Alright, I'm resurrecting this bitch. For too long the Borg has been without drunkenly crafted hooch. For too long we have simply paid the unclean for their inferior commercial brews. No longer! I give you my Dry Sink of Wet Things! Of Borf. And such. Back row: cranberry raspberry cider, cranberry pomegranate cider, and spiced cyser (apple cider/mead hybrid) Front row: watermelon cooler wine, sangria, watermelon death wine, and a light kit beer
I bottled a gallon of cider (regular cider, used a Nottingham yeast) Friday and 4 16 oz Mason jars (for testing purposes) earlier. 2 of those Mason jars are blackberry ciders. Mixture of chickasaw and kiowa berries (I have 8 blackberry plants in my backyard. 5 different varieties). The last 2 Mason jars are just regular cider. I'm trying the juices to see which ones make the best ciders. Maybe you can answer my question, smokey. If I add sugar before fermenting, do i just put it in or do i have to make it a syrup first?
For sugar you'll want to either make a syrup or shake the shit out of your carboy to make sure it's blended. It could probably work without the extra effort of syrup or shake, but I've never tried it so I couldn't say for sure. Did you tighten down the lids on the blackberry ciders? There's a chance of them restarting on the berries if the yeast isn't completely dead, which could lead to bottle bombs. I'd make sure they were loosened an eighth to a quarter turn, just to be safe. Any degassing or CO2 should keep any oxygen out, so that shouldn't be a concern unless you left a ton of headspace.
Actually I got some Mason jar airlocks. I think they are technically for pickeling. Fermentology Sauer System Mason Jar Fermentation Airlock Lid Kit - Includes Tough Tops Plastic Mason Jar Lids, 3-Piece Airlocks, Silicone Grommets, Gaskets and Stoppers - WIDE MOUTH - 4 PACK https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H7G1NF0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_gyCCBbNN2VCEX Still only filled to the 13 or 14 oz mark. I just put the blackberries in at the start. Tasted when I bottled and it tasted fine (before I backsweetened. So far only have used honey for that. I only started brewing/cider making in march). Also did a blueberry that came out well. Strawberry was horrible.
Good man. Yeah, strawberry is a bit of a pain in the ass. I had to let my strawberry wine age for six months before it had any strawberry flavor, and even then it was so subtle it wasn't really worth the effort. Especially the chunks in the autosiphon.
Well damn. I will probably start some test batches next week. 1 will be a pumpkin cider. 1 will just be the pumpkin spices in a cider (no pumpkin), not sure what else I want to try. Or maybe just those two. I have been reading with those you should add that kind of stuff in a secondary fermentation. Let it ferment first just a standard cider, move to another container than add flavor stuff.
So last night I bottled 1 gallon of BlackBerry cider. And over the weekend I bottled 5 16 oz bottles. 3 are a pumpkin cider. fermented apple juice with nothing extra then moved to another jar for secondary fermentation and added pumpkin, and apple pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) also a cinnamon stick. The other 2 bottles are the same as the pumpkin just no pumpkin (just the apple juice and spices). That one is definitely a mulled drink. It's okay at room temperature but you can just tell it should be hot. The pumpkin actually isn't bad for a first go. My previous BlackBerry was much better than this one but I used store bought frozen berries this time while last I know the exact variety of berries as they came from my own bushes in the back yard. I have 8 BlackBerry bushes. 5 varieties. All on the sweet end. And eating berries. Some berries are just good for jams or baking. Not the ones I got. You can eat them right off the bush.
Mead? Cider? I mean most ciders are over sweetened (back sweetening). Especially angry orchard. Holy shit is that way over sweetened.
Question on carboys. I got a "1 gallon" carboy from the local home brewing supplier. I have been told by my local meadery that an off-dry, semi-sweet mead takes 3 lbs honey per gallon water. Is a "1 gallon" carboy made with space to accommodate water/honey/head space, or do I need to decrease this recipe to fit my carboy (and if so, what is the best way to do this, to have a reasonable amount of space so it doesn't explode but not too much space that I am wasting space)?
