I'm back to brewing after a nearly 20 year hiatus. I dabbled in extract brewing in the early eighties, then jobs, kids, life, etc got in the way. Somehow over the last year I've become increasingly interested in Cider - its history, brewing, flavors along with apples, cideries, etc. I'd really like to visit England, Normandie and Basque Spain to experience real cider culture but still have several kids in college so it's not going to happen any time soon.
Currently I have a 5 gallon batch of straight hard cider in bottles (fermented with wyeast cider yeast in November) and a second batch in a better bottle carboy of "New England style" cider (1 1/2 lbs honey and 1 lb raisins with 5 gallons Heritage juice I sourced from an orchard in Michigan fermented with muntons ale yeast).
I'd like to meet Chicago brewers and ciderheads (I live in the city not too far from Wrigley Field). I'm getting very interested in returning to beer brewing and am starting to read about extract brewing. We'll see.
Anyone up for an offline cider tasting?
Howard
Currently I have a 5 gallon batch of straight hard cider in bottles (fermented with wyeast cider yeast in November) and a second batch in a better bottle carboy of "New England style" cider (1 1/2 lbs honey and 1 lb raisins with 5 gallons Heritage juice I sourced from an orchard in Michigan fermented with muntons ale yeast).
I'd like to meet Chicago brewers and ciderheads (I live in the city not too far from Wrigley Field). I'm getting very interested in returning to beer brewing and am starting to read about extract brewing. We'll see.
Anyone up for an offline cider tasting?
Howard
