Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

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Bottling this weekend.....can't wait to try this one.

Anyone have tasting notes on this one....what should I expect in reguards to taste.
 
GOOD! thats how i describe it :)

i read in a comment somewhere in the pages the suggestion to bottle w/ 1cup of splenda to add some sweetness. I think if I do this again, I would do that.

Mine has been bottle carbing for 2 weeks now, but everyone thats tried one so far loves it, but all think it would be even better if a little sweeter. I have to concur.

But its good!
 
Tastes like Hornsby's cider to me.

I added 5oz of dextrose, boiled in 1 cup water, to my bottling bucket at bottling.
 
Can someone give a good detailed description on the taste, nose, and overall characters of this brew? I have never tried a Hornsby's or Magners...so I still don't know what it tastes like. I have been hesitant to make this because of the malts and hops in it..and figured it would taste More "beer" like than cider like....so am in need of input..I did buy the ingredients to make this, but just a little hesitant until I know what it tastes like. I have made the Applebee clone before and didn't care much for it..was a bit too dry and too "dark" flavored for me. But that's all I have to compare to. Other than Woodchuck and Strongbow, which we all know is light and sweet.
 
Firsty, you have to age it. It isn't good until after at least a 3 weeks keg age. At that point, it becomes a refreshing tart/sour apple drink that is balanced by the malts. The hops aren't noticeable, and the malts give it a more body that thin cider. At the 3 week aging point, after complete fermentation, everyone will love it.

TL;DR - Make it. After aging for 3 weeks, It's awesome
 
I hate waiting. i remember last time I made this there was a 72 hour lag time before fermentation really got underway... right now I've been waiting 48 hours and it looks like I'm going to have that same lag time again. its killing me!
 
Just bottled my 5 gallon batch last nite with 5 oz of cane sugar.
OG:1.062
FG:1.014
ABV: 6.2 to 6.3

Still had krausen floating on the top.
Sample was very drinkable. No harsh alcohol taste. Still maintained slight apple taste.
Can't wait to try in 2-3 weeks

Cheers
 
Just made a batch, but I forgot I got enough grain to make 2 batches and used waaaaay too much torrified wheat.

1/2 lb crystal 60L
4 oz torrified wheat (T_T)
1 lb amber dme
1 lb light golden dme
1/2 oz cascade hops
4 gal whitehouse apple juice
1 pkg nottingham

O.G. 1.056

Can't wait to see how it turns out.
 
I used this recipe as a guideline and made a 5 gallon batch with 3 gallons of fresh peach cider (gravity of 1.035) and 2 gallons of wort. I pasteurized the cider for 10 mins at 160, let cool, then racked it onto the wort after the boil. I will add 2.5 pounds of peach puree to the primary after day 3 of fermentation, give it a few more days, then sorbate/sulfite it, then rack to secondary over another 2.5 lbs of puree to back sweeten. Here's what I used:

1/2 lb crystal 10L
1/2 lb crystal 40L - both steeped for 30 mins around 150

1 lb - light DME
3.3 lbs - amber LME
0.5 oz - 5.5% Mt.Hood

30 minute boil, used wort chiller, pitched Wyeast ESB 1968 last night around 1030, bubbling this morning at 7, forgot to get an OG. I plan on kegging after two weeks in the secondary. If additional sweetness is not needed, the second puree addition will be foregone. I'll let you know how it turns out.
 
With this recipe of brandons do i have to prime befor bottleing if i want to carb it? if so any advice on what to do for a 5 gall batch? i dont want to end up with 2 cases of bombs.
 
Earlier posts indicate that you prime it just like any other "beer". That being said you would want to make sure you hit within the attenuation range for your yeast. I ended up using 5 oz of table sugar to carb my 5 gal batch. It's only been bottled for less than a week so I can't give you any info on carbonation or head retention yet.

Cheers
 
Yep.. I used 1 oz/gallon corn sugar. IT took quite awhile to prime (3-4 weeks) but was perfectly carbonated after that. I used CaraPils instead of Torrified Wheat. The head retention wasn't great when ice cold, but a little closer to room temperature it was very foamy.
 
I used 5oz of dextrose to prime mine. I've been popping bottles for a few days now, it tastes great. Mine carbed in about 3 weeks. I also used Carapils instead of torrified wheat, and noticed the head retention was better as it warmed slightly.
 
Just created the original recipe on Brewmasters Warehouse. There was already an all grain version, but I wanted to do a partial mash.

Anyone interested, the link is below. $13.18 plus shipping, and obviously you have to buy the juice.

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/recipe/9674970e/

I'm going to be brewing this for the holidays to give out as gifts.
 
Is there any consensus on which hops are good for this?

A quick run through shows cascade, goldings, crystal, fuggles, hallertau, saaz, sterling, amarillo, sorachi ace and mt hood being used.

Anyone care to comment on what hops they used and how they think it effected the brew?
 
I don't remember but is this supposed to smell like ass while its fermenting? The fermentation really took off over the last few days and every time I go into the Fermentation room it smells a kinda like ass.
 
This is how I did mine.....and no ass smell.

Just brewed my 1st batch last nite.

4 Gallons "Midwest Family Fare" apple juice

Followed the recipe on grains and DME

Hops: 0.5 oz Hallertau

Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale (2nd generation washed from previous batch)

OG: 1.062


Smelled great the whole way through the fermentation.

Cheers
 
knotquiteawake said:
I don't remember but is this supposed to smell like ass while its fermenting? The fermentation really took off over the last few days and every time I go into the Fermentation room it smells a kinda like ass.
Click to expand...

