Batch 297, Bell's Two Hearted clone and Berry Cider

 I ordered some hops on line, and got way more than I ordered. I received 3 pounds of Centennial, so I thought to do this recipe since it's all Centennial. I've made this before, and it's always come out pretty good. As brew days go, this one kind of sucked: 

• my carbon water filter burst and turned the sparge water black, so had to dump that and start over
• my mill ( 3 roller monster mill) got jammed, so I had to take it apart and clean and adjust the gap
• I was cleaning stuff and not watching the boil kettle, so I had a boil over
• the Centennial are pellets, and that nifty thing I use to put the pellets in nylon stockings is in Baja, so made a new one
• the little tablet that I use to stream music to the beer shed was dead. Looks like it's going to be okay, though

Oh, and in the end, I missed the OG by 5 points.

10 gallon batch

27 lb 2-row

12 oz Crystal 60

Mash at 148F, adjusted pH to 5.2, collected 5 gallons, second sparge got 7 gallons for 12 gallons in the boil kettle.

2.5 oz Centennial, 60 min

2.5 oz Centennial, 30 min

5 oz Centennial, 5 min

60 minute boil. 

Wyeast 1272 from last batch, so very fresh yeast.

OG: 1.060, 1.056 actual

FG: 1.016

ABV: 6.1%

SRM: 6.5

IBU: 77

I also made a berry cider at the same time, 5 gallons, the usual recipe.

Batch 289, Leeser and Berry Cider

Sort of a Leeser, I guess. This recipe has diverged so far from the original, it's not really the same any more. I was out of stuff, so substituted. 10 gallon batch 21.5 lb pilsner malt - I only had about 5 lbs, so the rest is 2-row 1.5 lb white wheat - I only had a pound, oh well Mashed at some unknown temperature because I forgot to look. The mash water was at 163F, so I'm guessing low 150's. Adjusted pH to 5.3. 1.5 oz Magnum, 60 minutes - turns out I'm out of Magnum, so I used Chinook. 3 oz Saaz, 5 minutes - I only had 2 oz of Saaz, so I used that plus another 2 oz of Hallertau, both were pellets. Wyeast 1272 OG: 1.055, 1052 actual, close enough Also made a cider, usual recipe: 1 gallon (maybe a little more) of wort from the above batch 11 cans Winco frozen apple cider juice Mixed together, then added water to make 4 gallons, gravity at this point was 1.062. Oxygenated and pitched Wyeast 1272. I'll add the fruit in a week or so. This should come out at about 6.5% ABV.

Batch 238, Basil IPA

Another batch of Basil IPA, like the last one. It seems a little early in the season, but the 5 basil plants I planted this spring are more than big enough to harvest enough leaves for a brew. I picked the leaves this morning as the water was heating up.

10 gallon batch

22 lb 2-row
2 lb biscuit
1 lb special B
1.5 lb white wheat

Mashed in with 8 gallons of 170F water, hit 152F. Adjusted pH to 5.25. Mashed for 60 minutes, 15 minute vorlauf both batches.

1 oz Magnum, FWH
2 oz Chinook, 60 min
2 oz Cascade, 30 min
2 oz Cascade, 15 min
1 cup basil leaves, 15 min
2 tsp Irish Moss, 15 min
1/2 cup basil leaves, 8 min
2 oz Citra, 2 minutes
1 cup basil leaves, 2 minutes

90 minute boil. For measuring the basil leaves, I just used a measuring cup and packed them fairly tight.

Oxygenated, then pitched
Wyeast 1272, American Ale II, new package, 2 quart starter

OG: 1.060, 1.065 actual -- I guess my efficiency is back up since I adjusted the mill
FG: 1.016
IBU: 78
SRM: 8.4
ABV: 6.1

Also did a berry cider:

5 gallon batch

1.5 gallons wort strained from the grain after mashing the beer
11 cans Winco frozen 100% apple juice
Mixed together, then added water to make 4 gallons
Oxygenated, then pitched
1 qt Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

At the end of fermentation, I'll add 4 lbs of frozen mixed berries that have been blended in a food processor plus enough water to make another gallon.

