Making Your Own Hard Cider – An Experiment In Laziness

July 27, 2011  |  3 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

A couple weeks ago, I watched the guys over at BasicBrewing.com make super-easy hard cider. The perks of this process is that you get one-gallon carboys, delicious hard cider and/or juice, and it is relatively inexpensive.

McCutcheons-Apple-Cider-Apple-Juice-1What’s even better is that the contents of the jugs are already pasteurized. So, there’s no need to empty the jugs at all. You should never touch the inside of the jugs with anything un-sanitized.

Sanitation is the most important part of brewing, pickling, or canning. Infection is the devil!

Also, make sure there are no preservatives in the contents. Otherwise, it will not allow the yeast to eat sugar and burp, producing alcohol.

Speaking of yeast, you’ll want to do a little research into what kind of yeast you’ll want to use. Some of the champagne yeasts will make the cider particularly dry. Some of the liquid beer yeasts will add some interesting tones to the final product. Me, I prefer it dry, so I grabbed two champagne yeasts.

The process is really easy. The materials you will need:

  • A jug of what you want to make an alcoholic beverage in
  • A #6 rubber stopper/bung
  • Airlock
  • Sanitizer
  • Water
  • Yeast
  • Sugar

McCutcheons-Apple-Cider-Apple-Juice-11. Mix up a sanitation bath.
2. Soak the stopper, airlock, jug caps, and packet/vial of yeast in the sanitation bath.
3. Dump the yeast into the jug.
4. Put the original cap back on. Shake to aerate.
5. Remove the cap and save.
6. Put the stopper in the jug, along with the airlock. Make sure you properly add whatever liquid you need to, to the airlock.
7. Put in a place, with little light that is temperature-controlled.

McCutcheons-Apple-Cider-Apple-Juice-1Optional: sample the cider/juice before hand. I did, and it was delicious.

I’m probably going to wait a month before bottling. And then I’ll probably let the final product age another month and then try a bottle of each at given intervals of one month, three months, six months, and one year. Assuming I have self-control. HA!

McCutcheons-Apple-Cider-Apple-Juice-1

Skull Splitter Clone: Continuing on the Quest for New Ingredients

July 15, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes
Skull Splitter

Skull Splitter

As I continue along the never ending path of using new and exciting ingredients, I came across a Skull Splitter clone recipe in my Clone Brews book.  The recipe included a few grains that I had not used before and oak chips, which I had been considering trying out in a beer.  Skull Splitter is a Scottish Ale whose medium body makes it go down surprisingly fast for an 8.5% ABV beer.  With the complex flavors present in Skull Splitter, it is no wonder that new ingredients for me had to be used to brew a clone.

The exotic ingredients in the recipe for me were torrified wheat, Belgian aromatic malt, peated malt, and oak chips.  Torrified wheat is a wheat whose starches have been pre-gelatinized, which makes it easier for the enzymes to break down the starches during the mash.  Belgian aromatic malt is a malt designed to give a beer a strong malty flavor.  The most interesting ingredient, peated malt, is malt that has been smoked over burning peat, which gives it an extreme smokey flavor.  When I tasted a few grains of the peated malt, I found the flavor to be very shocking, because I wasn’t expecting something so smokey.  Oak chips are used to impart an oak flavor to the beer to imitate being aged in an oak barrel.

There are a few differences that I used for process of making this beer than I typically use.  I mashed for 90 minutes instead of the usual 60.  I split my normal single batch sparge into a double batch sparge to try to rinse off the residual sugars on the grains better, since this is a higher gravity beer.  I also did a 90 minute boil because I had sparged a bit too much.

