I'm a beer guy, but I don't have a sufficient stash of empty bottles to dive right into home brewing at the moment, so I'm interested in exploring non-carbonated options.
Surely there must be some experts here.
I'm a beer guy, but I don't have a sufficient stash of empty bottles to dive right into home brewing at the moment, so I'm interested in exploring non-carbonated options.
Surely there must be some experts here.
Supposedly, you can make hard cider with apple juice and champagne yeast, but the apple juice has to be of a particular type. Like not pasteurized and all natural, but clear (not cloudy)? I've never tried it, but bring it up because I assume one of our resourceful GRM members has done it successfully and can list out the specifics.
If you get an apple juice in a glass container, I bet all you'd need is the yeast and a stopper with a bubbler.
-Rob
I'd like to try to make hard cider, but I can't imagine how I could get unpasteurized apple juice here in Florida.
I've got some friends here in Tampa that home brew. I generally dont like what they come up with.
We were talking about a hard cider though. Apparently if you dont add sugar to the apple juice before, or add sugar and a bit of flavoring after it just gets very bland. They described it as the bud light of ciders. Apparently the yeast eats all the sugar and goes through some of the flavor molecules as well? Something along those lines at least.
Doc, I'd bet you could get something from one of the hippie/yuppie grocery stores, or at least they could point you towards somewhere.
In high school my brother used to put some yeast and sugar into juice bottle, shake it up, and close the cap for a day or two.... I wouldn't recommend that though. Blew up on him once
It's not the pasteurization that kills the hard cider potentialbut the preservatives. I used to buy tree top concentrate and the stuff would cook off just fine.
The recipe is fairly simple:
1 gallon apple juice
2lbs sugar
And about 1pkt of wine yeast for every 5 gallons (1 tsp per gallon?)
Make sure everything is clean clean clean. Boil the juice/sugar and cool to room temp before pitching the yeast
"Skeeter pee" is another one that makes for a refreshing beverage on a hot day.
I just got a batch of cider going today. I prefer mine sparkling but it doesn't need to be.
I did 5 gal of the store brand juice from Kroger, 4 cans tree top concentrate, 1 pack wyeast dry mead yeast. It should come out to a nice 6ish ABV dry cider.
Store brand juice because it doesn't have any preservatives (key), is cheap, and the cider tastes darn good with it. Concentrate to get more sugar (=more alcohol) and more flavor. Good yeast to get good flavors.
I like to make homemade hard ginger ale. This can be made sparkling or still.
1 Gallon Water
1 - 2 lbs sugar (depening on alcohol level desired)
.5 lb Ginger root shredded
EC1118 wine yeast.
Dissolve sugar in to warm water in a sterilized container. Pitch yeast. add airlock style of your choice (Balloon, condom with a pinprick, or actual water-based airlock)
every couple of days add a raison for yeast nutrient.
Fermentation should be complete in 2 weeks.
Wine is pretty easy to make, but a lot easier to do it in October and September when good wine grapes are available.
Also, I was kind of expecting a thread about distilling...
If you want your cider to turn into something stronger, I recall being told by a family friend from West Virginia that apple jack was made by putting the cider in a barrel outside in winter and scooping off what didn't freeze. Never tried it, but seems it might just work.
Just in case someone wants to check the rulebook: https://www.ttb.gov/faqs/alcohol
That's the Feds. Your state might have something else to say.
02Pilot said:If you want your cider to turn into something stronger, I recall being told by a family friend from West Virginia that apple jack was made by putting the cider in a barrel outside in winter and scooping off what didn't freeze. Never tried it, but seems it might just work.
Be warned, while "i've heard" it's delicious, it will give you a killer hanger as the fusal alcohols are concentrated and not evaporated/poured off.
You've heard of heads and tails with distilling correct?
alfadriver said:Also, I was kind of expecting a thread about distilling...
That's for home made hand sanitizer, right?
