Fresh Pressed Cider

It's not even fall, and I've already had an opportunity to put my new hand-built cider press to work. My dad knows a manager of an orchard, and he let us go and pick a few bushels worth of McIntosh drops. Ideally, cider comes from a mix of apples, but it's fine to do it with whatever is available. I didn't have a bushel basket, so I don't know exactly how many we got. I do know that a five gallon pale filled with apples yielded about one gallon of cider. From the apples we picked, I got about six gallons. I'm turning five of the gallons into a sparkling hard cider, and we just drank the other gallon. It was a lot of work to get six gallons of cider with the cider press. The bulk of the work consists of chopping the apples before they go into the press. I was using a food processor, but it still took three or four hours to get everything pressed into cider. Next year I'll buy a grinder which will greatly expedite the process.

The fresh cider was crisp and tasty. My mom made some cinnamon and sugar doughnuts that went with it excellently. I'm interested to see how my hard cider turns out. With the exception of pressing the apples, it's supposed to be quite a bit easier than brewing beer, but it does take longer. Some people like to make it during the fall, and not drink it until the following year, but a couple of months should be enough. Mine has been in the basement fermenting for about a week now. I took a small risk by not adding campden tablets. They are supposed to kill the natural yeasts, which can possibly add off flavors to the cider. Not all people add them, but most do. I like the idea of going as natural as possible. I did add some champagne yeast, but I'll let the natural yeasts live. If I don't give it a try, I'll never know. I do have some tablets, so I might use them during the next batch. I'll let the yeasts do there job for another week, and then I'll transfer it to a five gallon carboy, where it will set until it clears. After it clears, I'll bottle it in a manner similar to the beer bottling process; Where I dissolve some sugar in boiling water, add it to the cider, and put it in bottles, while the yeasts turn the sugar into CO2.

Cider Press

I just completed my cider press. This was probably the most ambitious of my summer projects. I have very little wood working experience. I think I got a C in shop class in eighth grade. I bought a plan from ebay. The plan included all the hardware for $75. I had to buy the lumber separately, which was another $65. I have to admit that when I first got the plans; I was so overwhelmed that I almost sent everything back. It wasn't so much that I didn't think I could do it, but I just didn't have the equipment I needed. I give credit to my mom for talking me out of it. I thought about renting a table saw, but I looked on Craigslist, and I found one for $50. I figured that was better than renting one, since that would probably cost about the same. I also needed a drill press and a jig saw, and I ended up borrowing those from friends.  After that, I pretty much just followed the instructions. Everything is not as straight and tight as it could be if it were done by a master wood worker, but I'm pretty sure it will serve me well. For now, I will need to put the apples through a food processor before I press them to maximize efficiency. Maybe next year I'll get an apple grinder, so I can skip that step. I'm looking forward to making some nice raw, unpasteurized cider, and some sparkling hard cider.

Homebrew Success

I'm very happy with the results of my first batch of homebrew. My Brewer's Best, English Brown Ale came out about as good as I could have expected. It has a beautiful aroma, and a rich satisfying taste. I'm not saying it's better than Newcastle, but I'd drink it any day of the week over the mass produced domestic (or imported (such as overrated image beers like Heineken or Corona) for that matter) beers that most people drink. I'm very encouraged by the results, and I'm really looking forward to sampling my Red Ale next week, and getting started on my IPA.

Bottling Day

On the first day of June, I transferred my English Brown Ale from the fermenter to the bottles. It had been in the fermenter for 10 days, and the airlock hadn't bubbled in over a week. I didn't take two separate hydrometer readings to ensure that it was no longer fermenting, so hopefully I didn't just create a couple dozen 22 oz. beer grendades. Actually, I was only able to fill 21, 22 oz. bottles, because of a miscalculation during the initial boil. Our well water here is borderline undrinkable, so I bought five gallons of spring water. Unfortunately, I boiled about a gallon of water off. On the bright side, I should have some nice strong beer. I think this batch will turn out to be drinkable, but it'll probably be mediocre. I made a number of mistakes that a more experienced brewer wouldn't have made: the aforementioned water mistake, letting the trub get into the fermenter, not cooling the wort low enough, not putting a wet towel around the wort to keep it cool, and causing a bit too much aeration during the bottling stage. According to the all-knowing internet, it's hard to make a terrible batch of beer, even for a mistake-prone noobster such as myself. I'll be putting that to a test in a couple of weeks, when I crack the first one open.

Homebrew: Part 1

I finally got around to starting my first batch of homebrew. I bought my Brewer's Best Kit from Eastern Shores Brewery in Port Huron Michigan, and my first brew was a Brewer's Best English Brown Ale Homebrew Beer Ingredient Kit The process went relatively smoothly, and it took about three hours. I already feel much more confident about brewing my second batch. The fermentation process has started. I haven't timed it, but it seems to be bubbling about once a minute. About a week from now, I'll take a hydrometer reading, to see how much alcohol my yeasts have created. Even though it went smoothly, there are a few things I'll be able to change for my next brew. First, I'll boil 3.5 gallons rather than 2.5. There was plenty of room in my Granite-Ware 21 quart canning pot for another gallon. Also, I'll have an extra gallon on hand. I bought 5 gallons of water, but I probably boiled about a gallon off the pot, so my beer is going to be a bit on the strong side. I poured the trub and everything into the fermenter (I didn't really want to, but it would have only been a little over 4 gallons if I didn't get that last inch of wort into the fermenter, and plenty of people said the trub won't hurt anything.), and added the 2.5 gallons of bottled water to the cooled wort, and the water level is just under 5 gallons. Also, I will get some cheap Vodka, to put in the airlock rather than water. This is supposed to help ensure a sanitary fermentation process. Also, I wish I had dipped the head of the spigot in sanitizer before I rinsed everything. Most people seem to think the beer will be fine, but it does increase my risk of contamination. Hopefully, I will have a batch of drinkable brew in about a month. If not, my first brewing experiment was an educational process, and I'm eager to start my second batch, with all the knowledge I've gained.