Search results

Since my wife and I just pressed 14 gallons of cider for our 2016 vintages, it was time to do our annual blind shootout of our year-old 2015 vintages involving 5 different yeasts. From the bottom up, the results were: #5 - Nottingham Compared to the others, had the thinnest taste and was dull...

Despite keeping a minimal head-space in 500ml and 750ml glass bottles, and for the last 2 years adding k-meta at bottle up, I'm finding that my strawberry, raspberry and blackberry wines start to oxidize within a year. The wines take on a rusty orange tinge, and with the raspberry and...

For yellow and yellow-red Asian plums (Shiro and Early Golden mix specifically), does anyone have a recommendation on what yeast to use? For seemingly red-ish Asian plums, I see several RC-212 recommendations. In the past I have tried EC-1118 and 71B-1122, but premature oxidation issues...

I'm jacking some cider, first time, and have taken 3.75ga down to 1.25ga so far. Now a bunch of questions are occurring to me: - I started with cider that had ~40 ppm of S02 (k-meta). Will jacking drive the S02 off, or concentrate it? - Once jacked to 30% ABV or more, is some S02 still...

I had to laugh then wonder... when adding yeast nutrients (thiamine vitamin-B complex and diammonium phosphate) to an already vigorous ferment, can it further fire up the ferment? With 1-1/2ga buckets 2/3rds full, my plums with 71B yeast at ~69F were going very strong by day 3 without...

I made too much cider this fall ;-), so plan to downsize by trying my first batch of apple jack. In my personal experience, aging cider 6-18 months really helps (!). With apple jack, can I jack and then age, or should I age and then jack? I don't know if some of the magic that occurs...

I've read here that fermenting to complete dryness can "strip out the flavors". I've been told by the local brewing shop that champagne yeasts are especially aggressive, and can "strip out the flavors". So that brings me to a question. As things approach dryness, is it the lack of sugars that...

I invite others to post shootout results! In 2014, I fermented apple cider with 3 yeasts (picture post here), and nearly a year later, my wife and I did the annual shootout. The results were: #1 - Pasteur Red #2 - Safale S-04 #3 - Premier Cuvee Notes All my ciders were fermented to ~0.994...

Heading into season #4 of hand grinding apples, I'm looking for some recommendations. In the US, the Weston style grinder with 4-point handle seems to dominate. My friend has a Happy Valley grinder/press with the Weston style grinder, which includes a better weighty handle (fly-wheel), but...

My apple trees normally ripen at different times every season, and maybe because Oregon is having an unusually hot and dry summer, I now have individual apple trees sporting very ripe to very green apples. A single pressing weekend seems impossible. Question... can I press a few apples and...

Help requested. I don't know the cider classification for some of my new apple trees (e.g. "Sharp"), and I'm wondering if the mix of apples I have is reasonably balanced for cider production. Most of my current cider production comes from 6 ~40 year-old trees from the prior owner, but the IDs...

With harvests starting in mid-Aug, all the resulting home brew is finally bottled up, and the carboys put away until next fall. My falls colors were: From left to right: Blackberry - 1ga, Lalvin 71B Raspberry - 3ga, Lalvin 71B Raspberry - 1ga, Lalvin RC-212 Cherry - 1ga, Lalvin...

After 2-3 months of aging in secondary/tertiary carboys, my wife and I racked everything into bottles. The odd part was... unlike the 71B apple and plum batches, the Pasteur Red apple batch produced some bubbles in the racking tube, and the Safale S-04 apple batch produced tons of bubbles...

As I puzzled over which apple varieties to plant next, someone here cited a Washington State University paper on cider apple varieties, and their tannin, malic acid, pH and brix levels: http://extension.wsu.edu/maritimefruit/reports/Documents/Cider-Apples-11.pdf I have since done some...

I just uncorked (un-flip-topped) a fall 2013 wild fermented cider, and while it tasted bland at 2 months of age, my wife and I are very impressed with the taste now, 12+months later. Sadly I did not do a wild yeast batch this fall :-( Question - if I pick apples from the same trees year after...

Given some recent post-fermentation infection and oxidation issues in my apple cider and plum wine, I'm thinking of adding k-meta just prior to bottling. I always ferment to dryness, and bottle that way. Reading several sources, here are the dosing rates I came up with. These bottle-time dosing...

After a month of fermenting, and a few more weeks sitting still with "too much head space", my 3 gallon batch of raspberry wine developed a thin waxy patchy white film on top. After removing the film, I figured a dose of k-meta was warranted, but confusing tbls for tsp, I added 3x a normal dose...

For 2 seasons, I've put fresh pressed apple juice into 1 and 3 gallon carboys, and had no foam-out issues with just ~1 cup of airy headspace in the primary. While pressing apples with friends yesterday (50+ gallons), they had been told to leave ~1/3 of the bottle as headspace. Other than...

For two cider seasons now, I've used Safale S-04 on home pressed apple juice with a 1.054 OG, I then added some sugar, and they finished at 0.994 FG. I've used 3 other yeasts and gotten similar results, with 0.992-0.996 FGs. I'm now trying to understand attenuation, and Safale S-04 has an...

I've been growing raspberries for 10+ years, and for the last 2 seasons have made some raspberry wine that my wife and I absolutely LOVE. This year I'm rebuilding the raspberry beds, so I'm having to buy some raspberries from local growers for eating and wine making. Problem - I bought a flat...