Batch 233, Guava IPA

I'm continuing to brew to get beer on all my taps again. At the moment, I have one empty, but 2 are repeats, I have the Oktoberfest on 2 taps and the Panama Red on 2 taps. This is sort of a double batch day, I made this Guava IPA, same as last time, and another berry cider, again, like last time.

10 gallon batch

OG: 1.058, 1.056 actual
FG: 1.015
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 82.6
SRM: 9.7

20 lb 2-row
2.5 lb white wheat
1 kg guava paste, added at end of primary fermentation

Mashed at 154F, adjusted pH to 5.25, recirc 10 minutes each batch. Ran off 13 gallons into the boil kettle, and another 1/2 gallon into a fermenter for the cider.

1.75 oz Citra, FWH
2 oz Magnum, 60 minutes
1 tsp Irish Moss, 15 minutes
3 oz Citra, 5 minutes

90 minute boil.

2 quarts Wyeast 1272 from batch 231. No starter since this is very fresh yeast.

Update,  22 April 2020 -- primary fermentation is done, it's at 1.014. Added the guava. I prepared the guava paste by cutting it into ~1" cubes, put half in the blender, covered with hot water (~105F), blend until smooth, repeat with the other half, then add it all directly to the fermenter.

Berry Cider

I always seem to forget to write down the details of the ciders. For this one, I ran off 1/2 gallon of wort into a fermenter, strained another 1/2 gallon out of the left over mash, so

1 gallon wort
11 cans Winco frozen 100% apple cider
~2 gallons water to make 4 gallons total

Mix it all together in the fermenter, added 1 quart Wyeast 1318 from batch 232, which I harvested today when I kegged that batch. At the end of fermentation, I'll add 4 lbs of frozen mixed berries that have been blended in a food processor plus enough water to make another gallon.

Update, 22 April 2020 -- primary fermentation is done, it's at 1.010. Added the berries. I prepared the berries by pouring half a bag into the blender, covering with hot water (~105F), blend until smooth, repeat for the other 3 half bags, then add it all directly to the fermenter.

Update, 28 April 2020 -- siphoned to a keg, then filtered to make sure there isn't any berry parts (skins, seeds, whatever) to clog things up later on.

Filtering the berry cider. It's a very pink color in the hose, it's very red in the glass.

Batch 215, Berry Cider

The berry cider I made earlier this year turned out to be a big hit, so I made another batch. The process was a little different this time, instead of making beer and running off an extra gallon of wort, I soaked 4 lb 2-row in 1 gallon of water. I didn't think about it and didn't do the math, but 4 lb of crushed grain will absorb 4 pints of water, so I ended up with just a half gallon of wort. Duh! So I batch sparged with another half gallon to get a full gallon of wort.

Fermentables:

1 gallon of wort, more or less
11 cans of Winco frozen apple cider juice

Put that into the fermenter, add 2 gallons of water to make 4 gallons, pitched a quart of thick slurry of Wyeast 1272. Another gallon of liquid gets added later to make a 5 gallon batch.

Like last time, the plan is to let this ferment out, then heat 4 lbs of berries (raspberry, strawberry, blueberry mix) in 1 gallon of water, and add it to the fermenter. The sugar from the berries should cause fermentation to restart, let it go for another week, then rack and keg. The idea here is by adding the fruit later on, the fermentation is less likely to drive off the fruit flavors, which worked well last time.

As usual, I don't have an OG for this, but it's tasty and definitely has some alcohol in it. I'd guess around 5%, but that's just a guess.

Batch 196, Malted Cider

Just like the last batch of this, which turned out to be really nice and drinkable.

5 gallon batch

1 gallon wort from batch 195
11 12 oz cans Winco frozen Apple concentrate
3 gallons water

Mix it all up in a fermenter, adjust to pitching temp, oxygenate, add 1 quart of London Ale III that I had saved from a previous batch of something.

