Bottling the cider and transfering the wine.

After a week of fermenting the cider has finally slowed down and stopped bubbling completely so it was time to rack it off into bottles. I only had wine bottles spare at the time so off i went through the usual procedure of sterilising everything prior to bottling. While everything was sterilising i checked the finishing gravity and was amazed to see it had finished to 1.000. After a quick bit of calculation i worked out that the cider 8.26% abv. This stuff should come with a bio hazard label attached

Then i set about the task of syphoning the cider from the demijon to the bottles ,at this point i found out that my auto syphon would not fit into the demijon so i had to resort to the crude sucking method. Once bottled i primed the cider before corking the wine bottles and putting them i a warm place for secondary fermentation. It turns out that the yeasts in the cider absoloutly loved the priming sugars and the Co2 built up at a fantastic rate untill one of the corks blew out. I quickly got the bottle re corked before binding all the corks down with gaffer tape. That should hold the buggers in place. Just need to wait a week before putting them somewhere cool to condition.

I also set about transfering the wine into another fermentation bin as per the instructions. After 8 days the gravity should be less than 1.010. I dropped the sterilised hydrometer in the wine to find it down at 994 so it was deffinately time to move the wine.

I set about sterilising the new bin, airlock & bung and auto syphon as usual and got everything ready for the move. I wanted to do this without stiring up too much sediment. Although the auto syphon does not fit into a demijon it’s perfect for the big 5 gallon bins. Just give the syphon a couple of pumps then let gravity do the rest of the work

I need to wait 12 days now before i can start de-gassing the wine before adding the clearing agents.

2 More Brews

Finally i have got round to starting the 30 bottle wine kit. Last night was a busy one as i’ve wanted to get this running for a while now. The kit is a California Connoisseur Merlot and comes highly recomended. As usual i set to cleaning and sterilising all the kit. I also set about sterilising my beer equiptment for another brew but more about that later Once everything was rinsed properly i set to mixing the wine kit following the destructions carefully. These 30 bottle kits are a tad messier to prepare than the beer kits. Just before i pitched the yeast i checked the OG which came in at 1.084 which is about right for this wine kit. I left the yeast to re-hydrate for a while while i topped up the turbo cider with 1 1/2 litres of apple concentrate.

Once i had mixed the yeast in i sealed the bin and fitted the airlock before rinsing off all my beer kit. Once that was done i set to mixing up the Bavarian Beer kit ‘ve been promising to put on. I quickly got the kit ready and took the gravity which came in at 1.042 before pitching the yeast . While this was re-hydrating i had a quick shower then stired the yeast into the wort before sealing the fermentor. Al in it was a good night of brewing. Appologies about the lack of pictures. I was just too busy

The next experiment. Turbo Cider

Well, I havent had the chance to start the wine yet but i have recently aquired a demijon from mi mate Chris for the specific reason of making Turbo Cider. Normal ciders can take months to ferment but not turbo cider. This stuf can be ready to drink in 1 month only. Instead of using pressed apples you use pure apple juice and add sugar for some extra fermentable sugar. I also decided to add half a jar of honey which will provide more sugars and also add more taste. As usual i set about cleaning and throughly sterilising all the gear prior to mixing the cider.

Once everything was cleaned and rinced i added half a jar of honey to the demijon, followed by 3 litres of pure apple juice complete with the bits, and shook vigerously for 5 minutes to make sure everything was mixed up nicely. At this point i poured some of the mix out of the demijon into the trial jar to take the OG. I was pretty supprised to find it at 1.062. This stuff is going to be like rocket fuel.

I poured the content of the trial jar back into the demijon and placed it into the sink filled with hot water to raise the temperature so i could pitch the yeast. At this point i realised i didnt have any yeast so i added a sachet of bread yeast. I know people who have brewed beer with bread yeast and it’s come out brilliant so what the hell, in it went. once the yeast had re-hydrated for half an hour i shook up the demijon again to mix everything up and sealed it with the airlock. All that remains is to add another 1.5 litres of apple juice in the next 24 – 48 hours. I cant wait for this one to finish

Bradford Beer Festival & IPA Bottling

This weekend was the anual Bradford Beer Festival which is held every year at the Victoria Hall in Saltaire. As usual i took the friday off work to go the the free session on friday afternoon (Free as in not requiring tickets otherwise i’d be in hospital) there’s a merry little bunch of about 10 of us that do this every year, mainly so we can send picture messages to our coleagues at work to annoy the hell out of them

With well over 100 Ales, not to mention Ciders, Perry’s and continential beers to choose from i was spoilt for choice but my Fave beers of the festival were

Leeds Pale 3.8%
Leeds New Moon 4.3%
Naylors Crystal Wheat 4.5%
Naylors Old Ale 6.2%
Northumberland Pit Pony 3.8%
Old Spot Ginger Beer 4%
Ossett Big Red 4.2%
Osset Snowdrop 4.2%
Salamander Fire Cracker 4%
Glencoe Wild Oat Stout 4.5%
Wentworth WPA 4%
Wylam Northern Kite 4.5%
Yorkshire Dales Buckden Pike 3.9%

I tried loads of other but these were my fave’s. Needless to say i got completely destroyed on Friday as me and the missis had tickets for the evening session also, so after a brief interlude at the Shipley Pride for a game of Killer Darts and a couple of stunning pints of Tim Taylors Landlord Me and Nicky headed up to meet some friends and then back to the beer festival for round 2. Things got kind of hazy from here. I can not remember getting home at all, and as expected Saturday was a writeoff… Roll on Next years festival

Sunday was spent cleaning, de-labelling and sterilising bottles and racking the IPA. I took a gravity reading of the brew just before bottling and it finished at an amazingly low 1.002 I dont know how this will affect the brew but the ABV came in at 4.93% which will do for me. I had a quick taste of the ale and everything seems ok so into the bottles it went

The next brew will be the Coopers Bavarian beer i put on a few weeks back. Me and Nicky both loved that one so i’m doing it again. Also next week I’m finally going to delve into winemaking. Should be a fun one