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I see some posts on the various forums about using food grade bags as liners in fermenting buckets. I am thinking of it because I fear some of my buckets are scratched and perhaps infected. I need volume as I only ferment what I press and that only happens once a year. I am only looking to do...

I'm tired of bottling cider and am finding that I am leaving cider in secondary (and even primary) far too long as a result! I would like to by some kegs but due to the seasonal nature of cider I would need quite a few for a year's production. I don't want to spend a great deal of money at one...

I purchased some liquid yeast online last year and happened to use half of it. I just saw it sitting in the fridge and wondered if I should hold off on going to the home brew store tomorrow to buy wine yeast. What I have is a vial of WLP775 and a smack pack of Wyeast. I only used half of...

I am planning on pressing some tiny ornamental crabs to add some body to cider I suspect is going to turn out bland. These things are the size of cherries, quite hard, have a very bitter taste with some acid. Behind the bitterness is a fair bit of sugar. Now my idea is to grind and press...

I recently purchased some liquid yeast. Normally I've been using EC1118 and now I understand that I should be making a starter culture for 48 hours before pitching the yeast. My only brewing to this date has been done with wine yeasts. As I understand I should be using a mixture of higher OG...

I'm looking at ordering some yeast online. My local home brew shop has an extremely limited selection. I am wondering if any Canadian brewers have a go to online source for supplies. I've looked at Mid West etc and with the exchange, shipping, customs etc I would rather order from a Canadian...

I have been experimenting with some different local apples over the past few years and some of the varieties I have pressed are much better unfermented than hard. I like having some juice around for mulled sweet cider and such and in the past have frozen it and pasteurized/canned it with a water...

I recently thawed some sweet cider that I had frozen right after pressing in fall. I noticed that a syrup was coming out of the cider and ice was being left behind. I was able to concentrate my juice from about 1.045 to 1.085. By my calculations that's good for about 11.25%. I have a total of 20...

Why is it that my small experimental batch of cider turned out to be my best ever?! I had 20 gallons of fresh pressed cider fermenting when I decided to try a small batch from a tree I've never harvested from before. I happened to see this tree over the course of the summer every time I passed...

I bottled my cider about a month or a little better ago. I had sulphited and allowed it to clear quite thoroughly before bottling so I added some EC1118 to each of the batches before bottling just to make certain that there would be enough yeast to carbonate. It's been taking its sweet time to...

Last year was my first making cider. Nearly all of my cider was backsweetened, primed, bottled and pasteurized after decent carbonation was reached. I am just now drinking the last of last year's batches while waiting for this year's to age. Recently I think I have been noticing a buttery taste...

I keep driving past a crab apple tree that yielded a sampling of apples for a 2 gallon test batch this fall. I only picked three grocery bags full in fall, partly due to a new baby in the house and a lack of fermenter space. I haven't sampled any of the test but by all accounts the smell...

I've been drinking some of last year's cider and am noticing a yeasty taste in it. I used fresh pressed cider, sulphited and pitched EC-1118 24 hours later. Left it in primary for a week or two and then racked to secondary. If memory serves me correctly I racked a second time. It had at least...

Tempted to try it. http://www.cider.org.uk/keeving.pdf

Just an observation: over the course of the year, the activity on this forum has become slower and slower. To the point where threads didn't seem to move position a whole lot over a week. Over the past week or two that has all changed. If you don't check the page morning and evening some new...

I've come across a good amount of apples and am planning on pressing it on Saturday. I have 4 fermenting buckets and 2 glass carboys. In addition to this I have a collection of one gallon jugs. Short of buying more secondary space or at least some long term bulk aging space, what can I do? I...

I'm in the process of making an apple grinder for this pressing season. Short story, I've made a 12" diameter x 4 1/2" thick wood wheel out of hard maple. I've attached 16 strips of 12 ga. stainless steel around the circumference. I couldn't find stainless steel screws so I've used zinc plated...

I bottled 10 gallons of cider last night four of them being in 1 gallon carboys. They have been sitting in secondary since late October. Two of the small jugs seemed to have a film yeast on them about a month ago so I sulphited, topped up the airlock and let them. When we bottled last night I...

I am looking for a bench capper and was at my LHBS this evening looking at what they has in stock. They carry a red capper that looks similar to the Agata but has some differences. The manager called it a Ferrrari but when I did some further research online I couldn't find any "Ferraris" that...

Here's my dilema: - mother in law insists on extensive Christmas wish lists - I make one intentionally large to carry over until my birthday a month after Christmas - I add home brew supplies to help me with my newfound cider brewing hobby. I was quite specific asking for Star San...