Posted on 09/28/2012 3:32:43 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good afternoon/evening FReepers. Yep, it is Beer Thirty Time Once Again!
Happiness is a bubbling airlock! And a Cold Brew
BEER
Good evening/afternoon brewers and winemakers. Last week I started a Hard Cider and I thought I would give y’all some details. I used three containers of 12 oz frozen concentrated Apple juice and spring water to make one gallon. Original Gravity (O.G.) was 1.060. I also made a yeast starter using some of the Apple juice and a couple tsps of sugar and Safale 05 yeast. I aerated the jug of apple juice and added a tsp of yeast nutrient. Pitched the yeast starter put an air lock on and about 3 hours later I had some slow bubbling action. Yeah! About five hours later it was a steady bubbling every second. So after a week there is a very, very slow bubbling airlock. I will wait one more week checking the gravity and then to rack to a secondary then bottle it after 2 weeks. Should I age it in the secondary longer or bottle age it? Whatcha y’all think?
I am trying different tomato plans. I almost never have a long enough growing season to get tomatoes outside. I have 3 varieties and also jalapeno peppers that I started indoors in large containers, moved otside and are back inside due to frost at night. I have potatoes still to be dug up.
Reading up on wine making. Never tried that before.
Add me to the list please. Been here a long time and this is the first I’ve heard of this list.
My Cranberry Mead I started last November is almost ready for uncorking around Thanksgiving. I have been sampling it along the way during this year long process. Hate the waiting period involved. It is like a nice rosé wine and at 13% ABV is quite tasty. My wife, who does not drink, thinks it has promise because it smells and looks like a wine. Amazing what just honey and water and yeast can produce.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2937552/posts
earlier beer thread today...
Depends on ur final gravity and if u want a dry cider.
Champagne (or most wine for a sweeter end product) yeast is more alcohol tolerant so will eat more sugar and give fizz if u add b4 bottling. Check ur fermenting yeast capabilities before u decide on this option. Don’t use much since live active yeast = the runs. The cider will be very dry if you take this route. You may add (maltose) milk sugars which the yeast don’t eat for a sweeter finish.
Option 2) Do a still cider. Apple wine.
Option 3) http://www.kegoutlet.com/soda-or-beer-carbonator-for-soda-bottle.html
Many other options exist, but those are the 3 I have had great luck with.
I’m cold crashing 20 gallons now and hope to transfer it tomorrow. The Ofest and the fresh hop ale. In between working on cars. This ought to be interesting.
Sadly, wifey is still wheelchair bound so we are using the oportunity to head up highway 50 to the apple orchards. I will be buying about 25 gallons of fresh pressed apple juice and will be making a boatload between Sunday night and Monday night. I can’t wait.
Good thing I have a lot of fermenters eh?
Cheers,
knewshound
You have been added.
Thanks....been out of brewing for a year or two, but need to get back into it. Hell I have a 15 gallon brew pot, a concrete deck and plenty of propane. ;-P I guess I am just being lazy.
Wow I envy anyone who can get fresh pressed apple juice! 25 gallons Yipes!~ That’s a lot of work and a lot of yeasties. You have to be kegging it.
Funny you should mention the 25 gallons.
I have been makin hard code for years and its popularity has gone through the roof. I’m personally making 10 gallons for myself, all the rest are requests fro others. If I’m lucky, I will actually have some left over for the spring.
But I doubt it. Man is that some fine drinking brew.
I am indeed kegging and once carbed, I transfer to bottles for long term cold storage. I back sweeten with apple juice concentrate since it finishes sooooo dry.
Yeah, you have to refrigerate it but its worth every minute of effort.
Cheers,
knewshound
Mmmmmm Sounds good! Thanks for the good info on back sweeting and cold storage!
A question for the malt mavens:
How practical would it be to use dry ice as a carbonation agent instead of priming sugar?
Seems like a very dicey way to carbonate a beer or a good way to make nuclear bottle bombs! It would be very hard to control the level of carbonation. When I worked off shore our groceries were delivered with dry ice to keep them cold. We would use the dry ice to make empty 2 quart plastic soda bottles into bombs. Add a little water to the bottle and drop in a couple of small chunks of dry ice cap tightly and throw them overboard into the water. KABOOM!
“variation of that recipe “
I’d intended to do the ‘original recipe’ except to use ec1118 yeast but...
I hadn’t noticed ‘corn’ sugar in the recipe so I used cane, and I only had 3 gals of juice so I added a pint+ of applesause and some tap water to bring the total to 4 gal.
If this doesn’t work there’s still plenty of time before the holidays to do a batch right.
But it’s bubbling merrily away so may be it is truly a “foolproof” recipe LOL!
Let the debates begin!
Oh For sure a beer or a few will be needed tonight! Especially while watching the talking heads spin it after. But I hope Mitt knocks obambi outa da Park!
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