Typical newbie here. I got a Mr. Beer as a gift and have it fermenting right now with Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner. That's basically the extent of my brewing experience.
I began reading some things online to get a better idea of what I was doing / can do, and would like to try a hard cider recipe for a few reasons, the most important of which being that my wife doesn't like beer but does like cider. The other reasons are simplicity and almost zero need for equipment/ingredients.
So here's my problem and idea: I have my beer going in the Mr Beer right now and it won't be done for 2 weeks (or more). I don't really want to wait that long to start the cider, but I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of brewing equipment (I'll save that for a few months from now). So my idea was to basically scale a 5 gallon cider recipe WAY down and brew it in the actual apple juice container. My idea was to simply punch a hole in the lid to allow gasses to escape, and cover the entire lid with a sanitized balloon to keep the system closed. The balloon would theoretically expand as the gasses escape and take the place of a water seal (unsure of the term). This way I could easily have a few batches going and experiment with different mixes, without the need for new containers and not much loss if I mess it up or it tastes like crap.
This seems like a flawless plan in my head - am I an idiot? Other ideas for the seal if my balloon idea won't work?
I began reading some things online to get a better idea of what I was doing / can do, and would like to try a hard cider recipe for a few reasons, the most important of which being that my wife doesn't like beer but does like cider. The other reasons are simplicity and almost zero need for equipment/ingredients.
So here's my problem and idea: I have my beer going in the Mr Beer right now and it won't be done for 2 weeks (or more). I don't really want to wait that long to start the cider, but I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of brewing equipment (I'll save that for a few months from now). So my idea was to basically scale a 5 gallon cider recipe WAY down and brew it in the actual apple juice container. My idea was to simply punch a hole in the lid to allow gasses to escape, and cover the entire lid with a sanitized balloon to keep the system closed. The balloon would theoretically expand as the gasses escape and take the place of a water seal (unsure of the term). This way I could easily have a few batches going and experiment with different mixes, without the need for new containers and not much loss if I mess it up or it tastes like crap.
This seems like a flawless plan in my head - am I an idiot? Other ideas for the seal if my balloon idea won't work?