Going to be a rough year with the way hops are selling out all over. May have to brew some lower grav beers to keep my brewing fix going every week to two weeks.
I have been using a variation on Ed Wort's cider recipe with the Nottingham Yeast and some additional Brown Sugar and Cinnamon to the process.
The rest of the recipe is Mott's Apple Juice and the 2 pounds of Corn Sugar.
My reqeusts lately have been to produce the same 9-10% alcohol batch...
I leave mine in the carboy until I can see through it and then I bottle it up and carb it a little with 5 oz of priming sugar to 1.5 cups of water.
Still haven't tried to make it sweater with a non fermentable sugar, but have been getting lots of requests for that.
As for the leaving it to...
Unfortunately all of the Bell's kits are no longer available from AHS for purchasing. Damn shame and I wonder why all the kit's are gone? Anyone have insight into this?
Just read about the Plainfield club. I'll need to try and make it out to that one, since it's only a 30 minute drive for me and would love to stop by and check it out.
Nottingham is another option for the cider. I have been using it in my Ciders and really have liked the outcome. I just put the yeast in with half of the last cider container. Shake it up and pour it into the carboy.
I have noticed that with some beer types it foams / creates more head than in other beers. I just experiment with the amount of sugar and cut back to 4.5 or 4 oz of sugar during priming and it has helped.
However the standard rule of 5 oz is what I use on a first time batch.
I have been picking my apple juice up from Sam's Club. I usually can get Mott's for $17-18 after tax and with a 6.5 gallon fermenter and a regular carboy I make two batches at the same time.
Experiment is right. I have added brown sugar and cinnamon to my batches and they turn out good...
I know that Tinley Park has a Beer and Wine Fest in April and Racine WI has The Great Lakes Beer fest in September and Dark Lord Day is also in April in NW Indiana.
What other beer fests are there out there within a 150 miles of Chicago?