Cloning Ithaca Beer Co.'s Flower Power-Pt. 5: Bottling & Kegging

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homebrew side by side taste testWhen we left off with the Flower Power clone, I had just finished dealing with an especially troublesome blow-off situation. Fermentation was so vigorous that it was pushing hop material into the blow-off tube and causing it to literally blow off the carboy. With that issue resolved, fermentation continued without a hitch.
Last week I dry-hopped the beer with a big dose of American hops: Simcoe, Amarillo, and Centennial. A little taste test at the time gave me high hopes for this beer!
When I dry-hopped the beer, I took a gravity sample. I was a little surprised to find the beer at 1.014, five gravity points below the estimated final gravity! It’s not a big deal, it just means that the beer will be about 8% ABV instead of 7.5%. I think it’s safe to call this IPA a double!
You may have noticed I never did a secondary fermentation with this batch. The reason? Simply because I’m out of fermenters! Between the cider and the mead I’ve got going, I’m all out! We’ll see if skipping a secondary fermentation has any negative impacts (I’m guessing it won’t).
So after about five days of dry-hopping, I decided to go ahead and package the beer.
Since I’d like to enjoy some of the beer on draft, I decided to keg half of the batch in my three-gallon keg and bottle the rest. It creates a little extra work to both keg and bottle, but now I’ll be able to send some bottles to friends and family.
Here’s the step-by-step for both bottling and kegging a batch of beer:

  1. Clean all bottles, equipment, caps, and keg. It’s a lot of cleaning, but it’s worth it. You may want to review instructions for cleaning and sanitizing a keg.
  2. Sanitize all bottles, equipment, caps, and keg.
  3. Prepare priming sugar for the bottles. I used a brewing calculator to calculate how much corn sugar to use for 2.5 gallons of beer and a digital scale to measure it out.
  4. homebrew kettleFill keg. The trick here is to have the bottling bucket cleaned, sanitized, and ready to go, so you can quickly move the tubing from the keg to the bottling bucket. (Note to self: buy one of these!)
  5. Fill bottling bucket, mixing in the priming sugar solution as beer fills the bucket.
  6. Fill and cap bottles.

 I took another little gravity sample and taste while filling. The hop flavor and aroma are huge with citrus and spice notes! This one’s going to be good!
Check back soon to get the side-by-side comparison between the Flower Power clone and the original!
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Review the whole Flower Power clone brewing process below:

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David Ackley is a beer writer, homebrewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Basic Water Management for Extract Brewing: Part 2

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water splashed on bottle of beerGuest blogger Matt Chrispen shares some tips for adjusting water chemistry when brewing with partial mash recipes. This is part 2 of a 3 part series. To get the whole story start with Part 1.

Dry Malt Extract (DME) and Liquid Malt Extract (LME) products contain minerals from the mashing process. These minerals provide flavor nuances to the beer and the specific concentrations are proprietary to the maltster, but they directly influence the flavor and mouthfeel of recipe. Extract brewers can further enhance their recipes with additional minerals.
Introduction to Minerals for Brewing
Since the extract brewer is not mashing grain, we can focus solely on flavor components. Ion concentrations of sulfate, chloride, magnesium, and sodium influence perceived flavors and mouthfeel.

  • Gypsum or Calcium Sulfate increases calcium and sulfate ions levels. Sulfates generally enhance dryness and increase the sharpness and bitterness of hops.
  • Calcium Chloride increases calcium and chloride ion levels. Chlorides tend to round out and enrich mouthfeel and enhance malt characteristics.
  • Sea/Kosher Salts or Sodium Chloride (without iodine) increases sodium and chloride ions, and like calcium chloride can enhance sweeter malt forward beers. Not recommended for an extract brewer, except in very traditionally salty styles, such as a gose.
  • Magnesium Sulfate increases both magnesium and sulfate ions. Malt extract should contain sufficient magnesium to support healthy fermentation. Only in specific cases is magnesium sulfate useful to an extract brewer.

