Impatience Disorder

Hello, my name is __________ and I am impatient.

Does anyone else suffer from being impatient when it comes to making cider? What is the cure for not leaving batches alone? =)

I so badly want to make and taste my cider that I mess with it WAY too much.

We all suffer from it but you have to remember that usually, the less you mess with it, the better it will come out.

I have 20 gallons bottled for aging, 10 gallons fermenting since the end of december, and a test gallon of cider racked on blueberries that looks delicious!

The blueberry one is the one that is killing me not to mess with!

ETA: And I have been paying close attention to your cherry cider idea!

start small batches in regular intervals that way you can appease your need to "mess with it" each time you start a new batch.

Daze said:

start small batches in regular intervals that way you can appease your need to "mess with it" each time you start a new batch.

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My thoughts exactly! The only thing that keeps my mind off of it is to brew more. Maybe brew some beer. Hefes and pale ales can have a pretty quick turn-around time.

Indulge it. For a single batch, indulge it as much as you want. Take SG readings every day, taste it and then taste it again a few hours later to see how it changed. Smell the airlock constantly,watch the color change and movement make by the CO2 in the liquid, and really get a feel for what is going on throughout fermentation. It helps to learn to trust your passive senses, sight and smell, along with your occasional measurements with tools like your hydrometer so that you don't have to wonder so much what is going on in future batches.

I've found that cider was the cure for my impatience when making mead!

You, I have no idea what to tell ya

Really, go make a 5-day country cider while you wait for something heftier to finish out. Or a beer. Or some side project.

+1 to small batches
or make a big batch and then dick around with small batches of experimental wines and beers to keep your hands busy

Im impatient also , but I have many other projects ,building cabinets right now . Question . It seems to me a 1 gallon batch will be ready before a 5 gallon . But the catch I think is the longer it sits the better the taste ....Is that correct ?

I have been scared to remove airlock and test , fearing letting air in can lead to contamination ?

Thanks to everyone who responded...glad to know I am not the only one.

Definitely not the only one.
I have been impatiently waiting for my first batch of cider. In secondary now. Tiny little bubbles and very slow action on the airlock (a bubble every 3 minutes or so) right now after 2 weeks in secondary. (malolactic fermentation?) I may bottle this weekend and start a second batch.
Going to pick up some 1 gal jugs for playing around with small batches to keep my mind (and my hands) off the main batch.

The key is to combat your impatience with an intensive regimen of Procrastination and Lazineses training....
It's difficult to learn how to really procrastinate.... You can start by repeating:
"Yes, honey, I will get to it after I finish with this"
Then, on to:
"Oh, that... No, I didn't forget - Yes, I need to go to the store to buy _____"
Then, on to:
"I plan to do that on Saturday if it's raining and I can't mow"
Then, on to:
"But _____ is on TV and you always want me to watch it with you"
Then.....
"Honey, the kids need to finish their homework"

And so on... Eventually, you will discover that your homebrew has aged out beautifully and is fully ready to drink..... at which point you can say:

"Honey, Remember this _____ I started back in 2005.... I have been aging it for 7 years now... Come taste how good it is after all these years!"

I had a small batch of wine running in the basement in 2009.... Forgot completely about it... Found it around when I was rummaging around for Christmas stuff in December 2010..... Air lock was completely dried out.... Spider webs *inside* the bottle... Pulled it off and gave it a sniff - nothing off.... Gave it a taste... Pretty good.... Bottled it up - and it is fine stuff....

Thanks

i like to start gallon batches of wine after i get a large batch of cider going, then i'm set for a while if i can keep the urge to make a bunch of things down to every 2 or 3 months i don't overwhelm all my space.

truckjohn said:

Spider webs *inside* the bottle...

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Dare I say it should be labled " black widow "?!?

I have an awesome mead that is now 12years old. It is in a place that I need to spend 20 minutes moving stuff to get to the hatch. Then I need to crawl across the gravel/dirt floor to the far side of the space (about 25ft.) then reverse that with bottle in hand. It's the only reason I still have 5 bottles left out of a 6 gallon batch.

ColoradoMadMan said:

I have an awesome mead that is now 12years old. It is in a place that I need to spend 20 minutes moving stuff to get to the hatch. Then I need to crawl across the gravel/dirt floor to the far side of the space (about 25ft.) then reverse that with bottle in hand. It's the only reason I still have 5 bottles left out of a 6 gallon batch.

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I bet it is liquid awesome!!!

Show us a pic of it in a glass...would love to see it.