Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

[Marmike600]

Brewed a batch this weekend. First time so Im excited to try it. Went by the recipe on the OP exactly.

Had airlock activity within 3 hours and this morning had >1 burp per second.

Already wish it was 2 weeks from now.

 

[timcadieux]

haha, sorry. I was tanked i'm sure.


Nice pics by the way.

That was so funny **** !!

 

[timcadieux]

Hate to show my 'newb-ness' but is Crystal 60L the same as Crystal (Cara Munich I) Malt or Crystal (Cara Munich III) Malt becuase that's all that shows up when I search my LHBS website.

 

[timcadieux]

I happen to have Cascade and Saaz on hand, any comments on either of those hops?

 

[rjd]

Hate to show my 'newb-ness' but is Crystal 60L the same as Crystal (Cara Munich I) Malt or Crystal (Cara Munich III) Malt becuase that's all that shows up when I search my LHBS website.

CaraMunich I ~39°L
CaraMunich II ~45°L
CaraMunich III ~57°L would be closest to Crystal 60°L

according to one of the supporting vendors website:
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Weyermann-CaraMunich-III--%28by-the-pound%29.html

You may find this chart as handy as I do:
http://www.onebeer.net/grainchart.html

RJ

 

[timcadieux]

Seems that i'm hogging this thread, I purchased so for head retention a while back (from RJ Spagnols called heading powder and it contains: polypropylene alginate), can I use this instead of the Torrified wheat?

 

[BrewerBear]

Sure can Tim, alot of people have made it without the Torrified wheat

 

[timcadieux]

Totally doing this this weekend!
Checked with my LHBS for ingredients, when I said it was for a Graff, they said 'Oh sure, we've got that all here, 'cept the wheat but we've got carapils'.

 

[BrewerBear]

It's pretty dang good,especially when you factor how easy it is.

 

[LeverTime]

Anyone ferment this stuff at lower temps? I just realized I've been fermenting my latest batch at 59 for the past three days. It's bubbling, so the yeast are doing their thing, I'm curious how this will affect the taste.

 

[dannylerch]

Right now I'm kicking myself because I just brewed some apfelwein like a week ago. I also have an Irish Stout 3 weeks in primary as well. I would have totally made this if I had seen it sooner! Oh well, once I bottle ye old dry hooch (apfelwein), I'm making a batch of this with high expectations.

Poor man's Black velvets are one of my favorite drinks.(Stout and cider rather than stout and champagne)

So brewing and fermenting a graff just seems like a flavor I'd love. I'm interested to try and make more of a stout rather than the typical ale ingredients used before. Maybe by using some barley, caramel, and darker steeping grains. Anyone try this yet? I know it would be much darker in hue, but the flavors just seem like they would be wonderful.

A lot of people complain about this recipe being too dry, but the whole point of a poor man's black velvet is that the stout really combats the dryness of the cider really well. The two flavors co-mingle in a delicious malty cidery explosion of flavor. It's also a killer drink to have with fish and chips or other fried and typically salty british/irish foods.

Anyone else make a batch of graff with stout ingredients? I know mixing two completed drinks together once they are completed is one thing. I wonder how they would co mingle if they were born together in a primary fermenter. Looks like I have my next project folks.

 

[batty]

Anyone else make a batch of graff with stout ingredients? I know mixing two completed drinks together once they are completed is one thing. I wonder how they would co mingle if they were born together in a primary fermenter. Looks like I have my next project folks.

I have not but would certainly be interested in doing so.. would have to be pretty moderate on the roast I think to keep from overwhelming the cider, but could be pretty good. I would also think about doing a 'black cider' using just debittered for color - just to throw people for a loop w black cider

 

[timcadieux]

I'm assuming I can swap the DME for LME as its half the price at my LHBS?

 

[Clifton]

Danny and batty, search for Gunslinger's Graff on here. It may be what you are looking for.

Tim, yes you can just use 20-25 percent more (based on ppg).

 

[dannylerch]

I checked out the gunslingers graff. Looks like it is exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Clifton]

Cool.

