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Maylar, I might agree with that one. Made my first hard cider a month ago, it was DONE in the secondary but still almost had that “carbonated” mouth feel. I can live with that. When I’ve done the mechanical degasser wand thing, my first reaction is always “look at that gas”… followed by “how bad...

In all honesty, it’s for wine, Mead, Cider.

Good idea, thanks for the tip. Going to be tough to order those from the U.S.. 😀

Hi Wine Makers, Not until recently have a discovered a whole new world of wine that changed the way I look at “wine”. Other than buying a wine kit, or ordering frozen grapes from who knows when, or you have your own vineyard, grape winemaking is tough to do. My fledgling vineyard has a year or...

Hi All, This topic is for all brewers (I think). I’ve watched all the videos and seen all the gadgets on amazon regarding degassing and degassing tools. After making a drill motor degassing stick and seeing the results and using vacuum and seeing the results, I’m wondering why do I still see...

Hi All, This is an amendment to my original post. I had a half a bottle of left over that I put in the refrigerator. That was 5 hours ago. WAY different taste than right out of the carboy. I take back what I said about blah. I can absolutely taste the apple juice now after being really chilled...

Hi All, I hope this discussion is ok here as it does pertain to bottling. I love Starsand, easy to use, I can keep a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff in the shop for a few 4-5 months but… You can not emerse anything in the bucket and empty it without creating massive bubbles. This goes for carboys...

Hi All, After following the recipe to the letter, (it was really simple), my first ever cider was pretty disappointing. It was absolutely done fermenting after 13 days, finished with a nice clear presentation and the ABV was 6.2% +-. Just…. no flavor or smell to speak of. Good mouth feel, it...

Started my first ever cider (1 gallon) using store bought juice on 5/19/25. Wish me luck. :ghostly:

Hi All, Age old discussion I’m sure. I’ve watched videos that crush, then press, or juice and even some that cut apples up and made must (like traditional wine making). However, I have yet to hear of any differences other than folks preferences. I have a press (for my wine making), but don’t...

Hi All, My first hard cider from apple juice is coming along, almost done… give it a few more days. Being store bought juice, I don’t want to get too exited about it. So the next step would be to try real apples. Real apples are still growing here, so store bought is the next best thing. Which...

Hi All, As a military dependent growing up and then in the Navy, I’ve lived all over the country and overseas. Everywhere I ever lived had something unique to offer, sometimes it was the weather, the scenery, the climate for growing things like fruit. My home now is in Washington state which...

Hi Everyone, Received an order of 750ml flip top bottles from Amazon for my cider. I’ve decided to go with flip tops (and because it’s what I see a lot of home brewers do). After I got to looking at them, the spot of either side of the bottle that the metal mechanism goes is a hole probably put...

Hi Everyone, Looking at making some fruit wines (specifically mango). Where I live mango is in the grocery stores only and personally I don’t think it looks and feels good enough to buy 9 - 10 pounds of it for store prices. However… I can buy frozen organic mango chunks at Costco. I know there...

It started sometime during the night. I will attempt to grow some patience. :)

Hi All, Noob brewer here for sure. Several attempts at winemaking… mixed results. A couple three really good batched of mead, thought I’d try hard cider. After watching a gozillian videos, everyone has their own yeast favorite. I thought I’d give Red Star Premier Cote des Blancs a try on a very...

Hi Everyone, After making many batches of Mead… I thought I’d try to make some Hard Cider. Process looks easy enough. I live in the best apple growing area in the country (I’m biased), Washington state, but have a few months to go before apple pickin season, so to get started with hard cider...

I used D-47 for my first ever batch, it’s 14% tolerant, took mine awhile, but ended up with an AVB of 13.8% (long formula). Very pleased with the outcome. 😀

Read the forum for awhile, posted an update on my first mead batch. Checked the carboys (like I do just about everyday) 😆

Update… SG is down to 1.003! Tiny tiny bubbles are really slow now, I’ll wait one more week and test again. Like y’all have said… no hurry. Quick smell test, honey… but I can sense the alcohol as well before tasting. I’m looking forward to developing a taste for mead, because my winemaking...