Pear-Apple - My First time making anything! w/recipe

[Houdini0001]

if you couldn't tell from the title I'm pretty friggin excited.. Youtube got me hooked on Brewing..

So I ordered some supplies online from "western something" FINALLY received my order. purchased
10 packs of yeast
2-(1)gal jugs
4 "S" airlocks
4 3pc airlocks

I had 2 plastic PET carboys here but the tops are way bigger than the recommended #6 stoppers I ordered.

So I went to the grocery outlet and bought 2 (1gal) apple ciders and 2 (aprox 1ltr) pear / apple / grape, I watched a lot of youtube videos on ciders and a few of them said that pear juice added to brews and ciders made the taste less bitter and smoother, so I decided to try it (maybe a bit too adventurous for a first timer but what the hell..

So last night I took 1 gal of cider and 1 of the ltrs of pear and the two 1 gal jugs. boiled all my stuff cause I was to dumb to think about ordering sanitizer my first order.. go figure..

So I take half the cider and put it into a sauce pan, the rest I pour into the jugs. I add 4tsps of all spice, 2 tsps. of Cinnamon, 1 1/2 cups of regular sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, and bring it to a slight boil. Add that to the jugs, and then split the pear juice into the two jugs. shake and shake and shake.. I mostly noticed that those that were successful on there fermenting shaked the hell out of the jugs just before adding the yeast.

For the yeast I added 1/2 teaspoon "Red Star Pasteur Champagne" yeast to 1 cup of 100degree water, and 1 teaspoon table sugar. I did this in two glasses (because I have two jugs DOH!) lol

So like I said shake the hell out of it.. so I shook both jugs again just to be sure I shook them good enough, and added the yeast to both of them. Yes there was slight activity in both glasses of yeast, I had just made them I did not let them sit and ferment up a lot. I put the stoppers on, I am trying one jug with the "S" airlock and the other with the 3pcs airlock. I put vodka in both airlocks.

This was about midnight last night I did this
So far this morning at 10am I have action in the bottles..

I WAS SO FRIGGIN SCARED! I look and see this black stuff big clumps of it.. of course the room is slightly lit up. SO I internet search and search .. oh and did I mention I SEARCHED!!

NOTHING on searching for clumps of black in Cider.. I finally in a panic take one of the jugs to the kitchen so I can look at it better thinking I'm going to half to rebottle then after only 12 hours!
(DOH!! I am pretty sure its just the spices that I put in combined with some of the growing yeast, they keep falling, and rising.. and everything looks great.. and they are just brownish pictures below..)

I took some pics.. I'm going to try to add them but not sure it is also my first post! LOL Here goes..

Oh BTW I sampled the stuff I cooked on the stove.. the flavors were almost perfect to that of the Mcminamins flavored Cider. YUM!! I cant wait to try the hard stuff..
ok pics...

Those bottles under the jugs on the next shelf down are the Cider and Pear juice I used.

Hope you all enjoy my first timer story, will update on the progress..

I'm thinking about 8-14 days?? any suggestions?

I'm going to try some on Halloween no matter what... that will be day 9.5...

 

[Yooper]

Congrats on the first batches!

I wouldn't boil my juice, but that won't really hurt anything except it might not clear or have a bit of a "cooked" taste to it. Next time, you can cold steep your spices if you really want to use them.

You can rack to new vessels when you get a ton of sediment, and fermentation slows down. For now, it's fine where it is!

 

[Houdini0001]

UPDATE: Its been 7.5 days. I posted another thread because I had a question. It had stopped bubbling. impatient and wanting to learn the tastes, I sampled one of them. It was actually very alcohol tasting, smooth yet bitter - very bitter, but almost like a beer, suprising no bready yeast flavor.

Still no activity in the airlocks. So tomorrow I am going to go get some hose to rack them, they are still very cloudy. there is not much sediment in the bottom of the jug. But I did not think there would be I only used about 1/2 tsp of Red Star Champ Yeast and I see about a bit more then 1/8in of yeast block"?" did I say that right, the white stuff at the bottom of the jug is called yeast block or brick I dunno..

I'm thinking I am going to end up racking and racking and racking and letting these sit for at least 4 to 6 months from what I have been reading.

Eventually I will be trying to back sweeten and bottle them in champagne bottles as soon as I get the hydrometer to actually do this right, I want to carb them.

So that's it for now, I can see myself getting a lot more jugs and even some carboys and making monthly batches so I'll have product year round. This is definitely a WHOLE MESS OF WONDERFUL FUN! Bless you all for sharing your information with me..
Oh and Happy Halloween!

For anyone else getting started, I have to admit I have started this with out all the right equipment, but I have plenty of time to equip myself with the proper tools to get this done right down the road. This is by far not a fast producing procedure. and ideally I've noticed exactly what everyone has been saying - "It is an Art" but I must admit I do love the science part equally as much.

 

[Houdini0001]

I almost forgot to mention my spices. that brown/black looking stuff they finally fell to the bottom and nothing was floating after day 3. Like I said I have no hydrometer so I don't have gravity readings or anything this is a just plain winging it my first time. So much to learn so much to do.. love it..

 

[aellis]

Heh, I certainly understand the need to get going before you have all the proper equipment... I must have been the the LHBS about 10 times in a 2 week period trying to get stuff I was missing. I have 10 gallons of various things going right now though.

 

[Houdini0001]

Heh, I certainly understand the need to get going before you have all the proper equipment... I must have been the the LHBS about 10 times in a 2 week period trying to get stuff I was missing. I have 10 gallons of various things going right now though.

I don't know about you but something tells me I will never have everything I need LOL

 

[Houdini0001]

Update: It has been 11 days and I had no activity in my jugs at all. so I racked to new clean jugs added two new clean "S" locks and stoppers. I went and bought some tubing at the locak hardware store, 20ft, TUBING! is not all the same.. this stuff was $7 and very thin and flexable, would kink up at the top of the jug, however I managed to get it primed and in seconds.. and man I mean seconds BAM the jug was empty.. it was awesome... so both jugs now in their seconds. I used treetops Apple Cider to begin with and it was real cloudy, I am thinking it is not going to clear with out some sort of additive and right now I do not have even yeast neutrients.

That being said I did taste it again, was just as bitter as before however when racking it over I could smell apple.. it was nice. still alcohol smelly and a nip/tingle to the tongue this time. still had that beer after taste, not bad but this is totally not drinkable without some more time and help, but hey its only been 2 weeks.. And I'm having fun..

Getting ready to go down and I bought 2 bottles of Pineapple, Mango, something 100% juice. Going to get that going as well.

OH and I went to the Dollartree, if anyone knows what that is. And they have nice 1gal and 3qt containters that are BPA free, food safe, recycle codes #2(1gal) and #1(3qt). I was like HEY!! I can drill holes and get the grommets for like $0.50cents a piece. nice...

It's kewl how you look at things differently when you change things up, I so look for
tubing, carboys, and other brewing stuff now no matter where I go LOL

ok I'm rambling now.. laterz until next update.
Houdini0001