chandlerbang said:

I want to make a simple mead. Like the grapey one you sent me. I already have the recipe, but I am worried about neglecting it. Can I just throw the honey, water, nutrients, and yeast in a carboy and forget about it? Am I going to f it up? My beers tend to get forgotten for a couple extra weeks sometimes in the primary, is this a bog deal with mead?

if its in a glass carboy, i wouldn't leave it for more than 3-4 months without racking, but i know people that have forgotten about it for a year and it tastes good.

generally just primary it for a month and then rack it and forget it exists until you feel like remembering

TomoLiver said:

"Brewed" a cider today.

5 gallons of apple juice
2 lbs of brown sugar
2.5 lbs honey (I'll add this in a couple days)

Used Wyeast 1099 ale yeast.

We'll see!

ale yeast in cider?! Rebel.

frydogbrews said:

chandlerbang said:

I want to make a simple mead. Like the grapey one you sent me. I already have the recipe, but I am worried about neglecting it. Can I just throw the honey, water, nutrients, and yeast in a carboy and forget about it? Am I going to f it up? My beers tend to get forgotten for a couple extra weeks sometimes in the primary, is this a bog deal with mead?

if its in a glass carboy, i wouldn't leave it for more than 3-4 months without racking, but i know people that have forgotten about it for a year and it tastes good.

generally just primary it for a month and then rack it and forget it exists until you feel like remembering

What's the problem with glass? Light? Or something else? I'll put it in the basement anyway.

Ah ok. Mainly to get it off the lees. I thought that is what you meant.

The egg smell goes away after a while....
I used Notty for my first Cider...... smelled nasty.... Cider was great...

I use a 6.5 gallon "better bottle" carboy for both Mead and Cider, I like it much better than glass.... well, at least my back does...... I wrap an old towel around it to keep out light.... dang thing is CLEAR....

this is what i use for cider and mead
just wrap it with a dark towel also

Benvarine said:

All my fermenters are in a basement bathroom with no windows. I check them a few times a week, very little light aside from the occasional light bulb to take a piss. I did move one upstairs in our bedroom, it wore a nice Browning flannel shirt for a few weeks.

LOL THATS FUNNY

entering time now for juice man. get ready. not sure what you're seasons are there for apples though, but in 2-3 weeks, its go time for me.
thinking about going 100 gallons of cider this year.
that's right, half my legal limit. worth it.

azscoob said:

frydogbrews said:

entering time now for juice man. get ready. not sure what you're seasons are there for apples though, but in 2-3 weeks, its go time for me.
thinking about going 100 gallons of cider this year.
that's right, half my legal limit. worth it.

Wow!

Could you just ferment it out in big blue food grade 55 gallon barrels?

yeah, if you had a good seal on the lid.
secondary will be a bitch though. but i think i will split it between 7 demijohn's or just buy a SS bright tank.

SeaBee said:

frydogbrews said:

entering time now for juice man. get ready. not sure what you're seasons are there for apples though, but in 2-3 weeks, its go time for me.
thinking about going 100 gallons of cider this year.
that's right, half my legal limit. worth it.

That's $700 worth of cider in Ohio. On a good day.

A: worth it
B: 400 bucks tops, in MO
C: now that i have our other house rented and i am not blowing 1100 bucks a month....i'm rich beaotch!

SeaBee said:

frydogbrews said:

SeaBee said:

frydogbrews said:

entering time now for juice man. get ready. not sure what you're seasons are there for apples though, but in 2-3 weeks, its go time for me.
thinking about going 100 gallons of cider this year.
that's right, half my legal limit. worth it.

That's $700 worth of cider in Ohio. On a good day.

A: worth it
B: 400 bucks tops, in MO
C: now that i have our other house rented and i am not blowing 1100 bucks a month....i'm rich beaotch!

A: Agreed, once I get better at making better stuff
B: EAD
C: I need a rental house!

Ha!

I'll be making a trip to the apple orchard here in a few weeks. While there I thought I would pick up some fresh juice and make a cider. I have never made one so I don't know the process. I also don;t really know what the different ciders are. What makes a cider dry? any advice would be helpful.

Have a cider question, does ABV and original gravity match as they seem to do in a beer, I have found that a wort with an og of 1.060 is going to ferment out to 6% in most cases, 1.075 is 7.5%, etc...does this hold true for cider?

frydogbrews said:

no, because cider can end anywhere from .990 to 1.010 depending on the yeast, the conditions of the ferment and even the ripeness of the apples.

**special note, fruit that is more ripe gives you more flavor, but also more unfermentable sugars. less ripe ferments much cleaner, but provides less flavor.

this is why overripened grapes are generally used for much sweeter dessert wines. (think late harvest ports, or "ice-wines")

Wow! I learned something new today! I was unawares of the ripeness/fermentable sugar relationship

I've started talking with @jeepinjeepin on another thread, but should probably be here.

Considering a Apfelwine, but maybe use honey instead of dextrose. Ed Worts recipe (google Apfelwine and just about everyone lists this or some version of it).