Water choice is important. Hard water (already rich in minerals) will add minerals into the beer in unknown amounts in addition to the extract’s contribution. By using reverse osmosis (RO) or distilled water, we can exert more control without risking off-flavors, providing a clean starting point for mineral additions.
To keep things simple, we can rely on gypsum and calcium chloride for “seasoning” our homebrew, and the resulting sulfate, chloride, and calcium ion contributions. As mentioned above:

  • Shop Water TreatmentSulfates enhance perceived dryness. Increases perceived hop bitterness and sharpness. Pale Ales and IPAs often have elevated levels of sulfates, but large amounts can be off putting.
  • Chlorides enrich perceived mouth feel and malt flavors. Many darker, malt-driven beers benefit from a small amount of chloride.
  • Calcium is beneficial in lowering the boil pH and precipitating proteins (hot and cold break). While there is no direct flavor impact, the resulting wort is clearer and more stable.

These flavors are recipe driven, and should be used appropriately and in moderation. A hoppy pale ale may need a little gypsum where a malty porter might benefit from calcium chloride.
In Part 3, we look specifically at applying these minerals to general beer styles.
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Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
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Matt Chrispen is a passionate, experienced home brewer, craft beer fanatic, and collector of brewing gear. He also maintains a blog on advanced brewing topics at Accidentalis.com.

Homebrew Hacks: How to Figure Out How Much Fuel is Left in Your Propane Tank

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Propane burnerMany homebrewers enjoy using an outdoor gas burner and a propane tank for homebrewing. It’s usually faster than brewing on an electric stove and it allows you to brew outside. But how can make sure you don’t want to get caught halfway through your boil with an empty gas tank?
One method to prevent a frustrating situation is to have a spare propane tank on hand. This is definitely a good idea. But if you’re DIY-er or haven’t had that chance to exchange a tank, you might find it helpful to know whether you have enough propane to get through a brew day.
Here’s what you need in order to figure out how much fuel is left in your propane tank for homebrew day:

  • a propane tank
  • a scale with at least 40 lbs. capacity (for a 20 lb. tank)
  • records of how many brews you’ve done since the last fill up
  • a calculator

Here’s how to figure out how much propane is left in your tank:

  1. Weigh your propane tank.
  1. Check the rim of the propane tank, near the handles, for a stamp that shows the tare weight of the tank. This is usually labeled “TW.” The tare weight is the weight of the tank when it’s empty.
  1. Subtract the tare weight from the weight of the tank to find the weight of the fuel left in the tank.

Now, to calculate whether you have enough propane to get through a brew day:

  1. Determine how much fuel has been used so far by subtracting the remaining fuel from the fuel tank capacity. For example, you find that you have 5 lbs. of fuel left in the tank. Assuming the tank was a full 20 lbs. to begin with, that means you’ve gone through about 15 lbs. of fuel. (For best results, you will have weighed the tank right after you bought it to have an accurate starting point.)
  1. Take the amount of fuel that has been used so far and divide by how many brews you’ve done on that tank. Checking your homebrew notes, you know that you’ve done five brews with this tank. Divide the total fuel used (15 lbs.) by the number of brews (5) to arrive at how much fuel you typically use per brew (3 lbs.).
  1. Estimate how many brews you have remaining. Continuing with the example above, if you have 5 lbs. of fuel left and you use an average of 3 lbs. of fuel per brew, you have about 1.67 brews left in that tank (5 / 3 = 1.67). After your next brew, you should definitely refill or exchange your propane tank!

Are you curious whether propane burners save time over electric stoves when homebrewing? Check out Bryan Roth’s Water Boil ExBEERiment.
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David Ackley is a beer writer, homebrewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Leigh Erwin: 2015 Plans

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woman with glass of wineI hope everyone is having a great New Year so far! I’m looking forward to spending a lot more time improving my home winemaking technique in 2015, and hopefully cranking out some more quality wines!
I’m so excited to have my own room dedicated to winemaking. It’s a great upgrade from the teeny tiny space we had previously in our old condo.
In our new house, we also have a two car garage. While I probably can’t do too much with both of our vehicles in there, I am looking forward to using it as needed to do the more “messy” parts of home winemaking, including sorting and pressing fruit and the like. If I don’t have enough space when both cars are in there, I’ll just move one of them into the driveway for a day or so until I’m finished with whatever I’m doing related to home winemaking.
Once I’ve got everything completely unpacked, I’ll finally be able to start making wine again. So excited!
Here are my goals for this new chapter in my home winemaking adventures in 2015:

  • Get set up in the new “winery” room in the new house.
  • Start 2 wines at the same time instead of just working on one (maybe stagger the start time by a couple days or so).
  • Attempt to make wine starting with whole fruit instead of concentrate.
  • Make a rose style wine.
  • Make a “weird” wine (i.e. something that someone wouldn’t associate with ever being a flavor of wine).
  • Make another mead wine that actually tastes good (sigh).

