Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

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MrSnacks said:
Anyone added tart cherry concentrate to graff before?
Click to expand...

After making a cider batch back-sweetened with tart cherry juice and honey, I think it would make for a great combo. I made this cider right after my Graff and found that I wished it had the same touch of malty-ness and head retention.

I may never brew a cider without a bit of DME and carapills again!
 
Its been a while since I wanted to try this recipe, and I finally did it this morning.

I followed the base recipe with orchard juice and it only took 2 hours from start to fermenter. It was really easy and the sample tastes AMAZING!

I can't wait to taste the finished product!
 
Tried this one today for the first time.
- 12 litres of PC Cider + 3.5 l of tropicana AJ (4.1 gal total)
- 1/2# crystal 60
- 1 oz toasted wheat
- 2.2# light DME
- 0.5 oz Cascade
- Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast

Skipped the irish moss as the cider was already pretty cloudy so I wasn't sure it would make a difference.

OG 1.058, will bottle condition in a couple weeks. Looking forward to this one!
 
So, do you have to use store bought juice, or can you buy the concentrate and reconstitute it with water? (Assuming there's no extra chemicals added that might retard yeast propagation).
 
drat12 said:
So, do you have to use store bought juice, or can you buy the concentrate and reconstitute it with water? (Assuming there's no extra chemicals added that might retard yeast propagation).
Click to expand...

Yeah frozen concentrate is fine. Most store bought juices are technically "from concentrate" anyway. Just check the ingredients to make sure there's nothing besides apple juice concentrate and ascorbic acid(vitamin C).
 
Man, the Danstar yeast really ate into this. Anything wrong with a really rapid ferment? I had 5 gal in a 6 gal carboy and while it didn't blow off, the airlock is filled with graff now. It's slowed down now, as in, I can no longer feel a breeze coming out the airlock.
 
I've been wanting to give this a try. How do you think this would turn out with frozen concentrate and the 2nd runnings from a big beer as "water"?
 
I pitched on to a notty yeast cake left over from my previous cider batch. It bubbled like crazy and stopped bubbling in 4 days. FG at 1.000. Tastes pretty good. I put it in my cold garage to cold crash but what now? Most seem to leave in primary for much longer. Do I leave it alone, rack off and dose it so I can keg it? Everything happened so fast not sure about next step.

Thoughts: by itself it tasted good, cider/beer characteristics. I'd definitely drink as is. I put a tiny amt of spiced pear juice in it. It masked the beer taste and tasted more like a full bodied cider if that makes sense. Very interesting. Anyone else back sweeten using this as a base? I'm tempted to pull off a gallon and make something for the wives in our group. Can't wait to taste after aging a bit. Great recipe!
 
Instead of reading the whole post I'll take the lazy route and ask what I assume already has been asked.
Do you prime when bottling just like you would for an ale?
How much sugar per liter if so?
 
I have a batch that's been in primary about 2 weeks. I am going to throw it in the keg soon.. Should I put some co2 on and let it age at room temp or let it sit in the fridge?
 
Anyone who has made this...how long after kegging was it good. I kept it in primary for four weeks, and just kegged it tonight. The smell is amazing! The flavor...not so much. Pretty harsh cider bite to it right now. Is that common or did I get an infection?
 
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421022178.428432.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421022206.368132.jpg

I made two batches of this, one with fresh pressed cider and one with Allens AJ.

The one from the cider is the cloudy one without much head and the other is with AJ.

Both were done identically but have very different characteristics.

The citrus notes from the hops are more prevalent in the fresh pressed batch and it is definitely more bitter. It has trouble with head retention, it carbonated fine, just won't hold a head, not sure why.....any ideas?

The one with the AJ is very smooth with excellent head retention and a slight hoppiness. It turned out as the better in my opinion.

Excellent recipe and will definitely make again!
 
I hadn't brewed one of these in a while. I finally found a blend of bottled juice that works good for me. ALL of my previous tries cone out tannic and sharp. I use a blend of Whole Foods half gallon Gravenstein (tart), 50 oz Martinellis (no additives, not from concentrate, sweet and zesty), and one gallon grocery store house brand juice with nothing but concentrate and water.

