Recent content by Mach

My wife bought an old antique cider press a few months back and we decided to go ahead and use it (as opposed to "preserve" it). So far, we've made a 5 gallon batch of cider and a 5 gallon batch of perry. It took about 2 bushels to make a 5 gallon batch of cider and the same for the perry...

I've had 6.5 gallons bubbling away for a few weeks now 3533.5 + 6.5 = 3540 gallons

We made up a batch of cider on the wife's antique grinder/press about 4 weeks ago. The original gravity was 1.066 and airlock activity began on the third day after pitching (totally dry pitch, no starter). Bubbling became vigorous, but no smell. After a week, the SG was 1.045. After 2 weeks...

I recently bought an old cider mill/press in about the same condition. I rinsed it good with a hose, scrubbed it down with soapy water, and repeated until it was fairly clean. Then I pulled the whole thing apart and cleaned all of the grease off with brake cleaner until it was 100% bone dry...

A 3 gallon carboy is going to be hard to find, if they even exist. Why not just find some more cider and fill the 6.5 up near the top? More the merrier!

I just got to thinking about it, and Thanksgiving sounds a little optimistic. Maybe Christmas? Whenever I start on it, I know it won't last long. I've already promised out half the batch as samples for friends.

Well it's going buck nuts now. It just took a couple of days for the yeast to take hold but now the air lock is a bubble machine gun. It looks great, can't wait to serve some up for Thanksgiving (if it's done).

I checked it this morning before going to work, and it had an orange "krausen" on it (can you call it a krausen on a cider?) and the airlock was bubbling every 30 seconds or so. What's the deal with the orangeness? I've never heard of that before.

I checked it this morning (about 10 hours after pitching) and it's not really bubbling but the vodka is pushed the right direction in the airlock. Hopefully I'll see some action after work today. I might go ahead and get some more yeast and pitch again if there's not much activity tonight. Is...

Well, it shakes pretty good once you get it up to speed. The bearings are a bit loose since it's probably about 80 years old. I guess it just needs more lubrication . . .

She gave a whole 80 bucks for it. I've seen the exact same model go for well over 400 on ebay in much worse shape, so it was a deal she couldn't pass up.

So I'm just getting into homebrewing, and my wife wanted to try her hand at making cider (her preferred drink). She picked up this fine piece of equipment for a steal yesterday at an auction: Everything but the handle was there and surprisingly clean and sharp, so we decided to break it in...

Mostly because I had no idea what I was doing, honestly. I added the extract right at the beginning. I thought you were supposed to for some reason. I didn't follow a recipe this time because I was anxious to just get something in the fermentor. I did plenty of research on equipment so I...

Thanks for the responses so far! I've actually got a couple MORE questions now. 11. I didn't use a recipe since I didn't have one at the time. I just basically guessed at the ingredients (picked three "german" products from the store). Now I'm concerned that I didn't use enough hops and...

First brew ever tonight. My recipe was: 2 cans of "german amber" malt extract 1 oz. of Tettnanger hops (pellets) 1 slap-pack of Wyeast 1007 "german ale" yeast I used my propane turkey fryer for the brewpot, cooled the wort in the sink, and transferred into a 6.5 gallon glass carboy for...