New Years Eve brew

Ok.... I've been running over and over in my head what I'd like to do. Double, triple and quadrupled guessed myself. Finally... the wife was sleeping and I just said... the hell with it... I'm going to brew it..... ok.. not sure what I brewed. But it will be an interesting experiment..... here it is....


3 gal sweet Apple Cider
1 lb dry wheat extract
2 lb Brown Sugar
2 lb Honey

I took 1/2 gal of cider and heated it up then added 1/2 lb Chocalate Malt (crushed with a rolling pin). To this I added the honey and brown sugar.

I put some cider in a cup and added Lalvin 1118 yeast and some yeast nutrient. It became frosty pretty quickly... about 15 minutes.

The whole thing is sitting in a 6 gal carboy now at 72 degrees. SG was VERY hard to get... the thief did not want to work at all. Finally got some out with a turkey baster and SG was 1.084. Tasted it..... dont think I ever made anything that started out soo sweet before. Wondering if I'm gonig to need to add some Tannin in it... I could always do it later.

Well.... I thought it sounded good... not sure what I made here..... thinking of calling it "One strange brew"......

2# of brown sugar? I have never used that much before, more around at most 8 oz. Keep us posted on how it turns out. Sounds like it may knock your socks off with all the fermentables!

Guessing that it will need a long time to age. Do you think my yeast will poop out too soon? I used a champaign one for that reason actually.

avidhomebrewer said:

2# of brown sugar? I have never used that much before, more around at most 8 oz. Keep us posted on how it turns out. Sounds like it may knock your socks off with all the fermentables!

Click to expand...

I used 2# brown sugar, and champane yeast in my first batch of cider (thanks to the recipe I found in Mother Earth News [swambo's mag, not mine!]) I let it sit in the primary for 15 days, then the secondary for 3 weeks, and it never did really clear all that well.

I tried a bottle on Christmas (10 days in bottle) it wasn't carbed yet, and still tasted like a horrible white wine. I had to cut it with apple juice to get it down. I'll check the next bottle in a month or two, and if not better, I'll try again in 6 months. But, i don't have high hopes for it.

I know with Brown Sugar it takes a long time. This certainly does not go on any rule (3-2-1 or 1-2-3). I was guessing that 3 months would be my first try.