Just some rambling notes on my latest passion; homemade Hard Cider. I’ve let the website go because this one is doing all the same things but I’ve kept the motto: “Suitable for all thirsts Public and Private.” There were a few cider related posts through the winter, but I’m keeping them drafts for now.

Sassy Cidre

I tried their Rose’ flavor and the Poire’ flavor. I did not like them. I thought they were too sweet and left an undesireable flavor on the pallet. It did have the ‘smell of french ciders’ so I don’t doubt that they start with real fruit but something happened on the way to the bottle.

Packs a Wallopen

Got a gallon of cider while in Pennsylvannia this past week and decided to make two experiments with it. One of the gallons was a freebie “I don’t know what to do with it.” cause it already had started to ferment.  I’m going to try making cider from wild yeast sinec it was free and I had the space. Nothing on my shelf at all since the spring’s been so cold and RL has taken precedent. Pack’s a Wallopen is in a two gallon container. Its that half gallon, 1 cup of sugar and enough 100% apple juice to top it up. I’ve got that on the shelf in the mud room where its not yet very warm. This week should hit the 50’s though and it probably will take off.  Remind me to get SG readings when I finish this. The second half is more traditional, all the same above except the yeast will be my prefered L118.  I didn’t start that one till today April 2nd, since I didn’t have enough apple juice around the house. I had a frozen juice and thawed it, then seconds before pouring it into the fermentator I noticed it was “apple raspberry” flavor.  Not going to put that in my cider yet. Flavor experiments come after I get consistent results.  This will be drinkable in July though ‘samples’ may emerge sooner 🙂 ps: the magic number is 7.36

Upping the ante on Autumnal Amber

Well its the end of my first week back from England and I finally got to go to an orchard and try to purchase some fresh pressed apple juice and to do what I’ve discovered is called “Back sweetening” my cider. Its basically for cider that has gone on fermenting and leeched out the sweet apple flavor. I’ve sorta been doing this already by adding honey to the bottles before I sealed them up. In preparation I checked online and found that the three closest orchards are Lehmans, Kercher’s and Garwoods. Lehman’s is closest being just up the road in Niles but when I emailed them about juice for cider they said they had a bad crop this year and wouldn’t ahve any to sale. That’s a sad story that’s true of most of the crops around here.  Between the late frost and the two months of drought there wasn’t much to harvest. 🙁 So then I checked Kercher’s and their website was full of activity but I couldn’t tell if any of it was recent. It looked suspciously like a cut and past job from a previous year so I clicked on the ‘contact us’ button and got a pop up blocked my path and said “You cannot ask us a question before you’ve registered.” Well I felt that was a bit rude so I decided thru process of elimination to go to Garwood’s in LaPorte. Both places are about an hour away but Garwoods was also nearer to Indiana Bill whom I owed a couple bottles of piccalilli so I arranged for him to meet us there. The place was swamped, people parking half way to the Upick and onward… I guess so many orchards having to give this year a miss was hard on the area. They had apples, they didn’t all look as good as previous years, but mostly I was disappointed by the lack of anyone with any knowledge to talk to. I wanted to ask what variety apple was in the cider this year but I couldn’t find anyone over the age of 16 and they didn’t know.  The press wasn’t going so watching it was out too. They were just too busy to chat! SO I bought 6 apples of a variety called “Ambrosia” at $2.49 a pound!  Had a brief meet and greet with Indy and then came back home. In retrospect the jonagold might have been a better choice but I had enough for my experiment.  I washed and stemmed the apples, cubed them roughly and the popped them into the blender. Added a tiny bit of filtered water.  Then I poured the apple sauce like mixture into a bowl thru some cheesecloth and watched the now brown apple juice start to seive out slowly. Looked like I was off to a good start. The Mrs said it would take a while so I drove over to Martins and got some apple cider and some apple juice to top off the containers. You’ll remember from an earlier entry that there was three gallons of cider in the fridge in a couple of two gallon containers. Plus another one I’d started about a month ago. The plan was to take the fresh juice and the apple cider (which is unpasteurized local apple juice recently pressed) and top off each fermenter and balance out the alcohol taste with some of the original apple taste. I got inspired by this video from Brewing TV: I also tested the SG though I’m not sure why as I don’t understand it yet. I will go back to Brewing TV and watch their video on how to read a hydrometer. It read less than 1. I say I PLANNED to add the ambrosia apple juice to the cider cause when I came back I’d found that the contraption I’d put together to filter into had a leak and now there was fresh apple juice running all over the counter. Fortunately the towels from the blending process where still on the conter and they stopped it from running under the toaster oven and into the coffee supply. I was left with about two cups of juice. Good thing I had a gallon of cider to work with now, though it tasts a lot sweeter than I thought it should. Nothing on the label indicated it was anything but apple juice and water so I’m crossing my fingers. I added about 1/3…roughly speaking… apple cider to the one fermenter that was only half full, then a bit of apple juice to top it off. I’m leaving about 1/2 inch at the top for pressure release. To the full 2 gallon container I did the same by siphoning off 1/2 gallon into an freshly emptied apple juice bottle and then topped it back off with apple cider and a tiny bit of apple juice. Probably only got 1/2 cup of ambrosia apple juice, the rest was “Ziegler’s apple cider.” I returned both to the mini fridge out in the garage where they’ve been living since primary fermentation ended. I’ll give it another week minimum and then try a test bottle. I found an answer to that pesky bottling issue too, which I will go over when I do the bottling. I also found a recipe for cider that you drink in about a week’s time. I’ll try that once I’ve bottled this batch.  The Mrs wants space in the fridge back and I need to officially finish the Autumn batch before I can think about jump starting a new one. I want to note that the cider that is just a fortnight old had a soft fizzy nature and I could taste some bite and  had I not known it was still early days for it I would have deemed it drinkable. Not much body, that comes with time. But I was so disappointed in that Woodchuck Fall cider that I was tempted to drink that this right now. Tempted! I think I can wait one more week… I also set a couple of bottles on a garage shelf just to see how they’ll fair now that nights are around 66 and days are 70 something. I’m thinking that’s cooler than the basement gets and I won’t have room in the fridge for the roughly 5 gallons of cider once its in pint bottles. Roughly 40 bottles. Some will go in larger bottles, and some will stay in the  secondary fermenter as ‘still. whew! Don’t let anyone tell you making cider is easy, I’m always soaked in sweat by the time I’ve finished.

