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Done! A good suggestion, thank you. I believe my beer kit is arriving today or tomorrow. It's probably unwise to start with an all grain kit but I liked the cider kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop and the equipment that came with it is pretty standard stuff that I can use for things. I will...

I was having a discussion over in the One Gallon thread and it was suggested I post my query here. So far all I have made is cider, fruit wines, and one batch of mead. When looking at the directions for wine and cider yeast the pitch rates are pretty simple. About one gram per gallon. But...

Interesting... So why is wine/cider yeast rehydration based on volume of being pitched into without regards to specific gravity? Whereas the gravity appears to matter for beer yeasts. This is really more of a technical curiosity than anything else. But the more complex formula is a mild...

Ok, this is where I have to ask some questions about yeast and starters. When I've pitched yeast for cider and fruit wines I have either dry pitched or rehydrated the yeast in warm water for just half an hour or so. Those were the directions and it has always worked (with one exception being...

You could try the shredding disk on your food processor if you have one. But to feed apples through the tube you will need to chop them at least in half. You might considering taking out the seeds if you are doing this. I realize doing this with a hundred pounds of apples will get incredibly...

I'll look into that book, thank you. I am getting conflicting information though. The guy who owns my local home brew shop is definitely a knowledgeable and experienced dude. Nice guy too. And he is telling me not to worry about the freshness of liquid and powdered malt extract. Yet I am...

I would like to try making a clone of Guinness but with a higher ABV and little more bitterness. Though the two characteristics might not go together. Yes, I like Mirror Pond. I wouldn't making something like that. I'll probably keep most of my energy in cider but I want to try fermenting...

I ordered a Brooklyn Brew Shop kit. The Everyday IPA. Oddly, it is an all grain kit. So my first beer will be all grain. After that I will probably look at some extract recipes. But I would like to move to all grain at some point. It appeals to the gardener in me. But, at least for the...

Thank you. I'll look into those. I am thinking I will need to figure out how to make from a recipe and not a kit at some point. The simplicity of the kits is tempting but they get expensive and I'm not sure I'm learning much. If anyone knows of a source of good one gallon recipes (all grain...

I'm going to start brewing beer soon and I will be making one gallon batches for the foreseeable future. I want to try different recipes and I don't have enough space or enough people for five gallon batches. I also think I can do all grain in one gallon batches with the regular kitchen...

I don't have time to go into the details right now but the results were terrible. I got about a gallon out of 25-30 pounds of apples. Many of the pieces weren't even touched no matter how much I cranked the press. I would have gotten far, far more juice by using my normal technique of...

My first batch of cider, without nutrients, produced noticeable sulfur as well. It wasn't a wild ferment. I have much less sulfur now that I use nutrient at the beginning. Otherwise I might not bother.

Shellac has been applied. I am going to chop up some apples today and test the press. I took a couple of pieces of 2 X 4 and cut them down for use as spacers. I'm going to prepare some twelve inch long beams as well and put them in there vertically if need be. After the first use I will...

These are all carry overs from late 2019 but I estimate I have about nine gallons in process now.

I'm at least going to put a coat of shellac on it. I should really put several thick coats of polyurethane on it to seal it up nicely. But I have some apples that need pressing and winter temperatures will slow finish curing to a crawl. It will cure. It will just take forever.

But isn't cleaning the beech wood going to be a pain? And won't scrubbing it with soap or even just rinsing it going to cause wood movement? I've fiddled with my share of beech and it warps like the USS Enterprise. And that's without getting it wet on purpose.

So, I just pitched the yeast for two gallons of blueberry wine. I basically followed a recipe I saw online and scaled it down. I just took an initial gravity reading and the potential alcohol is about 9%. Is that too low? I was under the impression wine was supposed to be above 12%? I can...

At least the Japanese understand quality control. It could be a lot worse.

It was a gift from some my friend's parents so I didn't think it would be polite to just say "Hey, this thing sucks." I'll make some more spacers for it and we'll see how it works. I'll think I'll start by brushing some shellac on it. I should be able to build up a coat of that pretty...

So, I assembled this thing today. And I read some reviews. Everyone mentions that without much thicker spacer blocks the pressing plate can't actually reach the bottom of the press. Thus rendering it nearly useless. I'll cut up some blocks for it out of 2 X 4s or some hickory I have as scrap...