More Cider

Wild Yeast Hard Cider Experiment



New Full 5 Gallon Hard Cider Batch

Moving to Secondary

Pictures start here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/n1ghtstr1k3/5103014294/in/set-72157625135757774/

Primary Fermentation Done

Cracked open both fermenters tonight as they stopped bubbling a few days ago.

Stout:  FG is 1.022 (perfect according to the recipe) - 7.4% ABV
Taste and smell excellent, a bit of a harsh aftertaste, but (as the recipe says) I can see it mellowing in a month.
Appearance is a bit lighter than I would have liked, but still looks good.  I was sampling in an opaque white plastic cup, so maybe a little hard to tell.

Hard Cider: FG is 1.000 - 5.9% ABV
Taste is excellent, just as the yeast description said, there is still the slight taste of apple, but the alcohol is not overpowering.  This is a hard one to decide whether to carbonate or not.  Will have to wait for the brewmaster's apprentice to taste and have an opinion.

Tomorrow I'll move them secondary fermentation and harvest the yeast, they both did a great job and I think I'll make a full batch of cider again soon.

More Pics

All the other pics from brew day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/n1ghtstr1k3/sets/72157625135757774/with/5069426010/

Brewing Again!!!

Finally brewed again yesterday.  The first time since brewing Oktoberfest in March.

We brewed a Russian Imperial Stout and some hard apple cider.

We contracted with Jackron Industries to supply the raw apple cider and some labor.

First the RIS.  This is a clone of North Coast Brewing's Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.  See recipe below.

We followed the recipe except the brewshop doesn't carry Carastan so I substituted 40L crystal malt.

The brewmaster apprentices checking the wort.



Apprentice cooling the cider before pitching the yeast.



Next, cider.  Heated on medium high for 30 minutes, then cooled in an ice bath.  Fermented the cider using White Labs WLP775, English Cider Yeast.



Pitched the yeast and started the fermentation in my warm office.  Checked this morning and we have bubbling.  Put both brews into the brew fridge at 68F.  The inside of the fridge smells awesome, the hop aroma from the RIS and a bit of the apple.

RIS in the front, cider in the rear.  RIS is much more active than the cider.




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Old Rasputin Imperial Stout (clone) 
5 gallons, extract with grains 
OG = 1.090 FG = 1.022 IBUs = 85-95 ABV =9% 

Ingredients 
9.9 lbs. Coopers Light malt extract syrup 
1.0 lb. Hugh Baird Carastan malt Crystal malt (40° L)0.5 lb. Hugh Baird Brown malt 
0.5 lb. chocolate malt 
1.0 lb. crystal malt (120° L) 
0.25 lb. roasted black barley 
22.7 AAU Cluster hops (bittering) 
(3.25 oz. of 7% alpha acid) 
9.0 AAU Northern Brewer hops 
(aroma hops) (1 oz. of 9% alpha acid) 
8.8 AAU Centennial hops (aroma) 
(1 oz. of 8.8% alpha acid) 
1 tsp Irish moss 
White Labs WLPOO1 (California Ale)yeast
0.75 cup of corn sugar for priming 

Step by Step 
Steep the crushed malts in three gallons of water at 150° F for 30 minutes. Remove the grains from the wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add the Cluster (bittering) hops and Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes. Add the aroma hops (Northern Brewer and Centennial) for the last two minutes of the boil. When you are done boiling, strain out the hops and add the wort to two gallons cool water in a sanitary fermenter. Top the fermenter off with cool water to 5.5 gallons. Cool the wort to 80° F, aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours tó~ 68-70° F, and ferment for 10 to 14 days. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy! (Yes, that's right, this beer so well- balanced that North Coast releases it to the public in less than a month.) 

Michelob Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale

I'm rating this beer against the BJCP style guidelines for 21B, Christmas/Winter Specialty Spiced Beer.

The neck label reads "An auburn-colored brew with a smooth, robust taste full of rich aromas, hints of vanilla and flavorful hops."

The front label says "Winter ale aged on bourbon oak casks and whole Madagascar vanilla beans".

You would expect a beer like this to have huge aromatics, but even after allowing it to warm up for quite a while, I could barely detect any aroma at all. If there is any detectable aroma, it would be vanilla, but only very slightly.

Next, the appearance of this beer is excellent. A deep amber color and extremely clear. Looked great in the glass. The head was well-formed, but didn't last very long before dissipating.

As for the flavor of this beer, it's VANILLA, VANILLA, VANILLA. If you label a beer as bourbon cask ale, then for pity's sake, have some of the bourbon or oak flavor come through. Unfortunately, this beer has way too much vanilla in it. The vanilla overshadows all the other flavors, if they are there, including the malt, hops, bourbon, and oak. I could not differentiate any other flavors than vanilla. Vanilla. Vanilla.

This is a medium body beer with moderately high carbonation and a good, creamy mouthfeel.

Overall, I do like this beer, but it does have some shortcomings. It has to be a dessert or standalone brew. By dessert I mean as a dessert in and of itself. I can't imagine any food, including desserts, that this would actually pair well with.

Here is my scoring:

Aroma	Appearance	Flavor	Mouthfeel	Overall Impression
3/12	3/3	10/20	5/5	7/10

Total: 28/50 - Falls in the Good category (21-29 points) for BJCP

Back for 2010

It's a new year, so by popular request, I'll actually be blogging more than once a year now.

I'm going to expand this a bit to include more than just my brewing sessions.

I'll blog about the various beers, wines, and liquors I sample, rate them, and write descriptions of them. This should give you something to read in between the times that I brew.

Sláinte