cider article in Today’s Food magazine:

Cider article sent to me by Oldpather from “Today’s Food” magazine.

homebrew talk forums

My next batch after bottling the Autumnal Amber… http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/southern-sweet-cider-114594/

No room for the rack.

I thought I had room in the mini fridge for a third 2-gallon container of cider because one sits on the bottom just fine turned sideways. Problem is I didn’t try closing the door! I’ll have to remove the wire rack in the door in order to fit it in and close the door but I don’t want to damage the fridge by strong-arming it out. I’ll wait till this batch of cider has moved to bottles and then I’ll get the tin snips out. I also noticed the temp wasn’t particularly cold inside so I twitched the knob just a bit. I wish I’d discovered that sooner, it might mean a drier cider than I want. I’ll bottle some when I get back from England and that will be…two months since it was started (this is the Autumnal Amber batch I’m referring to, btw.) Long enough to test SG and decide how much honey to add to it. So now I have this small batch started on Labor Day that I had planned to add some tart apple juice to but with Lehman’s not selling any juice this year due to the spring drought I’ll just let it go for now. I will go to an orchard in late September and get enough to press. (Almost said squeeze there 😉 It might benefit the flavor of the final product if I add the real apple pressings just before bottling instead of during primary fermentation. Also, I don’t have a press, but for a 2 gallon batch I can make due with a blender and some cheesecloth.   ———————————————————————- This past week I tried Woodchuck’s “Fall” special release which has the taste of Nutmeg and Cinnamon in it. I think maybe they were going for a ‘mulled’ cider effect. I’m not keen on it. I will give away the rest of the 6 pack. I imagine this is what it tastes like to drink potpourri. They had a winter cider last year or a dark…I forget now what it was called, and that tasted excellent. Better than their amber or granny smith. I will watch for that to appear after this…aberration has cleared the shelves. score – 2.5 out of 6.

Autumnal Amber

I’m going to start another batch of cider tomorrow. I wanted to let you know what I’ve done in the meantime. I’ve made ginger beer. The mrs. found a recipe on the BBC food channel webpage and I gave it a try in a 1/2 gallon jug I had handy. It came out very drinkable for something that only fermented about 7 days. I will definitely try it again in larger amount. My wife loves ginger beer but can’t drink alcohol for health reasons. I might have to experiment with CO2 and add fizz to it for her without the wee little yeast beasties. Well plants anyway. 🙂 Here’s the recipe I tried, have a look while I read back and remind myself what I did right last time. http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/ginger-beer-recipe —————– notes mainly for myself. SG right at 60, showing 6% potential alcohol. Will measure again before bottling, and again when finished. One of these days I’ll figure out what they mean. 🙂 —————– July 28th: Decanting to secondary fermentation, new numbers are surprising: Potential Alcho: 1/2% (the math means this is 5.5% at the mo.) SG: 1% – I think that means nearly all the sugar was converted to alcohol. I’ll move it to two gallon water bottles, and add 1/2 cup honey and lighly chill for a month. Early September I’ll check for flavor and add sugar or honey again. Then bottle after that. I’m going to buy the honey now, and think about how much sulfite to add to stop fermentation. 5 1/2% is enough alcohol. That’s the plan anyway… wish me luck! ——– Discovered there was room for a third 2 gallon bottle in my mini fridge. That just means room for another batch sooner than I expected success. Recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon for 6 gallons of liquid and so having 3 gallons I made it tiny tiny bit I just couldn’t bring myself to even put 1/8 teaspoon into my mix. Sue me I don’t want to sacrafice taste!

Variation in taste and my quest.