 

[woknblues]

Having a brew session in a week, I'll be brewing this up for sure. I plan on doing a 10 gallon all grain batch that I will be pitching #1 onto a SA-04 cake, and #2 will get a smack pack of 4184. I am super excited to get a malty / mouthfeel expression from a cider type beverage. I have no contacts for fresh cider, so I guess I'll go with Sam's club AJ. I also plan on bulk aging this at least 3 months. (i am way ahead of myself now in terms of pipeline, with 3/4 kegs spoken for, and no kegging system at the moment!!!) Anyone have any thoughts on the 4184 or the sa-04?

 

[BrewerBear]

I pitch on a S-04 yeast cake,super clear at bottling time.

 

[woknblues]

I pitch on a S-04 yeast cake,super clear at bottling time.

Awesome!

 

[hopmonster2189]

Just bottled my first batch of the original recipe using centennial and Notty. Used Kirkland sig. AJ and they didn't charge me for 2 gals so looks like it was a $25 batch woo! Anyways I remembered Costco has a really good apple, peach, passion fruit juice that is very mellow and delicious, was thinking it would be something worth trying instead of straight apple juice. Heard of others mixing other fruit juices with their apple I'm wondering if 4 gals of this stuff would be overboard? Anybody ever try this juice or have successful apple/other fruit proportions?

 

[timcadieux]

Somehow I haven't seen this addressed yet. During the boil I lost a full 1liter. That means I need up with 18l instead of 19, did I miss a step? I ended with an OG 1.169!!

 

[SilverZero]

Just bottled my first batch of the original recipe using centennial and Notty. Used Kirkland sig. AJ and they didn't charge me for 2 gals so looks like it was a $25 batch woo!

Assuming you sampled at bottling. . . .

How was the taste on the Kirkland AJ? How's the overall sweetness? Hop aroma? Bitterness balance? What was the AA% on your Centennial, and how much did you use? 5 gallon batch? How much are you carbing? OG/FG? Okay, that's all I can think of for now.

 

[hopmonster2189]

How was the taste on the Kirkland AJ? How's the overall sweetness? Hop aroma? Bitterness balance? What was the AA% on your Centennial, and how much did you use? 5 gallon batch? How much are you carbing? OG/FG? Okay, that's all I can think of for now.

Yes was a 5 gal batch, The Kirkland AJ was good (100% juice, no Vit. C or anything else). The graf tatstes nice and appley already with a beautiful color. still a tad tart but after the first couple sips that wore off, I'd imagine that will age out, but most cider has a slight tartness. OG was 1.062, FG was 1.010 the level of sweetness is perfect in my opinion. Can't even tell it has the 6.8% abv. I do prefer some sweetness vs a dry cider at a FG of 1.000 like some others have been reaching, so I was happy to see that steady FG at 1.010.
I could barely pick up some citrusy aroma from the centennial (1/2 oz @ 8.7% AA), the cider was extremely balanced for being so young (3 weeks of fermentation). Id bet an inexperienced beer drinker wouldn't know there was hops in there, I love hops so might use a higher AA% or more next time. Hard to perceive the bitterness with the tartness currently present.
Used just the regular 5 oz dextrose as I use for a typical beer to prime.
Id prefer my warm flat sample to most of the commerical ciders Ive had, I'll definitely make this at least once or twice a year!

 

[jmprdood]

My next brew! Looking forward to getting this in the fermenter on Sat

Cheers!

 

[andrewmiller100us]

thinking of throwing cinnamon sticks in the fermenter when I brew this in a few days? Any suggestions on how many I should. Do you guys think it would compliment the cider? I guess theres only one way to find out.

 

[user 98891]

After reading random sampling of this thread I'm going to give this a try for sure. I don't want it to be too tart though, is it advisable to go with more crystal to accomplish that or should I look at attenuating yeasts?

 

[BrianP123]

how about dry-hopping and already post fermenting cider that is in third and final transfer prior to kegging?

 

[jgonzo108]

Made a batch according to original recipe on Sunday. Used 120L, as per suggestion, because I used cheap juice. The wife is really looking forward to giving this a try since she has a thing for cider.

 

[timcadieux]

I made this over the weekend but I replaced the DME with LME but because I followed the recipe, I boiled it for 30. I've read that boiling LME will cause it to finish very, very dark?

 

[boysbrew2012]

I tried a recipe from a diff website....the cider tasted great however I bottled too soon as i had 2 cases of bottles explode so dont bottle until the fermentation has settled...it was a rookie mistake!!! Wont do that again