This batch I started by brewing one gallon of a super dark (SRM 61) and sweet (10% crystal 90 and 10% carafoam) beer:

1.75 lb pilsner
1/4 lb carafoam
1/4 lb C90
1/4 lb blackprintz
1 oz chocolate wheat
Mash at 150
No hops
90 min boil

Super easy stove top brew day. The blackprintz and chocolate wheat got it extremely dark and the wort tasted sweet with almost zero roastiness.

wp_20150112_543-64709.jpg


So, one gallon of that and 2 gallons of cider.

One pack of rehydrated Mangrove Jack cider yeast and I'm going to let it go for a month at 60F. Then keg condition for another two weeks.
 
Weezy said:
I hadn't brewed one of these in a while. I finally found a blend of bottled juice that works good for me. ALL of my previous tries cone out tannic and sharp. I use a blend of Whole Foods half gallon Gravenstein (tart), 50 oz Martinellis (no additives, not from concentrate, sweet and zesty), and one gallon grocery store house brand juice with nothing but concentrate and water.



This batch I started by brewing one gallon of a super dark (SRM 61) and sweet (10% crystal 90 and 10% carafoam) beer:



1.75 lb pilsner

1/4 lb carafoam

1/4 lb C90

1/4 lb blackprintz

1 oz chocolate wheat

Mash at 150

No hops

90 min boil



Super easy stove top brew day. The blackprintz and chocolate wheat got it extremely dark and the wort tasted sweet with almost zero roastiness.



wp_20150112_543-64709.jpg




So, one gallon of that and 2 gallons of cider.



One pack of rehydrated Mangrove Jack cider yeast and I'm going to let it go for a month at 60F. Then keg condition for another two weeks.
Click to expand...


Hey what were your readings on this. I was wondering (haven't visited this post in a while) that you have no hops. Thoughts? It looks delicious and probably will dup.

Also is the Pilsner the DME?

Also why a 90 min boil?
 
Just did this recipe again but where it was 1/5 ale and 4 parts cider it's now 2/5 ale (just doubled the recipe) 1.5 gallons aj and 1.5 gallons cranberry juice. Plus added some acid blend and special B cara-pil for head retention. Should turn out good
 
richlong8020 said:
Hey what were your readings on this. I was wondering (haven't visited this post in a while) that you have no hops. Thoughts? It looks delicious and probably will dup.

Also is the Pilsner the DME?

Also why a 90 min boil?
Click to expand...

My batch was all grain, hence the 90 min boil..but you could certainly use DME! Apologies but I'm brain farting on the OG. My brain is saying 1.050 or 1.060, and I'm almost certain its 1.050, but I'll have to check. I'll edit this later.
 
Weezy said:
My batch was all grain, hence the 90 min boil..but you could certainly use DME! Apologies but I'm brain farting on the OG. My brain is saying 1.050 or 1.060, and I'm almost certain its 1.050, but I'll have to check. I'll edit this later.
Click to expand...


That's cool. I'll just use 1.5-2 lbs of DME and a 30 min boil and should be great.
 
MInoobbrewer said:
Just did this recipe again but where it was 1/5 ale and 4 parts cider it's now 2/5 ale (just doubled the recipe) 1.5 gallons aj and 1.5 gallons cranberry juice. Plus added some acid blend and special B cara-pil for head retention. Should turn out good
Click to expand...


Would like to see a pic of that when it's ready.
 
BaylessBrewer said:
Instead of reading the whole post I'll take the lazy route and ask what I assume already has been asked.
Do you prime when bottling just like you would for an ale?
How much sugar per liter if so?
Click to expand...


When I did my last batch I primed it like a normal 5 gal batch. Either use the sugar or the drops.
 
So, here's the scenario...I've made a few batches of graff and they all came out great. The one I've currently got in the keg,...well not so hot. My kids had snatched one of my jugs of apple juice so with turnabout being fair play I substituted with a gallon of their grape juice. Now my graff tastes like a grape nehi and I really hate that stuff.