I just drank an excellent bottle of cider. I would have gladly pitted it against  80% of all the ciders I’ve ever tasted. And it was mine. It was one of the current “Luck of the Irish” batch mentioned earlier. The problem I now have is that the bottle I drank just before it wasn’t spot on. It was good, I drank it, but I wouldn’t have wanted it to be publicly judged. This bottle, perhaps number 6 out of 12 was perfect.  Several but not all of the others from that batch were just as nice. I don’t know how to achieve consistency in output. As previous notes can attest I precisely measured ingredients, aged the whole batch in exactly the same conditions, added the same amount of honey to it all on the same day and even handled every single empty bottle the same way.  Yet each blue tinted bottle is a universe unto itself, and I can’t fathom out how to be sure when I hand a bottle to a friend that he’s going to go home and enjoy the same refreshing drink I just had. The only option I’ve come up with is to not bottle condition –age the cider in the bottles– but in a secondary fermentation container and then bottle when close to the date of consumption.  This gets me a less fizzy, slightly sweeter cider. But even then fermentation can slowly continue. My basement remains cool but not cool enough to stop fermentation completely. The test batch I made this way was well received, but I have to admit I missed the fizz and dryness more than I thought I would. Scrubbing the web for ideas gets me only one thing I haven’t tried and that’s adding some sodium metabisulphite at the end of the process to kill the yeast where I want it to.  You use it to sterilize the bottles and equipment and to kill off any wild yeast that might be in your mix and so it follows that it would work to ‘fix’ the cider at the peak drinkabiltiy. Those same sources mention it affects the taste too, so there’s a trade off. I’ll soon be starting the next batch, utilizing freshly pressed apple juice from a nearby orchard. (Link once I’m sure I can still buy some this year’s crop could be less than stellar from what I hear. I will do as they suggest, but the proof is in the tasting, and that will happen sometime in early October.  I’m excited and I can’t wait!  

Kings abroad

  The batch I made back in March is drinkable now though I am trying to save some for Fourth of July weekend. Some of the bottles got a bit warm out in the garage when we had an early taste of summer and those came out dry and very fizzy. The best of the lot though is the cider I made in a 2 gallon water bottle and kept in my mini fridge all these months. Its definitely a still cider with the tiniest bit of sparkly to and just a hint of honey aftertaste. I think they wine reviewers call that a ‘back note’ but I don’t think homemade cider should try to be so posh.  I can definitely tell that using a better quality apple juice has made a difference in the final product.  Doyle had a cup (two actually) and reckoned it was 5-5 1/2 % . There’s an orchard right on the Indiana/Michigan border that will sell me 5 gallons or so of fresh pressed apple juice. I will make a batch from that in July and have it for late September-mid October release. Technically my cider is ‘drinkable’ after a week or so, meaning that it has alcohol content at that point. But you really wouldn’t enjoy it much.  

Ease it back just a notch…

The more I thought about it the more I couldn’t’ remember if I’d actually put honey in the Batch A bottles like I mentioned in a previous posting. So yesterday I grabbed one of the bottles — a 3/4 full amber colored PET bottle that said Pepsi Max on it and cracked it open. OH man was it dry! There wasn’t a drop of honey left in that bottle. So I had to open the other 10 bottles some of which were like champange on the inside and add a 1/2 teaspoon of honey to them.  Man am I glad I bought those dark blue bottles!  The pet bottle held up well too, and can be used as an alternate if good bottles aren’t available. If you’re doing the math you realize there’s one bottle not accounted for.  Well after openning about 6 bottles and having them make a loud pop and spew white foam down the side, I open a bottle and nothing happens.  UH OH, ones gone flat or bacteria have gotten at it. Nope, neither of those… a clear unfizzy liquid was in the bottle. I poured some out into a small glass and looked at it.  IT was the sterilizing solution I use to clean the bottles. I must have missed filling it with cider! Glad I didn’t send that somewhere to be judged! The Mrs. and I went to Christmas tree shop and I saw a tall thick walled bottle stamped ‘best milk’ or something like that and I thought I’d give it a try. I shouldn’t have the same problem with still cider as before so I am kicking myself for donating away most of those bottles I had from before.  I’ll stop by the basement sometime this week and take pictures. If I had to drink either of the batches today, Batch A would be the best of the lot, though a couple more weeks will bring round the rest.   I’m worried that Batch A in the fridge won’t have matured any further though it had a light bubbly nature to it when I tapped out a bit, which is about where it should be for a Still cider. I think I’ll try a sample bottle around June 7th and decide if its ready to be consumed or if I should let it mature for another month.  Fourth of July is a good weekend to drink cider! Final note: Since I have two batches underway totaling 22 bottles and roughly 1 1/2 gallons in the fridge I won’t be able to start another batch till I’ve ahem! Emptied about half of them.  Oh the trials we go thru for our art!      

