This is the first shot at making a Hard Cider. I got the cider from Patterson Farms, which has a fruit stand in New Berlin near Highway 100. The cider was all natural, meaning it had no preservatives and it wasn't pasteurized. Very potent stuff, apparently. Anyway, here was the recipe I used:
 | 5 gallons Cider |
| 1 package WYeast Dry Mead Yeast |
That's it. I added the yeast to the cider in the fermenter and away I went. However, nothing seemed to happen. After a week, I consulted Greg at Frugal Homebrewer in Waukesha who suggested I try some Champagne yeast, which I did, and it's been fermenting ever since. It's been going for about 2 weeks now. This stuff could have some major alcohol when all is said and done. Nothing compared to the mead, mind you, but significant.
I'm planning on bottling this weekend if at all possible (if fermenting has stopped) so I can break it out at my Grandpa's 75th birthday.
I bottled the cider last Wednesday, October 24, which was too late to break out at Grandpa's birthday party, but should be in plenty of time for Thanksgiving, which will be good. It will most likely debut at Turkey-fest for work.
To bottle it, I boiled about 2.5 cups of water with 3/4 cup of corn sugar. I then added about a teaspoon of cinnamon for flavor, but I'm not sure how that will turn out since it does not dissolve in water.
The final yield was 51 bottles.
More brewing this weekend when I concoct Captain Barley's Steam Brew. Hopefully I'll get to it...
Results are pending... The pre-carbonated form of the cider tasted good, so we'll see what carbonation does to it. No alcohol level measurement was possible because my hydrometer was broken...
January 17, 200
OK, this is it, my first flat out failure. For some reason, this just didn't taste any good. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that the yeast I was supposed to be using didn't take, so I had to use Champagne yeast. I don't think that helped things along at all. Looks like I'm going to be dumping about 48 bottles of this down the drain... It just doesn't taste that good...