Recent content by MrDon

Actually, I haven't started the apfelwein yet so I still have the option of pastuerizing it if you think that would be preferable to using the campden tablets. I gather that I would need to cook the fresh cider at 170 degrees for about 20 minutes to do that, right? Sorry to be so cautious...

Actually that Edwort's Apfelwein does sound interesting. Need to see if the Red Star Montrachet yeast and the dextrose are available tomorrow when I go to town. I have a couple of more gallons of cider in my fridge that is starting to go hard on me naturally that I should do something with and...

My temp is up to 60 degrees now. May have to find an additional heater to bump it up the rest of the way since it's in a back room. Went to my local wine making supply store today and found that they had yeast nutrient (food grade urea & diammonium phosphate) as well as yeast energizer...

Thanks for the consolation. Is there anything else I can do to jumpstart the fermentation tho?

I think I know the feeling you're talking about. I brought it inside where the temp is about 60 degrees, but I'm still only getting about 3 gurgles per minute. There is some foam in the bucket with the campden tabs, but the one with all the wild yeast is almost flat on top. The SG has...

"As long as they were covered, even loosely, it should be ok." Well, that's somewhat encouraging at least. I have moved both buckets to a partially heated room in my house where I can monitor them more closely. I'm hoping that my sanitation was adequate, but since this was my first...

I had apples coming out my ears this year from my orchard with about a dozen trees near Champaign IL so I decided to try to make my first batch of hard cider from juice that I had pressed myself. Fortunately there is a liquor store nearby (Friar Tuck) that has all the needed supplies so I got a...