Leo’s Stout Batch #2

This article was originally posted on Nov. 24, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Leo’s Stout #2,  has its genesis in the original stout we brewed. As you might imagine.

This time, however, we boosted the batch size to around six gallons to take advantage of our 6.5 gallon glass carboy.

Can you say blow-off tube? Because we have one.

Oh yea. We feel pimpin’. Nay. We be pimpin’.

Much like for the first Stout, we used a White Labs Irish Ale Yeast, pictured below.

We’ll be using this same yeast to ferment a 2 1/2 gallon batch of cider done in the most lovely of Mr. Beer’s with a new spout. Which has been gorilla glued into submission.

Our next batch will be a pumpkin beer.

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast. Done us well so far.

 

Apfelwein #5 (AW)

This article was originally posted on Nov. 19, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Apfelwein #5 was mixed on November 19th. (See the publish date? Regardless of when the article goes live, it’s backdated to the date of the event.)

We used cups instead of grams to figure out how to get our sugar levels right. Otherwise, AW #5 is noticeable for a single reason, besides being our fifth batch of Apfelwein (AW) or sixth batch of cider.

That is to say, this time (it’s also the first time) we’re using the Windsor Ale Yeast from Danstar instead of either Lalvin’s EC-1118 or Danstar’s Nottingham Ale Yeast.

So, it should be interesting to see how it comes out. In a month.

AW #5 in its fermenter.

Apfelwein #5C

This article was originally posted on Nov. 19, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Apfelwein #5C, aka, should be hooch-tastic but will probably just take forever to ferment. I write this because AW #5C (I don’t know why I settled on the C nomenclature for the sixth gallon on normally 5-gallon batches) is only 1 gallon of apple juice but has an extra 1.5 cups of brown sugar added to it. Which gives it a very dark, almost molasses color.

Just like AW #5, we added Danstar Windsor yeast to ferment it down. And once again, we had no hydrometer to measure. Alas, alas, alas.

That being said, we’ll see how it goes.

 

The 1.5 cups of brown sugar gave the cider a very dark color. We couldn’t do measurements in metric because the scale was out of battery.

White Grapefruit — Fermenting

This article was originally posted on Nov. 19, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Just as Bryce and I wanted to break out of the box by fermenting Hawaii’s Own, so too did we want to break out of the box, and possibly ferment it, when we decided to take on White Grapefruit Juice.

Once again, we figured out how much sugar we needed to add to bring it up to the same sugar gramage that our ciders have. We added the sugar, pitched the yeast and put the fermentation lock on and off to the races it went.

We used Lalvin EC-1118. We have another half gallon that we’re waiting on fermenting until we start another cider batch and use an ale yeast, so we can save the few extra dollars on a new yeast packet.

Side by side of the White Grapefruit and Hawaii’s Own. Both are being fermented by Lalvin EC-1118.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The White Grapefruit is, in fact, white.

Hawaii’s Own — Brewed!

This article was originally posted on Nov. 19, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Bryce and I decided that it was time to take some drastic action. Mainly, I’d picked up 16 carboys from a response to an ad on Craigslist and we wanted to start experimenting. For, we cannot become better brewers until we break out of our comfort zones, no?

No matter.

We figured out the needed extra sugar for one gallon of Hawaii’s Own (pictured below) to bring it up to the same sugar level of our ciders. Then, we poured in water and pitched the yeast (Lalvin EC-1118.)

Hopefully it’ll turn out.

We used two cans of Hawaii’s Own Guava Strawberry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hawaii’s Own makes a nice red.

 

AW #3C — Bottled

This article was originally posted on Nov. 19, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

AW #3C was a first for us. We’d read that brown sugar gives a “cidery” taste to alcohol, so, we figured that we’d increase the sugar content of a cider, a 1 gallon batch, exclusively with brown sugar.

AC #3C and AW #3 were taken out and taste tested at the exact same time and 3C, aka the Brown Sugar Bomber, tasted completely different from its fraternal big brother. It tasted incredible sweet, which leads us to believe (in lieu of a hydrometer, which was broken when we were first trying to use it) that the yeast hasn’t finished going to town on the sugars. So, it may just need longer in the bottle, since we bottled it.

We’ll see.

We primed it, and that’s all. No priming sugar.

If you look down in tags and look for AW Batch #3c you’ll see the old posts for it.

 

We bottled AW #3C in Becks bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AW #3C had a dark hue, which doesn’t come through here.

Raspberry Apfelwein #3

This article was originally posted on Nov. 19, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Apfelwein #3, we decided, should be a batch of few things. We bottled AW #3C straight, no lactose, just priming sugar.

We also bottled one gallon of AW #3 with just priming sugar, no lactose (sweetening sugar, unfermentable by yeast.)

The other four gallons we stuck into a bucket. In between, we stuck four packages of frozen raspberries that had been boiled for 15 minutes with 6 tablespoons of brown sugar.

And, there you have it! As soon as it’s ready, I think we’re all going to be happy. Or, it’ll get drunk be other people and we’ll be stuck nursing the rejects.

However, we plan on tertiarying it for at least a week to let the residuals settle.

 

The raspberries with a little bit of water and 6 tablespoons brown sugar, boiling for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raspberry foam! All pink and stuff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryce posing with the fermenting bucket and the secondary bucket.

 

 

 

Winter Spice Graff

This article was originally posted on Nov. 1, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

The Winter Spice Graff appears to have been a mistake. Graff, by itself, is great. Add raspberries (we added raspberry liqueur) and it tastes incredible, something you’d be willing to buy.

Allspice and cinnamon do not make the Graff taste good. In fact, the opposite is true.

Alas, when we added allspice and cinnamon, the Graff took a turn for the worst.

No, no, it took no turn. It went from being good to being an abomination.

We learned our lesson. Keep the cinnamon and spice and some things nice to the Apfelwein only.

I won’t put the recipe up because it’s not worth replicating.

Alas, alas, alas.

But not, perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

 

Apfelwein #1 Racked on Blackberries

This article was originally posted on Oct. 18, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

We had blackberries, frozen, on hand. Apparently, much like the Python’s elderberries, they do not go well.

Unlike our raspberry concoctions, the blackberry cider didn’t taste very good. It was always good enough to be drunk, but no more. We argued over who had to drink it.

The label’s nice though.

Just, we don’t make it again, unless we’re proven otherwise.

Maybe ageing will make it better. A bottle or two is sitting in our ageing cabinet.

 

Tags:
Apfelwein (AW) Batch #1

The frozen blackberries were boiled for 15 minutes with a tablespoon of brown sugar.

 

The cider label

Apfelwein Batch #1 Racked on Raspberries

This article was originally posted on Oct. 18, 2011 on my homebrew website, Fat Grey Tom’s Cider. It has been re-posted here with the same time stamp.

Our raspberry experiments are proving to be wildly successful. Our first batch of raspberry racked cider, made with a wine yeast none-the-less, is all gone because it just tasted so damn delicious. It also made pretty pictures. We’re working on four gallons, but made with Nottingham Ale Yeast.

Raspberries were boiled (12 oz. of raspberries per 1 gallon) (Trader Joe’s had the best deal at $2.50 per 12 oz. bag) with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and then put into the racked cider. We then let it sit for about two or three weeks before bottling.

 

The cider racked on the raspberries, right after they’d been boiled.

 

Raspberries before the cider has been added.

 

The raspberry cider after it’d been sitting for weeks.

 

Isn’t it pretty? It’s been bottled in Newcastle bottles.

 

The raspberry cider label.