Calavera
New Member
Hi all, been reading the posts made here for a while, and I have some questions before I get started making my own hard cider.
I've not homebrewed anything before, but I picked up a "for dummies" book a while ago and have been reading through it to familiarize myself a little more with the process. Am I crazy for wanting to start brewing with cider instead of beer? Ideally I'd want the result to be something like Woodchuck, though maybe not as sweet.
I was planning on spending ~$100 on equipment to get started. Would a beer kit be best? I have a beer store nearby with a sizable home brew section, so I can pick up odds and ends. Everything I have read seems to assume a 5gallon primary fermenter and carboy, so I was going to go with that. I would bottle it, not keg it.
I am in upstate NY and have half a dozen cider mills around me, but there is a NYS law that says all cider sold must be pasteurized. Several of the mills I have talked to say that they just use the UV method which doesn't affect the taste. None of them add any preservatives. From what I've read this seems like it will be fine, as long as I add my own yeast (Nottingham seems to be the most popular).
Another issue I'd like to avoid (or at least minimize) is smell. I would do my brewing in the basement, but because of the condo layout, my girlfriend would have to walk through it to get to the garage every day. If it smells like rotten eggs (rhino farts?) then I'm worried my foray into brewing will be over before it even gets started.
The basement probably maintains an ambient temperature between 55 and 70 degrees. Our fridge/freezer is also not big enough to cold crash, but with the impending winter coming on, I could put it in the garage, but I worry about it freezing. Racking would seem to be much simpler.
As far as carbonating, I would like it to be lightly carbonated, but don't want to risk exploding bottles. Can I just reduce the amount of sugar I add before I bottle it?
Sorry for all of the questions, I've just recently taken an interest in homebrewing, and almost all of the other threads I've read seem to be questions from much more experienced brewers, so it's got me a little confused.
I've not homebrewed anything before, but I picked up a "for dummies" book a while ago and have been reading through it to familiarize myself a little more with the process. Am I crazy for wanting to start brewing with cider instead of beer? Ideally I'd want the result to be something like Woodchuck, though maybe not as sweet.
I was planning on spending ~$100 on equipment to get started. Would a beer kit be best? I have a beer store nearby with a sizable home brew section, so I can pick up odds and ends. Everything I have read seems to assume a 5gallon primary fermenter and carboy, so I was going to go with that. I would bottle it, not keg it.
I am in upstate NY and have half a dozen cider mills around me, but there is a NYS law that says all cider sold must be pasteurized. Several of the mills I have talked to say that they just use the UV method which doesn't affect the taste. None of them add any preservatives. From what I've read this seems like it will be fine, as long as I add my own yeast (Nottingham seems to be the most popular).
Another issue I'd like to avoid (or at least minimize) is smell. I would do my brewing in the basement, but because of the condo layout, my girlfriend would have to walk through it to get to the garage every day. If it smells like rotten eggs (rhino farts?) then I'm worried my foray into brewing will be over before it even gets started.
The basement probably maintains an ambient temperature between 55 and 70 degrees. Our fridge/freezer is also not big enough to cold crash, but with the impending winter coming on, I could put it in the garage, but I worry about it freezing. Racking would seem to be much simpler.
As far as carbonating, I would like it to be lightly carbonated, but don't want to risk exploding bottles. Can I just reduce the amount of sugar I add before I bottle it?
Sorry for all of the questions, I've just recently taken an interest in homebrewing, and almost all of the other threads I've read seem to be questions from much more experienced brewers, so it's got me a little confused.