011, 08:21:07 pm »
what's sad is that I actually read the first few Dark Tower books. I loved this series and while reading English was not as easy for me at that time as it is now, I really devoured them. I meant to check when the new books would come out but I never did.

Did he finish the series?

Kai

Offline tygo

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2011, 08:39:55 pm »
Yeah, he did.  They've all been out for awhile now.  I highly recommend that you pick them up.
Clint
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2011, 05:29:45 am »
I like the idea of an Apfelweizen. A few years back I made a Smoked Apple Amber - basically I smoked all the malt over applewood and made a typical "Alt" recipe but sparged with appelcider. Believe it or not I didn't have a problem with pectin haze from boiling the cider. The beer was really interesting and I am going to make it again this year.

Offline nicneufeld

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2011, 07:16:20 am »
I like the idea of an Apfelweizen. A few years back I made a Smoked Apple Amber - basically I smoked all the malt over applewood and made a typical "Alt" recipe but sparged with appelcider. Believe it or not I didn't have a problem with pectin haze from boiling the cider. The beer was really interesting and I am going to make it again this year.

Smoke and apple seem like one of the few fruit and smoke pairings that would work!  Note how many BBQ apple products there are.  I'm also doing a smoked weizen of some sort (likely a smoked weizenbock) on the yeast cake of this one.


Offline nicneufeld

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2011, 06:12:00 am »
This one is kegged now.  Pretty good actually...not a lot of apple flavor as one might expect, but imagine a German style hefeweizen, and then increase it's strength subtly while adding a nice, refreshing hint of acidity.  I may try this again and really ramp up the apple juice concentrate at flameout, while dialing back the grain bill to compensate.  That might get me closer to a malted cider, which was a botched experiment of mine years ago.  Worth another shot methinls.

Offline rbcraig

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Re: Weird idea I finally got round to: Apfelweizen
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2011, 01:58:48 pm »
That could be really good.  I like the Idea.  I love Beer, Cider and Apfelwein why not Kind of make a mix. I think I may try this next weekend. I think I will add a little Acid malt and use White Labs 550 Belguim yeast. I live in Arizona so I can let it ferment in my pool room above 75 degrees they say it will be in the 90's starting Thursday.  Thanks
« Last Edit: March 29, 2011, 02:08:52 pm by rbcraig »
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