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Do you have recommendations for which apple cultivars to look for (please bear in mind that most apples are done for this year in my area) and which yeasts you like? So far I have tried Premier Cuvee, Mangrove Jack M02, Safcider, and most of the Lalvin yeasts at my home brew shop. I was going...

bernardsmith: Oh, duh. I'm sorry. I thought you meant to jack the finished cider, not the juice. That's a good idea, actually. I certainly have enough juice to do it with. I have about five gallons of store bought juice just hanging out. It's pretty good juice, actually. I'll have to make...

Mangrove Jack's cider yeast was used on the apple batch that was just tested. I'd say it did a good job, overall. It didn't leave a nasty solvent taste, which is what I was afraid of. You are suggesting doing the apple jack thing, yes? If I backsweeten I need to add sulfite and sorbate...

I don't mind raising the ABV a little. It's rather weak in alcohol, actually. What concerns me about using concentrate is that I've gone to all this trouble to get not from concentrate apple juice or squeeze my own apple juice and then I dump in concentrate. Seems like it defeats the purpose...

Fermented at 63-64 degrees F. I have a small room where I ferment all the ciders. I did start them out for the first day at 72 F until I saw that the yeast had taken hold and then moved it. I've done that with all of them. I was under the impression that low to mid 60s was a pretty good temp...

I finally drew samples to test two ciders that had fermented out all the way. They are not the oldest batches but they are the clearest and with the least amount of lees. I had my friend and my mother try it in addition to myself and the consensus was.... no real flavor. It wasn't an issue...

I'll do the plain water boil using the exact amounts in the recipe and see what i come up with. I will also triple check my figures as far as amounts. Thanks for the suggestions. And I apologize for the long post.

The fermentation temperature is the house temperature which is 72 degrees F. I have a small area where I ferment my cider that stays between 63-64 degrees. I just moved one of the fermenting batches to that area to try and slow things down a bit. I will take a gravity reading of the kit batch...

Yes. I am using one gallon glass jugs as the primary and eventually secondary fermentation. I apologize for asking such a stupid question but... When putting the wort into the primary fermenter do I just pour it in or do I need to siphon it in? Because I have just been pouring it all in

Thank you. I'll post the recipe here with my divided measurements. I am using the recipes from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. The ones I have made are Akka Lakka Pale Ale and Wild Women pale ale. Each one is five gallons so I divided everything by five. I ended up using gram measurements...

You could try cider. All you need is apple juice and yeast. You can probably use bread yeast even.

Thanks for the replies. I just put this next batch into the fermenter. I had the exact same issue. I only had half the volume I was supposed to have. I topped it up with water because I needed to fill the jug but I'm sure this dilutes flavors, especially hop flavors, terribly. I kept the...

I am in the middle of a boil so I will reply more later but: I took the gravity of the last wort and it was 1.080. The recipe called for 1.050. When I added water I actually hit that gravity almost perfectly.

Greetings! I just finished my second batch of beer. And it would seem I am repeating the mistakes I made the first time. I should add that I am doing one gallon recipes only for now. That is what my equipment will handle (possibly two gallons if I push it) and my stove can heat. And I want...

I did my Everyday IPA kit today. I think I screwed it up rather hard. After I had cooled the wort I only had about half a gallon. It was supposed to produce a gallon and change. I suspect I had the heat on too high during the boil and drove off a lot of liquid. Or maybe my sparging wasn't...

I am jealous. Well done!

Another update: The salal wine finished fermenting. The specific gravity is 1.00 so all the fermentable sugars have been consumed. It's tart as hell. I wonder if I should have added the acid blend after all (I was running off of Jack Keller's recipe). I stabilized it with sulfite and...

This is interesting because I have read a bunch of stuff about the dangers of over pitching yeast for beer. But I have not (yet) heard anything about the dangers of over pitching cider and wine. I'm sure their answer is the careful one and I have not made wine out of actual wine grapes yet...

I'm going to be doing one gallon batches exclusively, at least for a while. Is there a way to scale down the pitch rate for one gallon batches? Also, the amount of nutrients for wine and cider are, I think, fairly standardized on a per gallon basis. Is this not true for beer? With my ciders...

No, I'd prefer not to add sugar if possible. I'm fine with having a bit more grain or extract. The beers around here are usually in the 6-7% range. I guess I've grown accustomed to that. The Brooklyn Brew Shop kit came today. Looks decent. I am going to need a much larger strainer than...