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?