Simple Apple Cider

A good friend of mine requested a very simple recipe for making Apple Cider at home. So here it is.

Materials needed -

2 gallon plastic bucket w/lid (available at home depot)
1 gallon of all natural no preservative apple juice/cider (preferably in a glass jug)
1 #8 cork with a hole
1 airlock
1 mason jar, lid not required
1 tube for siphoning
1 package red star premier cuvee yeast
1/3 pound (3/4 cup) sugar
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1 campden tablet
1 gallon glass jug (if your apple juice/cider doesn't come with it)


Mix sugar, crushed campden tablet, yeast nutriet, pectic enzyme, and cider together in the plastic bucket. Stir well.

Dip your mason jar in and fill it up about 1/4 of the way full. Top it off with hot water (not boiling, just tap water hot) till the jar is about 1/2 full. Add in the package of yeast. Cover with a paper towel or other cloth and let sit for 24 hours.
This will be your 'yeast starter'

After 24 hours toss in the yeast starter and give it a good stir. Let the mix sit for about 1 week, stirring about twice a day. After the week is up, siphon off the liquid into the glass jug, cap with the cork and air bubbler. Should take about 4 weeks to ferment to full, maybe a little less. It should be racked off about once a week while it's fermenting to get rid of sediment at the bottom. After about 4 weeks feel free to bottle.

Instructions for carbonation:
take 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water. Heat the water slowly stirring in the sugar until you have disolved all the sugar and you have a simple syrup. Wait till cool then add into your cider immediately before bottling. Wait about 2 weeks or so after bottling, then toss in the fridge and drink : )

Apple Cider

The apple cider that I started around the same time as the Strawberry wine took a bit longer than anticipated to ferment fully. It cleared rather quickly though (which isn't surprising considering that it was made entirely from Store-bought Juice. It came out tasting about as I expected, it's a rather sweet hard apple cider. I think next time I do this I'm going to have to use something other than a beer yeast for it, I'm fairly certain the sugar fermented out as much as humanly possible for this particular yeast, up to around 9%, thereby killing all the yeast and not allowing for anymore fermentation. I should of probably taken a hydrometer reading at time of bottling, but I didn't think it was that important. It was either going to carbonate or not at this point. So I took 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup water and made a very quick syrup. Tossed it all into the gallon jug and stirred voraciously. I then immediately proceeded to bottle it, hoping that it would ferment just slightly more and give me a final carbonated beer like brew. I'll find out in a few weeks if the carbonation took hold, and I'll post an update then.

Some of you might be wondering why I went to the trouble of making a sugar syrup instead of just dumping in the sugar. It's rather simple - it dissipates within the cider much faster and easier in liquid form, which just about guarantee's me that I won't have any sugar sediment in the final product.

Slacking and Updates

I've been bad, I haven't been posting at all and It's been irritating me. I really have no excuse for not posting sometimes, I just can't seem to sit down and spend as much time in front of my computer anymore.

Ok, so I'm going to take this post and do an update on all my liqueurs here, wines/meads in another post.


Hibiscus (alien liqueur)- the flavor in this liqueur came out rather well I thought, you can deffinitelly taste the hibiscus, all though I would definitely recommend for anyone who tries this recipe, that they use a higher quality of liqueur for it. The flavor of Hibiscus is a very mild flavor compared to that of the Vodka, and with the cheap Vodka that I used, the hibiscus was kind of overpowered. I definitely won't do this recipe again without using at least smirnoff or better quality vodka.

Strawberry - Strawberries this year have just been absolutely fantastic. If you haven't had a chance to do anything with them yet, I highly recommend going out and buying a flat of them just to make this recipe with if nothing else. As soon as I tasted the final product of this batch I went right out and bought a ton more strawberries just to make more. As my wife described it after her first taste 'it's like drinking a Daquiri in a bottle' It also has a beautiful pink color to it. Overall the flavor and appearance I thought were perfect. The one negative thing I will say is it's almost impossible to strain out all the powdered sugar. You end up with a high sediment liqueur, unless of course you want to go with a higher qulaity filter than coffee filters and paper towels.

Lime - Not many people seem to like the sound or idea of Lime Liqueur when I mention it to them. I made this recipe though for 2 main reasons. 1 I wanted it for making margaritas, and 2 I wanted it to make Lime Marinade for cooking fajitas. Well I tried it with margaritas the day I strained it out, and I can tell you this. It needs ALOT of aging time after it's initially strained. It has a really harsh bite to it, I ended up mixing it with my homemade triple sec, and Sauza Gold tequila, an equal shot of each per margarita. I'd made this same margarita before with my triple sec and Sauza, and Roses Lime, and they came out really well. I think the vodka bite was just a bit to much with un-aged Lime Liqueur. I'll do another update on this one in a few months after I've actually given it the chance to age properly. The fajita marinade I made with it came out really well, it had a nice flavor and went extremely well on beef. It was however a tad to mild based on the outside of grilled in the shell shrimp.

