Thanks Doctor Who. I used Sarafale-5 yeast. Fermented steadily at 68 using a ferm wrap and a temp controller. I was definitely surprised at the off taste... but I guess sometimes it happens. I'll go to the secondary and keep my fingers crossed.
I bottled my first batch lastnight. Unfortunately my 2 week fermentation period was up last weekend but I was out of town and didnt get to do it until last night. I followed the original recipe with cascade hops and it did not taste good at all. Dry, mellow apple flavor, slight malt taste then the finish was all over the place. Most noticable was a harsh hoppy/pepper-type/acidic bite as an after taste. Not sweet at all. I added 4.8 oz of a sugar solution for carbing to the 5 gallon batch to carb it. Almost wish I added more to retain some residual sweetness. Anyone else run into this harsh aftertaste?
Adding more sugar when priming wouldn't have created more residual sweetness since it would have ended up fermenting and creating bottle bombs - unless you're just talking in general terms and really meant adding a non-fermentable sugar for backsweetening.
Regardless... I have made the batch a dozen times and only get an acidic taste when using an apple juice with Vitamin C, OR, when fermenting in a too-warm environment. Did you use ascorbic acid-spiked juice? Was the room your bucket in hot?
The hop level might just be the nature of hops. It'll mellow over time, but it shouldn't be "harsh" on bottling day. Hoppy, yes, but not harsh.
Yes I meant non-fermentables. The juice was unprocessed direct from the mill with no acid blend added. I'm thinking my temperature swings in my basement were too high. The room never went above 68 but it did fluctuate between 60 to 68 on a few occassions. I talked to a local homebrewer and he said it should mellow. I did not taste a large sample so he thinks I may have just tasted a sample right off the bottom that got stirred up. I'm just going to continue to condition it for the next few weeks then cold age it some more in the fridge to see what happens.
Excellent. Remember, the OP BrandonO said it's best after three weeks of conditioning. I usually drink an entire batch before three weeks is up, so I wouldn't know, but I'll take his word for it!
ndoe22 said:Is their a preferred store bought apple juice for this recipe?
I have a batch of this fermenting right now and just got a call that the 5 gallons of cider I ordered a while back through the LHBS just came in.
I'm thinking about brewing up a 5 gallon batch of something fairly light and splitting both batches to make a Graff and a "Ffarg". So one batch will be 4 gallons cider and 1 gal wort and the other one will be the opposite.
Any suggestions on what style to do? Maybe a Belgian Wit?
Brewed up my estimation of an all grain version of this today.
3 pounds 2 row, .75 lb of crystal 60l, no hops, no torrified wheat, S-05 yeast
Mashed in with 2 gallons of water at 170*f which came down to 160 for an hour. Boiled down to a gallon in another hour. First time using the brew in a bag technique and for this kind of brew - it works well. Came in right around 1.1 from the grain portion.
Added 4 gallons of applejuice - expect to see visible fermentation by morning.
Pictures follow...
Brew in a bag, aussie style.
Mash out/ sparge pretty much non existant. I just pulled the bag (or rather square of fabric) and let her drain. Probably could have used my igloo MT but this was an excuse to try something new.
Pretty run of the mill boil, right? No chance of a boil over with 2 gallons in a 7 gallon pot...
Wrongo. Good thing I was watching.
The final grain based product, siphoned from boil pot and shook like heck before adding to carboy.
Bonus is that the containers are PET so they've been sterilized with star san and await a couple batches of something...
How did this turn out? Seems like there would be alot less fermentables than what's in 2 lbs of DME.
bottomup said:Do people rack this to secondary or just leave it in primary until finished?
AGadvocate said:Does it have to be the 100% apple juice no preservatives no sugar added?
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