Hard Cider Experiment

I've seen a few youtube videos on making hard cider, but there are a lot of methods and none of them really seemed to resonate with me. So, I've made up my own and blended in a lot of what I read.

Here are the ingredients:

Whole Foods 1 Gallon Apple Juice at room temp
1 packet US-05 Ale Yeast from Safale
1/2 cup brown sugar
20 raisins

Key is that the apple juice contains no preservatives. It can be pasteurized  but cannot have preservatives.

So, I boiled like 1/2 cup of water and 20 organic raisins. I didn't count them, but I'm guessing it was between 12 and 20. After that came to a boil I smushed them and let it boil a few more minutes. Then, I strained off the raisins and kept the liquid. I put the liquid back into the pot and added 1/2 cup of light brown sugar and let that come to a boil and let it reduce. I wanted something I could pour, but I didn't want a lot of extra liquid.

So, I then took the sugar-raisin reduction and poured it into the gallon jug of apple juice using a sanitized funnel and shook it up. Then, I poured in a half packet of US-05 Dry Ale Yeast. I've read that you can use wine yeast and champagne yeast too. I happened to have some US-05 so I went with it. Again, I put the lid back on and shook it. Let it sit for 10 min and then shook the heck out of it again. Then, added a bung and an airlock. Note that normal airlock bungs for a carboy do not fit into the opening for this gallon jug of apple juice so you will need to find another drilled stopper from your local homebrew store. Then, I added it to my fermentation chamber where it is 68 degrees and let it sit. I'll update as time goes on.

Bad Smells

Okay, this BB3 smells horrible and has since the primary fermentation first started. I can't really describe it. Almost makes you gag if you get your nose right at the air lock. The kreusen was a light brown and enormous. Foam was all the way to the neck of the 6 gallon carboy and right on up into the airlock. I've been reading forums on a variety of beer sites and all the responses say to just chill and let the yeast have their big smelly party. It was a Wyeast 1010 American Wheat yeast. I made a yeast starter with it. Seriously that reaction in under 24 hours was crazy. So much foam! Saw nothing like that in my first two batches. And those first two were Ales and I though that they smelled darn good during the primary.

BB3

This third brew is a Wheat with a recipe from Hop City. I'm using RBC 342 which is supposed to have some Watermelon essence although I have smelled it and don't pick up on that. It does smell really good, very citrusy.

For this one I made a yeast starter. 1/2 DME and 2 cups of water were boiled and then cooled before I added my Wyeast American Wheat Yeast. I had already broken the nutritional packet and the pack sat at room temp for about 6 hours. It was fully swollen at that point. Then I put the flask on the stir plate and stirred it for 6-7 hours. Then put it straight in the fridge.

Also, I have a double sieve and will use that in my funnel when pouring the wort into the primary. For the first two BBs I used a siphon.

Okay, this one went pretty well except for the cool down with the wort chiller. I really overthunk it I think. Bottom line is that I think I should just turn the water on full force and leave it there. I have like 15 feet that coil into a bucket of ice water between the faucet and the chiller and was thinking if the water flowed through the ice water longer then it would get colder and therefore chill the wort more. So, I was adjusting the water force a lot and it took 40 minutes to cool it down.

This time around I took an OG reading. First pulled a sample with the beer thief and then I put it in the fridge until it got to 60 degrees and measured it -- 1.067!

The absolute best part though is that I used a yeast starter this time. A Wyeast packet left out at room temp for 6 hours then combined it with a DME/water mixture on a stir plate for 6 more hours. Put it in the fridge overnight and then pitched it the next day (with maybe a 30 min on the couter warm up.) See the stir plate, wort, and yeast video below. In the video I say I'm going to let it go all night, but I didn't.

That made so much difference I can't even believe it. In the next video and pics you can see just how crazy the yeast went in the first 24 hours. In my first two beers I don't think I even had one full inch of foam. This one was coming out the airlock! Gotta love it.

BB2

Bender Brew Number 2, or BB2, is an EPA - Extra Pale Ale. This was another kit from NorthernBrewer and got great reviews. Originally ordered with Safale US-05 dry yeast, I upgraded to Wyeast 1450 - "Dennys Fav 50" thinking that would lead to more sugar to alcohol conversion and a more vigorous fermentation. On the second point, definitely a more vigorous fermentation and it happened with less lag than the first beer   with US-05. We still haven't bottled this yet, so I can't say what the final OG is and how hard the yeast partied. This is a Gold Malt Extract with Cascade Hops which should create a clean, dry, very hoppy brew. I'm really hoping that the grapefruit hoppiness of Cascade really comes through.

