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Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

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The whole room that this fermentation is happening in smells like straight dung. Crazy rhino fart action. Like rotten eggs. I need to remember to add some nutrient next time.


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The whole room that this fermentation is happening in smells like straight dung. Crazy rhino fart action. Like rotten eggs. I need to remember to add some nutrient next time.


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Add the nutrient now


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The worst is over now. It was just horrible the other day. I don't care as much as the lady does.


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The worst is over now. It was just horrible the other day. I don't care as much as the lady does.


Sent from Cheese Doodle Land.

Did you make any changes to the recipe? I thought wort removes the need for nutrients? I am sitting right next to my second batch and neither batch had the slightest odor.
 
I think it depends on the yeast strain as much as anything. My last batch was at least 50% malt based sugar, and it still smelled pretty sulferous even with some added nutrient. One of my earlier batches had less malt, less nutrient and more sugar without any off smells.
 
Did you make any changes to the recipe? I thought wort removes the need for nutrients? I am sitting right next to my second batch and neither batch had the slightest odor.



Original recipe. Nottingham yeast, rehydrated. Don't know. It was only for a couples days during high krausen. I think it's done. Every cider that I have made without nutrients smelled like farts. It's not a big deal. I just laughed a bit the day after pitching since my girl hates it. I don't care. I know it's working then.


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I just opened my first bottle. This stuff is tart! It's drinkable but only just. I'll probably leave it another month or more and hope for the best.
 
Put my first batch of this in the keg Saturday. I made it without hops and used wlp 005. It tasted great after 15 day primary. I sealed it up with some priming sugar and hope to tap it very soon. I tried and liked the Apple Bee recipe but I think I've found a real winner with this one. Thanks for sharing.


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I got some teamaker hops growing this year. I wonder how they would contribute to this.


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So, made 3 gallons of this over the weekend, using a slightly modified version of your recipe

4oz Crystal 20L, steeped at 155 for 30 min (forgot to sparge)
1 lb of Wheat LME
.3 oz of Hersbrucker 2.0AA hops
Boiled for 30 min
2 Gallons of 100% Apple Juice
1 packet US-04

I know the original recipe calls for 6AA hops, so im thinking the milder hersbrucker would be like cutting the hops down.

Cooled the wort in fridge to below 100, then split the wort into a 2 gallon and 1 gallon fermenters and added apple juice. The OGs were 1.049 (1g) and 1.044 (2g). My plan is to try doing something slightly different with the 1 gallon, possibly dry hopping with less than .1 of hersbrucker after 5-7 days.
Is this a terrible idea, or does someone else have a better one?
 
Dry hopping cider has become pretty popular these days, so I think you are fine. I think american varieties are more common like cascade and chinook, but it's all preference. I might recommend taking a small sample (a few sips) and blending with a hop tea or even just tossing a hop pellet fragment in there to see how it tastes to make sure you have the right hop.


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Thanks for that confirmstion. Ya I was only planning on doing a lil bit, sinc wits only a gallon. I've used this batch of hersbrucker several time recently, in a Saison and a hefe, and really like them. 2.0A 6.3B. Low bitterness, good flavor and smell. I have high hopes


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Put my first batch of this in the keg Saturday. I made it without hops and used wlp 005. It tasted great after 15 day primary. I sealed it up with some priming sugar and hope to tap it very soon. I tried and liked the Apple Bee recipe but I think I've found a real winner with this one. Thanks for sharing.


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I just put this on tap. Holy cow it's good. Gonna start another batch real soon. Thanks for sharing the recipe.


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Going to the LHBS this week to get the stuff to brew Brandon O's original recipe. Does this stuff need yeast nutrient? I will probably use Safale 04 or 05.



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Going to the LHBS this week to get the stuff to brew Brandon O's original recipe. Does this stuff need yeast nutrient? I will probably use Safale 04 or 05.


Need? No. But it's never a bad idea to add a little anyway. Graf is 80% apple juice though, which is highly fermentable, so you should be fine without it.


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I'd say that because it's 80% apple juice that it would need nutrient more than beer would. I wouldn't do this recipe without nutrient myself.
 
Just made my first batch today! I got some Whitehouse all natural juice buy one get one and had some coupons too. I spent about $10 for it all. Hit 1.060 on the button, used some cascade hops I had lying about and US-05.

Does/has anyone chain made this and just racked on top of the previous yeast cake?
 
Hunter, just my preference. If you aren't using any nutrient and it's working, don't fix it. If you want to run a quick experiment, do a batch of something you are very familiar with and make the only change adding nutrient and see if it changes it. I think this is a perfect recipe to use for that experiment.
 
Just made my first batch today! I got some Whitehouse all natural juice buy one get one and had some coupons too. I spent about $10 for it all. Hit 1.060 on the button, used some cascade hops I had lying about and US-05.

Does/has anyone chain made this and just racked on top of the previous yeast cake?

I've reused yeast cakes before. You can actually get to much yeast. Dumping some of the slurry periodically and only doing a few batches per yeast pitch are good ideas. I might get rid of half of the yeast between batches.
 