Luck O th’ Irish (batch)

Yes, its March 17th and boy am I tired! I’ve been working since before noon to prepare a batch of cider -TWO batches in fact– and have just sat down at 6:42 in order to allow the yeast to start its magic and to make a few notes. Part of that time was a mad rush to Quality Brewing supplies in Elkhart to get the all important yeast and to grab some more dark blue Grolsh bottles. I am 3 shy of my full complement of 12 bottles, two of which are still in the fridge with last September’s batch in them.  I hesitated to drink them without some brewing.  And I grabbed a siphoning wand and tested it with the sodium bisulfite used to sterlize bottles.  It works great. I probably spilt a full bottle’s worth each time I shifted some from primary fermentation to those bottles and the fact that it was fizzy and sticky and sweet didn’t make it any easier. All my previous cider bottling endeavors ended with a shower and a good scrub of the floor. It is what drove me to experiment with allowing the secondary fermentation to take place in a single large carboy instead of in the bottles.  Well that and the fact that bottles were exploding all over the place.  I found several pieces still in the mini fridge where they had stuck in the freezer compartment during the winter and it wasn’t until I defrosted it and broght it to Willis that I was able to give it a good cleaning and discover just how strong those explosions were. SO there’ll be two batches started today, owing in part to that successful experiment– I’m tempted to make both batches ‘still’ but I’ve already invested in 24 bottles, I guess I’d best use them. It didn’t hurt that Martins had their apple juice on sale. (Not spartan brand, their own brand) that says “ingredients: Apples.” I make it out to cost $4.50 a gallon for the juice, oddly a few cents cheaper than the Aldi brand I’d been using which was a blend of apple juice from concentrate — part of which came from chile and part from somewhere in the Med.   It made good cider, but I wanted to see if I could improve this batch by improving the apple juice.  JJ is very selective in which apple juice she’ll drink and this is one of two brands that she will tolerate in the house.   It is Batch the first will be

Luck O th’ Irish (batch)

Yes, its March 17th and boy am I tired! (sorry about the tiny font!)

I’ve been working since before noon to prepare a batch of cider -TWO batches in fact– and have just sat down at 6:42pm in order to allow the yeast to start its magic and to make a few notes. Part of that time was a mad rush to Quality Brewing supplies in Elkhart to get the all important yeast and to grab some more dark blue Grolsh bottles. I am 3 shy of my full complement of 12 bottles, two of which are still in the fridge with last September’s batch in them.  I hesitated to drink them without having some  more brewing.  And I grabbed a siphoning wand and tested it with the sodium bisulfite used to sterilize bottles.  It works great! I probably spilt a full bottle’s worth each time I decanted (what was the correct word?) cider from primary fermentation to those bottles and the fact that it was fizzy and sticky and sweet didn’t make it any easier.  All my previous cider bottling endeavors ended with a shower and a good scrub of the floor. Its what drove me to experiment with allowing the secondary fermentation to take place in a single large carboy instead of in the bottles.  Well that and the fact that bottles were exploding all over the place.  I found several pieces still in the mini fridge where they had stuck in the freezer compartment during the winter and it wasn’t until I defrosted it and brought it to Willis that I was able to give it a good cleaning and discover just how strong those explosions were. SO there’ll be two batches started today owing in part to that successful experiment. I’m tempted to make both batches ‘still’ but I’ve already invested in 24 bottles, I guess I’d best use them. It didn’t hurt that Martins had their apple juice on sale. (Not Spartan brand, their own brand) that says “Ingredients: Apples.”  The two versions will hereafter referred to as “Batch A” and “Batch B.” I make it out to cost $4.50 a gallon for the juice which is oddly a few cents cheaper than the Aldi brand I’ve been using which was a blend of apple juices from concentrate — part of which came from Chile and part from somewhere in the Med. It made good cider but I wanted to see if I could improve this batch by improving the apple juice.  JJ is very selective in which apple juice she’ll drink and this is one of two brands that she will tolerate in the house. I guess that’s good enough for me. 🙂 The other if you’re wondering is “Indian Summer” and its about 50 cents a bottle more than this was. I’ve put 6 bottles of juice into two fermentation carboys (read 3 gallon water bottles) which brings the level of pure juice right up to where the handle ends. The yeast starter will add a few cups to that as I’ll split the same half bottle of juice and sugar concentrate into each.  I want to prepare both methods as closely as possible and see what I get out at the end. One bottle will have a fermentation lock (I KNEW I forgot something while I was at Quality!) and the other I’ll just seal with its regular lid and ‘gas off’ whenever it looks to need it. At the same time as the addition of the yeast I’ll be adding 2 cups of ultra fine sugar (also bought at Quality) I think its labeled ‘fructose’ and is that really fine looking stuff like confectioner’s sugar only without the corn starch additive. The Initial fermentation will take about a week so I’ll report back next Sunday on the transfer of Batch A into bottles– remind me to measure the honey I’m adding at that point too. One thing I found with the still cider is that when I added the honey ‘for flavor’ it restarted the fermentation process. I ended up with VERY slightly fizzy cider that was Very Dry.  And Very Drinkable. I know why too! I hesitated at adding the sodium Bisulfite to the carboy to stop the fermentation process as was recommended because someone on the forums said it would affect the taste. NOT adding it affected the taste too, giving the overall alcohol level a boost and adding that light bubbly effect that I was sure I’d miss. I know from drinking still cider in England that fizz isn’t necessary or even all that desirable in a farmhouse scrumpy.  I’m just wimpy that way I guess. I’ll do it this time though and see how it goes. I feel my cider-making efforts are a success but it could be better and that’s what I’m working towards.  As the guy says in the pizza commercial: “Better ingredients make better Pizza.”  Just insert Cider… mmmmn, did I tell you how good pizza is with a cold glass of cider?? But I digress… Another difference is that Batch A will go into bottles after that week of fermentation with 1 tablespoon of honey in each, and Batch B will go into a second carboy for two months before being bottled. Both batches will be on schedule for drinking on June 15th…July 15th if I can hold out.  I’m happy to say that I’ll have at least one more batch brewing by then and overlapping with this one. The next one I do will have some freshly pressed apple pulp in it. So I’d better get started on an apple juicer this summer (Doyle I’m looking at you!) If the double production works I’ll expand again to 5 gallons of each. That would pretty much be my upper limit without the hobby taking over my life. For earlier batches I did some math to show how economical cider making is but now I’m just doing it cause I like the result.