Grains:

  • 14 lbs 2 row
  • 10 oz. 55L British crystal malt
  • 6 oz. torrified wheat
  • 4 oz. Belgian aromatic malt
  • 2 oz. British chocolate malt
  • 1 oz. peated malt

Adjuncts:

  • 10 oz. cane sugar

Hops:

  • 1.5 oz. Goldings at 90 min
  • 0.5 oz. Goldings at 15 min

Yeast:

  • Safale S-04

Secondary:

  • 0.25 oz. steamed oak chips

Molasses Marzen

June 28, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

Excited to start brewing lagers as soon as possible, I found a lager recipe and brewed it as soon as I had time to.  I kinda wanted to brew a true marzen, and at the same time, I wanted to experiment a bit with molasses.  I found the perfect recipe.

Given that I kinda like the question and answer format that I did in a previous post, I think I will continue using it:

  • This recipe looks similar to one I saw in Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione.  Did you steal it?Well, first off, lists of ingredients are not copywrittable, so I didn’t steal it.  Second, I had to make a few changes to the recipe so that it could fit my methods.  Instead of steeping grain and using 6.6 pounds of light liquid malt extract, I mashed the specialty grains along with 11 pounds of 2 row.  To be more authentic and true to the original recipe, I could have mashed 11 pounds of pilsner, but that would have cost me more.  Since the only real difference in the final product would be that the color would be a little lighter, I figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference with how dark this beer is going to be.  I put in the molasses and brown sugar before the wort started boiling.  I skipped adding gypsum and Irish moss (if I added gypsum, crystals would probably start forming and my beer would end up having gravel in it because of how hard my water is).
  • Your recipes seem to be kinda terse and lack important details.  Could you post more specifics on your process and such?Sure, I could, but I am not sure what you, the reader, wants to know beyond what I already post.  Leave a comment clearly describing what additional information you would like, and I will start adding that to my posts.  I might update older posts with the information.For some details in general, I do single infusion mashes and batch sparge.  I aim my mash temperature to be at 153F, but don’t try to fiddle with it if it is off by a couple degrees.  My mash thickness is always 1.25 qt/lb.  I sparge with enough water to get 6-6.5 gallons of wort, which seems to usually be around 4 gallons.  I don’t mess with my water chemistry at all.
  • I don’t like beer.Then don’t drink beer? Not really sure how to respond to this. I get some really odd hate mail sometimes.
Brewing Sugars

The brown sugar and molasses I used. The molasses is sitting in hot water to make it easier to pour out of the jars.

Grains:

  • 11# 2 row
  • 1# Crystal 60L

Sugars:

  • 2# Light brown sugar
  • 24oz Molasses

Hops:

  • 1.5oz Chinook at 60 min
  • 1oz Saaz at 10 min

Yeast:

Oktoberfest Recipe! [Homebrewing]

June 21, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

I foresee a few questions upfront about me posting this recipe.

  • Didn’t you already brew this weekend?  How much do you need to brew? What are you doing with all the beer???No, I did not.  The previous recipe I posted this weekend was actually brewed last weekend.  I’ve been posted them a while after I had brewed them.  I am lazy.  I am going to make an effort to post these within a day or two of brewing.  My friends tend to drink a lot of my beer.  I don’t mind at all, as it means I get to brew more.  I think the only time I complained was when I brewed a beer so delicious that I didn’t want to share it with anyone else.
  • Why are you brewing an Oktoberfest beer so early?  October is so far away!Oktoberfest is in September, not October.  Don’t ask me why; ask those silly Germans.  Maybe it has something to do with schadenfreude?   (Ok, yes, my ancestors are from Germany, but I have no idea why.  Maybe Wikipedia could inform you as to why.)
  • Oktoberfest beers are lagers, not ales.  You used the wrong yeast and fermentation temperature.You got me there.  I currently don’t have the equipment or space to be able to brew a lager.   I want to age it at lagerish temps using some kind of aging chamber and ice.  No idea how this will work out, or even how I will do it.  I figure I have a few weeks to figure this out, as I will probably also be priming the keg with sugar to carbonate it.  This probably won’t end up happening as time/effort/cost could be prohibitive.  If successful, I will probably try to age all of by beers like this.  If anyone has any suggestions/ideas, I would be glad to hear them.

