A friend of mine has a huge apple press every year on his farm. The makes a big deal out of it with a family-friendly party. Everyone helps out washing apples, carrying them to the homemade press (this huge hydraulic press) and bottling. I suggested to him that we should turn some of it into hard cider and he was more than excited to offer up 5 gallons.
So right now I have 5 gallons starting to ferment. I decided to go with Nottingham yeast (my LHBS didn't have US-05) for my first shot at this. If I'm successful then I'll likely go with a cider yeast next year and likely make more than 1 batch.
My first step was to get all of the cider into my bucket and I put in 5 campden tablets (1 tablet per gallon of juice). The potassium in the campden tablet will help to stop any natural yeast/molds/fungus in the apples from eating on the sugars. With putting those in however, you need to give it time to dissipate out. They say at least 24 hours. Due to timing constraints, I let it go 48 hours.
It did take some time to see some active fermentation and even now, 3 days since pitching, the fermentation is still VERY slow. I can see some krausen starting to form on the surface but it seems much slower than beer. I was expecting this but was hoping it didn't take this long. Lots of people on the forums mention a delayed start to fermentation. I'll just keep watching it for the next few days and maybe take a reading (OG 1.051) to make sure it is actually fermenting.
After around 2 week I'll plan to transfer the cider to a carboy and add some pectic enzyme to help clear out the cider. I'll then let it sit for around 4 to 6 months before kegging.
So now its just a waiting came on this. I'm very excited to see how this turns out over the winter/spring.
I'll post some updates during the process.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
So Important to Keep Track of Your Brew Day Stats
I'm a number's guy. From the time I was a kid I always loved organization and keeping statistics. I'm not talking like hardcore college level crazy stats that drive you mad, just basic stuff like keeping the baseball stats of all of my friends when we played in the street or keeping a list of my baseball cards. Yeah, I know kind of weird, lame, nuts and maybe even a little scary.
Now that I'm a brewer, keeping my brewing stats has become a bit of an obsession. I'm slowly building out the tabs on my spreadsheets with new calculations. I've really only been keeping good stats for the last 4 batches or so (I'm 14 batches into the hobby). Batch 8 was my first AG batch and my first few AG batches I was so focused on process that I didn't really care if I hit my numbers. I just wanted to not screw it up and make drinkable beer. Now that I feel comfortable with my equipment and process I'm really trying to do a better job about keeping good stats so I can learn from each batch and include that knowledge in the next batch.
My last two batches I've come up a little short of 5 gallons for the fermenter. I see now, its due to trub loss. I choose not to put all of the "junk" into the fermenter just to make volume. I account for trub loss when I calculate what I need for pre-boil volume. But the trub lost from this last batch was higher than the trub loss from the previous batch. I also used an ounce and a quarter more of hops, so I'm going to watch this situation to see if the amount of hops I put into the boil dictates how much trub loss to anticipate. It won't be perfect, but it should be better.
To get better volume estimates in my kettle (aluminum 7 gallon pot with no marks), I bought stainless steel BBQ skewers from Lowes. They are 24" long, cost like $5 for 4 of them and fit perfectly into my kettle. I just measured out the volume and marked them with a permanent marker. I used to us a wood stick, but I found I was missing volumes and I think it was because the wood would expand as it absorbed some liquid.
I'm also finding my efficiency is coming up lower than I'd hope for. So I need to adjust for that and see if I can improve there.
Again, I wouldn't know if I could improve my process and quality of product if it wasn't for keeping good brew day stats. For those of you that don't care, that's fine. Just wing it an enjoy like you are doing. For you folks that are very process oriented like me and want to know why you may or may not be hitting your numbers (OG, volumes, etc), I urge you to keep better track of your stats and learn from it.
Now that I'm a brewer, keeping my brewing stats has become a bit of an obsession. I'm slowly building out the tabs on my spreadsheets with new calculations. I've really only been keeping good stats for the last 4 batches or so (I'm 14 batches into the hobby). Batch 8 was my first AG batch and my first few AG batches I was so focused on process that I didn't really care if I hit my numbers. I just wanted to not screw it up and make drinkable beer. Now that I feel comfortable with my equipment and process I'm really trying to do a better job about keeping good stats so I can learn from each batch and include that knowledge in the next batch.
