[QUOTE="MikeTodd I am impressed! I am going to start a Gunslinger’s next![/QUOTE]
Is Gunslinger a cider?
Is Gunslinger a cider?
Lactose or other unfermentable sugar is the only way to make it sweeter if you bottle condition unless you want to play with fire.So, it's finally fully carbed for me today and so I cracked one open and i can't say it's amazing. It's good but a bit too dry, my OG was 1.055 and it finished at 1.005 with s-04. This was my first so I didn't really know what to do raise the gravity. Better luck next time I guess!
Surprisingly after a couple days in the fridge the taste improved a lot. Not sure if this is normal?Lactose or other unfermentable sugar is the only way to make it sweeter if you bottle condition unless you want to play with fire.
Another option is to dose your glass with apple juice or sugar before you pour.
First off it will improve with time. 2nd are u sure you used s04? It usually has a lower atten and doesn't usually finish that low. 3rd to raise the FG you need to get some more unfermentables in the wort. With this recipe just bump the crystal up to .75lbs of 120l or add .25lb of carapils or similar. Steep this with the wheat @158° or so to increase the unfermentable sugars that ur able to withdraw from the grain. Also to bump up the apple flavor I add a can of frozen apple juice concentrate to the juice. Just make sure it is 100% apple juice.So, it's finally fully carbed for me today and so I cracked one open and i can't say it's amazing. It's good but a bit too dry, my OG was 1.055 and it finished at 1.005 with s-04. This was my first so I didn't really know what to do raise the gravity. Better luck next time I guess!
First off it will improve with time. 2nd are u sure you used s04? It usually has a lower atten and doesn't usually finish that low. 3rd to raise the FG you need to get some more unfermentables in the wort. With this recipe just bump the crystal up to .75lbs of 120l or add .25lb of carapils or similar. Steep this with the wheat @158° or so to increase the unfermentable sugars that ur able to withdraw from the grain. Also to bump up the apple flavor I add a can of frozen apple juice concentrate to the juice. Just make sure it is 100% apple juice.
Good luck
Didn't know what to expect, but any expectations I had have been well exceeded. Used Whole Foods juice, Citra and US-05. The balance - sweet, sour, bitter, hoppy - is spot on. Could have easily been fooled into believing this to be a lambic. Cotton candy finish. Hundred miles superior to any cider/apfelwein I've done before. Looking forward to many more versions.
So the original recipe, but swapping citra hops and us05 into the mix?
So here's the deal my graff. Its pretty bad tasting and I have 5 gallons of it.. So I want to make it more drinkable. It is tart sour and dry. Question is should I dry hop it or back sweeten it? It is in the keg and carbonated I have drank some of it is say mabey a 12 packish.. And if I back sweeten how much uhh apple juice or hops should I use? I did rack it into a secondary after one week and its been in a keg for a week so does it need to be "stabilized" how can I save it. Its not terrible but its nothing I really enjoy as it is..
I broke my hydrometer while brewing the beer part. But my final gravity was about 1.003 and yeah I figured I'd hope it would age better. I did use crystal 60 and store bought apple juice. I may make it again someday and use more beer but keep the hop amount the same. I should have bottled some of it to try it in some months. I kinda just want to get it drank and so I can have my keg backWhat was your FG? If you generally followed the original recipe (steeping at > 155F and using DME), then Nottingham/US-05 wouldn't be expected to ferment dry (i.e., < 0.996), producing a tart/dry character. Sour could be a different problem altogether. Individual palates vary though, so you may simply prefer more residual sweetness. Dry hopping isn't likely to help accentuate the sweetness, so you could consider back sweetening with a simple syrup solution or thawed apple juice concentrate.
If you don't know the current SG of what's in the keg and/or don't want to bother with any math, you could just add a small amount apple juice concentrate, mix it in, and sample it. Repeat until the sweetness is to your liking (go slow, so as not to over shoot the desired finish). Note that some who back sweeten cider with apple juice report that it's noticeable at first and tends to blend in after a few weeks. Since you're in a keg and keeping it cold, there's no need to stabilize with potassium sorbate or the like, which is intended to cut down yeast reproduction to avoid re-fermentation when bottling.
Having admittedly only made one batch of graf, but several other ciders, I don't think you could go wrong with any of the choices. Generally a blend of tart and sweet works well but the point of the malts and hops in this graf is to cover and young flavors and sub-par juice, so given that all your choices are high above TreeTop, you'll be fine, so long as none have preservatives. I would go with 2 or 3 of the TJs or WF's 1 gallon jugs as a base, and a couple of Gravenstein and HoneyCrisp to bring to 4 gallons total to round flavors.I hope this question hasn't been posed before. I was looking at this thread, and while shopping I noticed Whole Foods has 1 gallon jugs of organic apple juice and smaller ones of Gravenstein and HoneyCrisp juice. Trader Joe's has 1 gallon jugs of unfiltered juice. Which do you think would be good for Graf? I am slowly moving my fermentation interests from kombucha to wine to cider. Is straight beer far behind?
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