Grapefruit - I haven't actually tried any of this batch of liqueur. I made it entirely for a good friend of mine that lives out of town. He came into town recently and I bottled it all up and sent it home with him. Maybe when he finishes letting it age and tastes it I'll get him to come here and post a review of it.



Licorice - Again, this one definitely needs a bit of aging I think. Maybe if I quit using such cheap vodka's I wouldn't have to let things age so long before that bite of cheap vodka is gone. But that is neither here nor there : ) The brand of tea is used for this is Yogi Tea, their organic Egyptian Licorice. It came out tasting very much like the tea when I drank it. Which is of course what I was going for here. It sort of has a hint of the idea of it being Ouzo, but has to many other spices in it that stand out, and is far from being that. I was joking around with a friend of mine and we ended up naming this one 'Soduzo' joking around about the game 'Soduko' and it all just sort of fit. I realize it's horrible and probably rather geeky, but hey thats how it goes sometimes in my household.

Orange - My orange Liqueur for gifts this holiday is done, I haven't bothered tasting it just yet because I know it needs some aging time. I haven't even bottled it yet, just strained out the bad stuff and poured it into a couple of clean half gallon mason jars. It ended up making about 3/4 of a gallon worth of Liqueur. I'll end up making one more batch of this (probabbly soon) to make sure I have enough for christmas this year.

Green Tea - So if your a normal reader of my blog you are probably asking yourself when did I make this?!? Well it's a recipe that takes 24 hours to do so I threw together a batch for a friend that was in from out of town. I haven't tasted this, but when she gets around to drinking it I'll try and get her to login and post a review up.


recipe -
3 cups vodka
6 tsp green tea leaves, I used a 'ginger' green tea
1 cup sugar syrup.
steep the leaves in the vodka for 24 hours, strain and add sugar syrup
let age for at least 3-6 months. This is the same recipe found on the
Gunther Anderson website that I talk about from time to time. The original
recipe also calls for green food coloring, and can be found here

Well thats about it for Liqueurs, I have some Cider and Wine updates I need to post, but that is for another blog entry!

Orange Liqueur

This recipe was started on 3/9/07

My plan for the holidays was to get a nice big batch of Orange Liqueur going and give it away as gifts at the end of the year. Well I've gotten about halfway started with this and gotten a decent sized batch ready and aging.

The recipe is pretty simple, and uses pretty much the same recipe as the Lime Liqueur I did just with oranges instead. I'll go ahead and post it here anyways.

4 Large sweet oranges
water as needed
2 cups granulated sugar.
2 cups vodka

Peel the zest completely off of one orange. Juice all of the oranges. Add water until you have a 2 full cups of liquid (if needed) Take the juice, zest, and sugar. Toss it all into a pot and bring to a boil. Lower the temperature and let simmer for 10 minutes. Let the liquid mixture cool completely and then add into the vodka. Let sit for 1-2 months then strain out the zest and bottle.

Black Licorice Liqueur

My wife is an avid tea lover, and we on a fairly regular basis have an evening tea-time after dinner to relax us a bit for the night. I'm not really much of a tea person myself, but I like to try and take the time to have tea with her because it's a really good chance for us to just sit back and catch up on the world with each other. So I'm sure your wondering what in the hell this has to do with alcohol, so I'll quit rambling and just get to the point :) I picked up a box of Egyptian Black Licorice Liqueur because I thought it might be a good flavor for me for our evening teas. Well it was kind of nasty as a hot tea, but as I was sitting there drinking it I thought hey, this kind of tastes like warm Ouzo.


I took about 6 or 7 of the tea bags (I can't remember the exact amount) and 4 cups of vodka. I tossed them all into a jar and shoved it under the counter. I got this batch started about the same time I did the Strawberry Liqueur. After a month I'll go ahead and strain it out and add in a sugar syrup.

Cider and Vinegar

So I went ahead and did the final racking on 2 of the 3 gallons I made of cider. These are the 2 I planned on turning into vinegar for gifts at the end of this year.

I picked up a bottle of 'Mother of Vinegar' from my brew supply shop. Everything I've read up on vinegar says you really don't need this, but it can help to speed up the process and ensure a quality batch. So I figured why not, it was only 5 bucks and worth a try. I'm using a generic 2 gallon plastic bucket I picked up at home depot, one of the same buckets I use for initial fermentations of wines. (all though this one is now permanantly for vinegar only) Everything I've read on making vinegar says you need a wide open tub for it to sit in where it can get plenty of air. So I've just loosly let the lid sit on it for the time being. I may go out and pick up some cheese cloth to strap down over it instead, but I think for now it's going to work fine.