The first goals that I plan to do are to set up the new winery room, and to start two wines around the same time. Which wines should I try? I think I’ll do both a white and a red to get things started.
Looking through the wide selection on the ECKraus website, for the red I’ve decided to order the Cellar Craft Showcase Collection: Rosso Fortissimo. The description listed sounds amazing: “Super-Tuscan styled wine vinted from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese and other native Italian varieties. Fermented on Yakima crushed Merlot grapes. A big, full-bodied wine with solid structure and bold fruit notes. Complex cassis, plum and cherry notes balance the bold tannins. French and American oaks contribute toasty vanilla and greater depth in this intense wine.”Shop Wine Kits
For the white, I’m going to try the California Connoisseur: Gewürztraminer. The description reads: “Its aroma is similar to that of raisins with some noticeable hits of anise and mint. Very spicy. Its flavors are intensely fruity and instantly bring to mind: apples, pears and grapefruit. Some cinnamon flavors as well.”
To get back into the swing of things, I’m going to do complete kits for both wines, since it’s been a little while since I’ve actually be able to make any wine. I hope I’m not too rusty!
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leigh_erwin_bioMy name is Leigh Erwin, and I am a brand-spankin’ new home winemaker! E. C. Kraus has asked me to share with you my journey from a first-time dabbler to an accomplished home winemaker. From time to time I’ll be checking in with this blog and reporting my experience with you: the good, bad — and the ugly.

Basic Water Management for Extract Brewing: Part 1

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water for brewing beerMatt Chrispen, a blogger at Accidentalis.com, shares some of his advice about water management for extract brewing. The first step: choosing the right water source.
There is a myth that good tasting water makes good tasting beer… this is just not true. With many good water sources, you need to decide which will make the best beer. Water chemistry has less impact on the extract brewer, but starting with the right water will help you have the best chance at a great beer.
Tap Water: Tap water contains either chlorine or chloramines to deliver safe water to your home. These chemicals must be removed or will cause off-flavors to form in the beer that taste strongly of chemical plastics, vinyl, or iodine. Filtering slowly with active charcoal, letting the water stand, or boiling the water will remove chlorine, but treatment with potassium metabisulfite or Campden tablets will fully eliminate both chemicals. Often it is best to both filter and use Campden tablets. Tap water quality can also fluctuate due to seasonal issues.

  • Using Campden Tablets: For brewing, use ¼ tablet per 5 gallons of brewing liquor. Crush the tablet and vigorously stir it into the bucket of water. The reaction is fairly immediate, and you may smell a bit of sulfur.

If you have a water softener, use the water tap before the softener to avoid excessive levels of sodium or potassium in the water.
Well Water: Professional tests should be run to ensure that organic, metallic, or chemical contamination is not present such as iron or fertilizer residue. If the water is safe, then evaluate its hardness. Low to moderately hard water, low in alkalinity is preferred for brewing.
Store Bought Spring Water: Most bottled spring waters are filtered (the treatment varies) and have re-mineralized the water ensuring a good taste. You can also purchase these in convenient 5-gallon carboys. The mineral concentration will be added to the minerals in the extract. However, the consistency of bottled spring water is preferable to seasonable quality changes that often affect tap water.
Shop Water TreatmentTap, well and Spring Waters contain dissolved minerals that impart flavor and mouth feel to your beer. Be careful adding minerals, which might, in concert with minerals already in the extract, create strong mineral or metallic flavors. Experiment for the best results.
Reverse Osmosis (RO), De-Ionized (DI) and Distilled Water: Some stores offer filtered water products in bulk. In addition, home RO or RO/DI filters have become quite common and inexpensive. Distilled water is also a good choice. These water sources are really ideal for extract brewing, and offer the best basis for adding minerals as part of your beer recipe.
Water is the fundamental ingredient (up to 97%) in beer. Your tap water may make good beer, but try an alternative source and see if things improve. Choosing the best quality water will ensure your extract recipes have the best chance of becoming great beers!
In Part Two, we will explore the use of common mineral additions to enhance and tweak your extract and partial mash recipes.
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Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
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Matt Chrispen is a passionate, experienced home brewer, craft beer fanatic, and collector of brewing gear. He also maintains a blog on advanced brewing topics at Accidentalis.com.

