Recent content by CormanoWild

You can also make your own flavor extracts, if you're so inclined. It won't be super-concentrated like this, but it does allow for easy experimenting - you can even make a 5-gallon batch of normal, "neutral" Apelfwein, and experiment bottle-by-bottle once they've conditioned, right before...

Also wondering - can you use baker's chocolate (100% cocoa) instead of the nibs? Primarily interested because I wouldn't know where to get real cocoa nibs, and baker's chocolate is mad cheap.

How would I make a starter like that? Just extract a large amount of the yeast from the current fermentation into some apple juice and keep that in a sealed jar in the fridge or some such?

You could also try tossing in some raisins, along with the oats and molasses, and simply call it day as having made a kind of "New England-style" apelfwein. But I guess if you really do have 10% ABV and you want 6%, then there is no real alternative to adding water, haha. I still find it...

The alcohol flavor in cider has never been a big factor for me, especially as the cider ages - aging in the primary or secondary seems to reduce the alcohol flavor the fastest, but bottle aging works well, as well. If you add brown sugar, that'll *increase* the alcohol content, too - obviously...

Yeah. First O.G. (read off a different batch of Mott's - I'm assuming this stuff is all always the same) - was 1.05. There was never a time when it wasn't carbonated (as we fermented it in-jug), but I poured some out and let it go flat to get a reading. Right around 1.000, probably a bit beneath...

Snifter! Actually, I basically drink everything from my snifter, though, so I'm biased. Really, though, I think a little globe of alcohol in your hand is basically the coolest thing you can have.

Heyo! Got a question for you all. Made some Graffs a while back - around August - and it was pretty good. Saved a bottle and left it in a closet for a special occasion, had it a week or so back - mein gott! *Incredibly* good. Great recipe! Now that it's winter, though, I feel that the...

To be safe, I like to just bottle the cider normally, and then add Splenda at drinking time. Two reasons for this. 1) You can give the cider to others with varying sweet-tooths, and everyone'll be happy. (This is a big one for me - I make my cider in huge batches with my roommates, and we all...

Like, almost better than most of the stuff I've actually sat down to try to make. It actually started as an accident - I was brewing a batch of New England-style cider (brown sugar, honey, cinnamon and allspice) and realized I would need to boil some apple juice to dissolve the honey and...