Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

[Clifton]

Brewed this over the summer and let it sit in primary for a few months. No infection issues, but in my opinion this stuff is awful. I keep hoping it comes around. Does it evolve over time? For me, I'll take Apfelwein over this every time.

Brobe

This may be the problem. Personally, I don't understand why anyone would choose Apfelwein over Graff.

 

[brobeman]

I do wonder if that played a role. The batch has a lot of awkward tartness and some very off putting aroma. Only trouble is that i am not ready to risk 5 more gallons that might turn out similar. Perhaps I will brew up a one gallon batch to bottle for a second go around.

Brobeman

 

[Matteo57]

I brewed some of this up a year ago and I hated every drop of it. By far the worst thing I've brewed since starting to brew.... At least IMO. It never really mellowed out and I gave it 6-8 months.... Oh well, to each their own

 

[brewnz]

I went a slightly different route and just racked 15L of Supermarket AJ onto 5L of fermented 7.85% ABV IPA that I saved from bottling and innoculated with harvested Gen1 S05 slurry. I wasn't sure what to expect but thought I'd give it a go anyways as I read a previous poster doing something similar.

I'm so glad that I did as this was VERY drinkable after a week (although dry @1.001 which I actually like), so much so that every beer bottling day will be Graff day!! for the small sacrifice of beer (~15%) it takes to make this it's a no brainer and makes the wait between beers so much more bearable.

Thanks to the OP, MacrosNZ for the heads up and beeton for the idea

 

[Tubbster85]

Anyone use all dark or all amber DME to make it darker?

 

[timmah84]

Anyone use all dark or all amber DME to make it darker?

I used a combination of amber dme and dark amber dme. It turned out great. I did back sweeten it though.

 

[Tubbster85]

Why did you back sweeten it? I've never made cider before, just drank some scrumpys the other day and looked into this recipe and it looks really good.

 

[timmah84]

Why did you back sweeten it? I've never made cider before, just drank some scrumpys the other day and looked into this recipe and it looks really good.

It was going to be dry and tart if I didn't. If I had a few weeks to age it, I may have not. But, it's for a party this weekend. I had a month to ferment and keg/age it.

 

[mrstone14]

I just brewed this back in September and it turned out great. Anyone who didn't like this either screwed something up or forgot they were brewing a cider. Anyway, everyone who has tried this stuff loves it and requests have been pouring in to make more in time for Christmas. It's a very simple recipe and great autumn brew, I might even try adding a bit of some other fruit juice to give it a little something extra (cherry, pomegranate maybe?).

 

[seatbelt123]

Well here's the final sample of the AHS Apple Peeler Graf that I brewed on 10/13. It finished at 1.012. It is pretty tart and the 60F mostly flat sample was not thrillingly good. I'll keg it this weekend and provide another update.

It is very pretty, clear and golden.

 

[Tubbster85]

What do you back sweeten with?

 

[buellulysses]

Hello all, new to the scene I live in Central MA so raw cider is plentiful here so I only use that. Made a few batches of dry apflewine and loved it but i wanted to try something diferent. Just brewed a batch if this but I'm not good at following recipes. Just wanted to know how you guys think this will turn out?

5gallons of raw sweet cider from the mill down the street
.5lb of torified wheat
2lbs amber DME
1cup real maple syrup
1oz fuggle hops (4.6 AA)
Nottingham ale yeast

I forgot the crystal 60/120l and the LHBS was closed so I left it out.

Will it be too bitter with this much hops?
How will the absence if crystal 60l affect the head retention?
is .5 lb of wheat way too much?

 

[mike_in_ak]

Gonna be a wild ride, should be interesting results to post about later. People talk about torrified wheat going crazy at 2 oz. Crystal is for residual sweetness, without it there will be remaining sweetness. Usual hops is a quarter of what you uses, so obviously yours will be more bitter. Which should compound the lack of crystal.

But I bet whatever you get will be drinkable, if not good. And if it's too bitter, you could always backsweeten.

 

[Tubbster85]

So I just bought 4 gallons of Honeycrisp cider (all natural, no preservatives,100% juice and pasteurized). So I plan on making it this weekend sometime after I go to the lhbs. I was wondering how I would make this more towards the sweeter/malty side? I am not against a dry cider, just happen to like the sweeter ones.

