Recent content by bung-ho

Hi All, I've been brewing a bunch of 1-gallon batches of cider in clear glass jugs, as well as a couple other batches of wine and mead on the side, and I've become quite confused about how the final clarity of the brew comes to be. So I'm going to share what I know, and then I'm hoping some...

Hi All, So I really like the idea of fermenting exclusively in glass carboys, but the pragmatism of the Better Bottles is winning me over. So I want your guys' input-- aside from the overall nicer aesthetic, does anyone have reasoning compelling enough that I shouldn't make the switch? Thanks...

Great. That's a relief to hear. Thanks very much!

I have heard 1/8 cup to 1/4 cup per gallon (depending on how carbonated you want), but that is not backed up by my personal experience. I will backsweeten my first non-still batch of cider in about 3 weeks, and I'll let you know how that turns out. Dextrose is supposedly preferable because of...

Hi all, One of my batches of cider looks a little bit different than I've come to expect-- the foam on top is thicker and a little bit darker in color than other batches I have made, as well as the other batch I have going right now. This cider was particularly active in fermentation, and in...

So if you guys would like to know, I just bottled that cider I was talking about. Here's the post-report: My brew of a gallon of cider, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and 1 oz. of Nottingham Ale Yeast sat in primary for 17 days, going from an s.g. of 1.060 to 1.020. At this point it was still bubbling...

Well, I just racked my cider to secondary after two and a half weeks. It was still bubbling pretty regularly too, but the lees were really building up. S.G. was down to 1.020 from 1.060. It's still bubbling a bit in secondary though. I'll let you guys know in a month how it turns out.

I think that we are told by generic wisdom that letting a cider sit to long in primary risks imbuing cider with the taste of dead yeast. That being said, I have recently heard of several recipes that call for up to four weeks in primary fermentation, some omitting secondary altogether...

Hey all, I have a batch of cider bubbling away in a one-gallon jug, and I have heard some varying opinions about how long to let it ferment in primary before racking it to secondary. I don't want it to taste like dead yeast, but I also don't want to disrupt the fermentation. Right now, I'm...