Can anyone that's used grape juice can tell me if I'm stuck or will it mellow with some age? Maybe I wasn't watching my fermentation temps well enough.
 
richlong8020 said:
That's cool. I'll just use 1.5-2 lbs of DME and a 30 min boil and should be great.
Click to expand...

OG was 1.066, targetted 1.065....doh.

And aa far as the no hops. For this batch, I wanted malt to complement the apple flavor. here hops are just going to confuse the flavors.
 
Weezy said:
OG was 1.066, targetted 1.065....doh.



And aa far as the no hops. For this batch, I wanted malt to complement the apple flavor. here hops are just going to confuse the flavors.
Click to expand...


Sounds great. I don't keg so the bottle time helped the hoppiness lessen. Maybe this new batch will have more flavor. I look forward to this weekend. Gonna make it.
 
Just brewed another batch of this stuff. Used about .40 ounces of Glacier and about .20 ounces of Hallertauer hops at 30 minutes and tossed another .20 of hops in with about ten minutes left in the boil, just to get rid of some stuff. Can't wait to taste it. All in all, less than an ounce of mild hops, so it should be good.
 
hunter_la5 said:
Just put another batch into the fermenter. This time used a ratio of 3:2 juice to beer instead of the standard 4:1. Can't wait to see how it turns out.
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Took my first pull from the keg last night of my modified Graff. 'Tis good.

It's a bit sweeter than the Colonel's Original Recipe. Maltier, and far less tart than my previous batches. Hop character is just slightly noticable, whereas previous batches had none. Hard to tell from my crappy cell phone pics, but it came out super clear after a few weeks in the keg.

Overall I think I prefer the (relative) dryness of the original recipe, but I think this version would be more of a hit with those that like a sweeter cider, without it bring cloying.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421619015.724342.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1421619027.123240.jpg
 
Well I've brewed up my 2/5 ale with a juice mixture of half Apple and half cranberry juice. It's not bad. A little less tart than my original Graff which I did too exact specifications. I think the acid blend I added at bottling day helped cut back the tart flavor. Plus I used Brown sugar as my priming sugar. So it's really not bad. I'll have to do this again. Oh but it's got almost no head
 
Hi guys, if I don't add hops to this recipe, how long should I boil the wort for? The original recipe says:

"Add DME and bring to a boil.
Add hops when boiling starts and boil for 30 mins".

Do I boil for 30 minutes even without hops?

Thanks :mug:
 
cheeseplease said:
Hi guys, if I don't add hops to this recipe, how long should I boil the wort for? The original recipe says:

"Add DME and bring to a boil.
Add hops when boiling starts and boil for 30 mins".

Do I boil for 30 minutes even without hops?

Thanks :mug:
Click to expand...

You'd be good with 10-15 minutes to sanitize.
A smidge of hops pulls it all together, I would consider it.
 
I brewed my second batch about 3 weeks ago and moved it into a keg Saturday. I immediately made another batch, pitched onto the leftover yeast cake. It was bubbling like crazy in just an hour or so.

Yesterday, I'm having dinner watching the airlock go crazy and realized that in my haste I had totally forgot the DME! I didn't have anymore apple juice, but I found a frozen can of cranberry in the freezer. I boiled this with about a half gallon of water and the DME until the hot break subsided. I then cooled in an ice bath and added it in. Holy krazen explosion! I had to add a blow off tube she went so crazy!

Looking forward to this experiment. Should be Graff with a hint of cranberry.
 
Brewed 5 gallons of this for the first time 2.5 weeks ago. Bottled today with 5 oz corn sugar. Only change to the recipe was a cinnamon stick and 2 lbs brown sugar. fermented out to 1.01 and the sample that I consumed did not taste all that great. Hoping that the taste will mellow out during a long bottle condition.
 
Hi all !
What will happen if I use apple juice for fill tap space in normal ale for 2nd Fer batch ?
 
Hi All,

Due to a busy schedule my Graff has been sitting in secondary for about 3 and a half months. I want to bottle today. i planned to bottle carb. Do i need to add any additional yeast when bottling? if so how much. i have some EC118 and S04 on hand. Or should i just add priming sugar and give it an extended time to carbonate?
 

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