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I soak it in vodka for roughly 10 minutes before transferring it to the secondary.

When I use whole fruit, I pour a glass of cheap vodka and soak the fruit prior to adding it to the secondary. This will help to sanitize it and can reduce the likelihood of introducing a contaminant into your brew.

I've only tried fruit juice once and it sucked, but i was new to brewing and tried to make a pineapple apple cider. Since then, i have found that whole fruit and concentrates seem to work better in the secondary. If you do try fruit juice, make sure to have it free of any preservatives like...

If the alcohol content is higher than what your yeast can tolerate, fermentation cannot happen. If you jack correctly, it is impossible for it to ferment further. Collecting the decanted liquid of your apple jack at -10 ° F gives you 40% abv. Letting it thaw will give you a much lower abv...

It's important to first know if you want a carbonated cider or not. If you want a still cider, you will have to either pasteurize or use chemicals. I am assuming you want a carbonated beverage based on using a priming sugar. To give us a better understanding, it wouldn't hurt to know what...

Your gravity reading doesn't sound quite right. If you meant that your starting gravity was something to the effect of 1.060 and your current specific gravity is 1.050, you either have a long way to go yet with your fermentation or your fermentation stalled for some unknown reason. Check it...

I'll throw my 52 gallons of assorted ciders (standard apple, cyser, pineapple apple, cherry apple, raspberry apple, berry apple, and peach apple) into the mix... 409+52=461 gallons

The clip you're talking about is a lifesaver. It is worth its weight in gold not having to rely on a friend or SWMBO to rack cider. I brew almost exclusively by myself now because of it. I wish someone would have told me about it earlier in my quest for making awesome homebrew. My only...

2 gallons raspberry apple cider 5 gallons cherry apple cider priming in the keg 5 gallons mixed berry cider in the secondary 5 gallons base cider in the primary (undecided on flavor yet) 3 gallons base cider in the primary for applejack 1 quart of pineapple applejack 4 quarts of apple pie 14...

If you're converting a mini fridge into a kegerator, the dimensions will have to be at least 4.5 cu ft to fit two cornys, a 5 lb. tank, and a regulator in the fridge. If you're going the conversion route, you're probably better off buying a kit. The kit will give you everything except the...

I definitely improperly used the two terms. Lag time was what I intended to use. Thanks for the clarification.

From my limited experience with making applejack, I have learned that it is best to freeze your batch for several days at -10° F. The freezing vessel that i have found to work the best is the half gallon glass oberweis bottles. All you have to do is make sure you don't overfill them and you...

Hey mindenman. What exactly do you mean by a stepped up starter? Do you have some additional step you do before pitching your starter? Also, is the pitch rate longer or shorter using your starter over that of a dry yeast packet?

Thanks mindenman. I appreciate your response. I'll definitely try it with my next batch.

Regardless if it is a kit or not, you are dealing with a living organism when using yeast. Even if it is designed to finish at a predetermined specific gravity, it is always a range based off attenuation rates, temperature, fermentables, etc. If your specific gravity does not change over...

Which seems to give the most viable yeast when harvesting from a yeast cake, primary or secondary fermentation? You'd have more yeast from the primary, but more dead cells as well. In my head it would make more sense to use the yeast from the secondary to reduce the likelihood of autolysis of...

Thanks for the info somerset. I'll definitely be using chai with my next batch of cider.

Hey Somerset. Since you've brewed a fair amount of cider with tea, is there any concern of contaminating your batch by putting a teabag into your carboy without sanitizing it? I'm just slightly uneasy about introducing any microbes into the cider outside of the yeast that's already in suspension.

When you brewed your cider with chai, did you leave the tea bag in the carboy for some predetermined time or boil the tea and mix it in?

Growlers aren't really designed for the pressures associated with bottle conditioning. You might have a nasty, sticky mess on your hands if you use them. I'd suggest using grolsch style (flip top) bottles. They don't hold the volume that growlers do, but you can bottle condition with them and...