Hard Cider 2007

I got some pals of mine to go in on a large batch of hard cider. Originally I was only gonna make 1 gallon of the stuff, but enough requests rolled in.

This was gonna be more of a communal thing, and I was going to have them bring by "their" jug of juice to toss in the carboy. But since I've got a busy season of brewing this Fall and Winter, I couldn't delay.

To simulate the combination of different juices coming from different people, I simply grabbed 3 different jugs of pure unfiltered apple juice. One organic apple blend and one organic gravenstien from Whole Foods, and 1.5 gallons of fresh apple cider from Trader Joe's. I've heard that blending apples for hard cider makes it come out better, so I hope this blend works well.

I had some Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast laying around for about 2 months just waiting for an opportunity like this. My friends over at the Brew & Grow also highly recommend using this yeast for ciders. A half gallon start was made, and the yeast took off right away.

I added some brown and white sugar to lend a fuller flavor. Adding the juice from one lemon will add some acidity for fermentation and aid in the final product. I was also thinking of adding a little ginger for an interesting tang, and some spice for spiciness, but since this is my first, I'll keep it simple.

All I did was dissolve about 2 cups of brown sugar and about 2 cups of white sugar into 1 gallon of TJ's Apple Cider and rose it to about 160 for about 30 minutes or so. Then cooled it. Then poured it into the carboy along with two more gallons of organic apple juice.

Brewed on 9/28/07
Winding down but still fizzing on 10/8
Racked: Just primary
Bottled: 10/23/07

Barley Wine

I will confess, this was an impulsive batch of beer...my first barley wine. I blame it on two brewers who have sparked my interest...or I guess I would say thanks to Brian and Travis. With all your recent talk and brewing of wine-like barley beer, I've decided to follow along. It would be really great to have a tasting of these in 6 months or so. But, what an adventure it was.

On Friday, I was planning on racking the Simcoe 100 to its secondary/dry-hop tank, but instead found myself having lunch with my brother, Becki & Cadence over at Goose Island. I noticed they had a barley wine at over 10% ABV. So I tried my first sip of barley wine. Pretty good. So at that moment, I asked David if he would like to brew one. I told him I already had a huge yeast cake of Wyeast London Ale.

Next thing I know, we're over at the Brew & Grow picking up ingredients for a 3 gallon batch. I formulated the recipe right then and there. We tried to keep with as much British ingredients as possible. After getting home and plugging the ingredients into a calculator, I found out I had just bought enough malts and hops. A close call.

I told David to get here at 8am cause it was going to be a long day. We started the mash at about 8:30am and finished at around 4pm. The boil lasted 4 hours! After 2 hours of boiling, we poured one pot into the larger. At the point where we knew we only had about an hour left, in went the bittering hops.

I was surprised to see that the yeast was having difficulty getting going. Probably because I cooled the wort down in a cool water bath to about 65°F. So later in the day on Monday I took it out, and it started to show signs of digestion. But then the wort rose up to the high side...74-78°F. Bummer. But it will probably turn out just fine. Since fermentation slowed down fairly dramatically by mid day Wednesday, I started a tipping regiment. A couple times a day I angled the 6-gal carboy and turned it to get most of the yeast into solution. Bubbling picks up nicely after tipping.

Barley Wine

Grains
10.5 lb. Maris Otter Pale Malt
1.0 lb. Munich Malt 10L
1.0 lb. UK Crystal 60L
.75 lb. Flaked Barley
.25 lb. Belgian Biscuit
.125 lb. Crystal 80L
.125 lb. Special B

Hops
3.00 oz. Kent Goldings, 5%, pellets, 75min
0.25 oz. Chinook, 12%, pellets, 60min
1.00 oz. Kent Godlings, 6.5%, whole, 20min
1.00 oz. Kent Goldings, 6.5%, whole, 10min
1.00 oz. Kent Goldings, 5%, pellets, 5min

Yeast
Wyeast 1028 London Ale, yeast cake from previous batch

Brewday Stats

Brewed: 8/26/07
Racked: around 9/20/07
Bottled: around 10/18/07

Strike Water: 4.83 gal/163.4°F
Mash Temp: 152°F
Mash Ph: Acidic
Mash Out: No
2nd Batch Water: 3gal/192°F
2nd Batch Temp: 168-169°F Perfect!

Pre-Boil Volume: 6 gallons
Pre-Boil SG: 1.061
Total Boil Time: 4:17 hours
Post-Boil Volume: 3.5 gallons

OG: 1.107 (2 points below target)
IBU's: Approx. 123
SRM/Color: 13-18/Amber
FG: 1.027
ABW: 8.4%
ABV: 10.5%