I've made the yeast + apple cider in a glass 1 gallon jug, with a bubbler on top. Works pretty well. Sometimes I'll add some sugar to kick up the alcohol %, easiest way is to boil a cup of cider and stir in a cup of sugar to dissolve it, then add back to the gallon. You'll want to pour off a bit of the cider so the gallon jug isn't totally full, too.
Adding a small pouch with ginger or lavender or something adds a nice flavor, too.
Honey can be fermented too- mead- or added to the cider to do a cider-mead blend. Very tasty.
The end result is stil (non carbonated) and rather than go through the motions of bottling and getting carbonation that way, when I want to drink it I'll simply cut it with some soda water.
I did freeze some once and "jack it", estimated about 60 proof. But concerns about the fusal alcohols makes me reluctant to do that again. Still, it was neat to try.
You can use pasteurized juice, really anything with sugar in it will work. All the yeast cares about is that it has some sugar to eat. Just don't boil anything after you add the yeast to it, or you'll kill the yeast.
If you want the good stuff this site is a great reference. I don't post about doing illegal things. You know informational purposes only.
My Dad was an alcohol enthusiast who would, in his retirement, occasionally experiment with different fruits or vegetables to make what he called hooch. One of his favourites was made with kiwis and water/sugar/yeast in a 20L pail. He would ferment it and continue rack it off until it was clear.
I never drank that one but he did tell me you had to be careful because if you weren't, you'd start drinking it, then wake up two days later wondering how you got there.
BoxheadTim said:alfadriver said:Also, I was kind of expecting a thread about distilling...
That's for home made hand sanitizer, right?
Since one can easily get a fuel making license, then it makes sense that some of that can be used for hand sanitizer.
Floating Doc said:I'd like to try to make hard cider, but I can't imagine how I could get unpasteurized apple juice here in Florida.
Whole foods. Fresh juice bar.
alfadriver said:BoxheadTim said:alfadriver said:Also, I was kind of expecting a thread about distilling...
That's for home made hand sanitizer, right?
Since one can easily get a fuel making license, then it makes sense that some of that can be used for hand sanitizer.
There's a distillery in Oregon that's using the heads and tails off their whiskey to make hand sanitizer.
Grtechguy said:I like to make homemade hard ginger ale. This can be made sparkling or still.
1 Gallon Water
1 - 2 lbs sugar (depening on alcohol level desired)
.5 lb Ginger root shredded
EC1118 wine yeast.
Dissolve sugar in to warm water in a sterilized container. Pitch yeast. add airlock style of your choice (Balloon, condom with a pinprick, or actual water-based airlock)
every couple of days add a raison for yeast nutrient.
Fermentation should be complete in 2 weeks.
This sounds interesting. Is the raisin necessary? Seems a tad weird to me. I did a batch of beer a couple years ago. Came out very good. I just don't drink like I used to...
Is this really this easy? I ask because I'm the type of guy that burns water when cooking. I also don't want to blow up my house or go blind.
Homebrewed cider sounds very tasty though.
stanger_missle said:Is this really this easy? I ask because I'm the type of guy that burns water when cooking. I also don't want to blow up my house or go blind.
Homebrewed cider sounds very tasty though.
It really is. No computer necessary. It is said that the ancients did it with some success.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
The raisins add some depth to the flavor. Dried fruit really adds a nice undertone flavor. Not required.
In reply to Woody :
Every fall my orchard produces way more apples than we are able to can or freeze. Can I use windfalls? Windfalls are apples that fall off the tree, get bruised on landing and aren't any good for anything, except making cider?
1988RedT2 said:stanger_missle said:Is this really this easy? I ask because I'm the type of guy that burns water when cooking. I also don't want to blow up my house or go blind.
Homebrewed cider sounds very tasty though.
It really is. No computer necessary. It is said that the ancients did it with some success.
+1. Not that I've done it a lot, but I've made a few cases of wine in the past.
It does help to have some measuring tools- knowing the sugar content is very helpful to know what the potential alcohol is. And then knowing the pH also helps with flavor- since most most things taste a little better with more of an acid balance.
But that's not really required, just helpful.
One thing that I would say is required- sanitation. Which is why glass is so widely used.
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