MangoMead
Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2013
- Messages
- 62
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- 4
So I could not wait for my fancy yeast and other stuff to get muled in from North America, I wanted to get something brewing ASAP, even if it turned out to be an unsuccessful learning experience. Luckily things seem to be moving along at a so far so good pace. Even though everything I have used is completely repurposed from it's intended use. Not a single LHBS item used.
Here is an expanded version of my notes from the brew:
They have been bubbling away happily for a couple days now, though bubbles have slowed a tiny bit. Maybe 1 bubble a second now.
Yeast was a Thai brand of baking yeast. One 34 gram, 30 baht bottle, per carboy.
Probably should have added less water to the syrup, so I cooked it for a long time to try to reduce it a bit. I also should have probably used a lot less Lime juice but my internet was not up yet (just moved) and I was sort of working off of memory. The syrup was delicious! I may make more just to put on toast! The wort/must was pretty tasty too very sweet and appley with a nice citrus thing going on too.
Cooler is a plain foam cooler like the ones found all over around here. They were a little cheaper at Makro so I got mine there. Tubing from home-pro. Carboys are Nestle RO water. Alternating ice bottles to keep it cool in the cooler. No thermo yet but it is 'cool' in there. Cool being sort of relative as it's a 'cool' night now at 27c.
Used Iodophor sanitizer mixed up from a little 7-11 dropper bottle of iodine. Those are perfect really, since you need so little to mix the right solution, counting drops is the way to go. I only needed 1500 ml of solution so that was 25 drops for the right dilution.
I don't have a hydrometer yet, so not readings on SG. It's all guesswork from here.
The 'carboys' are 6 liter water bottles that come filled with the drinking water I buy all the time anyway so they are essentially free.
That's about all to say for now. I plan to rack the cider off the yeast after a couple days of no more bubbling. From there I'll let it settle for a couple weeks and see what it does. Not too worried about getting it crystal clear. Thinking of trying to carbonate some, backsweeten some, keep some as is and freeze a little to then melt out 50% volume for some 'Apple Jack'.
Here is an expanded version of my notes from the brew:
They have been bubbling away happily for a couple days now, though bubbles have slowed a tiny bit. Maybe 1 bubble a second now.
Yeast was a Thai brand of baking yeast. One 34 gram, 30 baht bottle, per carboy.
Probably should have added less water to the syrup, so I cooked it for a long time to try to reduce it a bit. I also should have probably used a lot less Lime juice but my internet was not up yet (just moved) and I was sort of working off of memory. The syrup was delicious! I may make more just to put on toast! The wort/must was pretty tasty too very sweet and appley with a nice citrus thing going on too.
Cooler is a plain foam cooler like the ones found all over around here. They were a little cheaper at Makro so I got mine there. Tubing from home-pro. Carboys are Nestle RO water. Alternating ice bottles to keep it cool in the cooler. No thermo yet but it is 'cool' in there. Cool being sort of relative as it's a 'cool' night now at 27c.
Used Iodophor sanitizer mixed up from a little 7-11 dropper bottle of iodine. Those are perfect really, since you need so little to mix the right solution, counting drops is the way to go. I only needed 1500 ml of solution so that was 25 drops for the right dilution.
I don't have a hydrometer yet, so not readings on SG. It's all guesswork from here.
The 'carboys' are 6 liter water bottles that come filled with the drinking water I buy all the time anyway so they are essentially free.
That's about all to say for now. I plan to rack the cider off the yeast after a couple days of no more bubbling. From there I'll let it settle for a couple weeks and see what it does. Not too worried about getting it crystal clear. Thinking of trying to carbonate some, backsweeten some, keep some as is and freeze a little to then melt out 50% volume for some 'Apple Jack'.
Keep us updated on how it turns out.