The rest of the cider I decided to let sit for a little bit longer in the primary fermenter. The specific gravity of both was down to 1.000 but the cider just wasn't clear enough for my tastes yet. I'll probably go ahead and bottle it in a week or two. I just didn't see that there was any rush on it.

Strawberry Liqueur

I got this recipe from Classic Liqueurs, The Art of Making & Cooking with Liqueurs.

It was started about 3-4 days before the Strawberry Wine, so on or around March 3rd.

Strawberry Liqueur I

6 cups strawberries
1 cup powdered sugar
4 cups vodka
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons glycerin

Cut, stem, wash, and drain berries. Pat dry. Place in aging container and cover with powdered sugar. Pour vodka over and let age for 2-3 weeks.

After initial aging make a simple syrup with the water and the rest of the sugar. Strain out the berries, you probably want to crush them and drain out all liquid completely as the berries contain quite a bit. Add the sugar mixture and glycerin, and bottle. Age 1 month before serving.

This recipe is doubled from what the book originally states. All of it fit rather nicely into a half gallon wide-mouthed mason jar. It's actually almost time for me to strain it already.

One thing I noticed with this recipe and with strawberries in general. Strawberries have a tendency to exude liquids when covered in sugar. It's probably best to let them sit for a bit after covering them with the powdered sugar before you add the vodka.

Strawbery Wine

Ahhh, winter's almost over and it's Strawberry Season. I was at my local grocery store this past week and they had strawberries on sale, so I picked up about 8 pounds worth and decided to start brewing. I did 2 different things with them, but this post is just about wine, I'll do a separate post for the Liqueur. I've been EXTREMELY slack with my blog, I've actually gotten quite a few things started over the past few weeks (in fact this recipe actually started on 3/5/07) So expect quite a few posts over the next 24 hours.


Ok so I'll shutup now and post the damn recipe, here it is!


This recipe came from a new book I picked up called Winemaker's recipe handbook by Raymond Massaccesi

Strawberry Wine:

3 1/2lb strawberries
7pts water
2 lb sugar
1 tsp acid blend
1/3 tsp tannin
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp nutrient
1 campden tablet (crushed)
1 package Premier Cuvee wine yeast

Wash, Drain, and de-stem and cut in half all berries. Use a nylon straining bag if you have one, or several nylon socks if not. Toss all the berries into the nylon and mash them thoroughly. Stir in all ingredients except yeast. Let it sit for a few minutes and grab a bit of the liquid in a glass, use this plus a little hot water to make a yeast starter. Let both mixtures sit for 24 hours before combining. Wait about 5 days, or until your SG is about 1.030 and rack off into your secondary fermenter. This entire recipe takes about 3 weeks or so to ferment to completion, but may take up to 2 months to clear before it's ready to bottle. According to the recipe this makes a fairly dry wine, and you might want to add a little more sweetener. Before bottling you also probably want to add 1/2tsp Stabilizer and 1/4lb sugar. This makes 1 gallon of wine.


My starting gravity for this was 1.030, it's already sitting at 1.000 and I've racked it off into the secondary fermenter already. I'm definitely going to be adding that 1/4 pound sugar to this one.

Apple Cider Update

I racked off the cider for the first time today (ok, so I was a week late for the first racking) Everything went well for the most part, gravity measurement was 1.10. I found a recipe in one of the new books I managed to pick up for cider, and it had pectic enzyme and a little bit more sugar added on a per gallon basis, so I went ahead and added in at this point 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme and 1/3 pound (3/4 cup) sugar per gallon.

A little note about adding in the sugar, be extremely careful doing this. It caused a massive foaming/bubbling reaction that exploded out of the top of the jugs. This sugar should of definitely been added at the beginning of the brew instead of halfway through. I figure this will be ready to bottle within the next 2 weeks or so.

Simple Apple Cider

I decided to get one more batch of something going today before I leave on vacation for a week. So I started up the Apple Cider that I had the ingredients for just laying around in the kitchen. This is an adapted recipe thats really come from reading through alot of material and coming up with something that will work with what I have.

I'm doing 3 gallons of cider, but they are all separated out into single 1 gallon jugs for fermentation. So I'm just going to list this as a single gallon recipe.

Kroger usually keeps in stock an all natural apple cider that has absolutely no preservatives and no additives, which is perfect for fermenting. It can be found in the juice isle with all the jugs full of juice made from concentrate. This is the same starter recommended to me in use for Apple Spice Wine. I've included an image of the brand of cider used.

1 gallon store bought apple cider, no preservatives no additives.
1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
1 campden tablet
some yeast starter

I started off by making a basic yeast starter, using a packet of Windsor Brewing Yeast, some warm tap water, and a bit of the cider.