Continue reading “Oktoberfest Recipe! [Homebrewing]” »

Amber Ale

June 18, 2011  |  2 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

An amber has been brewed.  It isn’t really anything special, but a normal, run of the mill beer is nice every once in a while.  While brewing this beer, I noticed that it didn’t look like all the grains were crushed when after they passed through my grain mill.  I guess it is time to get a feeler gauge and make sure the gap is set correctly.  I guess with the number of batches that have been made using my mill that either the points on the rollers have worn down a little or the gap has slowly worked itself open a little.

Grains:

  • 12# 2 row
  • 1# Caramunich
  • 1# Munich
  • 0.5# Crystal 40

Hops:

  • 1.25 oz Perle @ 60 min
  • 0.25 oz Perl @ 30 min
  • 0.5 oz Perle @ 5 min

Yeast:

  • Nottingham

Foreign Extra Stout

June 11, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

I brewed a recipe called “Foreign Extra Stout”.  I think it is supposed to be a clone of Guinness’ Foreign Extra Stout.  I was intrigued by the sheer number of flaked grains that this recipe uses.  My only thought it that it has to give the beer amazing head and mouth-feel.  I guess I’ll just have to wait to figure out if this is the case.

Grains:

  • 9 lb Pale Malt
  • 2.5 lb Flaked Barley
  • 1 lb Flaked Oats
  • 3/4 lb Black Barley
  • 1/4 lb Chocolate Malt
  • 1/4 lb Flaked Wheat

Hops:

  • 1 oz Challenger @ 60
  • 2 oz Goldings @ 40
  • 1 oz Challenger @ 30

Yeast:

  • Nottingham

Because of the large amount of flaked grains, I mashed this beer for 90 minutes instead of the usual 60.

Black Wit

June 5, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

I’ve been feeling a bit more experimental in my brewing lately (maybe Ben rubbed off on me a bit? or maybe I am brewing them in his honor?).  I decided to brew an “esoteric” beer from the “Clone Brews” book I got for Christmas.  The recipe in the book is called “Wit Black”, but since my local homebrew store didn’t have the exact ingredients the recipe called for , I kinda had to substitute and make due with what was available (how pioneer like of me).  The most noticeable different in the recipe is that I was unable to find chocolate wheat malt.

Grains:

  • 1 lb – Custom Roasted Wheat (I roasted wheat malt at 220F in my for about an hour in my toaster oven pan, stirring occasionally, then I let it sit for a week or two in a paper bag)
  • 8 oz – Midnight Wheat Malt
  • 2 oz – British Roasted Barley
  • 2.25 lb – Wheat Malt
  • 7.25 lb – 2 row

Hops and spices:

  • 1 oz – Tettnanger @ 60min
  • 1/2 oz – Star Anise crushed (now that I re-read the recipe, I see it calls for 1/2 tsp of anise crushed – whoops)

Yeast

  • Nottingham

The anise smell was pretty strong during the boil, I hope this mellows out a bit by the time I end up drinking it.  At least I now know why it was so strong smelling. Haha.  I also have no idea how star anise translates into using just the anise seed, so maybe I wasn’t too far off?  Who knows, I’ll still have beer though.

Cheers.

New Castle Clone (sort of)

May 10, 2011  |  1 Comments  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

Over the weekend, I brewed the New Castle Clone in Clone Brews, only I used a bit more hops than the recipe called for. Since I love the hops, I can’t say that this was a bad decision. The hops I used were fairly low in alpha acids (at least compared to the hops typically used in IPAs), so I don’t think it will be over-powerfully bitter for the style, but add a little boost in hop flavor and aroma.

  • 9.25 pounds Marris Otter
  • 2 ounces British Crystal 55L
  • 2 ounces British Chocolate Malt
  • 1 ounce British Black Malt
  • 1 ounce Fuggle @ 60 minutes
  • 1 ounce Goldings @ 15 minutes
  • Wyeast 1028 London Ale

As I type this post, I am also custom roasting some wheat malt in my oven because my homebrew store didn’t have roasted wheat malt in stock.  Stay tuned for an exciting wheat beer recipe featuring this malt.