Bottled it on 3/30 after 4 weeks of fermentation (15 days primary, 13 days secondary) and tasted it of course. Very light body with small hop flavor it seems. We'll see what happens after two weeks of conditioning.

Equipment Upgrades

I have fallen hard for this brewing thing and bought one gadget and one "fermentation chamber." The gadget is a little stir plate for really aerating/agitating the yeast starter. The fermentation chamber is a 5.3 cubic foot chest freezer. With an external temp controller, I'm able to hold the fermenting beer at just the right temperature. During the winter this isn't much of a problem, but as the weather here in Atlanta warms up so does this apartment and I can't be worrying about my yeast and how unhappy they are at 72 degrees+. With this chamber, I can relax and that is the way beer brewing should be really. Will be trying the stir plate and yeast starter technique this weekend when I brew #3 an Wheat Beer. Recipe from Hop City.

Bender Brew 1 Tasting

Well, this first one turned out great. All friends liked it. ABV is unknown, but people are saying between 5 and 7 percent. Means the yeast really had a good party. At this point, I think there are just 8 bottles left so production and consumption are still out of equilibrium. I'm just bottling Bender Brew (BB2) this Saturday so it will be two weeks before that one is consumable.

Scare

Two days after racking to the secondary I took a look at the carboy and the beer was MUCH darker than it had been in the primary. I don't know why. However, I removed the airlock and took a big whiff and it smelled good so I think everything is okay. Any idea why the color would darken at this stage?

Racking to the Secondary

Overall, this went well but will go great next time with a few tips. Biggest tip is not to do this in the kitchen where the counter tops are 33 inches high. Bathroom would be better. Even better would be the kitchen, but with the secondary fermenter on a milk crate. When you go to use that auto-siphon, you need the primary and secondary to be pretty close.

I filled up the bottling bucket with 5 gals of water and star san, then siphoned it into the 5-gal. I needed about another gallon of water to bring it to the next though. Sanitizing in the bucket were the: bung, new lock, siphoning tube, auto-siphon.

Also, pouring sanitizer water from the 5gal can be messy going into the sink. Try pouring back into the bucket. Then you can use that water to fill up the primary when you need to clean it.

Note: I tried to fit the siphon tube onto the bottling bucket spigot and it would not fit. I might need a different size for that or stretch it somehow.

Well done video here on racking to a secondary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG6kdJQGBkM

Primary Fermentation

At 26 hours we were bubbling about 1 bubble/second. Day 2, still bubbling well. Temp of the fermenter was up around 72-74 due to the endothermic reaction. I could not keep it cool in the closet. Day 3 it started to slow down with bubbling every 7 seconds. A few hours later on day 3 it was 1 every 14 seconds. Day 4, 1 per minute. Day 6, 1 per 1:24.  Did not check again until day 10 and it was over 2 minutes, maybe 3 I stopped timing it at 2 minutes.

Brew Day Step by Step

Here are my notes "pre first brew day." These will help me remember all the steps and the order of execution. I do not want any mistakes.

