1st Extract, Strong Xmas Ale & Cider

[likesbeer]

Well what a weekend it started with finishing off the cider making, I have posted elsewhere my mummblings on the first attempt but thought I would add both the cider and my first extract brew. Well in a way they are both extract you extract the juice from the apples and..... I'll stop there.

So to cider making these were a donated range of apples so it will be 1/3 cooker, 1/3 english russet and 1/3 another unknown but a bitter sweet variety.

The apples;



Chopped and pulped;


The pulp master worked well a complete rip off for what is a bucket and a metal spinney thing but a lot easier than the bashing with a pole. left a bucket of pulp sat for 30 mins or so turns nice and brown and gets very juicey on its own. Much easier getting the juice out this time.

Last bit the press;



So with juice extracted we ended with about 12 gallons, I pitched using an already fermenting gallon of cider from last weekend and today its starting to bubble through the airlock nice and slowly. Much easier and quicker than first time around, now its just what to do with 20 gallons of the stuff when its all fermented....thats something like 160 bottles

OG is around 1.044 so expected a full ferment to 1 or less guess thats about 6%ish and juice tasted better more flavoursome according to the boss as well. So think it will be better cider. Tasted a bottle of the first stuff Saturday night as well, its OK but a bit lacking on the flavour side as a result of single desert apple variety used I guess.

So that was Saturday and Sunday morning, but being a glutton for punishment and having had the opportunity to visit the HBS and get ingredients for the Strong Chrismas Ale that I found on the net I decided to make that as well.

The recipe is posted here clicky so with encouragement and some guidance from people here (thanks) this is my first step towards AG. Started quite late last night and took about 2.5 hours ish.

Grains measured out,

Am only aiming for 10 ltr brew as pot is only 15 ltr and not sure how advisable having a 8.5%+ (well thats what I thought it was going to be!) So ingredients were halved from the recipe and carefully measured.
Some minor differences as my HBS didnt know what they were so subs for crystal malt 80L were used these were a crystal malt without 80L, black patent malt changed for black malt as again he didnt have or know what it was.
and water heating,


Steeping dropped in at 70C and tried keeping at about 66 (not sure if it maters so much for steeping?) a combination of towls and popping the gas on for a few seconds did a good job dont think it wandered more than a few degrees. Oh! and I used a M&S bag.

Then drained by sitting in a sieve.
The smell was fantastic thought extract smelt good this was amazing, like strong coffee and choclate and malt and all sorts going on.

Missed pictures of the boil, but got white frothy stuff on the top, the break I hope, I was also measuring the cooking ingredients that get added at the end weighing the hops of which I substituted the cascade for fuggles as had some and wanted to save money. The hops also went into bags for ease of fishing out, not sure if this will reduce the hoppyness so might dry hop as well as the resultant wort didt have the bitter harsh edge I expected but it might have been lost in all the fermentables and there were a lot of those.

Getting to the last bit (sorry for going on a bit) cooling

Think it took about 20mins or so to get it just below 30 and then dropped into FV nothing that exciting to look at perhaps I missed something. Syphend into FV and left little bits of debry in the bottom of the pan, reasonably clear and think it will have quite a nice red hugh very dark though. ended with 9 ltr not bad as dont think I did a very good job of measuring up 10 ltr and allowing for losses.

So dropped in the FV and tested the OG..........

Oh! my f****** g** I've made beer wine, it was a ridiculous 1.090+ and I stopped waiting for it to settle, I knew this was going to be strong I worked out around an OG of 1.065 or 1.070 and the HBS guy recond similar. So was a little surprised I measured the weight carefully so unless a 1.5kg tin has more and a 450g jar of honey as they were the only things I didnt weigh not sure where it all came from. So I decided to water down a little added a ltr or so and re-tested a couple of times, ended up leaving it at 1.075 which was about 12 ltr in total. I dont expect it will fully ferment so will end up with something arou 8 or 9% still strong so only small sips on special occasions.

Last bit was added the yeast which wasnt the recipe one as the HBS didnt have but they did have WYeast Irish ale which they said would be an equivalent but he also said it would be dead long before the fermenting should finish so recomended a safebrew s33 which he said was tolerant for these levels.

It was then put to bed with the cider under the stairs (sorry for poor picture)

Space recently cleared under stairs as running our of fermenting locations need a better brew house

I think that about covers the brew weekend I did also have ear marked a mead and a mead ale to be made but ran out of time, always optimistic with my time. Will be bottling 5 g of cider and making the mead during the week.
Let me know what you think.

[Bongo]

Great account and pics of the day fella,hope it turns out good.

[ADDLED]

I think its brilliant, well done and good pics. You got 12 gallons of zoider out of those apples on the tarp or did you have more of them? I love cider but always thought it was too much hassle to make from scratch but your post is inspiring; Im off begging at the local allotments for windfalls this weekend.
Im interested in how you made your cider starter so is there another post about that?
thanks
Owen

[likesbeer]

Cheers all, yep all 12 gallons came from the apples on the tarp (well actually a sterile sheet from op theatre courtessy of the boss incredibly strong) plus the few apples in the grey container. I took the pics at the start and had put a few to wash.

I think from a post from Gurgeh (I'll look in a min) that he mentioned 25kg gives about 60lt.
From my workings out 15lt of megga bashed pulp gives about 70-80% juice up to that point the other steps seem to about half the volume so 25-30lt of chopped gives about 15lt pulp etc etc.

Over all it doesnt take a lot to make a gallon, probably a couple of carrier bags worth.
Ask around for a few apples and you'll get loads.
The apple starter came from Grugeh as well link
I had a gallon that I had started the weekend before using a cider yeast so borrowed his idea and also saw it a way of reducing vessels lying around. As have far to much fermenting at the mo, not enough drinking going on
And for some more inspiration this was my first session clicky!that time round we only used half the apples picked to produce the 7 gallons and both times also had a couple of ltr in the fidge to drink normal so to speak

If more encouragement needed give me a shout I can highly recomend it, you get quite a good work out too as well

[likesbeer]

Well a week in almost and I've just tested its down to 1.024 going to rack it into 2 demijohns to second ferment and clear as it looks like mud. But the taste at the moment is fantastic the spices are very subtle and just coming through and it has an array of flavours to keep the taste buds interested trying to work out what is what.
This is what it looks like at the moment

Its going to be dark thats for sure but no surprise there.

Not sure how low to expect it to go the website for fermentis says it will finish with a high gravity but I think 1.024 is very high. I have the choice to leave it to second ferment and settle for either 4 days or 2 weeks as I will be away.
What do people think 2 weeks?
It will be under airlock.