My last two batches I've come up a little short of 5 gallons for the fermenter. I see now, its due to trub loss. I choose not to put all of the "junk" into the fermenter just to make volume. I account for trub loss when I calculate what I need for pre-boil volume. But the trub lost from this last batch was higher than the trub loss from the previous batch. I also used an ounce and a quarter more of hops, so I'm going to watch this situation to see if the amount of hops I put into the boil dictates how much trub loss to anticipate. It won't be perfect, but it should be better.
To get better volume estimates in my kettle (aluminum 7 gallon pot with no marks), I bought stainless steel BBQ skewers from Lowes. They are 24" long, cost like $5 for 4 of them and fit perfectly into my kettle. I just measured out the volume and marked them with a permanent marker. I used to us a wood stick, but I found I was missing volumes and I think it was because the wood would expand as it absorbed some liquid.
I'm also finding my efficiency is coming up lower than I'd hope for. So I need to adjust for that and see if I can improve there.
Again, I wouldn't know if I could improve my process and quality of product if it wasn't for keeping good brew day stats. For those of you that don't care, that's fine. Just wing it an enjoy like you are doing. For you folks that are very process oriented like me and want to know why you may or may not be hitting your numbers (OG, volumes, etc), I urge you to keep better track of your stats and learn from it.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
CMI Oktobersbest 2011
Last night was my first CMI Oktobersbest Competition. I entered 3 beers (Cream Ale, APA & Milk Stout) and unfortunately I didn't place with any of them. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed after coming off my first place Amber Ale at Dayton DRAFT's BrewFest. However, the real reason I enter is to get feedback. And so far that feedback has paid off. I've entered that Cream Ale into two competition now and my score increased from 29 to 35. I'll keep working that recipe until I either win something or my score doesn't improve.
The highlights of the evening were the special guests. Three time Ninkaski winner and author Gordon Strong stopped by to judge the competition as well as hang out for the award ceremony. I wish I would brought my copy of "Brewing Better Beer" for him to sign.
(Gordon Strong - center)
Besides Gordon Strong, Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing company was in town on this book signing tour and stopped by to give out some of the awards. He was there only a short time but it was pretty neat for him to stop out. We took a CMI group picture with him and I hope to get a copy of that.
Overall a good evening. Another great competition to enter if you are looking for one. It continues to grow and I can't wait to see what they do next year!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Last time you checked your gas connections?
Last night I went down to the kegerator to get a nice refreshing home brew off the tap. Something didn't seem right about the pour so I checked the co2 pressure. To my surprise, my 10 lb tank was empty! This tank was on its 5th keg and at 10 lbs there so be no reason why it would be empty already.
I went down tonight and found I had a leak in the tube going to my manifold from the regulator. This may have been the first time I checked the gas lines. I check the beer lines when I change out kegs, but never the gas lines (this was only the 5th keg I've ever had on tap)
So this is you PSA for the day, check your gas lines and make sure everything is tight and sealed.
I went down tonight and found I had a leak in the tube going to my manifold from the regulator. This may have been the first time I checked the gas lines. I check the beer lines when I change out kegs, but never the gas lines (this was only the 5th keg I've ever had on tap)
So this is you PSA for the day, check your gas lines and make sure everything is tight and sealed.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Water Chemistry Tools
Since my second batch of all-grain, I've been adjusting my water with brewing salts to try to get the mash pH in an acceptable range (5.2-5.6ish). I had my water tested through Ward Labs (Test W-5) so I knew what my existing water was (I take it from a spigot not connected to my water softener).
I've been lucky that up to this point only having to put in around 2 grams of CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) in each mash. That's because I've used very little Crystal malts in "pale" ales. However, this weekend I'm going to brew a porter and my crystal malts (C-40) makes up around 9.5% of my grist. This causes a little trouble with my pH. I'm not going to go into why this is causes issues with my water chemistry. You can learn more about that here. I do want to talk a little about some water chemistry tools that's I've used. I believe you want to do the least amount of adjustments as possible!!!! There are negatives to adding brewing salts as well.
From the beginning, I've used "EZ Water Calculator" and its been great. Its very easy to use and gives a simple output. I highly recommend it if you are doing light colored pale ales.
