Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

[Brandon O]

I brewed an AG version of this about a ten days ago. This was my first cider. The sample going into the keg was good, but a little tart. I used cheap Walmart brand juice. I might let it sit for a week or two at room temp in the keg, then drop in some gelatin before putting it on gas. Even with the tartness, I think it will be good carbed up and cold.

I have noticed the only difference between fresh pressed good stuff and the cheap store brand is this very thing, tartness.

Good juice tends to have much less tart. To balance this you can use crystal 120L instead.

 

[bfbf]

.5 lbs of Crystal 60L

Any of these do?
Home Brew & Wine Making

 

[adamjab19]

subscribed

 

[NeonBrew]

Well I made this on the 12th following directions best I could for a noob. I used nottingham yeast, and Mt Hood hops. This was my first attempt at anything much more complicated than hard lemonade! All went well I think, except I found it a little tricky steeping consistently at 155 degrees. A couple times it got up to 175, and then just below 150. I hope this wont affect it too much. It's been fermenting nicely at 70 degrees in the basement, as this is as cool a spot as I can get. One question though. I've been reading some recipes and see that it's necessary to strain out hops. I hope it wasn't necessary for this one?! Gulp.....was it?

 

[gothmog]

Sooooooooo, what are you guys priming with? And how much? I'm new to brewing, only have 1 batch of stout just bottled and a second of something like a newcastle in the ferm. now.

 

[Coastarine]

Here is my next iteration of this: wanted to make things a little simpler, a little darker, a little sweeter...

2 gallons of wort from: 1lb DME, 1lb C120, 1lb C60. Ideally the wort comes out with about the same gravity as the juice, in the mid 1.050's.

Add to 3 gals of juice, ferment with S-04.

 

[Brandon O]

Any of these do?
Home Brew & Wine Making

i'm sure that will work fine. doesn't have a rating like 60L, or 120L. I'm sure it'll be okay, might call the vendor or email them tho.

 

[Brandon O]

Well I made this on the 12th following directions best I could for a noob. I used nottingham yeast, and Mt Hood hops. This was my first attempt at anything much more complicated than hard lemonade! All went well I think, except I found it a little tricky steeping consistently at 155 degrees. A couple times it got up to 175, and then just below 150. I hope this wont affect it too much. It's been fermenting nicely at 70 degrees in the basement, as this is as cool a spot as I can get. One question though. I've been reading some recipes and see that it's necessary to strain out hops. I hope it wasn't necessary for this one?! Gulp.....was it?

Nope, no big deal with the hops. Also, just fine with the varying of the temp when steeping. It happens to everyone, in fact I would be surprised if you could hold a consistent temp on a stove top.

 

[Brandon O]

Sooooooooo, what are you guys priming with? And how much? I'm new to brewing, only have 1 batch of stout just bottled and a second of something like a newcastle in the ferm. now.

7/8 cup of dextrose.

 

[Brandon O]

Here is my next iteration of this: wanted to make things a little simpler, a little darker, a little sweeter...

2 gallons of wort from: 1lb DME, 1lb C120, 1lb C60. Ideally the wort comes out with about the same gravity as the juice, in the mid 1.050's.

Add to 3 gals of juice, ferment with S-04.

you gotta let me know how that turns out. Lots of crystal grain, I am interested.

 

[wscott823]

Nope, no big deal with the hops. Also, just fine with the varying of the temp when steeping. It happens to everyone, in fact I would be surprised if you could hold a consistent temp on a stove top.

A little trick I learned from Kaiser's decoction video:
When trying to maintain a consistent temperature of a pot, after hitting strike temperature pull the pot from the stove, place lid on top, and wrap it up in a comforter. I've done this with my 20 qt enamel pot and only lost 10 degrees over 30 minutes. Almost works as well as a insulated mash-tun.

 

[gprimegold1]

Am i supposed to grind up the.5 lbs of Crystal 60L i have looked at some other recipes and they are ground up?

thanks.

 

[saburke17]

so after about 8 days in primary my batch has slowed way down on the bubbling. So i took the cover off and stirred the crap out of it and covered her back up. took a quick taste after the sg reading and it was very tart. im thinking of bottling this up this weekend which will be two weeks in primary. should I use a 5gal carboy or just use a bunch of glass liter bottles. I have a bunch of scrumpy bottles hanging around and was gona recycle them. what am i gona need for ingrediants to carb this by bottle. is there another recipe i can follow?
Oh and she started bubbling again the day after
Sean

 

[kid_ak]

Just wanted to follow-up on an earlier post where I asked about adding strawberries in the secondary. I didn't get much feedback on it, but I went ahead and gave it a shot anyway...sampled it today quite a bit as I was bottling and it's really a wonderful addition if you're looking for a change of pace from the original.

