CavemanDom
Well-Known Member
Home brewing is about experimentation right?
Good, glad you're coming with me. I have a series of ciders in progress. Very basic. In hindsight, perhaps too basic. Here's what's up so far.
Bare bones cider 1:
1gal McCutcheons unfiltered apple juice.
1packet red star champagne yeast
Did I mention the bare bones nature?
This juice is sold in gallon glass jugs. I poured off approx 6 oz for a hydrometer reading at an OG of 1.044 at room temp. Dumped in the whole yeast pack. LHBS said over pitching wouldn't be a big deal, and I didn't feel like trying to save a portion of it.
Stuffed in the airlock and moved it down to the old band rehearsal space (aka spare bedroom that didn't seem to be fully thought out by previous owners). This room does get a lot of sun an I have blinds closed in the window, but I put the new 1g carboy in a paper grocery bag to keep the photons at bay. My other choice would be the laundry room, but the cat boxes already live there. Sure enough, activity started in about 12 hours. Fermented for 7 days until noticeable activity stopped, and I had time to check. Cold crashed in fridge for 60ish hours.
This morning, 12/5/13 I bottled. Used 1 PET bottle leftover from the first beer brew, gave it a little squeeze before capping. The rest was bottled in woodchuck cider 12oz bottles I had been saving. A heavy splash went into the tasting cup . It's dry. The hydro said 1.001 at 40*. So if I read the chart right, 5% abv. But as some of you more experienced cider makers are already saying "I bet it tastes terribly plain" It does! But as I said, bare bones experiment.
I also retained the yeast cake , with about 1/2" of cider on top of it. I dumped 3 packs of table sugar in there to keep the little ones happy until I dump experiment 4 on top of them. Or make up a gallon of Pappy's.
I put BBC2 and 3 in for cold crash along with the bottled #1.
BBC2:
1 gal McCutcheons unfiltered apple juice
1 red star premier cuvée
OG 1.044
Currently chilling in carboy2
BBC3:
1 gal McCutcheons...
1 red star cotes des blanc
OG 1.044 (hooray for consistent!)
Currently chilling in Carboy3
Will probably retain yeast cakes for subsequent experiments.
Comments questions and concerns are all appreciated.
Thanks!
Good, glad you're coming with me. I have a series of ciders in progress. Very basic. In hindsight, perhaps too basic. Here's what's up so far.
Bare bones cider 1:
1gal McCutcheons unfiltered apple juice.
1packet red star champagne yeast
Did I mention the bare bones nature?
This juice is sold in gallon glass jugs. I poured off approx 6 oz for a hydrometer reading at an OG of 1.044 at room temp. Dumped in the whole yeast pack. LHBS said over pitching wouldn't be a big deal, and I didn't feel like trying to save a portion of it.
Stuffed in the airlock and moved it down to the old band rehearsal space (aka spare bedroom that didn't seem to be fully thought out by previous owners). This room does get a lot of sun an I have blinds closed in the window, but I put the new 1g carboy in a paper grocery bag to keep the photons at bay. My other choice would be the laundry room, but the cat boxes already live there. Sure enough, activity started in about 12 hours. Fermented for 7 days until noticeable activity stopped, and I had time to check. Cold crashed in fridge for 60ish hours.
This morning, 12/5/13 I bottled. Used 1 PET bottle leftover from the first beer brew, gave it a little squeeze before capping. The rest was bottled in woodchuck cider 12oz bottles I had been saving. A heavy splash went into the tasting cup . It's dry. The hydro said 1.001 at 40*. So if I read the chart right, 5% abv. But as some of you more experienced cider makers are already saying "I bet it tastes terribly plain" It does! But as I said, bare bones experiment.
I also retained the yeast cake , with about 1/2" of cider on top of it. I dumped 3 packs of table sugar in there to keep the little ones happy until I dump experiment 4 on top of them. Or make up a gallon of Pappy's.
I put BBC2 and 3 in for cold crash along with the bottled #1.
BBC2:
1 gal McCutcheons unfiltered apple juice
1 red star premier cuvée
OG 1.044
Currently chilling in carboy2
BBC3:
1 gal McCutcheons...
1 red star cotes des blanc
OG 1.044 (hooray for consistent!)
Currently chilling in Carboy3
Will probably retain yeast cakes for subsequent experiments.
Comments questions and concerns are all appreciated.
Thanks!