 

[buellulysses]

Gonna be a wild ride, should be interesting results to post about later. People talk about torrified wheat going crazy at 2 oz. Crystal is for residual sweetness, without it there will be remaining sweetness. Usual hops is a quarter of what you uses, so obviously yours will be more bitter. Which should compound the lack of crystal.

But I bet whatever you get will be drinkable, if not good. And if it's too bitter, you could always backsweeten.

Thanks for the input, I realized I had forgotten the crystal too late to get it and had no room in the fridge for the raw cider so I just went for it. I have read that maple can leave some residual sweetness any chance I helped my case with that?

 

[buellulysses]

Gonna be a wild ride, should be interesting results to post about later. People talk about torrified wheat going crazy at 2 oz. Crystal is for residual sweetness, without it there will be remaining sweetness. Usual hops is a quarter of what you uses, so obviously yours will be more bitter. Which should compound the lack of crystal.

But I bet whatever you get will be drinkable, if not good. And if it's too bitter, you could always backsweeten.

Also what do you mean about the torified wheat "going crazy" ?

 

[Clifton]

CrotchRocket S. Grant,
"going crazy" = super foamy head retention

2 lbs of amber extract will leave a little residual sweetness. I've not heard that about maple syrup. No matter what you made beer. Smile.

Tubbster85, use more caramel malt, backsweeten, halt fermentation, try Ffarg. There are lots of ways to make a sweeter cider. They just won't be Graff. Graff is good. Try it. Try Ffarg. Try making a simple sweet cider there are several good recipes here.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...ds-cse&usg=AFQjCNEsDeSlIxCZ62D08ScV-CyfCDH5dA

https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...ds-cse&usg=AFQjCNEVuBEtJ04HrduCx-iDizOPjZhz1g

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/5-day-sweet-country-cider-265986/

 

[buellulysses]

Haha! "CrotchRocket S.Grant" took me a minute... For the record my 09 Buell Ulysses xb12xt is more if an adventure tourer and thus is named the Latin name of the hero in Homers Odyssey not the Civil war General that tried to kick all the Jews out if Tennessee.
But I digress...
Thanks for clearing up the wheat question, as for the maple perhaps I confused maple having some "unfermentables" with residual sweetness are the two not the same?
Obviously I have a lot to learn perhaps I should have brewed a few more extract beers before trying graff but I've been reading the dark tower series and I'd rather brew something I can't just buy a better version of.

 

[pithed]

Count me as another satisfied customer.. er brewer of this recipe. I love it and am not a huge cider fan but made it at the urging of friends and family to make something other than crazy hoppy beer. It was so successful that I felt it needed a label and have been giving it out as gifts. Sadly I only brewed 2 gallons.

I am about to make another batch but was thinking of adding fresh guava (we have a bunch of guavas around) but have no idea how to go about that. Ideas?

 

[buellulysses]

Hello all, new to the scene I live in Central MA so raw cider is plentiful here so I only use that. Made a few batches of dry apflewine and loved it but i wanted to try something diferent. Just brewed a batch if this but I'm not good at following recipes. Just wanted to know how you guys think this will turn out?

5gallons of raw sweet cider from the mill down the street
.5lb of torified wheat
2lbs amber DME
1cup real maple syrup
1oz fuggle hops (4.6 AA)
Nottingham ale yeast

I forgot the crystal 60/120l and the LHBS was closed so I left it out.

Will it be too bitter with this much hops?
How will the absence if crystal 60l affect the head retention?
is .5 lb of wheat way too much?

Just tried it after 1week in the primary. Had low expectations due to my lack of ability to follow directions, but I was pleasantly surprised! It's not really that bitter at all, just enough to balance out the sweet and sour apple flavor it rounded it out nicely! Just hope not too much more sweetness goes away as it is just about as dry as I like and I'd assume the bitterness will stay the same and would then be out if balance...

 

[franks160]

So I'm not sure what the deal is with my cider but here I am at 3 1/2 weeks and it looks like it's still fermenting. Any thoughts? What's should I do next?

 

[Tubbster85]

Take a couple of hydrometer readings a couple of days apart, if its stable then I would rack from under it. I've racked under something that looked like that and it turned out fine.

