We'll let me start off by saying I love this site. Ii even got the app so I can read it more often. And thank for the help/info it all has been great.
First off I am by no means a beer drinker. Never have been. Only to get a good buzz and that was it. But I am a tinkerer and a cook. So I Though to myself I would love to make beer but it would be a waste and the wife would kill me for wasting the money..... So let's try cider.
First thing I tried was making my own, cider that is not hard. It cost me $35 in apples to get a gal of juice. Holy hell, there was no way I was going to drop $150 on apples to make the 5gal. Worse yet if it came out like crap it would be a waste. So I drank the cider and loved it.
I did some research and found cider in the food store and picked up 5gal for $35. I can deal with that. So I went and bought the gear $25 later I was set up.
I started off with red star wine yeast, 5gal of cider and 4 cups of sugar. Through it wall together and set it aside. I did all the steps in between like cleaning and such. This was last year. I let it sit for a month and when I was finished it wasn't all that fermented. It still tasted like regular cider just sweeter. So it took a few to even get a slight buzz. But everyone liked it if not just for the cider flavor.
So this year I figured it was time to give it a try again. I'll start it a nth before Xmas and work on it.
So I cleaned all the gear did some more resource and started over. This time I used I think linvastat eu118. Got 5gal again dif cider which I thought was better and put it in my bucket. Added 4cups of basic sugar and pitched the yeast. It didn't seem to do a dam thing. So 2 days later I repitched. Still nothing but I let it go. I moved it to a more temp stable place. 2 week later I opened it up filtered out the cider recleaned everything repitched and let it sit for 2 more weeks.
Ok so the time had come to see what I made. I opened up the bucket put my face in to get a smell and almost passed out from the alcohol smell. I kid you not. It was holy s@ strong and on the dry side, but it still had a nice apple flavor. So I filtered it out and instead of putting it in bottles I put it into mason jars. I like the look a lot better and I like how strong the jars are. Plus I get a dozen of them of $10 and they are all bell jars "the best ones they make".
So now I back sugared them with another 5 cups of regular sugar and dropped in whole stickes of cinnamon in each one. It had no carb in it, which I don't mind since I don't drink soda or Anyang carb.
This was all done 2 days before Xmas and the Xmas eve party went over great. Then I didn't touch them till New Years and hold fizz batman. It was nice and carb not sure if it was stronger or not. I really think the alcohol conter is in the teens. Bad thing is I didn't have the gear to test it till a few days ago. But I didn't care for all the fancy stuff. I just wanted good flav and I think I got it.
So now I am set on trying some additives on my next batch and not waiting so long on doing it again.
Thanks,
E
First off I am by no means a beer drinker. Never have been. Only to get a good buzz and that was it. But I am a tinkerer and a cook. So I Though to myself I would love to make beer but it would be a waste and the wife would kill me for wasting the money..... So let's try cider.
First thing I tried was making my own, cider that is not hard. It cost me $35 in apples to get a gal of juice. Holy hell, there was no way I was going to drop $150 on apples to make the 5gal. Worse yet if it came out like crap it would be a waste. So I drank the cider and loved it.
I did some research and found cider in the food store and picked up 5gal for $35. I can deal with that. So I went and bought the gear $25 later I was set up.
I started off with red star wine yeast, 5gal of cider and 4 cups of sugar. Through it wall together and set it aside. I did all the steps in between like cleaning and such. This was last year. I let it sit for a month and when I was finished it wasn't all that fermented. It still tasted like regular cider just sweeter. So it took a few to even get a slight buzz. But everyone liked it if not just for the cider flavor.
So this year I figured it was time to give it a try again. I'll start it a nth before Xmas and work on it.
So I cleaned all the gear did some more resource and started over. This time I used I think linvastat eu118. Got 5gal again dif cider which I thought was better and put it in my bucket. Added 4cups of basic sugar and pitched the yeast. It didn't seem to do a dam thing. So 2 days later I repitched. Still nothing but I let it go. I moved it to a more temp stable place. 2 week later I opened it up filtered out the cider recleaned everything repitched and let it sit for 2 more weeks.
Ok so the time had come to see what I made. I opened up the bucket put my face in to get a smell and almost passed out from the alcohol smell. I kid you not. It was holy s@ strong and on the dry side, but it still had a nice apple flavor. So I filtered it out and instead of putting it in bottles I put it into mason jars. I like the look a lot better and I like how strong the jars are. Plus I get a dozen of them of $10 and they are all bell jars "the best ones they make".
So now I back sugared them with another 5 cups of regular sugar and dropped in whole stickes of cinnamon in each one. It had no carb in it, which I don't mind since I don't drink soda or Anyang carb.
This was all done 2 days before Xmas and the Xmas eve party went over great. Then I didn't touch them till New Years and hold fizz batman. It was nice and carb not sure if it was stronger or not. I really think the alcohol conter is in the teens. Bad thing is I didn't have the gear to test it till a few days ago. But I didn't care for all the fancy stuff. I just wanted good flav and I think I got it.
So now I am set on trying some additives on my next batch and not waiting so long on doing it again.
Thanks,
E
