Tuesday 27 May 2008

Brewing

Having never tried my hand at brewing before (I'm not a beer drinker, and anything else seemed too difficult), I'm pretty excited by what the apple juice is doing right now ...


Photo 1 is last night - the yeast had just been added to a bottle of preservative-free apple juice.

Photo 2 is this morning after approximately 12 hours - something's happening ...

And Photo 3 is tonight - 24 hours since the process began, and it's certainly fermenting well! (The colour difference in the photos is due more to the lighting conditions than anything else.)

I need to leave it for a minimum of another 24 hours, or up to 5 days, and then refrigerate to stop the process.

Soooo ... drink sooner & sweeter, or wait for a higher alcohol content & drier flavour?

7 comments:

The Crone at Wits End said...

Or buy several bottles and test a new bottle every night? ;)

Hic!

karen said...

Only if you come & help me drink it ;)

Anonymous said...

The hubby and I are both hopeful for you but we're carrying a grain of salt each - as well.
We love hard cider and having had success with both beer and mead (notoriously hard because yeast doesn't really like to digest the sugar in honey) we dove right into cider production. Our first batch was made with apples we collected from the cemetery down the street - what!? nobody else was using them!
The stuff was awesome and sweet and crisp and packed a kick. By the time we were ready for a second batch there were no fresh apple to use so we carefully combed the grocery store shelves for a cider that had "no preservatives". We repeated everything TO THE LETTER and it was gross, like somebody had added a bottle of acetate. We did it 2 more times with products that claimed no preservatives and listed apples and water as the only ingredients and had the same results.
Our lesson learned was that only fresh - by us - squeezed cider measured up and made anything decent.
We wish you well and have our fingers crossed. Let us know - and DON'T be discouraged if it comes out like nail polish remover - it most probably won't be anything you did.

karen said...

10am is probably a little too early in the morning to be testing cider, so I'll try it tonight and report back. The Crone at Wit's End has made some (with success) using this method, so I'm hopeful :)

Anonymous said...

hey Karenmc,

How did you make do. Noticed your picture number three has some mad fermentation. Did that settle or does it stay like that after refridgeration ?. Little worried I have wild yeast cultures in mine. But dont want to tip it if its drinkable.

karen said...

Hi Ash - It was definitely drinkable, as was the red grape juice 'lambrusco' I made later. The froth settles down - it was pretty impressive for a day or so though :)

Anonymous said...

You have no idea how happy you just made me :). Lambrusco and Zeffers Pizza for dinner in a day or too. YAY