Two weeks in primary per original recipe and then two weeks in secondary. Started at 1.067 and finished at 1.006.

I added 3.5 lbs strawberries to the secondary, link to pic below. The strawberry aroma is gorgeous and quite present without being overbearing. The strawberries added a slight tartness that gives way to the base Graff's sweetness. The alcohol is perfectly blended, even hidden. A friend tasted and asked if it was non-alcoholic. Oh, no--not at all, friend. Really just a great recipe, Brandon O.

The berries add a slightly reddish hue to the Graff, but the base color is still dominant. All in all, I think it came out nicely...hopefully the aroma will hold through the carbonation weeks. Just wish I had this done earlier in the summer...

 

[freddyb]

Has anyone used the yeast slurry from a Graff and pitched another (different) brew on top of it? Will it impart much of the cider flavor to a new batch? How about making something Ephemere-ish using this technique? Other types of beer?

My first Graff will be done in the fermenter is a week or so and I'm thinking of re-using the yeast with minimal washing to test the flavor impact on another brew.

 

[Brandon O]

Am i supposed to grind up the.5 lbs of Crystal 60L i have looked at some other recipes and they are ground up?

thanks.

you do not grind grains, ever. you mill them, or crack them. the place you bought the grains from should do this for you.

 

[Brandon O]

so after about 8 days in primary my batch has slowed way down on the bubbling. So i took the cover off and stirred the crap out of it and covered her back up. took a quick taste after the sg reading and it was very tart. im thinking of bottling this up this weekend which will be two weeks in primary. should I use a 5gal carboy or just use a bunch of glass liter bottles. I have a bunch of scrumpy bottles hanging around and was gona recycle them. what am i gona need for ingrediants to carb this by bottle. is there another recipe i can follow?
Oh and she started bubbling again the day after
Sean

you shouldn't expose your fermenting liquid to air after fermentation has begun and prior to bottling. This goes for any fermented beverage. You may oxygenate the beverage and it won't taste good.

To carb use 7/8 cup of dextrose dissolve in a quart of hot water and add that to you bottling bucket along with your beverage. wait 2 weeks for carbination, 3 weeks is better.

As far as the tart goes, did you use fresh pressed cider or store brand juice?

 

[Brandon O]

Has anyone used the yeast slurry from a Graff and pitched another (different) brew on top of it? Will it impart much of the cider flavor to a new batch? How about making something Ephemere-ish using this technique? Other types of beer?

My first Graff will be done in the fermenter is a week or so and I'm thinking of re-using the yeast with minimal washing to test the flavor impact on another brew.

I have not noticed flavor clash when using old slurry in completely different beers. I have not tried it for graff because of 2 reasons. 1. I think a slurry would take it too dry. 2. Dry yeast is super cheap.

 

[txtaquito]

So I did my 5 gal batch on 7/30. Its already in the 2nd-ary (for clarity) but until now it is still letting up tiny bubbles to the surface. The airlock has no signs of activity but in the carboy, its as if you opened a carbonated soda, tiny bubbles contunie to rise so I know its still fermenting. Should I let it continue or go ahead and cold crash then bottle? Im worried that if I continue to allow the fermentation that the apply sweetness will be lost. Of course, I could always prime the bottles with apple jolly ranchers - lol

OG - 1.066
TxT

 

[Coastarine]

So I did my 5 gal batch on 7/30. Its already in the 2nd-ary (for clarity) but until now it is still letting up tiny bubbles to the surface. The airlock has no signs of activity but in the carboy, its as if you opened a carbonated soda, tiny bubbles contunie to rise so I know its still fermenting. Should I let it continue or go ahead and cold crash then bottle? Im worried that if I continue to allow the fermentation that the apply sweetness will be lost. Of course, I could always prime the bottles with apple jolly ranchers - lol

OG - 1.066
TxT

Gotta measure the gravity. If it is indeed still fermenting and you are a bottler, you must let it finish to make sure you don't have exploding bottles. Beers do tend to bubble for a while after the yeast is done just because the co2 in solution slowly makes its way out (offgassing). Only way to know for sure is to get the same gravity reading twice in a row a few days apart. It has been almost three weeks for your batch, for me it would be very unusual to have something of a medium gravity not be done fermenting after three weeks.

 

[bfbf]

Anyone tried adding any other fruit to this recipe like a few strawberries, cheerios and raspberrys to give it a bit more of a fruity flavor?

