Graff (Malty, slightly hopped cider)

[Jwin]

So, mine fermented for 2 weeks and has been in the bottle for 2. Boy, is it tart! Does that fade with time? Right now it's super dry, which is fine, but is so tart it'll crack your teeth!

I think that depends on the juice. How much citric acid is added....

 

[TurnipGreen]

I made this and it taste like an apple farted in a Bud Light. Hopefully it gets a little better with age.
Mines about two months old. It's dry and tart. It is getting more apple flavor as it sits. I wondering if this is not a better recipe to keg so you can more easily back sweet it.

 

[HappyFermentations]

I wonder how this would turn out if you followed the "Sweet Country Cider" process. Add some extra sugar (DME?) and then bottle and pasteurize while it's still fermenting once it gets down to like 1.03 or 1.02. That way it might retain some more of the Apple taste and natural sweetness. Any thoughts?

 

[ShepFL]

Mine is now getting kegged up now. Not what really what I was expecting; I was hoping for a tad sweeter. It is dry and very tart from sample out of fermenter.
OG was 1.052 and now at 1.010 with estimate ABV of 5.6%. Anyone tried to back sweeeten or will it mellow out?

 

[Roland_deschain]

Mine is now getting kegged up now. Not what really what I was expecting; I was hoping for a tad sweeter. It is dry and very tart from sample out of fermenter.
OG was 1.502 and now at 1.010 with estimate ABV of 5.6%. Anyone tried to back sweeeten or will it mellow out?

Did you use cider or juice? I used cider and got the same result as you did.

 

[ShepFL]

Did you use cider or juice? I used cider and got the same result as you did.

Roland
Everything left over in the fridge becomes pot of soup on Sundays. Last Sunday had some leftover stuff laying around so making this now. OG right now is 1.052 and 1.01.

.5 lbs of Crystal 60L
1 gallon musslemans apple joice
2 gallons golden delicious juice (fresh)
1 gallon cranberry juice
1 gallon of water
3 lbs of amber lme
0.5 oz of German Hallertau

Very tart and very dry. If anything I guess I have a baseline for sour. Maybe I invite Bret and Lacto to the party.

Liked it better before it fermented out - was like a mulled fall drink! Waiting to see what natural carbing does; others here say it is awesome. More to come in 2 wks.

 

[Jwin]

Mine is now getting kegged up now. Not what really what I was expecting; I was hoping for a tad sweeter. It is dry and very tart from sample out of fermenter.
OG was 1.052 and now at 1.010 with estimate ABV of 5.6%. Anyone tried to back sweeeten or will it mellow out?

If you are kegging and keeping it cold for the rest of its life, sweeten all you want. Maybe just add a can of aj concentrate or something a bit more exotic. Brown sugar, candi sugar, rock candy, nesquick. What ever you want. The cold should dormant the yeast. Just remember that if you try to bottle or transport a growler warm.

 

[brewski09]

If you keg you can bleed off extra pressure if it builds up. Also, you can stabilize like wine and back sweeten and then force carbonate.

 

[ukulele01]

Hi all. I have yet to make a cider, or this recipe. I am in the information gathering stage. I have read about the first 35 pages of this thread, and the last five pages, and it seems all have been using ale yeast. I don't have time to read the entire thread, so please forgive me if this has been asked before, but has anyone swapped out ale yeast for 71B-1122 wine yeast in Brandon's original recipe? If you could give me an idea of what page it is on, that would be great.

Otherwise, I can see two potential advantages to 71B:

1.) I have read that, like most wine yeast, it has difficulty fermenting maltose, so it may leave a bit more residual sweetness than ale yeast.

2.) 71B degrades quite a bit of malic acid, which accounts for much of the tartness of apples. Apparently it is used a lot in the making of non-grape wines for this very reason.

Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[HappyFermentations]

So I'm now nearing the two month mark and it's ...almost drinkable. The apple taste is starting to come back and a lot of the "smack you in the face" tartness is gone. I'm going to finish this bottle and then leave the rest sit for at least another month before cracking them open again. Who knows, by St. Patrick's day I may be kicking myself for not having a pipeline built up.