One time when I make this, I really need to get a hydrometer sample so I have some idea of the alcohol content. I'm still guessing it's in the 5% range.

This is so easy to do, it adds no time at all to a brew day. I made the cider while the boil was in progress.

Update May 2, 2017: my nitro tap opened up, so I thought why not and put the cider on nitro.

Update May 22, 2017: it's not very good. It's okay, but boring. I added 1/4 cup of vanilla extract from Costco and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

Update May 29, 2017, this is freaking delicious! Too bad there is only 5 gallons. The creamy head from the nitro makes this tasted like apple pie or cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon is understated, but present, and the little bit of vanilla extract is really nice!

Update Nov 17, 2017, still delicious, but I want the nitro tap for End of the World, so I bottled the rest, which was 11 22oz bottles.

Batch 188, Malted Cider

Just like the last batch of this, which turned out to be really nice and drinkable.

5 gallon batch

1 gallon wort from batch 187
11 12 oz cans Winco frozen Apple concentrate
3 gallons water

Mix it all up in a fermenter, adjust to pitching temp, oxygenate, add 1 quart of London Ale III that I saved from the last batch I made of this.

Like last batch, the gravity of the gallon of wort was a little low, so I added 1/2 lb DME to get it to 1.050. Also like last batch, I didn't think to get a hydrometer sample, so I have no idea what the OG is. I tried to set this up in BrewTarget, but I'm not certain I have it set correctly. I think the OG should be around 1.058, with an ABV of about 5.7.

This is so easy to do, it adds no time at all to a brew day. I made the cider while the boil was in progress.

June 9, 2016, fermentation is done, it's right at 1.010, so I turned the freezer down to 33F to cold crash.

June 11, 2016, kegged and harvested the yeast. The yeast looks excellent!

June 12, 2016, realized today that I'd forgotten to add the Cream of Tartar to the keg, so I did that today, 2 tsp. That most excellent looking yeast had expanded in the mason jar and leaked all over the fridge.

Batch 186, Malted Cider

I haven't made a cider before, and the universe seems to be pushing me in that direction. My beer club met at Merriwether Cider Company a couple of weeks ago, and we got a great tour and discussion about how to make ciders. Then I was reading a recent issue of Zymurgy and they had an article about making malted ciders. The problem with straight-up cider is that there isn't any nutrients for the yeast. Malted cider, however, uses some beer wort added to the apple juice as yeast nutrient, so when I was making Batch 185, I ran off an extra gallon to make 5 gallons of malted cider. It turns out the wort I ran off was a little low on gravity, so I added some DME to get it to 1.042.

5 gallon batch

4 gallons of cider from concentrate. My wife bought 11 of these cans at about $1 each from Winco:

Beats the crap out of me why I take a photo landscape and Google turns it to portrait and doesn't give me any option to rotate it.

So 11 of these plus 3 gallons of water plus 1 gallon of wort makes 5 gallons.

All I did was mix the concentrate with water in a fermenter bucket, then added the gallon of wort, oxygenated, then pitched a jar of Wyeast London Ale III from batch 184. I'm real interested to see how this comes out. This was super simple to make and was easy to add into a regular brew day. I'm a little worried about sanitation, I was careful, but the water came right out of the tap (through a carbon filter), not boiled, the wort came right out of the mash tun, so it was about 170F at one point, but not boiled and much it was much cooler when I added it to the cider.

May 3, the airlock is bubbling away, that's a good sign.

May 11, fermentation is done, FG is 1.012, so I put it in a keg and put it on tap. I added 2 tsp of Cream of Tartar to the fermenter before kegging, it probably would have been better to add that to the keg.

May 14, first taste now that's carbonated, it's good, but a little plain, not a lot of apple flavor.

June 3, I've been mixing this 50/50 with the Prickly Pear beer, and that is an excellent combination. I took a growler to a tennis match for afterwards, and it was gone in about 10 minutes.