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Alright, so I kegged and bottled my cider today and found something interesting.... This stuff takes a TON of pressure to carbonate! I'm talking 30 pounds, shake and lit sit nice and cold, then crank it back to 35... Tried some at 25 psi and it tasted pretty flat. Standard 4.5 gallon batch...

Just wondering if anyone else took the plunge right away and bought kegging equipment when they started brewing and never even thought about naturally carbonating their brew (be it beer, champagne, or cider). I know plenty of guys switched to kegging after a while when they got tired of...

Anyone ever try this? Is it too dangerous? I'm planning on doing this instead of adding potassium sorbate after backsweetening my cider. My idea is to purge all O2 from the keg with cider in it already sweetened, fill with bout 2psi of CO2, then heat to 140 and keep there for a few minutes...

I have heard some say that potassium sorbate creates off flavors, and using Ksorbate without Kmeta makes for an even worse flavor. Have most found this to be true? And if so, how noticeable is it?

I couldn't believe this one myself, so I felt that I had to share what I did in hopes others have done the same and had the same results. So yesterday I got home from a fishing trip, and my 3 day old ferment made my room smell like someone let off a few rounds from a black powder pistol. Not...

So I finally pressed all my apples and have a 5 gallon batch that I pitched the yeast into last night. My room stays between 70-75 F, but the fermenter is in a larger bucket of water to keep cool. It was bubbling nicely this morning, and I just found out I'm goin out of town friday till sunday...

Let's say we went backwards and passed legislation to ban home brewing of wine, cider, mead and beer without an exception for personal consumption. Would you still brew? This would be assuming that alcohol is still legal, and you could still get the supplies needed conveniently (much like how...

Alright, so this stuff is my favorite hefe so far. Picked up a few pints and a few six packs and have accumulated quite a few empties ready for some home brew. My question is, it the color of these bottles ok? They're amber, but not quite what you would see in a Sam Adams or New Belgium. Very...

I see all these guys asking about other ways to extract juice from apples, I assume because of the sticker shock they get when they google "apple press" for price quotes. Some of these poor souls even decide to juice over a bushel of apples in a counter top juicer! I know there are plenty of...

NOTE TO MODERATORS: NOT TRYING FOR A DISTILLATION TOPIC, JUST CITING WHERE I GOT MY INFO. TO OTHER MEMBERS: PLEASE NO DISTILLING TALK. So after reading up on the distilling forums (The methanol topic comes up a lot there) and some of the stuff I read on here, it had become apparent to me that...

So I know the idea behind freezing fruits and such to make them softer, being that the ice crystals that form in the water actually spear through the cell walls allowing cytoplasm to run out freely. I also understand how frostbite works, where ice crystals form in the cells, breaking through...

Talking to an employee at my LHBS, I told him my plan for my cider, which included cold crashing at 1.01 from 1.06, then backsweetening. He had a suggestion I haven't heard, which was to rack several times until clear (which would included racking it, leaving it in the fridge, rack it, leave it...

I have quite a few oak chips that had been soaking in corn whiskey for several months. They were toasted in the oven then half charred before the addition to the whiskey. I have heard of aging beer on oak that was previously used for spirits, but has anyone tried this on cider? I'm thinking of...

I hear a lot about refrigerating to cold crash, but what about freezing? I was trying to figure out the best way to completely hault fermentation, and remembered that when I froze my very first hard cider experiment, it cleared better than just the refrigerated cider when I thawed it, and there...

If this is better suited in the DIY section, please feel free to move it there. I just thought I might get a better response in the cider section since this press would be used just for pressing apples which would then be fermented into hard cider. Alright, I plan on going the hydraulic...

So I keep hearing about sodium metabisulfite "dissipating" in cider. Could someone explain exactly how it inhibits the growth of wild yeasts and bacteria temporarily, but allows the growth of whatever yeast strain you put in it only 24 hours later? Does the sulfite stay in the cider, or just...

Instead of 6.5 gallon carboys or buckets, I'll be using standard unused 5 gallon paint buckets for fermenting (I can get them for free versus the 14 bucks a pop I would be shelling out for the 6.5 gallon buckets at the brew shop). I have two 6.5 gallon buckets, but they will be in use for beer...

So I have heard that you need to use less pressure when carbonating cider than when carbonating beer, but could anyone tell me how much pressure should be used? I usually put beer at about 25-30 psi and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours. Also, it's a corny keg, if that makes any difference.

Alright, I have finally written up a plan for processing 15 gallons of cider after fermentation. I would really appreciate some input on this though to make sure I'm not screwing anything up here. Post fermentation I plan on placing cider in a 5 gallon keg, lightly pressurize it with CO2 to...

Alright, so i juiced a sample of the apples I collected, took a reading, and ended up with an OG of 1.055. I'm fermenting 15 gallons. If it ferments dry to .995, that would give me an ABV of 7.8%. I'm planning on adding another 5 gallons of unfermented juice and a few cans of concentrate plus...