Can I Legally Make Wine At Home?

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When my grandfather started E. C. Kraus back in 1966, wine making at home was illegal, so was home brewing. The truth of the matter was, he was selling supplies for the purpose of making an illegal substance. Never thought of it that way until just now, but that’s how it was.
But all that changed when legislation was carried into Congress by Senator Alan Cranston of California. This legislation would make it legal for both home winemakers and home brewers to make their delectable beverages. It was signed into law with little fuss by President Jimmy Carter and became law on February 1, 1979.
The bill made it Federally legal for a single adult household to make up to 100 gallons of wine and beer each year, and up to 200 gallons for a households with two or more adults. This law still remains in effect to this day.
Here are some things you should know:

  1. It is still very illegal to distill alcohol at home. Distilling is very different from wine or beer making and was not covered in the new legislation in any way.
  2. The bill does not allow for the sale of homemade wine or beer. So don’t think this gives you a green light to set up shop.
  3. Shop Wine Making KitsWhile this legislation made in okay to ferment alcohol at a Federal level, at the time of the signing there where laws in many States that still made it a crime to produce alcohol. It wasn’t until 2013 that the last states made legal to make beer or wine in some capacity. Some States do have varying restrictions.

Even with these few caveats, it’s still great to know that you can legally make wine at home without fear of prosecution of some sort. So get some cookin’ invite some friends over an share and have comfort knowing are doing it legally.
Thanks Senator Cranston!
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

My First Mead

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Mead in a fermenterAfter attending a mead-making workshop and listening to some tips from the pros, I’ve decided it’s time to make my first mead! Since it’s my first go-round, I’m keeping it simple: honey, water, yeast, and yeast nutrient. If the flavor needs adjusting later on, I can easily do that during secondary fermentation, but for now, I’d like to start with the basics of making mead.
Preparing the mead couldn’t have been easier. I actually mixed it together while making a batch of homebrew, so it took essentially zero extra time out of my day. While the malted grains for my beer were steeping, I mixed the honey and the water for the mead in a fermenting bucket. Since this is my first try, I’m just doing a one-gallon batch.

My First Mead Recipe (1 Gallon)
1 qt. blackberry honey
3 qts. reverse osmosis water
1/2 pack Lalvin 71B wine yeast
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient, added in fourths over 72 hrs

Since there is no boiling or mashing in making mead, mixing the ingredients together was a cinch:

  • Pour the water into the sanitized fermenting bucket
  • Pour in the honey
  • Add 1/4 tsp. of the yeast nutrient
  • Mix well with a sanitized stirring spoon
  • Pitch the rehydrated yeast

*Note: Rehydrating the yeast is simply placing the yeast in a small amount of pre-boiled water at about 100˚F. Just practice good sanitation and follow the directions on the packet.
 
All in all, the mixing of the mead probably took about 30 minutes tops, including rehydrating the yeast and cleaning/sanitation. Per Michael Fairbrother’s recommendation, I set the fermenting bucket in my new fermentation chamber at 62˚F.

shop carboysStaggered Nutrient Additions
You probably noted that the yeast nutrient in the recipe was divided into four parts. Many mead makers suggest adding yeast nutrient gradually during the fermentation process. I followed Michael Fairbrother’s recommendation again, adding a quarter teaspoon of the yeast nutrient during the initial mixing step, then a quarter teaspoon each at 24 hours, 48 hours, and 72 hours into fermentation. Pretty easy. Once again, sanitation is really important any time you open the fermenter. Sanitize the stirring spoon, the teaspoon, and anything else that may come in contact with the mead when adding the staggered yeast nutrient additions.