So far so good to go.

Checked on the September cider out in the garage, the 3 gallon bottle didn’t seem to have any real fizz built up in it.  that’s a good thing. I moved the two bottles away from it just in case, but I imagine the cooler temps and the extra space at the top (from bottling two bottles ) is giving it enough room to work. I might check again in a few weeks, but I’m pretty certain its ready to carry on. I’ll have to move it eventually when the night time temps drop below 40 or so, but until then its good to go. Just two more weeks till I can try the July batch. I’m very curious about it since it was that troublesome batch with too much fizz in it. I’ll have to see if I’m using the same brand applejuice or not.  Another variable I can try to control in future batches. Anyone want to donate a ‘kegerator’ or a micro brewery ? Lifetime cider can be yours! LOL!

have faith

I’d hesitated decanting this month’s batch of cider in hopes that I could find a better way of storing the secondary fermentation.  I started with initial idea of using another 3 gallon water bottle and just sealing it till it was ready. But as time went on I felt more and more un certain that the waterbottle would withhold the internal pressure.  I tested it a few times and it seemed to swell up in just an hour or so at first, though by late saturday I had tested it for a full 6 hours and there was no sticky mess to clean up in my house. I talked to Doyle about it and he had some method for measuring PSI that sounded like it would work, but in the end I just had to have faith and decant the cider off to another water bottle, add some honey for flava, and close the lid.  I bottled two bottles as insurance, and took the whole lot out to my garage. I put the bottle in an empty plastic tub so if it does split open the resulting wave of cider will be contained.  Not that it won’t hurt my feelings when that happens! I did a lot of research on the home brewing websites and barring a discovery of one of those huge ceramic jugs some place most people bottled and dealt with the occasional explosion. OR they had much more high end set ups than I have, some including a ‘kegarator’ that can cost 1000’s.   Sort of what I was after when I tried to find a fridge that would hold the bottles or one big bottle as in this case.   Pretty much at my limit for cider making unless someone starts donating apples.   OH darn, i was going to do that this fall. Look for some crab apples to crush up for flavor.  Might be an october batch but at this point I doubt it.    

take it up a notch

the fermentation seemed a little lackluster so I started the remaing half of the yeast in some apple juice then added it and some more sugar into the mix. Fermentation looks good now bubbling more than 1 a second. might extend the primary another day or two. found there’s an orchard in valpo that does hard cider. hope to visit soon. Anderson Orchards & Winery Inc, Valparaiso, IN http://www.andersonswinery.com/

September all in one

Couldn’t resist taking advantage of this cool clear day to start the September batch. I’m using the EC-118 yeast, but I’m thinking next time of trying a different variety, this one’s been a bit varied in its performance.  Last batch is in the fridge and I tasted it today, a tiny bit, and it is very dry, not sweet at all. And loads of foam still.  I will have to find my hydrometer and measure its alcohol.  It won’t be ready to drink till next month at the earliest, but considering how many bottles I lost from exploding I’m very curious to see how this one turns out. This will be the first batch that I am going to use a secondary fermenter on, instead of  bottling directly after primary fermentation. Which should help get a consistent cider for the whole batch.  I’m hoping that’s a consistently GOOD batch, its sort of an all or nothing option at this point. This is a differnt brand of apple juice too, I think, its called “Nature’s Nectar” and is a blend of apple juices from all over. (Bulk purchase from Aldi’s, don’t tell anyone, but hey, I’m not charging for this stuff. 🙂  I’ll feel better about it once the fermentation takes off.  I wanted to use the fresh pressed apples from Lehman’s since they offer pressed apple juice from now until closing.  But the cost is making me hesitate and I think just changing one variable this time is enough for now. This batch will be labeled:  SEP24/11.    

going Blue

I took advantage of our quiet weekend and drove over to Elkhart to grab some replacement bottles. I bought some blue 1 pint bottles with the bale top, much like grolsh bottles but blue of course. I had 3 remaining bottles of the July batch and I was amazed at the amount of pressure built up in them already. Its been less than 1 month and the yeast had converted all of the sugar and it was like opening champagne no wonder the bottles exploded. The 12 bottles I purchased were just enough to transfer the 3 liter bottles into, minus spillage and effervescence. What I still don’t understand is why the bottles in the fridge, kept at a steady 50 degrees were exploding and the three in my house, where its nearer to 70 didn’t? Both are within the range of viablitiy for the yeast. (got some more of that too, EC-118) but you’d THINK that the lower the temp, the less active.  

if these babies don't hold up, I'm going to a keg!