I was not as comfortable with it however putting in my numbers for the Porter. The numbers just seemed too low and it seemed like I had to make some wild adjustments to get it within a good range. This could very well be the case, I'm not blaming the software for my pH, but it sent me to the message boards to get some answers to questions about what I should do. My post received a reply talking about "Bru N' Water". I think I actually like this water chemistry tool better. It is definitely much more robust and one could easily get caught up in all the numbers if they have never done any water chemistry before, but I found that it does a great job in showing what it is doing. I like to see why, I can't just accept it.
Excluding the pH, all of the numbers match up pretty well between the two tool. The EZ Water Calculator had me almost 0.2 pH lower than the Bru N' Water. It did make me feel more comfortable on how much more information Bru N' Water asked me about my existing water. It helps as well that Gordon Strong mentions Martin Brungard as one of his go to water people in "Brewing Better Beer" (Read it! Was hoping to write a review but haven't got around to it yet).
Though I have not test the Bru N' Water estimates yet to see if it actually works better, we'll see on Sunday and I'll plan to give a report on that.
I recommend you give them both a shot. I'm not going to write some drawn out thing about how to use them, blah blah blah. But I wanted to at least give you some sources of where to get tools for water chemistry and I'll let you decide what you like best. Like I said, they are both good, I just prefer one over the other now.
John Palmer also has his own here, but I seemed to like that one the least. Though he gives detailed instruction, I still am now on the Bru N' Water bandwagon.
What this whole thing did teach me is that I may not mash my crystal malts with my base malts anymore, especially if it will greatly impact my pH like my porter recipe seems to be. You don't really need to mash your crystal malts. Gordon Strong talks about that in "Brewing Better Beer". What you do it steep them like when you did extract batches with specialty grains and then add to the boil. By doing this, you don't run into as many pH issues by having only base or roasted grains in the mash. I've always had my LHBS mill all my grains together, this is likely the last time.
I've been lucky that up to this point only having to put in around 2 grams of CaCl2 (Calcium Chloride) in each mash. That's because I've used very little Crystal malts in "pale" ales. However, this weekend I'm going to brew a porter and my crystal malts (C-40) makes up around 9.5% of my grist. This causes a little trouble with my pH. I'm not going to go into why this is causes issues with my water chemistry. You can learn more about that here. I do want to talk a little about some water chemistry tools that's I've used. I believe you want to do the least amount of adjustments as possible!!!! There are negatives to adding brewing salts as well.
From the beginning, I've used "EZ Water Calculator" and its been great. Its very easy to use and gives a simple output. I highly recommend it if you are doing light colored pale ales.
I was not as comfortable with it however putting in my numbers for the Porter. The numbers just seemed too low and it seemed like I had to make some wild adjustments to get it within a good range. This could very well be the case, I'm not blaming the software for my pH, but it sent me to the message boards to get some answers to questions about what I should do. My post received a reply talking about "Bru N' Water". I think I actually like this water chemistry tool better. It is definitely much more robust and one could easily get caught up in all the numbers if they have never done any water chemistry before, but I found that it does a great job in showing what it is doing. I like to see why, I can't just accept it.
Excluding the pH, all of the numbers match up pretty well between the two tool. The EZ Water Calculator had me almost 0.2 pH lower than the Bru N' Water. It did make me feel more comfortable on how much more information Bru N' Water asked me about my existing water. It helps as well that Gordon Strong mentions Martin Brungard as one of his go to water people in "Brewing Better Beer" (Read it! Was hoping to write a review but haven't got around to it yet).
Though I have not test the Bru N' Water estimates yet to see if it actually works better, we'll see on Sunday and I'll plan to give a report on that.
I recommend you give them both a shot. I'm not going to write some drawn out thing about how to use them, blah blah blah. But I wanted to at least give you some sources of where to get tools for water chemistry and I'll let you decide what you like best. Like I said, they are both good, I just prefer one over the other now.
John Palmer also has his own here, but I seemed to like that one the least. Though he gives detailed instruction, I still am now on the Bru N' Water bandwagon.
What this whole thing did teach me is that I may not mash my crystal malts with my base malts anymore, especially if it will greatly impact my pH like my porter recipe seems to be. You don't really need to mash your crystal malts. Gordon Strong talks about that in "Brewing Better Beer". What you do it steep them like when you did extract batches with specialty grains and then add to the boil. By doing this, you don't run into as many pH issues by having only base or roasted grains in the mash. I've always had my LHBS mill all my grains together, this is likely the last time.
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