So that’s it! I’m planning to leave the mead alone at 62˚F for about three months before transferring it to a one-gallon jug. I’ll taste the mead at that point to decide whether to add any tannin, acid blend, or any other flavorings to enhance the mead.

Have you ever made mead? How did it turn out?
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David Ackley is a beer writer, brewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder and editor of the Local Beer Blog.

Cloning Ithaca Beer Co.'s Flower Power-Pt. 4: Primary Fermentation Mishaps

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Beer Fermenting With Blow OffThis is part 4 of cloning a Flower Power IPA from Ithaca Beer Co. In part one I discussed how I researched and went about developing the clone recipe. In part 2 I showed how I went about calculating some brewing water adjustments. In part three I went over how the brewing process went. Now, in part four I’ll go over how the yeast pitching went and how primary fermentation is doing.
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Primary fermentation is usually one of those “hurry up and wait” situations where you just watch the yeast chug along and the airlock bubble away. But that’s not always the case.
After pitching the yeast starter for my Flower Power clone, I watched as the krausen grew on the surface of the wort for about 24 hours. Then the airlock started its telltale blip, signaling that CO2 was leaving the fermenter. Fermentation temperature was in the mid to upper 60s and everything was looking great. But by the second day of fermentation, I started running into some problems.
This Flower Power clone is a relatively high gravity beer, with an original gravity of 1.075. That translates to the unfermented wort being about 18% sugar. About 48 hours into primary fermentation, the yeast started going nuts!
Upon checking the fermenter one afternoon, I found that the fermentation had blown the bung right off the fermenter and was slowly spewing yeasty goodness all over my fermentation chamber! At this point, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before and wasn’t cause for much concern. Besides, the beer smelled amazing. So I cleaned up the fermenter, the bung, and the airlock, and rigged up a blow-off tube to handle the excessive krausen. Within minutes of doing so, the pressure inside the fermenter blew off the blow-off tube!
It took me a couple repetitions of cleaning and replacing the tube to finally figure it out, but what was happening was that the krausen, being laden with a significant amount of hop material, was getting clogged on its way out of the fermenter. Pressure inside the fermenter would build until the bung would pop right out.
Shop Beer Recipe Kits
I attempted an alternative to the blow-off tube: wetting a paper towel with sanitizer solution and using a rubber band to secure it at the mouth of the fermenter. But this didn’t work either.
So how did I get past this messy situation?
I discovered that the airlock that I had been using had a small crosspiece at the base, a little “X” that provided a barrier for hop material to get stuck on and become clogged. What eventually worked was switching out the base with an airlock without the little X – you can see how this airlock has an open hole at the bottom. This opening gave the krausen and CO2 unimpeded flow out of the fermenter.
This “crisis” averted, the Flower Power clone has gotten through the most vigorous stage of fermentation and continues to chug away at about 68°F. And just from the whiffs I got while changing out the blow-off tube, I’m very excited about this beer. Stay tuned!
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Review the whole Flower Power clone brewing process below:

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David Ackley is a beer writer, homebrewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.

Leigh Erwin: Stainless Steel vs. Plastic Fermenters

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Wine Fermenting In A Stainless Steel FermenterHi folks! Leigh here!
I wanted to elaborate a little more on my last post, particularly the part about purchasing a stainless steel fermenter. Since it’s a pretty large investment (well, large for the beginner winemaker), I want to make extra sure switching to stainless steel from plastic is really the best option for me. So, I decided to look up some pros and cons about both plastic fermenters and stainless steel fermenters to try and help me in my quest for the appropriate vessel.
Some Pros of Plastic Fermenters:

  • Least expensive option out there.
  • Light weight, so easier to lift and move around if need be.

Some Cons of Plastic Fermenters:

  • Easier to scratch when cleaning. Scratches are great places for hiding icky bacteria and other things you really don’t want in your wine.
  • Oxygen can diffuse faster from plastic than it can from something more dense, so it’s really not a great option for long-term storage.
  • Plastic tends to hold in odors no matter how well you clean it, which could affect your next batch of wine.