Beyond the taste it LOOKS amazing. Deep Amber and totally clear. It's also got a fantastic head and plenty of carbonation that last the entire glass.

 

[TCollins]

Does citric acid make a significant difference in "tartness". Anyone brewed with both non citric acid and citric acid added apple juice and have feedback? I brewed with citric acid and it has a little tartness but it's not overly tart. I did add 1lb of Belgian candy syrup as well....

 

[deere322]

I'm terrible at following directions to a "T" so here's my graff I brewed today.

9.2 oz Crystal 85
2.0 oz T. Wheat
1lbs Amber DME
1lbs Light DME
1 oz. of my home grown Crystal Hops
4 gallons of "Mark your Member's" AJ from Sam's
Pitched Notty cake from my just bottled Mild.
Pitched at 59 F with slow ramp up to 62 f.

Note:
Start of the boil I added my hops. The whole house smelled like a malty rose pedal. It smelled fantastic.
The hops, I assumed where around 4-5 IBU, so adding an ounce I figured wouldn't be that big of a deal. I'll find out.

 

[Ktaco]

My son and I put this together last night, following the original recipe. We loaded it into a FastFerment which is sitting in the basement. The basement temperature is right around 60 degrees. The original recipe states fermentation at 64-68 degrees. Upstairs in a closet would be around 68-70 degrees. Is a bit cooler better than a bit warmer concerning ambient temperature?

This is our third ever brew. First was a Australian IPA kit which turned out really well. Second is a chocolate stout 1 gal. kit which is percolating away as I type.

The OG measured 1.14, which I attributed the the heavy silt in the mash in the hydro. reading tube.

Kevin

 

[Jwin]

60 is great. 58 even better as the internal temperature will be much higher. Internal temp can be 8-12* higher in peak fermentation, but you may have to raise the temp somehow to get it to finish out.

 

[Jwin]

1.14 sounds very high
Did you mix it well before the gravity reading?

 

[deere322]

Man, this is pretty tasty after a week in the keg.

OG. 1.060
FG. 1.011
6.3% abv

 

[thunderwagn]

My graff is about 4 months old. Maybe it's just not for me cause I'm still not feeling it. At some point I may try a different version I've seen posted that has some darker malts and a touch of smoked malt, but for my tastes I'd rather have a beer or a cider, but the two combined just isn't appealing to my taste buds.

 

[Ktaco]

60 is great. 58 even better as the internal temperature will be much higher. Internal temp can be 8-12* higher in peak fermentation, but you may have to raise the temp somehow to get it to finish out.

1.14 sounds very high
Did you mix it well before the gravity reading?

I went down this morning for a check. I have the entire fermenter draped with a quilt. The thermometer built into the side says 57-58 degrees. The basement temperature is also 58 degrees, so they are balance out.

I was thinking that now all the sediment has settled, I just took another reading. With the little bit of small bubbles right at the top of the sample, my x-ray vision shows a reading of 1.06 or 1.062. There was a little bit of foaming right in the center of the brew in the fermenter.

I was also thinking perhaps I should attach my theraputic heating pad to the side and set it on low to raise the temp a bit.

 

[Ktaco]

I also just thought that the original reading was done with straight wort, before mixing with the apple juice.

 

[deere322]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1455152058.683261.jpg
Wow, this is so drinkable!

 

[Jwin]

View attachment 336734
Wow, this is so drinkable!

I like your backpack.

 

[jpoppinmoneyunit]

In the world of cider making, generally you would try to find the cloudiest juice when using the cheap store bought stuff, but not so for graff.

My first batch was not good tasting, and frankly, it looked like liquid vommit. I used store bought, fresh pressed, TreeTop honeycrisp apple juice and it was barely drinkable. Switched to the three blend, clear looking, fresh pressed TreeTop apple juice, and i'm finally able to see what people are talking about!

I seriously thought I had messed up somewhere because the first batch was terrible. Take #2 is excellent! Nice bit of apple flavor, very clear, and easy drinking.

Anyone have any suggestions for lowering the ABV? I'm sitting at 8% and would prefer it to be around 5-6% so my wife would more enjoy it. The fermentation is too fast to stop mid cycle (using Nottingham Ale Yeast), so i'm not sure what to try.

