2nd Batch of Cider, RIP Dec 2010-May 2011

This is a sad occasion. Back in December my friend John and I attempted our second batch of hard cider. This past weekend he told me that it had come out ultra-carbonated (Like champagne shooting out the bottle) and it lacked sweetness and had an overpowering coriander flavor. He was disheartened at the fact and ended up throwing his part of the batch out.

Today I tried my own share, and he was completely correct. The cider had way too much coriander in it, and we learned the hard way that you simply do not put your seasoning ingredients in the primary. We also made the error of adding pectin enzyme to the secondary when it should go into the primary. Other errors were adding brown sugar to the racking phase for carbonation (Possible impurities possibly affected this batch and this probably blew up the fizz) when we ran out of cane sugar, not taking any gravity measurements (That would’ve helped tracking the fermentation process and the ABV), and not keeping better account of our measurements of ingredients – especially the cinnamon and coriander.

The third batch will be a much more basic affair. This time since some of the harder beginner lessons out of the way, this one will be carefully measured and tracked, along with keeping the extras to a minimum. I really want to get filtration down so that yucky stuff stays out of the bottles. I’m also doing this one solo, because I know have my own brewing stuff at my house.

Kay Sara Sara though, lessons learned, time to learn some new ones….

 

Cider Log: October

I first made hard cider for the first time back in June. It’s currently in secondary fermentation in my closet. I’ve steadily learned a lot since then, and it’s been a really fun process. Here is a snapshot of sorts recording where this started, where I’m at now, and where I plan to go.

June

My buddy John and I decided to make cider.

Our first batch consisted of store-bought Whole Foods natural cider and cinnamon added for seasoning. We named our cider “Frankenstein.”

Our supplies came from Cornhusker Beverage and Bridal. Oh and Amazon too.

The first source we used for cider making instructions came from a page on Instructables.

The cider aged in primary for 1 month, per the Instructables page, and we racked in July.

July

Racking was done with no filtration. We didn’t know how to do it anyway and wanted to see what raw, unfiltered cider tasted like.

We used bottles bought from Cornhusker Beverage, but started saving our empties from other beers to recycle.

John couldn’t keep his hands out of the cookie jar and opened up his cider in August. I think his half of the batch is gone now.

My half went back to my home, where it’s still fermenting.

August

John started drinking his cider.

We both sampled the cider. It was cloudy and had a yeasty aftertaste, but was otherwise dry, somewhat similar to an English hard cider.

I could tell it needed more aging when I tasted it, but wasn’t sure how much longer I should let it go. I planned at this point to let the cider go for 6 months.

September

We made our 2nd cider batch. This time we used both cinnamon and coriander, along with Musselman’s natural cider.

Our goal for this batch was to learn more about filtration. We also started to research apple presses and crushers.

I started going to Reddit’s homebrewing page and lurking, scooping up tips and stories about homebrewing.

We went to Brew Haha to taste some local craft brewers and rate them for “homework.”

We both decide to rack the 2nd cider batch in October.

October

I posted a thread on Reddit’s homebrewing page asking about filtering. The Redditors were helpful. The most common suggestions were:

- Using pectin enzyme

- Triple racking the cider

- Fermenting the cider longer in the primary stage

- Fermenting the cider longer in the secondary stage

We’re putting all those to work on our 2nd batch and to the 1st where applicable.

We now plan on making our 3rd batch. John wants an “apple pie” cider similar to Woodchuck’s fall cider. I’m thinking nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cinnamon will help us achieve something close to the apple pie flavor he wants.

The Future:

- Purchasing a crusher and press

- Purchasing orchard-grown apples

- Testing blends of apples for cider flavors

- Racking the 2nd batch for secondary

- Putting the 3rd batch in primary

- Devising our 4th batch and beyond

I’ll put another log up once our 2nd batch is racked.

 

New Batch, New Commitment

As I write this another fresh batch of cider is sitting and fermenting in my friend’s basement. The last one was split between us, and he chose to imbibe while my share is still aging for another three months. I’ve tried our cider and it’s a bit on the yeasty side, but there is a slight English, dry characteristic to its flavor. This is good for I’d feared that it would come out too fruity and sweet. For this batch I want to research filtration. Also I want to know whether it’s better to season and spice the cider before fermentation, or to add such spices later in the process after filtration. Cider is a different creature than beer. It’s a shorter process, about three steps instead of seven, but there are many nuances to this procedure about which I’m still learning. It’s an exciting process really.