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow India Pale Ale [Homebrew]

April 28, 2011  |  3 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

Since Matt is posting recipes again, he chided me into posting this India Pale Ale recipe that I home-brewed last week. All in all, it’s a simple recipe, just a huge grain bill. The weird measurements for the specialty grains are because that’s what I had in my fridge. So, this is a homebrew recipe, in every sense of the word.

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow IPA

16lb two row (give or take spilling it on the floor)
10.6 oz briess caracrystal wheat malt
3.9 oz briess carapils
4.7 oz belgian special b malt
7.8 oz briess caramel malt 10L

White labs California V ale yeast (or equivalent)

Heat 5.5 gallons of water to 175 degrees. Pour in, without grain, and let sit in the mashtun for about five minutes so that the temperature evens out. Then dump in all of the grain and stir. Let it stand for an hour and then drain.

At the 20 minute mark (so, 40 minutes into the mashing process), set another 2 gallons to 155-160 degrees to finish rinsing the grains and bring your total boil to 6-6.5 gallons. Once the mash tun finishes draining, pour the two gallons into the tun; pour the pre-beer into the kettle. Set course for boil land!

After ten-fifteen minutes, drain off the rest of the sparge water and add to the kettle. I managed to get my kettle to a steady 208-209 degrees. Set a timer for 90 minutes, add 2oz of centennial, and sit back. At the 60 minute mark, add another ounce. Same at 30 and 15.

Dry hop as you require with more centennial. I will be doing another ounce at the 10 day mark. Fermentation should definitely be completed by then.

Beers Brewed: India Brown Ale And Edwort’s Pale Ale

April 27, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Matt Hufford  |  Homebrew, Homebrew Recipes

As I keg my India Brown Ale, I realized that I haven’t posted what I’ve been brewing lately.

First up, we have the India Brown Ale previously mentioned.  I adapted this recipe from a Simcoe IPA recipe that I came across and I wanted to do something to kick it up a little bit.  The recipe also help me use up the mild ale malt that I had sitting around that I had no idea if and how I was ever going to use it.  This beer smelled wonderfully hoppy when I was kegging it.  I can’t wait for it to carb up so that I can taste it.

  • 10# 2-row
  • 1# Crystal 60L
  • 1/2# Roasted Barley
  • 1/2# Crisp Brown Malt
  • 2.4# Mild Ale Malt
  • 1.5 oz Simcoe @ 60 min
  • 1.5 oz Simcoe @ 30 min
  • 1 oz Simcoe Dry Hop
  • 0.5 oz Cascade Dry Hop

Next up, we have Edwort’s Pale Ale.  This is the second time I’ve brewed this beer.  The first time, I brewed it as a Christmas exchange gift for one of my uncles.  I plan to serve this beer at my family’s summer get together.

  • 8# 2-row
  • 2# Vienna
  • 0.5# Crystal 10L
  • 1 oz Cascade @ 60 min
  • 0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 min
  • 0.25 oz Cascade @ 15 min
  • 0.25 oz Cascade @ 5 min

And last, but not least, we have Edwort’s Robust Porter.  This is another beer that I have brewed for the second time.  This beer was so highly enjoyed by my friends and I that I had to brew it again.  If you haven’t noticed yet, I get a lot of my recipes and ideas from Homebrewtalk.com.  If you are ever in need of a recipe, go ahead and look in their recipe section.  I would highly recommend anything posted by Edwort or Biermuncher.

  • 11# 2 Row
  • 1# Chocolate Malt
  • 1# Crystal 40
  • 4 oz Black Patent
  • 1 oz Roasted Barley
  • 8 oz Flaked Barley
  • 8 oz of Malto Dextrin
  • 1 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 min
  • 0.5 oz Cascade @ 60 min