Hunter, just my preference. If you aren't using any nutrient and it's working, don't fix it. If you want to run a quick experiment, do a batch of something you are very familiar with and make the only change adding nutrient and see if it changes it. I think this is a perfect recipe to use for that experiment.

I use nutrient in everything I brew. I don't see a compelling reason not to. I was just (possibly) misinformed about the necessity (or lack thereof) in using it with apple-juice.

That would be an interesting experiment though. :mug:
 
Brewed an All Grain version of this today.

BIAB Mashed at 152 for 60mins.
#4 2 row
#1 Crystal 60
.4oz Cascade 7% AA @ 30 min boil.

4 gallons Mott's 100% AJ
OG is 1.057, using Safale US-05.
 
I brewed this on 5/21. Stuck pretty close to the original recipe for a 2.75 gallon batch. My variations were:

Crystal 120
Carapils instead of torrified wheat
Sterling hops (6 grams)
Trader Joe's fresh pressed cider (pasteurized)
Increased steeping water by about 20% since my volume is small.
US-05 (pitched dry)

OG was 1.057. I pitched at 65 degrees and held it their in my ferm chamber.

The odd thing is that there was no activity for 12 hours and then I finally began to see some foam. Over the next day, foam built up but never formed a real krausen. I attributed this to the fermcap I used; I'm also not real familiar with what cider fermentation should look like. There was plenty of movement in the carboy, so I wasn't worried. The foam dropped away almost completely.

Then yesterday, it started forming an actual normal looking krausen. Today, it's going nuts and I'm wondering if I'm going to get blowoff! I've never had a fermentation take this much time ramping up to high krausen. What's the deal?

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Brewed my first batch of this tonight, also sticking close to the original recipe. I used 120L Crystal because I used Sam's brand juice. I also used 1 ounce of Hallertau 3.9% AA hops. Cooled the wort with the AJ stored in the fridge, and it's around 62 degrees. When it warms up a bit, I'll pitch some Safale 05. OG was 1.060.


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For future reference, you are fine to just pitch the yeast at 62F. I do it all the time with pretty much all stains.


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Thanks. That's what I had planned if it didn't warm up. I pitched around 11 pm last night at 65 degrees, stirred with a whisk this morning to give her some oxygen, and sealed it up around 2pm today once I saw that fermentation had started. The airlock is chugging pretty good now.


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I brewed mine with this recipe

3# Gold LME
.5 oz Cascade Boiled 30 Mins
8 oz Crystal 60 Steeped 30 Mins
4 gallons Sprouts AJ Used to cool wort
Munton's yeast

And it came out really malty without much AJ flavor and a bit of an extract twang. (Still really love it, my favorite homebrew so far) I don't care about clarity, so I was thinking of doing an all apple juice full boil. If I do it that way, can the sugars in the juice get hop utilization or would I still have to add the LME at the start of the boil? I was thinking:

5.5 gallons of AJ
Crystal 60 Steep 30 Mins
.5 oz Cascade 30 Mins
.5 oz Coriander 5 Mins
3# Gold LME 5 Mins
Munton's

Maybe dry hop or add some grapefruit peel to try and get more fruity flavors. How do you think the full boil with all apple juice will affect flavor? Most cider articles I've read are split about whether boiling AJ changes flavor profiles.

Do you think the maltiness was caused by the Munton's not really being highly attenuating? I figured with all the simple sugars in AJ, it would do fine.
 
Thanks for sharing. I have been brewing beer, but I am thinking about trying a Hard Cider and a Hard Tea.
 
I brewed mine with this recipe

3# Gold LME
.5 oz Cascade Boiled 30 Mins
8 oz Crystal 60 Steeped 30 Mins
4 gallons Sprouts AJ Used to cool wort
Munton's yeast

And it came out really malty without much AJ flavor and a bit of an extract twang. (Still really love it, my favorite homebrew so far) I don't care about clarity, so I was thinking of doing an all apple juice full boil. If I do it that way, can the sugars in the juice get hop utilization or would I still have to add the LME at the start of the boil? I was thinking:

5.5 gallons of AJ
Crystal 60 Steep 30 Mins
.5 oz Cascade 30 Mins
.5 oz Coriander 5 Mins
3# Gold LME 5 Mins
Munton's

Maybe dry hop or add some grapefruit peel to try and get more fruity flavors. How do you think the full boil with all apple juice will affect flavor? Most cider articles I've read are split about whether boiling AJ changes flavor profiles.

Do you think the maltiness was caused by the Munton's not really being highly attenuating? I figured with all the simple sugars in AJ, it would do fine.


Honestly, the "twang" is more likely from the apple juice or a fermentation that could have been healthier (nutrient/yeast pitch rate/temp) than the extract. I brew a ton of extract beers (as well as all grain) and the only extract with a distinct non-grain character is sorghum IMO. If you can describe it more, we might be able to help more. As far as the maltyness, every yeast strain will accentuate different things. White labs 002 is a malt forward yeast whereas 001 Chico is a hop forward yeast. 001 is us-05 as well. If it finished a little higher than expected, you would also have additional malt flavors and a carbohydrate sweetness/slickness like when you mix up some extract and taste it. I don't like the muntons or coopers yeasts and would get rid of them myself. I used Nottingham dry yeast for my cider and liked it. Also good beer results.



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