A lot of ciders, including Ed Wort's Apfelwein smell really bad during fermentation because of the lack of nitrogenous nutrients for the yeast. They tend to throw off Sulfur dioxide under stress. This can be fixed by the addition of yeast nutrient. That said, the malt in Graff should provide plenty of nutrient for the yeast and you SHOULDN'T get much if ANY sulfur odor.

Also, the wine yeasts typically used in Ciders are more prone to this than the ale yeast used for Graff.

So... in short, NO, your Graff SHOULDN'T SMELL LIKE ASS. (Mine didn't) I suspect maybe contamination of some kind...
 
It took 4 days for fermentation to really take off, I only had a couple little bubbles after 72 hours, and it was only the following day that the airlock actually started moving and a small krausen started to develop. There are small hop leaf particles floating at the top from the pellets I used (some must have escaped the bag), the smell isn't overwhelming, just kinda a low level funk.
 
I'm about to make this, and I have a question.

I'm doing a small batch, so I'm leaving out the hops, and skipping the boil. My question is: since I'm not boiling it, would it make sense to heat up some apple juice to 150, and steep the grains in that? The juice won't be boiled. Or is that still too high of a temperature for apple juice?
 
wafflesnsegways said:
I'm about to make this, and I have a question.

I'm doing a small batch, so I'm leaving out the hops, and skipping the boil. My question is: since I'm not boiling it, would it make sense to heat up some apple juice to 150, and steep the grains in that? The juice won't be boiled. Or is that still too high of a temperature for apple juice?
Click to expand...

I don't think I'd forgo the hops, they're a pretty integral part of the recipe. Also, if you don't boil, I'd say your risk of infection is a lot higher.

Fine to scale the recipe back to a gallon (why? It's so good!) but I don't think the changes your suggesting are a good idea. But, hey, just IMO, eh?
 
I have 5 gallons of this bubbling away in the basement currently. Set it up on Saturday (now Tuesday), got a good inch of kraus-... kreu-... kerri-... foam, and sniffing the airlock smells -fan-freaking-tastic-.

Can't wait to drink it! :tank:
 
I brewed this one up last night. I somehow found myself with only 1lb 9oz of Amber DME! no worries, though - I had saved a good amount of second runnings wort from my Belgian IIPA I brewed over the weekend. Boiled some of that down, and then used it to sparge the grains. Came in at 1.058 OG. I used .5oz of Willamette hops that I had left over from a Porter that I brewed recently, and pitched a 1L starter of Wyeast 1332 NW Ale yeast.

Chilled the wort in an ice bath to about 80F, then let the chilled apple juice do the rest. It was already gluggin' away in the bucket when I checked in on it about 8 hours later.

very much looking forward to enjoying this brew in mid-October. cheers!
 
About to do this for a second time. Any ideas for something different to do? 1 gal of a dif juice? Thought I'd switch it up even though it tasted great
 
I'm the type where I like to drink my beers during the process of making, at bottling time and during the 2 to 3 weeks of bottle conditioning.

Needless to say I've done the same thing with the Graff. After two weeks it's carbinated great.....but I must say I'm underwhelmed by the taste. It's not that its bad...it's just that so far I'm not saying, "Wow...I gotta have another one of those". Should I really expect much more change in taste in the following weeks???

Cheers.
 
Dude, beers never taste good green. Hell, they often taste rather nasty. This is why many recipes tell you to secondary for extended periods or age in the carboy. This graff is a prime example. It becomes a completely different beverage after a 3 week keg age. Shi'ite, almost every beer I've made tastes better after a 3 week keg age.
 
it also tastes different if you have three pints in a row too..then it's pretty awesome. :)

So what would happen if you subbed in all Apple Juice and NO water? Would that sweeten it up some?
 
jamesjensen1068 said:
I'm the type where I like to drink my beers during the process of making, at bottling time and during the 2 to 3 weeks of bottle conditioning.

Needless to say I've done the same thing with the Graff. After two weeks it's carbinated great.....but I must say I'm underwhelmed by the taste. It's not that its bad...it's just that so far I'm not saying, "Wow...I gotta have another one of those". Should I really expect much more change in taste in the following weeks???

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I've done two batches, learning to sip this stuff. The second I had other things to drink and let it sit on the right tap for a few weeks, MAN was is smooth! You really had to "sip" it. BrandonO's Graff was so smooth that before you knew it, two pints were gone down your throat, you better have a backup plan. I need to make a batch....I am building a brew tree and will not brew until it is done. BUT! I can do a batch of graff right off the stove..hmmm:cross:
 
brandon
this came out great.second batch almost done. up the grains to 130L saturday bottling day.first batch carb up sweet loved it.post pic later thanks for the recipe:mug:
 
One word! Wow!!!!!! The first batch has been in bottles for 2 + weeks. It tasted so good when I put it in the bottles that I couldn't wait for the normal 3 + weeks that I usually do. I had the first 12oz bottle the other night and got a nice warm, nearly buzz, after one! Took 6 to poker the other night and a few of the near alcoholics had some and were surprised how smooth it was and then double surprised by the kick! Next batch I will take some gravities so I can put a number on it. Even green the Graff is Excellent!!!

Thanks Brandon
 
Been wondering what to make for my first batch after a 7 year break from brewing.

Going to get a batch of this going tomorrow.
 
Got a couple gallons fermenting away.

Cash was a bit short, so I used some LME over DME as it is less than half the cost. Bought the cheapest juice I could find (Target brand aka Archer Farms).

Did not use any hops this time around, will try that with the next batch.
 
I just brewed my second batch of Graff. It tasted amazing going into the fermenter. Just 6 weeks until I get to slam one back.... Mmmmmmm! I can't wait! I used .5oz kent goldings hops this time and it seems to be a bit less bitter. We'll see come Halloween.
 

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