Kablooey Babalooie

Recent visits to the storage shed where my mini fridge sits have been disapointing.  I’ve lost another 3 bottles!  I THINK I’m down to 5 bottles from this batch of Cider, and they haven’t been in the bottle a month yet. The first ones to go were lying on their sides so it made me think the gas was building up and blowing out the side of the bottles.  This last three were all square bottles and each had cracked along one of the sides. No doubt thin walls and shoddy production.  I also had a hip flask shaped bottle that either blew or was taken out by the force of the explosion.  I’m glad they were out in the storage area where I can sprinkle some cat litter and be done with it.   The curious thing is, I have 4 or 5 bottles here in my bedroom yet, and none of them have exploded.  I’ve had 3 batches in these 1 litre bottles from Christmas tree shop and before this batch the only thing that exploded was actual cider bottles.  Now I have to ask myself if there’s something about the ones out in the garage, in a fridge that’s keeping them at around 50 degrees all day long that’s causing them to explode when the ones here in my house where its closer to 70+ all the time haven’t gone kerbang?   Time for more forum reading, and maybe a trip to Elkhart for some bottles. At least if I break these up into 16 ounce bottles it will increase the chances a bottle will survive till Thankgiving.  Wish me luck!    

Kablooey Babalooie

Recent visits to the storage shed where my mini fridge sits have been disapointing.  I’ve lost another 3 bottles!  I THINK I’m down to 5 bottles from this batch of Cider, and they haven’t been in the bottle a month yet. The first ones to go were lying on their sides so it made me think the gas was building up and blowing out the side of the bottles.  This last three were all square bottles and each had cracked along one of the sides. No doubt thin walls and shoddy production.  I also had a hip flask shaped bottle that either blew or was taken out by the force of the explosion.  I’m glad they were out in the storage area where I can sprinkle some cat litter and be done with it.   The curious thing is, I have 4 or 5 bottles here in my bedroom yet, and none of them have exploded.  I’ve had 3 batches in these 1 litre bottles from Christmas tree shop and before this batch the only thing that exploded was actual cider bottles.  Now I have to ask myself if there’s something about the ones out in the garage, in a fridge that’s keeping them at around 50 degrees all day long that’s causing them to explode when the ones here in my house where its closer to 70+ all the time haven’t gone kerbang?   Time for more forum reading, and maybe a trip to Elkhart for some bottles. At least if I break these up into 16 ounce bottles it will increase the chances a bottle will survive till Thankgiving.  Wish me luck!    

Andrew’s Apples

Started May 6th, 2016. SP after primary fermentation: 1.8 (sorry forgot to read at first set up!) Moved to secondary fermentation (big plastic jugs) on May 14th, 2016. Using what I think will be my preferred method going forward: Used 2 litres of apple juice from Father in Law’s apple tree, 1 kg brewing sugar plus a John Bull Country cider kit to get the apple concentrate. Used Savin 118 yeast I prepped in a bottle before adding to mix. This batch is a month late because of the cold spring and the fact that I had a batch that didn’t take off using the generic yeast that came with a previous cider kit.  🙁 Oh and I opened the packet of ‘yeast nutrient’ and it’s basically just sugar.  Used it anyway. I call this batch Andrew’s Apples because I wanted to have it ready for his wedding in June. Won’t make that now.  A month from now I will bottle not drink, and it’ll be August or September before it’s really good.

Chalkdown cider

Chalkdown cider!

I know I just went on record saying I don’t like ciders with high alcohol levels but this must be the exception to the rule.

Orchard piglets

Tried all three orchard pig cider son offer. Not surprisingly I liked the Reveller (4.5%) version best. I felt the flavor of the other two (Truffler and Charmer both at 6% ) took a backseat to the Alcohol presence. I suppose it was too delicate for my palate which craves more of an apple bite.  

Middleberry Warmer

At our new digs on the south side of Salisbury I have my very own shed! No more brewing under the stair or behind the sofa. (True descriptions of the last batches!) I have one batch on the go already that I’m going to call Middleberry Warmer because we had a warm spell right at the critical fermentation period so I think this will give me a very dry batch.  I’ve bottled most of it but left about 4 liters in a secondary fermentation to try and produce some that’s both still and dry. The yeast is different this time too.  I’ve used the remaining half packet of the champagne yeast I brought from America and a full packet of the generic stuff that came with the John Bull cider kit. I keep my ears open for a source of actual apple juice but I only ever hear of it in large quantities.  I did add a liter or two of apple juice from the paddock out back which I believe is a combination of Bramley apples and something that is so bitter it must be a cider apple, but we haven’t identified which yet.  It made the last batch taste very authentic but I imagine all fresh ingredients would produce the best taste all around. ALSO, must mention that I had about 4 bottles of the last batch that aged over 6 months before I opened them. They were marvelous. I have always rushed to start drinking the cider soon as it was ready, sometimes even a three-month wait was too long for me.  But now I know the error of my ways and this batch which is already 2 months old will enjoy a long rest till late September or October. Well, I might sample a bottle or two along the way, just for Quality control you understand…

Middleberry Warmer reception

So it’s December and I’ve had a few of my ciders bottled in July and it’s pretty much like I thought it would be. There’s a mild bit of sparkle and it’s definitely dry or medium dry. I passed a couple onto friends to get extra input. One said it was much like a lambic and I should make more. I’m hoping the winter isn’t too cold cause I don’t want to return to my shed to find I’ve ‘keeved’ my cider.  