With that said my friend and I have decided to commit and look into a crusher and press, so we can commence using orchard apples in the summer. I figured that using store-bought cider usually makes 48, 12 oz bottles of cider come to $0.55 per bottle out of our pockets, so it costs us around $26.40 to make cider each time out. It also takes 180 apples to make a batch of 5 gal of cider. So the question is whether it’s cheaper or not to buy apples from a local orchard, or to continue buying cider from the grocer? I digress though. My point was I’ve found what seems to be a good starter kit at Cabela’s. It’s a $369.98 investment, but we’d be able to fully create our own, original recipes, which is something I anticipate greatly. Our most recent batch contains cinnamon, vanilla extract and coriander, and there are other spice combos I’d like to try as well.

So with Christmas coming up, well, I’m not asking for money or something for free, but I would love you forever. Just sayin’.

 

Beverages, the Irish Way

I have an affinity for Ireland and Irish culture, due partly to heritage (My mother’s side is Scots-Irish) and interest in the Celts (Longtime foes to the Romans). As such I like to look up Irish recipes and find out what those folk like to drink and eat.

The first thing that I’ve learned is that, while minding stereotypes, the Irish seem to regard beer and whiskey as important to their daily lives. For example, want to make an Irish drink better? Add whiskey to it. Like Irish coffee, which I’m sure many have heard of, which is a mixture of whiskey, cream, coffee and sugar. Less well known outside Ireland though is red lemonade. On its own it’s a soft drink, but like Coke is a go-to mixer for rum and whiskey here in the States, red lemonade is frequently spiked with whiskey by the Irish. Then there’s Irish Cream, which is just a liqueur made from whiskey and cream. If you order an Irish Car Bomb (I recommend you do NOT call that drink by that name if you happen to order it anywhere on the British Isles), adding the whiskey to the Irish Cream is just adding more whiskey to the overall concoction. The car bomb of course is a mixture of an Irish stout (Guinness usually, but Kilkenny, Murphy’s and/or Beamish will do as well) and naturally Irish whiskey – Jameson’s is common in America, but there are plenty of others from which to choose. “Shamrock bomb” is what you can call it in sensitive environments.

Moving on from whiskey, one I’ve not tried but looks interesting is a liqueur called Irish Mist. It’s a spiced drink with heather and clover honey, and is served with cola and limes. It sounds like a counterpart to Celtic Crossing, itself an answer to Scotland’s Drambruie. Thus it implies this is a dessert drink more than a good accompaniment to an entree, or for social enjoyment like a whiskey.

Now what is European alcohol without cider? Fortunately Ireland answers that with Magners/Bulmers, a popular hard cider not unlike the UK’s Strongbow. Bulmers is dry, not too sweet and comes in tall cans and bottles like other British Isles ciders. Mix it with a Harp lager and you’ve got a snakebite – not cider and stout, as is commonly confused. That is called a Poor Man’s Black Velvet.

Then there’s Irish moonshine, poitin (Pronounced poo-teen). A hard liquor made from barley or potatoes, it’s known for being up to 60-95% ABV, and was illegal to produce in Ireland for export for 325 years, and only allowed to sell to other Irish in 1997. Two brands officially sell poitin, Bunratty and Knockeen Hills. Bunratty is the easier-drinking brand at 45% ABV, while Knockeen Hills dials that up to a full 90%. Think of it as Irish Everclear.

Now for the other most famous drink in Ireland: leann dubh, or black ale. You know it as Irish stout. The most famous of them all is Guinness. It’s considered by most American drinkers to be a severe beverage choice, for they usually stick to ultra-light lagers that taste like fermented water. To the beer snob though , Guinness is a starter drink; it got us onto serious stouts like Old Rasputin, Wychwood Hobgoblin and others. To this date I prefer Kilkenny of all Irish stouts, but it’s very hard for me to find in America. Substitutes more available include Murphy’s and Beamish. It’s a myth that stouts have really high calorie counts. 1 pint of Guinness is 210 cal, compared to 12 fl oz of Budweiser, 145 cal (16 fl oz is 1 pint). It makes a difference if you’re a binge drinker, but not if you want to actually taste your beer and enjoy it. Guinness Extra Cold is a super-chilled variety not available in the US that smooths out Guinness’ flavor, which makes me wish it was here, because maybe then more Americans would try it. Mix Irish stouts with champagne, and you get a Black Velvet. Put a lager over stout, and you get a Black and Tan; however, black and tans are not popular in Ireland because of its association with the Black and Tans, or the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force.