Estimated Mash Efficiency: 73.5%
Cost: $31.50, $0.85/12oz. bottle, $5.10/6-pack

Progress

1. Lag time for fermentation was long because I cooled the wort and kept the carboy in a cool water bath at about 64*F
2. Took carboy out of batch, and yeast showed signs of digestion
3. Tuesday it is fermenting well, but on the high side of temperature range. Only about 1-1.5 inch of kraeusen foam
4. Kraeusen fell away by mid-day Wednesday. Since it didn't appear to be as active, and ended sooner than later, I'm a little weary of the gravity at this point. I've been "tipping" the carboy (3.5 gallons wort in a 6 gallon carboy) to break up the whole yeast cake into suspension, and it definitely gets the airlock bubbling again. Did this a couple times a day for a few days.
5. 9/10/07 - After 15 days in primary, and totally quiet, racked to a new 3 gallon secondary fermenter. Specific Gravity (SG) = 1.0267 & ABV = 10.54%. Overall it tastes quite good. Malt sweetness, sweet cherries among other medium-dark fruits. Solid hop bittering & flavor balance which will both age/mellow nicely and benefit from an addition of dry hops during the last month of bulk aging. It has a moderate-strong body and lends to a full mouth-feel. Though I like its texture, I wonder if this will lessen a little with age and after its chilled and carbonated. So far...so good!
6. After hearing Basic Brewing's podcast about blending beers, I am making plans to blend portions of the Old Ale with other beers. I'll definitely blend it with a portion of this Barleywine.
7. At bottling, and after stirring in the priming solution to the carboy, I noticed a layer/pad that was resting on the bottom, broke up and was suspended in the beer. It look very much like a layer of mold. Not knowing what it was, I proceeded to bottle after it settled to the bottom.
8. Didn't add any yeast at bottling and it didn't carbonate. Will add yeast and see if that works. Otherwise, I'm impressed, it smells and tastes great, and is crystal clear.
9. After about 5 weeks, added yeast to all the bottles and they've been sitting in the furnace room above 70°F

Toast to Erik

Yesterday, my friend Erik had a final exam in French. Its a class he's been studying throughout the summer. Later that evening I decided to make a toast to congratulate his achievement. I thought it would only be proper to celebrate with some good champagne. So I opened a 12oz bottle of homemade bubbly.

It turned out to be a fun evening of chatting. Erik arrived in Chicago Monday evening, and Erik's Jeanie flew in that evening. It was nice to play a little catch-up, after our baby fell fast asleep. Here you can see Erik is deep in thought but totally relaxed and free, and Jeannie admiring it's lovely color.

This was an impulsive batch of fermented juice. After racking the Belgian Strong Ale, I simply could not let all that great performing yeast go to waste. So I looked around for something to ferment. In the pantry was a 64oz. bottle of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice, and in the refrigerator was about 32 ounces of TJ's Organic White Grape Juice.

After sterilizing a 4 liter flask fermenter, I just poured everything in and gave it a good swish. It started to ferment in good time, and fizzed for a few weeks. After about a month I transferred it to secondary for clearing.

What started out as a vibrant pinkish-red colored must, transformed into a medium yellow with a slight blush in the round of the glass. It seems like the yeast somehow absorbed all the pigment from the juice because it was pink sludge in the end. This was a total experiment. I am very pleased to find it was a total success. It tastes very tart and dry, and very much like a robust champagne. I gave it some priming sugar to build up bubbly in the bottle. In the end I got a couple 22oz and a number of 12oz bottles. It's exciting to know that I have some good homemade champagne to use in celebratory occasions like this one.

Felicitations Erik!

Merci de lire ce blog.

Dandelion Wine

While taking a leisurely morning stroll through Winnemac park with David and my baby Cadence, we stopped to look at all the dandelion patches. David already told me about sensible foraging tips. And after locating what looked like pretty healthy and undisturbed patches, we started gnawing on some of their leaves. Dandelion is a source of potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus and iron. The leaves are a richer source of Vitamin A than carrots and contain some amounts of Vitamins B, C and D. So then we had the idea to make some dandelion wine.

The next morning we cycled back to forage. Looking at some recipes online informed us that we had to pick a good 2 quarts of flower petals. While Cadence ran around in the wind, we sat down and plucked away. It's a good thing we got there early that morning, because the ground crew were already out cutting the lawn. We collected our bounty just in time.

All the recipes for dandelion wine called for water and white sugar. Not so good for our tastes. Instead we decided to go with a mead recipe that was close to one I made before. Here's the recipe we came up with.

Dandelion Wine
1 gallon
Brewed 5/17/07

2.5 lbs. Raw Honey
75 oz. Organic White Grape Juice
64 oz. Dandelion Tea (2 qt flowers in 64 oz. water)
1 Large Lemon Rind & Juice
1 Minneola Rind & Juice
.5 tsp yeast nutrient
Irish Moss

Wyeast Dry Mead Yeast

I include this one as a "healing beer" because it has a lot of healthy fermentables in it. After it's fermented, hopefully it will be a refreshing and healthy beverage. Our goal is to drink it fresh/young in September as our final CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) organic food shares come in.

We are excited to support a local organic family farm out in Brodhead, WI. Its called Scotch Hill Farm. They grow over 100 varieties of vegetables and herbs in rotating crops throughout the year and make all-natural goat milk soaps. Tony drives into Chicago to deliver the produce every week at a number of locations (Oak Park, Logan Square & Ravenswood).

CSA organic food shares/recipes will add a lot more meaning to the beers and wine we make. Hopefully we will uncover a synergy of Slow Food meals matched with great tasting home made beers & wine.