By special request

I’ve got a second brew project going on right now requested by my wife. It’s a bottle of ginger beer that I hope will taste nice enough to fill the gap between now and when the current batch of cider is ready. It’s early days yet but that should become Ginger beer in about a week. I’m using a 4.5L Demi-John from Amazon to ferment in, filled it about 3/4 the way with warm water (not hot) and then added half a kilo of brewing sugar. The other half will go to flavoring the finished product. Then I added a packet of yeast that came with my cider making kit since I still had one packet of cider yeast from last year. In a small saucepan I heated up a cup of water then I used a veggie peeler to peel off the skin and upper layer of a ginger root about 4 inches long. A good portion of it is left so that gets wrapped up for the Mrs. to use in her cooking.  Then I squeezed in the juice of 1 large orange and added a few tablespoons of sugar. I’m not trying to make a syrup here but I could have just by adding more sugar at this point. I let that simmer on low till it smelled really nice then strained it into a measuring cup and added some warm water till it was about the same temp as the water in the Demijohn.  You don’t want it too hot or it will kill the yeast.  Now the orange/ginger broth you’ve made goes into the bottle and you add enough water to bring the level up to where you see it in the photo. Top with an airlock and sit back for about a week. I should mention you can use lemons if you want but as I said, this is for the Mrs. It started bubbling away thru the airlock very quickly so I think the yeast (that’s the yellow bits you can see floating in the bottle)  is happy in there.  JUST in case I overdid the sugar and it might overflow thru the airlock I sat the whole thing in a rubber mixing bowl to make a moat which will catch anything that might dribble down the sides.  I’ve never had one do that when making cider but doesn’t hurt to look like you’re thinking ahead, eh? 🙂 The Mrs. asked when we would know it’s ready?  I am planning on using the same rule of thumb I use for cider.  When the frequency of the bubbles escaping from the airlock slow way down, it’s time to have a taste. Remember at this point you still have a bunch of sugar to add so it may be quite sharp on the tongue but if the balance of ginger and orange is acceptable add a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle (or to taste, I don’t like mine overly sweet) and then set it aside somewhere cool.  There may be some additional fermentation at this point so be sure to store it someplace cool.  I would wait at least a day for the yeast to settle back to the bottom of the bottle before drinking. AS usual, I forgot to measure the SP before fermentation but I will try hard to remember when I’m done. I don’t want it to be too strong alcohol wise, nor too flat to make any fizz. I am shooting for around 4% but if it has a gentle fizz, less is fine by me. Cross your fingers, I’ll update this in a week or so to let you know how it went!  

Gearing up for production

If you had told me yesterday that it would take me 4 hours to get my cider making kit all set up I would not have believed you. And I probably won’t have tried. 🙂

But it did and blame it on the metabisulfite I found in my shed. I was going to make a single demi-John of cider earlier this month but I could not find the sterilzing crystals. When I checked on Amazon, the choices were few and very overpriced. I guess that’s to be expected mid Pandemic of anything that will clean or sterilize stuff.

Once I found that I dragged the big keg that Juliet scored off a community facebook page. She got two of them in fact, and while they were used and grimy from the last brew made in them, I thought I could use them for cider making just fine. Not to mention they are very expensive at retail prices so getting some for free are worth the time to clean them up.
They are big round containers made of tough plastic with a metal lid and are marked ‘King Keg’ on the outside. I believe this model is a ‘pressure barrel.’ They were missing some key parts and a good hour of that time was my trying to fabricate a replacement part from some hydroponic hoses and a bit of plastic tubing. I’ll show off that homemade part once I am sure it is working . 🙂

I’m going to start cleaning the second one now, while I start the fermentation in a 2.5 litre container and cross my fingers. It is very heavy to lift once it’s full of liquid so I need to position it safely before I put in the final location. Also it’s going to be too cold for the yeast overnight but the forecast ahead is suitable for the next month. Fingers crossed!

Off to a foamy start!

I knew yesterday that I should make a post about starting the primary fermentation but I got distracted by the threat of a late spring frost that had me bringing back in the 30 or so plants I took out last week.

I couldn’t find my packet of EC-1118 yeast that I normally use for cider so I put in the generic stuff that comes with the John Bull cider mix. I’m still cross that I can’t buy apple juice here at a reasonable price but if I bought 20 liters of apple juice it would cost me more than finished cider! So concentrate it is. Maybe when production eventually goes to 100ltrs or so it will meet a price break.