Mix the cider, yeast nutrient, and a crushed campden tablet. Let sit for 24 hours. At this point it's safe to go ahead and add in the yeast starter. Make sure you toss on an airlock and in a few weeks it should be good to go!

starting gravity was 1.050 This should end up with about a 7% alcohol. Which is perfect for a good beer style cider.

Grapefruit Liqueur

Tossed together a batch of grapefruit liqueur today before I head off for the week.

Ingredients

3 cups sugar
2 cups vodka
2 cups freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
1 whole grapefruit peel, sliced up into quarters
water added to grapefruit juice to make 2 cups.

Start with 4 small India red grapefruits. Juice them all, and add enough water if needed to make 2 cups of juice. Take the entire peel of one of the grapefruits and slice it up into quarters. You can zest a couple of them instead if you want to take the trouble, but I wouldn't expect alot of flavor from the peels at all. I added them in really just to add them. Toss the grapefruit juice, peel, and sugar all into a pot and turn it on high until it boils. Reduce heat immediately and let simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool and add to the vodka.

Let steep for 2-3 months, then strain and enjoy. This is a much different recipe than the last batch (not posted) of grapefruit liqueur I did. But this seems to flow well with all the other citrus recipes I've read. This is however a completely experimental recipe.

Lime Liqueur

I prepared a batch of Lime Liqueur today to start completing some of my goals for the year. I choose a recipe from the book 'Classic Liqueurs, the art of Making and Cooking with Liqueurs' As usual it didn't quite fit with my style of doing things, so I modified the recipe just a bit.

Heres what I did:

Ingredients

4 cups vodka
the zest of 5 large limes
the juice of 5 large limes
4 cups sugar
water


Take your 5 limes and remove all zest completely. Then take these same limes, and juice them thoroughly. Take the juice and add water until you get a full 2 cups of liquid. Place the zest and lime water in a pot and set on medium high. Slowly stir in all 4 cups of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil stirring constantly. This is extremely important. I turned my back on this boil for 30 seconds (when it wasn't even boiling) and I ended up with lime juice on my stove top. Don't even turn your back on it for a second!.

Once the mixture has come to a full boil, remove from heat and let cool down. When your satisfied it's cooled down enough, mix in with all 4 cups of vodka into your steeping container. Steep for 1-3 months depending on preference (the book says 1, I'll probabbly go 2) then strain, and it's ready for drinking. As usual more time aging at this point can only enhance the flavor.

Books by the dozen

So I'm going away on a trip to Arizona all next week, and I thought it would be nice to have something to read for the flight. So I drove down to my local used bookstore yesterday. I was walking around with a small stack of Star Wars books in my hand when I decided I should walk through the cooking section and see if maybe there were any brewing or alcohol related books that might of come in since the last time I checked. And there I saw it, someone had brought in his/her entire collection of brewing related books. I couldn't believe it, and of course, I couldn't just leave them sitting their either! I ended up picking up 11 new books in total. I haven't had a chance to read them all yet for reviews, but I'll bring a few with me on the trip and review them when I get back.

In no particular order, here are all the books I picked up:

Wild Brews: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer's Yeast - by Jeff Sparrow

Home Beermaking The complete Beginner's Guidebook - by William Moore

The Art of Making Wine - by Stanely F. Anderson with Raymond Hull

Cider, Making, Using, & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider - by Annie Proulx & Lew Nicols

The Complete Handbook of Winemaking - by The American Wine Society

New Brewing Lager Beer - by Gregory J. Noonan

Homegrown Hops - by David R. Beach

The Homebrewer's Garden - by Joe Fisher & Dennis Fisher

The Complete Joy of Home Brewing (3rd edition) - by Charlie Papazian

The Home Brewer's Companion - by Charlie Papazian

The Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible - by Leon W. Kania

Alien Liqueur Update

I believe I mentioned somewhere that I would be straining the teabags out of my Alien Liqueur early. As a slight update to this, I'd like to make note that I did a little research into it and hibiscus does not normally go bitter due to oversteeping. This is an issue mainly caused with actual tea leaves, and not all herbs. Since hibiscus isn't technically a 'tea' it's not an issue. (thanks to my wife the tea mistress for pointing this out to me) So I will be leaving the bags in for the full month.

Root Beer Update

So the root beer didn't come out quite as carbonated as I was hoping. I think this is due to 1 major factor really, I didn't give the yeast a chance to propagate in the gallon container before I split it up into separate containers. It does appear that some bottles have more carbonation in them than others, which this of course explains. So next batch, i'll let it sit in the gallon jug for 24 hours in a warm room before I split it off into soda sized bottles. It also came out a little watery, I'll probably increase the amount of extract I use as well.

All in all though not to bad, I did find a recipe today in a stack of brewing books I lucked out on at a used book store for real homemade rootbeer without using extract. If I can actually find sassafras bark I'll probably give it a try.