Recent content by jackflash11

Good news on day ~20 or so! We took a hygrometer reading today. There was definite sulfurous smell when we opened it up, and worried we might put in too many Camden tablets, but it was probably mostly in the air at the top of the fermenter. The perry has a light, crisp/tart taste, and is about...

A couple weeks in and the perry is 6.6% with a pleasant light, crisp/tart taste!

Ok, we'll make a starter tonight. Thanks!

Ok, I've added a full dose (5 tablets). I don't have a fridge large enough for it but do have a 50ft copper wort cooler. I could run that for a bit to chill it tomorrow morning, would that work? (Maybe tonight would be better but I've started imbibing and would want to open up the must and...

Some of the pattern seems to have been from some the apple chunks that were in the canned apple base and which I'm going to filter out. After jostling the can, it dissolved into white clumps.

Ok, great! One last update, if it changes anything -- after removing the saran wrap we noticed a film on top of the must that looks like impressions of orange peels:

Thanks for the advice! Is the reason for this that acid content suppresses bacterial growth? The pears aren't very acidic, but we did add 3/4 gallon apple base to what was I think about 2.5 gallons of juice we pressed from the pears. Also, maybe this was a bit of a mixup with a pear wine recipe...

We're attempting our first batch of cider after picking 50 lbs of pears from our new backyard. We prepared the must and had it sitting 24hrs before attempting to add it to our fermenter, but found that the fermenter leaked (14 gal FastFerment). After a replacement fermenter didn't help and a...

We're a couple in MA who decided to start brewing some cider when we picked 50 lbs of pears from the pear tree in our new backyard, and also get back into brewing beer as well (my fiancée has more experience than me with this).