And there you go: a primer for how the Irish like to drink.

 

Bottled Up, Ready to Age

Tonight we bottled up the cider. Ours is still pretty cloudy, so we’ll see what the aging process does as far as clearing up the brew goes. The mixture came out very tasty though, even without any additional aging done. It’s still pretty yeasty, which will be fixed with future attempts. When the cider has spent some more time down in the basement, I’ll post additional pics here. For now here are shots of the bottling session.

 

Bottling Time

Remember this? I posted this on June 20. Well it’s almost time, as in time to get to Cornhusker Beverage and pick up racking and bottling supplies!

 

J.K.’s Organic Scrumpy Cider: Grandpa-Approved

Credit J.K.'s Scrumpy Cider

This is a tasty cider I’ve recently tried and want to share: J.K.’s Scrumpy Cider. It’s an organic, farmhouse-style hard cider made in Flushing, Michigan. It’s packaging easily blends in with old world style ciders and the flavor is in short, fucking fantastic.

First off, what’s scrumpy cider? I’ve heard of it, but honestly didn’t know what it was or what classified it from any other hard cider. Scrump means withered, and scrumpy is a kind of dry cider made in Western England, traditionally from partially withered apples. J.K.’s Scrumpy uses orchards that were owned by founder Jim Koan’s great-great grandfather. There is a ton of history behind this farm and the company founded around the Koan farm’s cider. For the fermenting process, Koan describes the process as such:

There are only two ingredients in our Orchard Gate Gold: Juice and Yeast . No artificial flavors or colours and – of course – no sulfite nor preservatives of any kind.

This is all a very time consuming process, but it is tradition and it’s the right method for us to produce this old world drink for your enjoyment.

I strive to make the best cider possible using these old methods and the traditional family recipe. There will be slight variations from bottle to bottle and year to year. This is a natural product.

The cider is USDA certified organic. To some that might be no more than kind of a gimmick, but that quality of organic vs. non-organic produce is not a debate to be held here. The flavor is what matters. J.K’s is a very apply, sweet and fruity cider. Dry is not a word to use at all when describing this cider’s flavor. Compared to other US cider brands like Woodchuck, J.K.’s differs from Woodchuck, which can have an almost too-sweet

character, almost like soda at times. (Woodchuck, to my knowledge, doesn’t add HFCS or sugar to sweeten its flavor, but that’s something for which I need more info). What you’re

tasting with J.K’s is more like straight-up apple juice with the characteristics of a fermented beverage in the background. It would be all too easy to drink this stuff up and be drunk

before you know it. This would be a great holiday drink, mulled with some spices and served hot. As for value, where I got it (Spirit World in Omaha, NE) it was about $6.99 for a 22 oz. bottle. Thus it might be pricey for a regular cider; if you want to drink cider regularly, Woodchuck, Hornsby’s and maybe even a sixer of Strongbow may be a better value. As a specialty drink though, or for special occasions, J.K’s is the way to go.

In the end I think this product is pretty special, and I’ll be having more in the future. Plus my grandpa loved it and all he drinks is Bud Light. If a good drink can convert someone set in his ways, I think that’s a mark of something special.

 

There it is.

Now to wait for a month for the fermentation and clearing.

 

So, I’m getting married.

And first thing’s first: I fucking hate strip clubs. Go ahead, try and revoke my man card, but you know what’s not sexy to me? Desperation and stripper oil. Also I think I’ve implied through my coverage of beer and brewing that for me, alcohol isn’t a contact sport. It’s the hard-won result of craftsmanship and talent, to be savored, not guzzled. So to celebrate the end of my bachelorhood, I’m doing it in the best possible way I could have been offered: to finally finish that cider brewing project I announced weeks ago.

That, some good craft beers and an Ipod packed with stoner rock are all I need to kiss my “freedom” goodbye (Though admittedly I have no idea why people refer to singledom as freedom. I enjoy my relationship w/ my future bride and she has no problems with me buying guitars or making cider, for that matter. Lucky me. That’s why I’m marrying her!)

Soon, this will be mine.

 

Adventures in Brewing

My friend Jon and I had the notion to sit down, plan out and make our own hard apple cider a few weeks ago. Today I just received my stoppers, airlocks, tubing and brewer’s yeast. We’re more or less using this DIY guide from Instructables. All we need is the cider and the carboys, and we’ll be ready. After years of drinking delicious cider, soon I will make my very own. This is momentous. This calls for a song.