 

[Coastarine]

Just wanted to follow-up on an earlier post where I asked about adding strawberries in the secondary. I didn't get much feedback on it, but I went ahead and gave it a shot anyway...sampled it today quite a bit as I was bottling and it's really a wonderful addition if you're looking for a change of pace from the original.

Two weeks in primary per original recipe and then two weeks in secondary. Started at 1.067 and finished at 1.006.

I added 3.5 lbs strawberries to the secondary, link to pic below. The strawberry aroma is gorgeous and quite present without being overbearing. The strawberries added a slight tartness that gives way to the base Graff's sweetness. The alcohol is perfectly blended, even hidden. A friend tasted and asked if it was non-alcoholic. Oh, no--not at all, friend. Really just a great recipe, Brandon O.

The berries add a slightly reddish hue to the Graff, but the base color is still dominant. All in all, I think it came out nicely...hopefully the aroma will hold through the carbonation weeks. Just wish I had this done earlier in the summer...

Did you see this post, about seven up?

 

[bfbf]

Thankyou

 

[Brandon O]

Anyone tried adding any other fruit to this recipe like a few strawberries, cheerios and raspberrys to give it a bit more of a fruity flavor?

stay away from fruit additions until you get the recipe down, it adds lots of tart. There is a TON of fruit flavor in this recipe as is.

 

[txtaquito]

Gotta measure the gravity. If it is indeed still fermenting and you are a bottler, you must let it finish to make sure you don't have exploding bottles. Beers do tend to bubble for a while after the yeast is done just because the co2 in solution slowly makes its way out (offgassing). Only way to know for sure is to get the same gravity reading twice in a row a few days apart. It has been almost three weeks for your batch, for me it would be very unusual to have something of a medium gravity not be done fermenting after three weeks.

What should the FG be? I did take a reading but I have forgotten what it was. I knew I was going to secondary it for better clarity so I really didnt pay it much attention or bother to write it down as I was going to write down my FG when I go to bottle. I bet you are right in that it is just letting off CO2 and not fermenting. I figure I will bottle tomorrow since that will be exactly three weeks. Will let ya know. Thanks.

TxT

 

[wscott823]

Anyone tried adding any other fruit to this recipe like a few strawberries, cheerios and raspberrys to give it a bit more of a fruity flavor?

I thought this recipe already had enough grains in it

 

[Coastarine]

Here is my next iteration of this: wanted to make things a little simpler, a little darker, a little sweeter...

2 gallons of wort from: 1lb DME, 1lb C120, 1lb C60. Ideally the wort comes out with about the same gravity as the juice, in the mid 1.050's.

Add to 3 gals of juice, ferment with S-04.

Brewed and pitched. I forgot to account for the less efficiency of steeping grains vs mashing, so I added another half pound of DME. I also couldn't find my hop bag so I just omitted the hops entirely. 2 gallons of wort at 1.044 + 3 gallons of juice and my OG is 1.050. Pitched 1 pack of rehydrated s-04 at 64F and will ferment at 66.

 

[Brandon O]

let me know how that turns out coasterine, i have been thinking of different ways to make a sweet cider. This might be a good solution.

 

[Coastarine]

I certainly will. I loved how quick and easy it was. last time I had to do a makeshift stovetop mash because of the wheat I was using and also 1 gallon isn't really enough to run through the CFC. This time because my wort was 2 gallons I did it on the brew-rig (propane flame instead of f#$king electric) and I used my CFC. This is my first brew in the new house and I've been hoping for colder tap water here in MS compared to FL. I didn't get a chance to see what it chilled to, but I can say that 2 gallons of CFC chilled wort plus 3 gallons of juice from the fridge gave me the pitching temp of 64. Also, I just noticed a typo in my recipe, I used C40 instead of C60.

This is also my first time using the "brew builder" feature of brewmasterswarehouse.com. They put all of the grain for your recipe into one sealed bag, which is pretty nice for organization in the grain bin. The one drawback is that you cannot remove any of the grist if you decide to change your recipe, only add. I'll just have to keep that in mind when ordering. It also saves your recipes for easy reordering.

 

[maximus]

My AG batch of this has been on gas for a couple of days now. I couldn't resist drinking a few pints of it over the last two days. The tartness I noticed out of the primary has mellowed out some. This stuff goes down very easy, especially when it is above 100 outside. I don't think this keg will last very long. Came out much better than I expected.

My next batch I will try to find some higher quality juice. I am not too sure if there are many options for fresh pressed apple juice in Southern Arizona though.

Thanks for the recipe. I see you live up north in the Valley of the Sun. Will you be heading south for the Tucson Beer Festival next month.