Haven't done mead yet but I want to start. But in the recipe on this page (it is a 1 gallon recipe). https://www.growforagecookferment.com/how-to-make-a-gallon-of-mead/ It dissolves 2-3 pounds of honey in half a gallon of water than finished it with water. Not sure how much volume that honey will add to the half gallon. 2. Heat about 1/2 gallon of non chlorinated water in the pot on medium heat. Once it's warm, but not boiling, add the honey and stir it so it all dissolves. Turn off the heat. 5. Top off the jug with cold (preferably filtered) water, leaving at least 2 inches of head space on top. Put the lid on the jug and gently mix everything around a bit. Copied the steps dealing with the water and honey. Not the whole recipe. I was at an SCA event last weekend and someone who makes mead sid say it is better to get a honey that from a single flower. Like wildflower is terrible because you don't know what flower it is from and there could be multiple flowers in there. Where an orange blossom it is all from orange blossoms.
Basically the the general rule is stop about where the carboy starts curving at the neck and you should be good.
Also from the SCA event had some tea wine. The guy who made mead also fermented tea and made it a wine. No grapes. Now I want to try that.
Attempting a maple pecan cider. Right now it's just maple syrup and apple juice. 1 bottle (32 oz bottle) is with a golden syrup the other has an amber syrup. I'll add the pecans this weekend. Then let it continue fermenting. Maybe 3 weeks total. Because holy shit maple syrup adds a lot of sugar.
I've got this. 1 gallon (2 bottles) great value spiced apple cider from Walmart 1.5 lbs wildflower honey (my Walmart has a 5lb bottle for $12, so that's what I've been testing with) Lalvin 71B yeast, rehydrated in a couple ounces of cider for 10min Wait Bottle Enjoy It turns out bone dry at around 12-13%, so you don't have to wait a year for it to stop being jet fuel. The honey adds viscosity and and since you let it go dry there's not much sweetness to worry about. The only commercial meads I've found that are dry are those carbonated abominations. And if you're using the standard jug style carboy, fill it just to the top of the wide part where it starts to curve in. And/or use a blowoff tube since the cider makes the yeast lose its shit. That's not great advice from your meadery. Which yeast do you use? If you're using a low tolerance yeast like a beer/cider yeast, 3lbs will be super cloying. If you're using high tolerance yeast that can hit 18%, that's going to finish absolutely dry. 3lbs in a 1 gallon carboy should hit around 15-16%, so you'll want something with a tolerance of 14% to get 3lbs semi-sweet to sweet. I don't think the carboys have much more than 1 gallon of space if any. Honestly the best thing you can do is use a hydrometer, take a reading and use an app/online calculator to tell you the potential gravity. From there you can tweak the recipe with more water or honey to hit your mark. How high you fill it really depends on the yeast and nutrient situation. And which style of carboy. Is it one of those wide mouth jar styles, or the typical skinny neck with a little handle jug style? I know this is a ton of info I'm throwing at you, so if you have any questions, let me know.
Couple tricks I've found. Fill a pot with hot water from the tap and put your sealed jar of honey in for 10-15 minutes. It pours so easy. Skip the stove. Pour warm honey in the carboy. Pour half your water in. Put the bung in the carboy without the airlock. Cover airlock hole with your thumb and shake until well blended. Add the rest of the water. Pitch yeast. I like honey snobs. Wildflower isn't terrible. If you're trying to make competition mead with a specific flavor profile, yeah, it's not what you want. But if you just want to make mead it's some of the cheapest honey and unless you have a super refined palate, it will taste like mead and not "Ugh, a pigeon shit on the third flower the twelfth bee visited two days before it was harvested. Take this filth away, Jeeves." Yes, orange blossom honey is amazing and has a nice hint of citrus. It's also fuck-off expensive where I live and I just make mead and wine to drink, not to sip and snob.
Is $8 for 16 oz of orange blossom expensive? Because here it's actually not that much more than the wildflower. I wonder if it because NC is closer to florida then Maryland (if you are still there).