Would it technically be a cyser? Recipe calls for 2 lbs of dextrose, what's the equivalent of honey?

dextrose and honey are pretty much interchangeable in terms of fermentables and "exchange rates" except one offers a little more flavor and body (honey) instead of just booze and a headache.

Benvarine said:

What is a graff?

cider with some dme or lme added in.

C_dubbs said:

FromZwolle said:

Benvarine said:

What is a graff?

cider with some dme or lme added in.

I guess I should postie my graff recipe. I should also brew it again. It was a hit.

Let me clarify. I should "brew" it again.

mors said:

Graff is a made up malted cider beverage from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. :D

life imitates art.

no. never.

also, its filtered and pasturized, so it's not really honey at all.

jeepinjeepin said:

I figured. I saw foamy, pollen like stuff at the top. Was hoping for the best.

them's just bubbles. i used this very same honey for my burnt honey experiment. works fine for cooking and things like that.

Cider is on my list once I'm relocated, suppose I should read up a bit

FromZwolle said:

azscoob said:

Cider is on my list once I'm relocated, suppose I should read up a bit

juice, yeast, time, done.

fixed

Lakewood said:

Can I use thyme instead? I have more of that.

Why not? Give it a whirl, I have added thyme to saisons I've brewed.

I know you were joking, but really, thyme is a good brewin herb!

Benvarine said:

So I'm 13 days into my first cider. 2 g fresh pressed cider which I did myself, 3 g store bought cider. Two lbs of wildflower honey, the nutrients and such, and two packs of muntons ale yeast. I started at 1.055 and target is 0.99. I'm at 1.004 now and am in a plastic bucket. When would be a good time to rack to a Carboy? Also, do I top up to the neck? If I wanted to do another cider, could I dump cider right on top of the yeast I leave behind?

@frydogbrews would be best to answer this. but i would say you are safe to rack, you might want to rouse a bit of the healthy yeast back into suspension before transferring. as for the topping off, i would say yes. you are going to let this stuff hang out in there for a while. You want to minimize any potential for oxidation, so decreasing the surface area to a minimum is the right approach.

As for the re-pitch, I don't see any reason you could not pitch on top of that cake. at 1.055 OG that first batch didn't even make that yeast break a sweat.

I now patiently await fry to come in and tell me i've got it all wrong.

might also want to add a little nutrient when you start that second batch. juice has very little for the yeast.

I actually used Nottingham ale yeast. I tasted and I'm tempted to kill it off and drink it now. It tastes great, a bit sweet still which I like. I anticipated back sweetening at the end. It is not clear, it is cloudy now, but I'm fine with that. I'll probably rack and store for a while. So how is Nottingham in your opinion?

Notty's a fine yeast for cider. I have used it several times.

Mmmmm persimmons..... pure genius ...

I would add it after fermentation slows down ... to get more aroma

Benvarine said:

Would you add to secondary then? And rack off those before bottling or kegging?

in beers i always add stuff like that late to the primary, that way i can rack off of it to go to the secondary.

Ive not found any fining agents that are a sure thing. Filtering works but can change flavor. You can rent a plate filter at most homebrew shops

FromZwolle said:

Lakewood said:

Ive not found any fining agents that are a sure thing. Filtering works but can change flavor. You can rent a plate filter at most homebrew shops

i can't imagine filtering to have a huge impact on cider. there should be far less there to strip out than there is in beer.

that makes sense, though i dont have any real experience with cider so i can't verify what the impact would be.

Rack, and wait for it to clear before bottling

ceannt said:

Rack, and wait for it to clear before bottling

bottling? people still do that. :))

suckers

Or...... if it tastes fine to you, and your only concern is that it's cloudy ..... drink it out of an opaque mug, so the cloudiness won't offend you

As long as the cider was not heat pasturized (which would set the pectin), it will clear naturally. if it was heat pasturized you'll never get the haze out.
And filters do change the flavor of ciders to a noticable amount.
Wait 5 months after racking, it should be clear then.

if yes, then i'll just call it scrumpy and be done with it.

yes as stated if it was heated the pectin haze is set and you cannot get rid of it. To use pectin enzyme it has to be used prior to fermentation. It doesn't work in the presence of alcohol.

frydogbrews said:

FromZwolle said:

frydogbrews said:

As long as the cider was not heat pasturized (which would set the pectin), it will clear naturally. if it was heat pasturized you'll never get the haze out.
And filters do change the flavor of ciders to a noticable amount.
Wait 5 months after racking, it should be clear then.

since this was store bought 'cider' i can only assume it was pasteurized. would pectic enzyme be a waste of time?

if store bought, then yeah, call it a scrumpy.
They actually heat it up in order to fix the pectin on purpose because dummies think "cider" is supposed to be cloudy and otherwise it would all settle out while on the shelf.
It's quite obvious that we have the technology to preserve apple juice clear simply using vacuum seals and acid, that's why other juice isn't cloudy.

well, done and done. i'll get it carbed and drankin asap.

Not all store bought cider has set pectins though. It depends how it was stabilized.

it's on the long side, but not a huge deal as long as you kept the airlock topped up.

Mmmmm, honey.... http://gardenandgun.com/blog/southern-honeys