Recent content by area123

Cool! The gelatin is a good idea. I guess the commercial guys probably hit it with preservatives and cold crash and filter. I am usually not very patient so I have it drank up in a few weeks after making it. But I'd like to start saving some back and giving more away and don't want bottle...

I usually don't get a chance to age my ciders more than a month because they taste so good to me even before aging, I just drink them up and share them..:) But I do want to try storing and aging some long term. I started out bottle conditioning but I think for long term storage it would be...

Ok I will wait. I know the yeast itself was active because I followed the instructions and broke the internal pack and the bag swelled up. Yeah I sanitized everything as usual, the star san had been sitting my keg a few weeks but I've used it older than that before. The cider was already...

I prepared my cider as always with pectic enzyme and a little added frozen concentrate which I pasteurized as usual. I pitched some wyesst liquid yeast about 10 hours ago before bed. No active fermentation at all. It's just inside the house so it's around 67 F. I normally use safele s04 and I...

i've been looking for someplace to buy cheap bulk juice to mix with local pressed cider. Anybody ever buy IBC totes or 50 gallon+ barrels of juice or concentrate? I'm not picky about the brand really. it will be used just for blending with some local pressed cider apples. I usually buy...

I've used citra and centennial. i like citra the best but it does add some acidity it seems like.

I normally use about 1/2 ounce of the hop buds for a 6 gallon batch. in secondary for about a week before I bottle. I also use a cheese cloth bag to put the hops in so I won't have to strain out all the particles.

Cider doesn't foam nearly as bad as beer. I've bottled my cider with the last straw beer gun at 55 F and it worked just fine. Little to no foam. The way I did my last batch was to Transfer to the keg after it was really clear and sat in secondary a couple weeks. So most of the yeast had...

Yeah. I've always racked it off the lees into a secondary fermenter. But I know people who do 2 weeks in primary and then back sweeten and bottle. Just let it bottle condition and it tastes pretty darn good the ones I've had. You do get some sediment in the bottle since it's essentially doing...

Only problem I see with doing it all in a keg is that you can't get the lees off the bottom like you could in a conical. My ideal setup would be to ferment and suck the lees out the cone after primary, and then let the secondary occur under pressure to naturally carbonate. Then add a littl...

I think brew magic has a 3 bbl one for $2800. But I'd like a 30 gallon for about $1200 or so... Maybe I can make one.

I guess for small batches I could use a soda keg as a Brite tank. I think that's pretty common.

Yeah that's definitely a plus to racking. But I thought the point of conicals was to be able to remove the lees from the bottom valve on the cone. I've never used a conical so I'm not sure how well you can get it out from that bottom valve.

Yes it does. But they make fermenters that double as Brite tanks for carbing. They are just too expensive for me. And I don't know anybody who does it that way.

I would think if you ferment the apple cider to dry with a dry wine yeast you won't have anything left but alcohol and not much apple flavor. Then u could make a cherry purée and add that in secondary.