The yeast was a bit slow starting so I put in another half packet and the mysterious ‘nutrient’ packet you find under the lid of concentrate. It looks just like granulated sugar but not really enough to make a difference in a large batch (IMHO) so I looked it up and it’s actually ‘Diammonium Phosphate‘ which is used in a lots of industrial ways, one of which is encouraging yeast growth in home brewing.

I put the half a litre of brewing sugar, the yeast, and the nutrient in a carboy and left it in my study away from near freezing temperatures for about a week. Once the airlock was bubbling away at nearly 1 burp a minute I mixed it, the concentrate, and some warm water into the new primary fermenter I purchased via Amazon. I should mention that all brewing supplies are scarce, I could have started a new batch two weeks ago if I could have found any sterilizer powder for sale. It wasn’t until I found my previous tin of Sodium Metabisulfite that I was able to move forward.

By bedtime a tiny bit of pressure had built up inside the fermenter but it wasn’t burping regularly yet. I have a 30litre tub and it was filled to just past 23litres. I could make more cider in it but I find it gets a bit watery tasting if I do that.

Fast forward to this morning. I open the door of my study and can immediately smell the cider yeast much much too strongly. I see that the rusty brown foam that forms on the top of the cider had pushed its way through the airlock and is bubbling down the side and pooling on the top of the fermenter. THAT means that I had over 7 liter’s of foam form in my tub overnight and this wasn’t even the champagne yeast I usually use! Fortunately, it wasn’t enough to cause alarm but it showed no sign of stopping and the top of the fermenter was tight as a drumhead under the gas pressure. It was still only 1 degree outside so I didn’t open the window but soon as I could I went out to the shed and recovered the carboy I’d used to start the process, cleaned it and siphoned off about a litre of cider. I was glad I bought the primary fermenter with the tap built-in. Made the transfer mostly drip-free. 🙂

I put an airlock on the carboy as well and I plan on reuniting the two batches once the angry bubbling slows back down. I was tempted to make this smaller batch into another flavor but all I had on hand was the dregs of a bag of cider from Lilley’s I bought a couple of weeks ago and wasn’t sure that was a safe experiment after I’d been out of production for a whole year. This is back to basics time my friends but I will add my own signature bits to the secondary fermenter in a few weeks. Fingers crossed!

I am calling this batch ‘Grimstead Green: The Bank Holiday Batch’ because I started it on this past bank holiday and I expect to be drinking it the 31st August, also a bank holiday.

A litre Cider hustle

This weekend I took advantage of the rainy day to transfer my cider from the primary fermentor to the second one. The foam had pretty much died down and the burps were coming few and far between so the signs were right.

I wanted to add some apples from grimstead but due to the wet fall we had last year there werent any apples left from granda’s garden. I had prepped some back then but they somehow got into apple pie instead (yum!)

So this batch, my first for over a year, will be basic fare straight from the kit to the glass. I did vary my method a bit by putting honey into the secondary fermenter instead of waiting to add it to each bottle. I Might still do that, or I might not bottle it at all, depends on what I get in two month’s time.

However, I couldn’t resist doing a little experimenting while I was at it. You’ll remember that I had drained off about a liter and a half of cider from the Primary into a carboy to ease the pressure on the Primary. When it came time to put that into the Secondary I just looked at it and thought I might try something a bit different. I rummaged for something to flavour it with and debated on ginger or cinnamon, and eventually came across two cans of ‘Appletiser’ that the Mrs had bought and didn’t like. She really LIKES Appletiser but these were ‘Apple and Lime’ flavour and she didn’t get on well with the extra citrus. I liked it though so and since it only contains apple juice and a squeeze of lime I put them both into the carboy to bring the level up to about an inch or so of the neck and resealed the airlock on it. It didn’t immediately fizz or kill the yeast so fingers crossed eh?

The airlock is still burping every 30 seconds or so and I’ll leave it cooking away over there till it quiets down. Then I’ll give it a taste. Something to look forward to before the main batch is ready for bottling.

Second Cider experiment

We have a lovely lady who stops by every now and then for a bite of homecooked food (social distancing of course) and she gives us bottles of Bramley apple juice as a thank you. I put the first one into the ongoing batch of Grimstead Green since I didn’t have any actual apples from Grimmers to put in( last year’s harvest was very limited and I hadn’t been making cider all year so it went into pies and stuff .)

Anyway, I had three more bottles and decided to make another short batch in my demiJohn. I could have used that fourth bottle to make an average-sized batch but instead, I had about 150 grams of honey that was getting hard and needed using up. So I added that to some warm water to make up another bottle and added in the yeast that SHOULD have gone into the main batch months ago. I couldn’t find it at the time, and it only reappeared after the primary fermentation! It’s my preferred yeast LC-118. That and some ‘nutrient’ from the John Bull kit and some of the generic yeast that came with it.

I needn’t have worried, once those little beasties got added to the pure apple juice it took off within minutes! I know this would have been a good oppurtunity to test another flavor or even add pears to it but I just couldn’t. I had to go with what I know and avoid turning my back on all the years of snubbing flavored cider. 🙂

That is a lot more honey than what usually ends up in my batches (proportionally speaking) so I’ll be interested in seeing how it tastes and maybe scaling up the amount of honey in my next full-size batch.