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You shouldn't need to Boil the cider to pasteurize it - from what I could tell (and this is what I did this weekend to pasteurize 5.x gallons of fresh-pressed cider) you only need to heat it to 160° for ten or fifteen minutes to kill the bacteria. This isn't hot enough to get the cider to boil.

I used a Wyeast Cider yeast (4766? don't have my notes with me). I haven't brewed enough batches to start getting experimental with my yeast yet. The OG was 1.044, which seems low to me, but I'm okay with that. There's no added sugar. Last time I did cider I added some Splenda before...

Started a new batch of cider yesterday, my first brew in about a year. It's my third go at a cider, but it's the first time I've used fresh cider instead of just buying a bunch of bottles of cider from the grocery store. A local nursery here in town does an annual Apple Festival, and they had...

Well, no explosions yet, so I've still got my fingers crossed! SenorPepe: Yeah, it didn't make sense to me that such a small amount of liquid would do any significant damage to what yeast (if any) remained in the bucket, but there's so much about this process that I'm still only starting to...

Hey, all: I bottled my second batch of cider yesterday (5th brew altogether), and for the first time I tried using some priming sugar to give it some carbonation. I did a batch-priming process, following a recipe I found on here somewhere for a 1.5c sugar/1c water solution, then adding 1.25c of...

I think the little jar I got at the grocery store had two long beans in it. I chopped them up pretty good before I added them to the whiskey, though, to maximize contact.

Okay: Had my first full bottle of this today, and it is simply amazing, easily the best beer I've ever tasted! The stout is thick and chocolaty, and there's a nice whiff of vanilla each time you dive into the glass. It packs a major kick, and I estimate that, based on the number of bottles I...

I'm halfway through making a batch of this, and I'm very pleased so far! My OG and SG readings were very close to the original recipe, and looks like the stout alone will be about 6.3% ABV! The initial stout recipe itself is a really thick, tasty brew, and I'm going to make another batch of...

Quick final post on this: I added 3c. of powdered splenda (boiled in 1/2 cup of water) to my carboy, let it sit for another week, and then bottled it all up. I drank one bottle's worth while I was doing it and it tasted fantastic! Popped a few bottles into the fridge and it gets better with...

Just a quick progress report: Picked up a big bag of Splenda today and pulled 250mL of this cider out of the carboy. A couple quick tests, and a little math, and I managed to mix myself a very drinkable glass of cider! It's even got a nice little kick to it that just sneaks right up on you...

Thanks for the great info, revvy! Yeah, a lot of the opinions we've heard have been coming from people who either haven't lived in the area, or who haven't lived there recently. I should say, I do have some experience in MI, my ex-wife's family lives there and we used to visit every year. One...

Ha, I'm living in Portland, Oregon. The housing market here is just ridiculously inflated considering how lousy the job market is out here.

Resurrecting this old topic: My girlfriend and I are currently considering moving out of the expensive area we're in now, and looking at all the inexpensive real estate in the midwest has us drooling! We've been looking a lot at Detroit, and researching the crime rates/neighborhoods. I'm...

Update: It's been almost a week since my last post, and the cider has completely stopped fermentation. The yeast must have churned through the brown sugar I added, and the SG is now at 1.000 (which I take to mean that I basically added 1% or so ABV to whatever it was at before, right?). It's...

Surprised nobody's suggested: Olde Fortran the beer that Bender and all the other robots drink in Futurama!

Decided after my earlier failed attempt at a Stout, that the next thing I wanted to try was a cider. Seemed like a simpler process, and I thought I could learn from the mistakes I made the first time. I bought a few gallons of bottled cider and a bottle of cranberry juice to give it a bit more...

I'm in the middle of my second attempt at homebrew, and my first try at using a carboy. What I'm trying to figure out is the best way to pull a sample from the carboy to check the gravity and taste of the cider that's in there. I tried using a part of an Easy-Wand (just the interior part, didn't...

This looks like a great product! I'd love to give it a try!

Just to follow up, I just bottled the first half of this batch. The SG was a 1.018, which is only a tiny bit lower than the recipe's recommended max of 1.020, so I feel pretty good about that. Smelled excellent, and it's nice and clear (you know, for a stout). Of course, this being my first...

Actually, I also wanted to ask about secondary fermentation. What are the benefits of moving the beer to another vessel, and what is the best procedure for doing that? Do I need to make sure to get everything from the primary vessel moved over, or should I leave some of it behind? The...