GumTurkeyles
AV Clubber 
$10 down, $10 a month, don't you be a turkey
Posts: 3,065 
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Post by GumTurkeyles on Mar 11, 2016 9:24:39 GMT -5
And speaking of brewing, I did manage to snag some apple cider not treated with potassium sorbate, so I'll be doing a surprise cider "brew" most likely this weekend. I've done cider twice before and not loved either, because they both ended up too dry and "wine-y," so I'm playing with method yet again and we'll see where we land. Edit: I also want to tone down the alcohol. The first cider landed at 8 something % while the second was nearly 11%. It's actually the largest thing I've ever brewed, but that only adds to the "wine" taste and is harder to carbonate. Offhand, I can't recall if this applies to ciders or meads, but don't a lot of people sweeten on the back end (add sugar prior to refrigerating)? I'm not sure how to not have cider not be super dry. Good luck with it, though! |
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LazBro
Prolific Poster 
Posts: 10,278
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Post by LazBro on Mar 11, 2016 9:36:00 GMT -5
And speaking of brewing, I did manage to snag some apple cider not treated with potassium sorbate, so I'll be doing a surprise cider "brew" most likely this weekend. I've done cider twice before and not loved either, because they both ended up too dry and "wine-y," so I'm playing with method yet again and we'll see where we land. Edit: I also want to tone down the alcohol. The first cider landed at 8 something % while the second was nearly 11%. It's actually the largest thing I've ever brewed, but that only adds to the "wine" taste and is harder to carbonate. Offhand, I can't recall if this applies to ciders or meads, but don't a lot of people sweeten on the back end (add sugar prior to refrigerating)? I'm not sure how to not have cider not be super dry. Good luck with it, though! Yes, I back sweeten for sure. The trick is finding the balance, because the same sugar you use to sweeten will also be used to carbonate, so you have to add enough sugar so that the cider carbonates and still has enough sugar leftover to be sweet. Then you have to kill the fermentation, else the yeast will just keep eating, and since you added so much sugar ...... BOOM! Now that I have that 2nd fridge, it's easier for me to "cold crash" the batch, that is, get the entire batch in the bottles under 40 degrees, where yeast go dormant. Before I had the fridge I would stove-top pasteurize by placing each sealed bottle in boiling water for 10 minutes to kill the yeast. Now that's a pain in the ass. |
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monodrone
Prolific Poster
Come To Brazil
Posts: 2,565
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Post by monodrone on Mar 14, 2016 7:32:15 GMT -5
So my homebrew club's beer competition was last night, and I took first place! There were 5 submissions, and the categories were 14 and 15: Scottish Ales and Irish Beers. I had to force carbonate with plastic bottles and my CO2 tank, since I didn't have enough time to properly bottle carbonate them. I'm still keeping the rest of the beer in the secondary for another month as well. The biggest flaw is there's a heavy alcohol taste to it, which will settle off once it's aged properly. I'm going to enter it into a real competition that's in April, so I'm hoping that the alcohol taste will mellow out, though I doubt it will. Another mark against me, by the one BJCP certified judge in the group, is that the fermentation temperature could have added to that alcohol taste (fusel alcohols). So he recommended I get a temp wrap and thermal controller for keeping the carboy at the right temp. Since it was too cold to keep in the basement, I kept it in my dining room, which was anywhere from 56-65 degrees, so hopefully in the future, I avoid that problem. There was a great irish stout that tasted like a smoked beer. I voted it as my favorite, but it came in second. It was spot on, and the guys that did that one are new to the club, but know their stuff. [edit] Oh, I did a wee heavy (which is cat 17C, but to make it fit, I submitted as a Scottish Export (14C)). The mezcal oak chips actually helped mellow out the alcoholic taste, so even though I thought I was going to get hit for having a smoked taste, it helped in the long run. Just looked up the guidelines for the style and it refers to Orkney Dark Island which is one of my all time favourite beers so let the record show that this resident of Scotland loves a pint of Export. |
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