 

[ukulele01]

In the world of cider making, generally you would try to find the cloudiest juice when using the cheap store bought stuff, but not so for graff.

My first batch was not good tasting, and frankly, it looked like liquid vommit. I used store bought, fresh pressed, TreeTop honeycrisp apple juice and it was barely drinkable. Switched to the three blend, clear looking, fresh pressed TreeTop apple juice, and i'm finally able to see what people are talking about!

I seriously thought I had messed up somewhere because the first batch was terrible. Take #2 is excellent! Nice bit of apple flavor, very clear, and easy drinking.

Anyone have any suggestions for lowering the ABV? I'm sitting at 8% and would prefer it to be around 5-6% so my wife would more enjoy it. The fermentation is too fast to stop mid cycle (using Nottingham Ale Yeast), so i'm not sure what to try.

I am trying to understand why your first batch was not good and your second was so much better. I see from the Tree Top website that the three apple blend juice is made from Granny Smith, Red Delicious, and Golden Delicious. I wonder if the Granny Smith are making the difference, with their tartness?

As for lowering the ABV, why don't you just add water until you get to an OG of 1.045 or 1.050? Just out of curiosity, what were your OG, and FG, if you don't mind me asking. I have never used Tree Top (not available in my area) but most of the store bought juices I've checked seem to have an OG of 1.050.

 

[RobertMT]

Just add 1/3 fresh apple juice to glass, a splash of 7 up, or Ginger Ale, will give a sweeter carbed drink.

I made the TT honeycrisp mistake too. Three juice blend is better than reg, it's a bit tarter.

 

[jpoppinmoneyunit]

Beats me why the first was so bad. I think the honeycrisp flavor didn't mix well with the dme because i've made decent ciders with the honeycrisp, but the 3 blend was much better for graff.

I had an OG of 1.070 and FG of 1.010, for a one gallon batch using Nottingham. Bandon O gave a 1gal scaled recipe somewhere in the thread. 2 weeks in primary and 2 weeks bottle condition and there's minimal tartness. Pretty happy with the results. You can taste the high alcohol for sure.

 

[sportpak]

Found a bottle of my first batch in the back of the fridge last night. Was about 18 months old. Delicious and crystal clear. It was gone before I thought of taking a picture of it.
I might start an aged rotation of this stuff.

 

[Ktaco]

Should I re-pitch the yeast?

I have a Graf fermentation and yeast question, if I may.

We put together Brandon's recipe on Feb. 4th. In looking back, I think I pitched the yeast in too cold a brew. I had the wort chiller going and got distracted. Wort was in the 50's when I returned. The apple cider was room temp. when combine and yeast pitched. The brew is in a FastFerment and was taken to the basement. Basement stays about 56-58 degrees. 60 degrees one day. Covered it with a comforter after seeing no activity for several days. Removed the comforter on the 10th and there was a little foam on the top.

Feb. 11th. I double checked the recipe and saw that room temp should be 62-68 degrees. We carried it upstairs and put it in a dark closet. Room temp 67 degrees. When we set it down, all the coagulated floaties (that's a scientific term you'll study in class next week) dropped from top to bottom.

There has been no further activity seen. I have read the posts that say you may see no activity. So I guess my big concern is yeast viability.

Did I damage the yeast pitching it into such a cold medium? Should I re-pitch the yeast?

Thanks for your consideration.

Kevin

 

[jpoppinmoneyunit]

You really need to take a gravity reading for an honest answer of re-pitching. It could have been very slowly fermenting in cooler temps and then when you moved it to a warmer temp it could have finished out overnight really fast if using Nottingham.

A gravity reading will tell you your next move. If you saw krausen and now it's settled at the bottom, that tells me you had some fermentation action going on and it could be done.

 

[wc1376c]

Just went and did a YouTube check for recent vids...only two. I think the folks that are actually brewing this on a regular basis are still hiding out and working on thier own recipe's. Its been around five years now, this should have exploded. Ahh well.

 

[RobertMT]

Take a reading, notty can stand 50s easy, it's probably done. If gravity is too low (already done) repitching won't do anything.