I return, dear readers! Alive and kicking (though doing so makes me cough a lot).
Above is a picture of my apfelwein, mid brew. Poor creature, attended by colder than desired brewing temperatures and a sick, and disinterested brewer. It could have been so much better...
As it is, it does have a winey taste, and it is a pale golden liquid so it is very pretty. It just lacks fizz and even a hint of sweetness. You see, I was told that by using baking yeast, and leaving my mixture to ferment for only a week, it would be left with some untransformed sugars. This was a lie.
Katharine (The Boyfriend's Mother who has revealed herself in the comments) unfortunately feels a bit ill herself, and couldn't sample my experiment. She did, however, supply me with "Irish Death" beer from the local brewery "Iron Horse Brewery".
You see, I have been slowly getting my feet wet in the world of alcohol. I am unsure of what I really like and what is "really good". Drinking a local made beer that is recommended by multiple people of taste appeals to me. The local aspect appeases my "keep your money where you live" desires, and I (perhaps to my detriment) enjoy doing what is recommended to me.
But even so, I have to sip at it. I have to tell my tongue "yes, that is alcohol. Don't worry, it won't hurt you. Now taste around it". For me, it is almost like trying to see one of those "magic eye" pictures, or listening to two sets of instructions at once. This probably accounts for the success of wine coolers.
In any event, the apple cider experiment was not a failure, because in science(!) experiments are for learning something. I have learned that I much more enjoy professionally made cider, and I should not ruin my juice.
I'm brewing some myself, right now. I read something about for carbonation, you should do a secondary brew. Dissolve some sugar (I did about 3/4 cup, but I'm only doing a 1/2 gallon brew) in a little water/more juice, pour it in, and seal it up tight. The carbon dioxide the remaining yeast makes from the sugars has no where to go since you sealed it up, and creates the carbonation. I'll let you know in a week and a half how it goes.
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The Balloon method is cheap, but so are Air-locks. They cost about a dollar at your local brewery store, and don't taint your booze with the rubbery flavor of the Balloon with pin holes method. I don't know if the balloons are reusable, but the Air locks definitely are.
ReplyDeleteIrish Death is very good beer, and is growing in popularity through out all of Washington and Idaho.
I'm not certain how it works for other things, but Honey worked well to sweeten my 'Tea-Whine' after bottling. I imagine it would work fine for apple based boozes as well.
*Tea-wine. Though it did make people complain something awful the next day.
ReplyDeleteI sent you a link to an NYT article about preserving fruit in alcohol...
ReplyDeleteYes, that looked very interesting. I think I'm going to try that out soon. From the raspberry gin experiment (which is soon to come to fruition) if nothing else it's makes a very pretty addition to window sills.
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