Thanks to the generous gift from
Lord Stilton, I was able to make a big batch of homebrew. I still haven't made the jump to buying beer ingredients because of delivery charges, so cider it would be.
I calculated my recipe mostly based upon my bottling capacity. I have enough plastic soda bottles to hold about 17 litres of brew. I rounded this up to an even 20 with some extra apple juice and some additional water to dissolve the sugar and tea.
 |
| Preparation and ingredients |
The batch used 16.5 litres of apple juice, a cup of black tea (for tannin flavor- simulating tannins from apple skins in pressing), 1kg white sugar, 500g brown sugar, raisins, yeast nutrient, and yeast. The bleach and vinegar are used for sanitizing equipment.
I brewed the tea, mixed the sugar in hot water, poured the cider (all eleven jugs of it!) into the fermenter, added the sugar water, tea, and raisins to the mix, aerated the whole mix, added the yeast, and sealed up the fermenter bucket. Easy as that.
 |
| What a mess! |
 |
| Fermenting next to the water heater |
I stashed the fermenter in the closet next to the water heater to help keep it warm as our apartment is getting cooler, especially at night. The next day, it was bubbling and gurgling away. Should be ready to bottle in about two weeks. Can't wait!
Looking good.. Probably not a good idea to put it next to the immersion though.. Just leave it in a room with a blanket around it.
ReplyDelete