Some Pros of Stainless Steel Fermenters:

  • Much easier to clean.
  • Oxygen ingress is significantly less than a plastic fermenter, and the seals on stainless steel fermenters tend to be better/tighter than they are in plastic fermenters.
  • Less risk of contamination since the steel will not scratch like plastic, you won’t be harboring any bacterial stow-aways.
  • Stainless steel is more durable than plastic, so in theory it will last longer.

Some Cons of Stainless Steel Fermenters:

  • They are much more expensive than plastic fermenters.Shop Stainless Steel And Plastic Fermenters
  • They are more bulky and difficult to move once you get wine in them.

I’m sure there are other pros and cons of both types of fermenters, but just by reviewing these first few, I’ve already made up my mind. I like the idea of using plastic fermenters when you are just starting out as a home winemaker, as in the beginning you don’t really know if you’re even going to like doing it or if you’ll be able to continue making wine after your first couple batches. If you’re really getting into it and know you plan to continue making wine for a while, and perhaps know you’d like to increase your output, the upgrade to stainless steel (or glass) is more than worth it, in my opinion.
How about you all? Have you made the switch from plastic? If you are sticking with plastic fermenters, why did you decide to do so? Remember, there are pros and cons to each, so no one is “right” or “wrong”, but it’d be interesting to hear why others made the decisions that they did in terms of what kind of fermenter to use.
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leigh_erwin_bioMy name is Leigh Erwin, and I am a brand-spankin’ new home winemaker! E. C. Kraus has asked me to share with you my journey from a first-time dabbler to an accomplished home winemaker. From time to time I’ll be checking in with this blog and reporting my experience with you: the good, bad — and the ugly.

5 Gallons of Apple Juice, Three Hard Cider Recipes – Pt. 2: Secondary Fermentation

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Apples For Making CiderI recently shared my plans for making hard apple cider this year. Pasteurization and pitching the yeast was pretty straight forward, and for the first week or so fermentation chugged along without a hitch. The plan for secondary fermentation was to add hops to some of the cider, fruit and spices to some of it, and leave the rest plain.
To make room for my Flower Power clone, I went ahead and transferred my cider into the three different fermenters and added the extra flavoring ingredients. Turns out, I might have done this a little early – my gravity was still about 1.025 – but like I said I needed the space.
Here’s how I went about racking the cider into three different fermenters:
1. Cleaned and sanitized all fermenters, transfer tubing, stoppers, and airlocks.
2. Filled the three-gallon carboy with about 1 ounce of hops that I had on hand: .5 ounce Palisade and .5 ounce Columbus.
3. Filled one of the one-gallon jugs with about 10 ounces of frozen blueberries, plus 5 grains of decorticated cardamom. Cardamom can be a pretty assertive spice, so I wanted to use a light hand.
4. The last one-gallon jug didn’t get any additions. It’s the “control” batch.
5. Racked the five gallons of juice from the 6 gallon carboy to the three gallon carboy and the two, 1-gallon jugs. This was a little tricky. There must be a good way to do this without getting juice on the floor, but I haven’t figured it out yet. One of these flow control hose clamps, or better yet, a siphon faucet, would probably help.
6. Sealed up each fermenter with a bung and airlock and return to the fermentation chamber.
Aside from some mess on the floor, making this hard apple cider had gone pretty easy. But within a day or so noticed an issue.
Since I wanted to avoid headspace and potential infection, I filled each fermenter to within an inch or so of the bung. Unfortunately, I found that transferring the cider and adding hops really agitated the hopped cider, so much so that it started pushing cider into the airlock and hops into the upper portion of the carboy – some of the hops didn’t have good contact with the cider.Shop Beer Flavorings
I ended up using a sanitized auto-siphon to remove about a cup of cider from the fermenter. This gave the cider a little extra room for fermentation activity and it seemed to resolve the issue of clogging the airlock.
So after that relatively minor episode, the ciders continue to ferment away in the mid to upper 60s. Hopefully they will hurry up and finish so I can go ahead and bottle. With any luck, I’ll have three hard ciders to get me through the winter!
I’ve heard that cider takes time to age. What is your experience with making hard apple cider? How quickly can it be consumed? Share in the comments below!
Series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
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David Ackley is a beer writer, homebrewer, and self-described “craft beer crusader.” He holds a General Certificate in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling and is founder of the Local Beer Blog.