Recent content by mdennytoo

I agree with this. I have used lager yeast like this a couple of times. 60f or so will be fine because there isn't that much sugar left (relatively). It won't taste like sulphur or produce esters just finishing this last bit of sugar. On an experimental beer, I used a lavlin 71b -1112 in a...

I have heard people say that adding DAP diamonium phosphate after some ethanol is made creates a toxic compound. They (experts and people who talk like them) say not to add after fermentation begins. I can see adding all your nutrients first, building yeast cell count, and then staggering the...

I think that looks good at 2 to 3 weeks. There is CO2 in solution floating yeast rafts. Let your nose tell you. If it smells of garbage pail, bandaids, or socks it could be bad. If it smells boozy and bready it is good. Some yeast give off SO2 and smell like eggs or matches-if there aren't...

Nortbank the voice of reason. The word real can get you in trouble. I want to make real 19th century American cider. Do I keeve or do I press and dump? Assuming I really know how to keeve, anyway. Assuming I know what kind of apples make real American ancestral cider? These are valid...

Gaymers in the 1880s was not keeving: http://cider.org.uk/Notes%20Towards%20a%20History%20of%20Norfolk%20Cider.pdf "After the apples were picked and heaped they were crushed between granite rollers and then the juice expressed with the use of a hydraulic press. It was quickly transferred into...

It will be pretty, but probably insanely high in acid. Would it be too sharp? A total acid titration kit will help you see were the juice starts before fermenting. If you adjust with something like calcium carbonate, you can bring the acidity into a normal range for ciders before fermenting...

http://mason.gmu.edu/~drwillia/cider.html This is a really cool read. The author points out how Americans mysteriously abandoned the apple for barley, theorizing that the quality of beers and ciders were probably pretty bad in 18th and 19th century America until the Germans brought lager...

Agreed. I was using the name scrumpy as "the way the English/ Welsh used to make cider before coming to America". Scrumpy is probably newer than that. I am trying to understand the method of making cider. Assuming that a given Englishman used to making cider one way before immigrating to the...

Yes, the lowering of nitrogen made the cider ferment very slowly. At the end they (Europeans) had a cider that would keep for years. Vintage cider? Could 18/19th century American ciders keep, or did they drink them generally sour from volatile acidity before the next harvest? Is scrumpy like...

Also, is there such a thing as a "good" scrumpy? Will a well made scrumpy keep after bottling?

Would fermentation of a traditional scrumpy be hotter than normal? (West of England-September/ October) In beer, you can get fusel alcohols that do the eye flash thing if you ferment a regular ale yeast at or above 88f or 31.1c.

I am a beer brewer and have slowly been getting into cider over the last couple of years using my beer brewing knowledge. Hence, all of the crappy cider I made at first. It wasn't until I took a break, knowing I was barking up the wrong tree with juice concentrates. I have done some reading...

It has started now. I have give the same advice to bucket brewers, because you can have leaks. My gravity was 1.058 to begin with, but I didn't wine thief it after trying the second yeast. I don't remember ever having that many days lag.

Also, if it hasn't been said already, people new to brewing use extracts. Most extracts already have caramel malt in them. If you sort of convert or borrow ideas from an all malt recipe, you should probably drop the caramel additions by half in order not to get a really heavy beer. The...

I also agree with m00ps. I have used S04 before because I was attracted to the fact that it precipitates out so fast. I decided after a few that it was a little tart. I think it is acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde is one of the last steps in producing alcohol- like it isn't done yet. The yeast...