Cider 2.0 - My assumptions were wrong

So I have to take back at least part of my assumption that this cider wasn't going to clear. It did settle out quite a bit from what it was and even though I forgot to add the pectic enzyme before fermentation it's pretty damn clear from where it was. The last cider aged for two months, this one aged for 1 and it may have continued to clear out if I let it go another month.

I've given my back sweetening regimen in a couple other posts but I'll reiterate here. 2.5tsp potassium sorbate,1 500ml bottle of wine conditioner and 1 gallon cider frozen and the concentrate dripped out. 

Here are some pictures of the sophisticated concentrate extract process.

This is how the cider looked after fermentation but before the pectic enzyme and a month of clarifying.

Here are a couple of photos after the clarification aging.

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So after assuming this cider wouldn't turn out because it didn't clear immediately and because the initial taste test after fermentation was lacking, I have to admit that with back sweetening it's just as good as my last cider. I used the same recipe and it tastes pretty much the same. It's a little darker in color and nowhere near as transparent but those are visual competition issues not worth evaluating for a house cider. The "dryness" still isn't as clean as I expected but after sweetening its no longer distracting.

All in all I'm pretty happy with this cider. Now that I've made a cider from commercial concentrate and a fresh local cider mill I don't see what all the hype is about over fresh cider. I actually like the results better from the commercial cider for both dry and back-sweetened versions. The commercial version was also $1 cheaper per gallon than the local fresh cider. While I 'm willing to pay the extra to support a local business I won't do it if the results are sub-par as they were in this case. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't be a cider snob just because you've read some posts about how superior fresh milled cider is, my experience hasn't proven that to be true

Enjoy some more photos from the process.

Here are the individual parts.

Clarity Pics

The sediment

Horse Barn Brewery Maiden Voyage

I put the finishing touches on the new brew room this past weekend and was finally able to start brewing!

For the most part the dedicated room improved my brew day. I'm not competing for the kitchen when people are hungry and I don't have to walk across the house for every piece of brew gear. Instead I just turn around and take two steps and have the room to myself.

As expected there are some kinks to work out. I originally planned on running a "T" from the water line and run water by the door where the burner's sit. Sometime during the build I decided this wasn't worth it because the sink is only 4' from the door, my mistake.

I realized during the brew that the faucet I chose for the sink does have a standard fitting so my faucet to garden hose connector won't work. This was OK for yesterday because it was still 50 degrees f but January in N.Y. is more like 0 degrees f so hooking to the hose outside is less appealing. Also it caused my burner area to become a hazard.

I've also recently started whirlpooling and cooling with a plate chiller which has come with some problems of it's own. I have a chugger pump and if you stop it during during whirlpool or cooling it doesn't like to start up again. Apparently the fix is to drill the impeller with a 17/64th drill bit. I hate to do this to a pump I paid $160+ for but I guess I don't have a choice, it's a super pain in the ass when the pump stops working. I have to switch to the immersion chiller and possibly finish the whirlpool by hand.

All in all brew day in the new Horse Barn Brewery was a success. I brewed an IPA because I'm completely out of beer after a 6 week hiatus to build the brew room and I wanted something grain to glass in a short amount of time. All the hops went into the whirlpool and they smelled amazing (Chinook, Cascade Centennial and Amarillo). I missed my numbers by .003 which I didn't think was too bad considering I ended up boiling for an extra 20 minutes (at a lower heat) while I worked out my pump/chilling issues. I was short by 1/2 gallon which explains why my gravity was high, no big deal and not bad for day 1.

Here's to many more happy brew days in the Horse Barn Brewery, Cheers!

Hard Cider 2.0 - Upgrades aren't always better

It's that time of year again where cider has inundated the market place. The last time I made hard cider was my first attempt. I used an organic commercial cider and it turned out pretty fantastic. It's shown below on the left. This time i decided to use a local cider mill for my source cider because it's supposed to make the best hard cider.

I got into a bit of a hurry with this cider because I was in the middle of building a new brew room and it was taking up all my time. This caused me to forget the pectic enzyme before fermenting the cider. You can add the enzyme after fermentation but alcohol will inhibit it from clearing as well as it does before fermentation. This was a mistake because the fresh local cider it pasteurized using ultraviolet light only and doesn't go through any other process than press, pasteurize and package. As you can see from the image on the right it's a very cloudy cider and much darker than the Musselmans was.

I tasted this years cider after fermentation and if my memory is serving me it's not as good directly after fermentation as the Musselmans was. I remember the Musselmans having a very clean champagne dryness to it and thinking I could drink it just like this. The local cider wasn't nearly as good. It has a more muddled flat taste. Not as clean tasting and I wouldn't drink it the way it is.

There could be a couple reasons for this. It might have something to do with the missed pectic enzyme and clearing of the cider, but I doubt it. It's more likely the source cider (type of apples, lack of filtering) or the fact that I added 2lbs of brown sugar to increase the alcohol in this batch. I would expect the sugar addition to dry the cider out more but not muddle it up. At this point it's a mystery.

I'm not going to give up on this cider because I planned on back-sweetening it anyway. This will go a long way to improving it and I don't care much about clarity anyway. I'm not planning to enter it in any competitions and looks are the last thing I worry about.

At this point the ciders been clearing for about 3 weeks and pretty much looks the same as it did in these pictures. The pectic enzyme didn't do it's job which is probably because this ended up being a 7.5% ABV cider instead of a 5% cider. The brown sugar brought the gravity up 1.058-1.059 and it finished at 1.0001 ( a little high for cider).

I'll post an update after I back-sweeten, package and taste.

Grogtag Coaster Enhancement

I've been working on building a dedicated brew room in my "garage" which is actually an old horse barn. Anyway I created a custom logo for my new "brewery" and had coasters and a metal signed made up by www.grogtag.com. The coaster are just like a bar coaster made of cardboard but maybe a little thinner. Since I bought them mainly for decoration and I don't want to be buying them all the time (especially at $10 for 4) I had the bright idea to laminate them so they would last longer. Unfortunately they were just a little too thick to fit through my laminator so I did a little searching and found you can use an iron on a lamination sheet under a pillow case to seal them. Here are some pictures of the process and results.

I realize the coasters are made from cardboard so they will absorb moisture but I'm fine with wiping them down after use. In the future I may buy a large stack of them but for now this should help keep costs down.

I used the grogtag template to test the first one so I wouldn't ruin my coasters.

I laid out 4 per sheet but I would recommend three because it forced them too close together in the middle and I had to reseal them after cutting.

Pre-Heated setup

Covering with the pillow case

Cover the entire sheet with the pillow case, this was just for show

After sealing before cutting 

A little closer view 

The final product with a beer and my 11.5x13 inch sign for good measure

A picture with the three extra's they sent, unlaminated. I'm going to use those for decoration on my kegerator.

Building a Dedicated Brew Room

There seems to be a progression that many homebrewers go through, it goes something like this:

• Start brewing extract on the stove
• Move to all grain, still boiling on the stove
• Get a propane burner, start boiling in the garage, patio or porch but still mashing and prepping in the house
• Wife kicks you out of the house so you're full time outside
• Tired of this shit, build a brew room/house!

I'm finally on the last stage of this progression after 4-5 years hombrewing and I've started construction on a brew room in the barn. It's come together fairly quickly but I've had to make a few compromises in size along the way based on the structure I was building in.

I have been trying to keep the costs to a reasonable level, this is just a hobby after all, but of course like any building project it's looking like I'll be spending about 20% more than I originally calculated.

Here are some pictures of the project.

This is the building the room is being built in

A few updates