1. Add 5 gallons of water to the brew pot, add to the stove, and turn to high. Put on the lid.
2. To a stockpot, add some water and warm over medium heat. This is what I will use for warming the LME and for sterilizing additional water I may need to bring my fermentation volume to exactly 5 gallons.
3. Add specialty grains to the grain bag. Shake for smaller bits to fall out of the bag. Tie a knot in the top. Soak them in the brew kettle water bobbing it up and down to fully soak the grains. Tie the bag to the handle of the kettle. Keep the lid on. Start a timer and add thermometer. Grains come out at 20 min or 170 whichever comes first.
4. Start sanitation. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with water and 1 oz of starsan. Add the beer thief pieces, funnel, yeast pack, auto siphon, siphon tubing, scissors, bung, blow off hose, thermometer, hydrometer container, and bucket lid.
5. Pull out grains, let them drain a minute, don't squeeze the sack, and discard the grains. Put the lid back on and let it come to a boil.
6. At boil, remove the pot from the stove and pour in the LME stirring constantly. Then pour in the DME all at once stirring constantly. When well disolved, return the pot to the stove and get it boiling again. WATCH AND STIR to prevent boilovers.
7. When it returns to boil, and first hop edition and start a 60 minute timer. Watch for boilover. You may have to turn down the heat to MED because it will boil very fast and bubble and splash. Then bring the heat back up after it calms down to something less than high. 8 was working for me.
8. I won't mention the additions of hops since the recipes are going to vary, but assume you are adding hops at the times indicated on your recipe for the rest of the boil.
9. Turn up the heat on the stockpot to boil that water (sterilize it) and then remove it from the heat to let it cool down to room temp. Save this to add to the carboy to reach full 5 gallons for fermentation later.
10. At 5 min, add wort chiller to sterilize it. Submerge it good.
11. Attach the adaptor to the sink faucet.
12. At 0, turn off the stove and move the pot to a cooler surface. Hook up the chiller to the faucet and turn on the cold water. You want this chilled to 65 degrees in less than 30 minutes if possible.
13. During the cooling, sanitize the carboy by racking the sanitizer out of the bucket and into the carboy. Mark the carboy with electrical tape so that you know what 5 gallons is. Add enough additional water to bring the volume of water to the rim of the carboy.
14. Keep all the other sanitized equipment in the bucket, put on the lid.
15. Add water and some starsan to the blowoff container.
16. When wort is chilled, dump sanitizer from carboy.
17. Rack from kettle to carboy. Do not fear the foam. Aeration at this stage is okay. Add the remaining boiled and cooled water from the stockpot to the carboy to get the volume to 5 gallons.
18. Add the bung and swish the contents for a few minutes to aerate. Remove bung, cut top of yeast packet with scissors, pour yeast into carboy. 
19. Add blow off hose. Insert blow off hose end into blow off container full of water and sanitizer.
20. Place carboy somewhere dark and cool. Check your recipe for the correct temperature. Ales are about 60-72. My closet is right at 72 unfortunately.
21. Leave it here until primary fermentation is complete or leave it here for the primary and secondary.

Preparation

Research:

First, I bought Palmer's How to Brew from Amazon.com and read it several times. Great source. I also watch many youtube videos on all stages of the brewing process and ready many forums on the brewing topics. After all the reading and videos, I felt I was very well educated on all steps.

Brewing Supplies (Brew Kit):

I also researched starter kits on many websites and at my local home brew shop, Hop City. I settled on the NorthernBrewer.com Deluxe kit based on completeness of materials and price. It was the best bang for the buck and included primary and secondary glass carboy fermenters. The only additional items I needed were: Boiling Kettle (I bought a 7.5 gallon from Hop City), a wort chiller (which isn't necessary, but is really helpful and I plan on brewing for a long time), a glass carboy handle, and a faucet converter (so I can attach my kitchen sink faucet to my wort chiller.) I ordered the kit on Sunday and it was delivered on Friday. NorthernBrewer is in MN.

Bottles:

Buying brown bottles in a case is an option for $12.99 per case of 24 plus shipping, but I opted to dive into some Recycling containers and pull out what I needed. Luckily, I live in a condo building that has a bar on the first floor and all their bottle recycling containers are in the corner of our parking lot. With this huge selection, I can choose just the brown bottles that have no raised markings and have easy to remove labels. I pulled many varieties and soaked them in hot water and baking soda for 30 minutes. I found some brands that slipped right off and others that were more stubborn. Armed with this knowledge, I am only going to pull those brands from the bins. For Atlantans, the local SweetWater and Terrapin bottles had labels that were easiest to remove.

Beer Ingredients (Extract Kits):

As a noob, I have opted for extract brewing to start off as opposed to all-grain. It is supposedly easier although all-grain offers more control of flavors. With a 7.5 gallon stainless brew pot, I have the option for all-grain in the future if I want to try it. I bought two kits from NorthernBrewer called Chinook IPA and Extra Pale Ale. The former has all Chinook hops for Bittering, aroma, and dry-hopping as well as specialty grains for steeping. The latter is all Cascade with speciality grains as well. Each kit is complete with the grain steeping bag, yeast, DME, LME, hops and priming sugar. The hops are individually bagged for each stage (example: 1 oz for bittering, 1 oz for aroma, 1 oz for dry hopping.)