 

[ZombieBrew83]

I've made this a few times now. Thought I'd post the results of my latest batch. I found the original recipe to be a little too tart for my taste so I have been working to find a way to balance the sharp apple tartness and cider flavor. I think that Nottingham dries this out a little too much. I tried T-58 to see if that would add some complexity but did not care for the results. Decided to try S-04 since it finishes a little higher while adding subtle fruity esters. This batch has been carbed in bottles for three weeks, then a week in the fridge before tasting.

- Steep 0.5 lbs Special B and 0.5 lbs Crystal 60L in 2.5 gallons of RO bottle water at 154 deg F for 30 minutes.
-Add 4 lbs XLDME and bring to a boil
-Add 1oz Ahtanum 5.2%AA @15 minutes
-Cool with 3 gallons of refrigerated apple juice.
-Note: Although it will ferment, vitamin C contributes to the sharp tartness of your finished product. Avoid using juice with vitamin C if you can.
-Pitch 1 pack S-04 into fermenter

OG 1.056
Fermented for 3.5 weeka at 68 F
FG 1.010 ~5.9% ABV
Aroma: Apples, malt, some bread
Taste: Much smoother than original recipe. Apple flavor is not as sharp and blends subtly with the unfermented malt sugar. The esters from S-04 add complexity to the apple flavor. Mouth feel is smooth, sparkling, light, crisp. Reminds me of a cold Honey Crisp apple.

I am very pleased with the results of this batch. I feel that the extra malt brings up the final residual sweetness enough so the drink is less like a sour apple tart bomb. At 1.010 it is still dry and crisp enough to be refreshing and easy to drink. Thanks again to BrandonO for posting the original recipe and giving me the inspiration.

 

[PowPow]

Has anyone tried this recipe, but skipping the malt extract? I like the idea with the specialty malt and the hops, but i would like to keep the ABV down to, or under, 5 %.

 

[ZombieBrew83]

Has anyone tried this recipe, but skipping the malt extract? I like the idea with the specialty malt and the hops, but i would like to keep the ABV down to, or under, 5 %.

If you make this without the malt extract it will finish VERY dry and VERY tart. The malt extract provides some unfermentables so the finish product is more balanced. If you read a little in the cider threads this is one of the difficulties in making a cider that is drinkable quickly. Apple juice/cider by itself is simply too fermentable to "set it and forget it" if you want to drink your finished product in a matter of weeks. If you want a lower ABV, try substituting a gallon of water for a gallon of juice.

 

[PowPow]

If you make this without the malt extract it will finish VERY dry and VERY tart. The malt extract provides some unfermentables so the finish product is more balanced. If you read a little in the cider threads this is one of the difficulties in making a cider that is drinkable quickly. Apple juice/cider by itself is simply too fermentable to "set it and forget it" if you want to drink your finished product in a matter of weeks. If you want a lower ABV, try substituting a gallon of water for a gallon of juice.

But wont i get a bunch of unfermantable sugars from steeping the specialty grains? I always thought you got more unfermantables from steeping grain than from malt extract?

Good toughts on substituting with water. I didn't even think of that.

 

[Sharkman20]

After seeing the northern brewer episode on this I had to try it. I made my way over to this thread and got he recipe and it's bubbling away nicely after 8 hours. Should be interesting. The only thing I changed is I subbed out the light DME and used amber and dark instead.

 

[ZombieBrew83]

But wont i get a bunch of unfermantable sugars from steeping the specialty grains? I always thought you got more unfermantables from steeping grain than from malt extract?

Good toughts on substituting with water. I didn't even think of that.

Your specialty grains contribute very little to the sugar in your wort. Check out the recipe calculator at tastybrew. It really helped me to understand what ingredients contribute to color, gravity, and bitterness.
Www.tastybrew.com

 

[PowPow]

Your specialty grains contribute very little to the sugar in your wort. Check out the recipe calculator at tastybrew. It really helped me to understand what ingredients contribute to color, gravity, and bitterness.
Www.tastybrew.com

Okay I see, I will check out the calculator.

Thanks alot!

 

[amedelman]

Going to make this next week, very excited. I cant believe I just read 186 pages