Happiness is...

[RobertN]

I'm a home brewer....beer that is. Tony

Check with folks in your local area, and brew store. For a years, we had a bunch of us that got together 3 or 4 times a year for dinner and beer tasting. Everyone would bring a few of thier latest beers. One time, we tasted 26 beers
Do a web search for the Home Brew Digest. Lots of good brewing info there. I was one of the first 50 or so people there, back before the world wide web; forums like this were email based. Look for the recipes and "Cat's Meow" recipe files.

 

[RobertN]

I'm a home brewer....beer that is. I've just bottled my 4th batch. Tony

Try this. you'll also find it in "Cat's Meow" on the HBD site. This is one of my very early recipes from around '90. Note I was in a hury back then; hadn't learnt to relax and let it age...

I would also use a more modern liquid yeast in this now. Back then I used dry yeast. An Irish Ale yeast would work nice.

Maple Syrup Stout

Tasted good at bottling, although the maple flavor was masked by the "greenness" of the beer. It took a few weeks to age, but then the sweetness and light flavor of the maple syrup was perfect.

Ingredients:
6 pounds, dark extract (syrup)
1--1/2 ounces, Bullion boiling hops
12 ounces, MacDonalds Pure Maple Syrup (No, not Ronald McDonald syrup! ;-) )
4 ounces, chocolate malt
8 ounces, crystal malt
1 pack, Whitbread Ale Yeast
3/4 cup, corn sugar (priming)
Procedure:
Place the grains in 150 water, steep for 1/2 hour.
Remove grains.

Add extract syrup.

Bring to boil, and add hops.

I boiled for a full hour, adding the Maple syrup during the last five minutes of the boil, like a finishing hop. I didn't want to boil off the maple aroma.

Ferment took place at about 65 degrees. this stuff fermented fast! I racked to the secondary in 48 hours, and then bottled five days later.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Cheers, Robert! I've been very absent from brewing since shortly after I got my tractor so, it's nice to a new brew. If you can measure gravities like beer, could you kindly pass along OG and FG's of your cider? I've never done cider but am quite interested since your post.

 

[dmccarty]

The books about cider and Southern apples arrived and I'm reading them as fast as I can find the time. Very interesting.

Robert, what kind of cider are you using? A mix or whatever you can get?

Does the hard cider taste real sweet? The bottled stuff in the store has been too sweet for me.

The book on cider mentions an apple that tastes aweful to eat. The author said he was in an orchird growing these apples, took a bite from one and then spent the next five minutes or so spitting trying to get the taste out of his mouth. But this apple is grown for ciders and work very well.

Later,
Dan

 

[Chuck52]

Dan,

I've been planting apple trees for the last few years. a few at a time, and one of my goals is to get a good mix of types for hard cider. The DW (I'll use that instead of SWMBO) says I can buy my own press whn the trees finally start making enough apples to squeeze. From what I've read, the object of a good mix of apples is to get enough tart and bitter sharp apples in the mix to balance the sweetness. I've got several varieties that will make decent sugar content, and a few which should give me the tartness, but I don't really have a bitter sharp yet. The classic bitter sharps are all British, and though I could get some of those from Vintage Virginia Apples and some other places, I would prefer to find one that has been grown successfully here in the states. I do have some crabs that should provide some of the tannin content of the bitter sharps, like Geneva and Whitney, but I'll have to see how that works out. I have another crab on order which is supposed to make up to 25% sugar and also have a well balanced flavor, and I can't remember the name right now. Aaarrgh....Old Timer's is getting me. Anyway, it may do the trick. On the other hand, I made a cider once from pure Jonagold juice that came out very nice. Of course the juice was straight from the orchard and so the apples hadn't mellowed like Jonagolds can do.
I do agree that the commercial ciders, at least the common ones I've had, are too sweet. What I always shoot for is a slightly sweet carbonated cider. It's difficult to leave some sweetness and still do a natural carbonation. I've caught some batches at just the right stage and refrigerated the bottles, but mostly I end up with dry cider. OK, but a touch of sweetness allows the apple flavor to come through more to my taste. I may end up going the kegging route.

Chuck

 

[HomeBrew2]

... I may end up going the kegging route...

Definately makes life simpler. Using the 5 gal soda kegs is rather economical, MUCH easier, and does allow for artificial carbonation to any desired level. If you do so, shop around for your kegs ... price varies widely.

 

[RobertN]

Robert, what kind of cider are you using? A mix or whatever you can get?

I am not sure of the blend; I have always got the juice from two places up in Apple Hill. I had asked years ago, but don't remember now... It's definitely a blend, I know it has Golden Delicous, but not sure of the others. Biggest thing is it is fresh, and not pasteurized.

In regards to the sweetnes, it depends on the yeast. In the past I have used an attenuative yeast; it ate up most of the sugar. It also took away some of the apple flavor. With a little bottling sugar, it was almost champagne like.

I have used a less attenuative yeast; it was still very appley tasting, and more sweetness.

For this batch, I am trying the White Lab English Cider yeast; it was no available when I made cider before. We'll see in a few weeks. It has been fermenting for a week now; it's still bubbling through the airlock...

 

[RobertN]

could you kindly pass along OG and FG's of your cider?

Sorry to say, but I did not measure OG. I'll look over at HBD and see if they have infor for honey and brown sugar; maybe I can calculate something.

 

[HomeBrew2]

No prob, just curious. You're sure getting a nice long ferment

 

[HomeBrew2]

Robert, my girlfriend (lives in city, visits periodically) was interested in your story when I told her about it so she brought up some generic unfiltered, organic, whatever, apple juice. I put it in a plasic one gallon jug that she brought and drilled a hole in the cap for the air lock. The only yeast I had left, that hadn't expired, was some Nottingham. I measured the volume of the 11g pack and divided by 5 ... put 1/2 tsp + a tad on top of the juice.
It's "getting happy" now ... no krausen but, has the airlock thingy is pegged against to top OG (original [specific] gravity) was 1.050 +/-. If this works out to my advantage, I may owe you a few beers