Paul Alfred
Member
Hello, homebrewtalk.com!
My name is Paul, I am a disabled Air Force veteran, and set to graduate from TX A&M University - San Antonio this December 18th with a bachelors degree in Business Administration. I'm an avid outdoorsman who enjoys camping, hiking, and horseback riding. I am also a huge fan of a good cider or mead and will be setting up my first batch of each within the next week as my final supplies arrive.
I have been researching and planning fermenting my own cider and mead for quite a while, and even began purchasing the supplies a while ago. Sadly I did not have a place to set up and my plans got put on the back-burner for a while. Thankfully I now have a place to brew and I am excited to start my new hobby!
I am starting with a basic cider, and shortly a basic mead as well. Once I have seen how this goes I hope to start experimenting with some local flavors such as a prickly pear mead and a pecan cider (I've seen a good recipe for this here on the site!). If all goes well I hope to have something to share with friends this coming Beltaine when we all go camping together. We have a "brewer's & imbiber's society" which is really just a gathering of folks from across the campgrounds who like to homebrew and share their libations, recipes, and advice. Two of my friends from there are guiding me through my first attempts, so hopefully I will meet with reasonable success.
The cider I am setting up is going to be very simple, using 6.5 gallons of Louisberg Apple Cider from my local HEB grocery store (pasturized, but NO preservatives), Lalvin D47 yeast (one package), GoFerm with yeast hydration, and Fermaid O for nutriant additive. I've considered adding some brown sugar as well, but I have not yet figured out if I will need it or if so how much. I am not super-concerned with clarity in this batch, though in future batches I plan to use pectic enzyme (honestly, I just forgot to order the stuff, lol). I am planning on using potassium metabisulfite powder instead of campden tablets before bottling (or more likely, kegging).
I have not settled on exact amounts of ingredients for my mead yet, but I am still trying to make time to get to some local apiaries and trying some local honey before setting that up.
My name is Paul, I am a disabled Air Force veteran, and set to graduate from TX A&M University - San Antonio this December 18th with a bachelors degree in Business Administration. I'm an avid outdoorsman who enjoys camping, hiking, and horseback riding. I am also a huge fan of a good cider or mead and will be setting up my first batch of each within the next week as my final supplies arrive.
I have been researching and planning fermenting my own cider and mead for quite a while, and even began purchasing the supplies a while ago. Sadly I did not have a place to set up and my plans got put on the back-burner for a while. Thankfully I now have a place to brew and I am excited to start my new hobby!
I am starting with a basic cider, and shortly a basic mead as well. Once I have seen how this goes I hope to start experimenting with some local flavors such as a prickly pear mead and a pecan cider (I've seen a good recipe for this here on the site!). If all goes well I hope to have something to share with friends this coming Beltaine when we all go camping together. We have a "brewer's & imbiber's society" which is really just a gathering of folks from across the campgrounds who like to homebrew and share their libations, recipes, and advice. Two of my friends from there are guiding me through my first attempts, so hopefully I will meet with reasonable success.
The cider I am setting up is going to be very simple, using 6.5 gallons of Louisberg Apple Cider from my local HEB grocery store (pasturized, but NO preservatives), Lalvin D47 yeast (one package), GoFerm with yeast hydration, and Fermaid O for nutriant additive. I've considered adding some brown sugar as well, but I have not yet figured out if I will need it or if so how much. I am not super-concerned with clarity in this batch, though in future batches I plan to use pectic enzyme (honestly, I just forgot to order the stuff, lol). I am planning on using potassium metabisulfite powder instead of campden tablets before bottling (or more likely, kegging).
I have not settled on exact amounts of ingredients for my mead yet, but I am still trying to make time to get to some local apiaries and trying some local honey before setting that up.
