Recent content by kindrox

I don't know the actual answer, but from my reading, my understanding is that after running out of food, at some point the yeast actually die. And if there are a few that are still alive, you might want to go from a baby starter to a bigger and bigger starter until you have enough to pitch...

I forgot to mention that I don't use camden tablets with real fruit (knock on wood). Batches with acidic results I have done nothing but freeze the fruit for a couple days. With bananas I have dipped the whole fruit in boiling water for 30 seconds. Recently, if I do more than freezing the...

I started making cider about six months ago. I've made apple, strawberry, peach, apricot, watermelon, lemon, raspberry, grape, banana, and coffee. I started with frozen juice concentrates (lemon, apple, grape) and have branched out into real fruit (strawberry, raspberry, banana, watermelon) or...

I am leaning towards a portable unit since the holes to the outside can be smaller. I assume there are two holes, one for air in, one for air out?

Dedhedjed, you use a portable AC unit?

I would prefer to put the hot side of a window unit into the room, and not to the outside. I have never used a window unit, will it drip water on the 'outside' side? But they seem attractive from a size standpoint, as the portables seem very large, and from a cost stand point. I do want to...

I am planning out an air conditioned 7' wide, x4' deep x9' high brew closet. I am not sure of the optimum air conditioner to use. Window unit? Portable unit?

You would have to try it and see I guess. My question would be how the yeast could get to the sugars in the dried apple and how to get the created alcohols out? The solution for myself has been to add more concentrate.

I have only done lemonaid from cans, but three days is not enough in my experience to expect airlock activity. Wait at least a week before expecting any.

Or cold crash it. I have two Tap A Draft bottles I carbonate the cider in, and then pop in the fridge when they are done. This does require mini-CO2's though.

I use 6.5 gallon carboys for beer, and 5 gallon carboys for cider/wine. You need the extra headspace for beer fermenting but juices don't foam up like beer. And a five gallon jug is much easier to carry than a 6.5, so I don't use the big one if I don't have too.

I have made hard cider from Whole Foods fancy apple cider in 1 gallon jugs and decided to make some experiments due to cost. Each gallon of juice was about $8-$9, and I used champagne yeast. The flavor was very muted and I ended up using 1 can of concentrated apple juice per gallon to restore...

Did you measure the sugar by volume or by weight? I am new and made the mistake of measuring corn sugar by volume and had a batch with low carbonation. Then I weighed out 1oz per gallon and notice the volume of corn sugar for a given weight is a lot more than white sugar, which is why I was off.

I made two gallons of Mr. Beer oatmeal stout in some one gallon jugs with airlocks. At bottling time it tasted a little like hot alcohol so I decided to wait it out. Two months went by and the flavor has gotten stronger to the point of not being drinkable. I did use white sugar to prime...

I recommend you move your beer to the bucket before bottling. Then you can use sugar to prime and not worry about stirring trub up in your beer while mixing.