Blue Collar Beer Review: 15th Anniversary Escondidian Black Imperial IPA - Stone Brewing Co.

 Welcome to Blue Collar Beer Review #2!

 

 This beer touches on a topic that's relatively controversial in the craft beer world, Cascadian Dark Ale.  Being from the Republic of Cascadia myself, I'm a big fan of this 'style'.  The idea being to, if one closes their eyes, not be able to tell the difference between a Cascadian Dark Ale and an IPA but for subtle notes of the roasted malts, maybe a hint of chocolate and coffee.

Mmm, good stuff Maynard.

   Unfortunately, it also seems to invoke feelings of inadequacy and jealousy in others.  This includes powers that be (namely the Great American Beer Festival.  The BJCP has yet to make a decision), and legend Charlie Papazian, in regard to deciding on official beer style definitions. The concern is, to quote the Brew Your Own magazine article:

 "The name “Cascadian” was deleted as it was felt that non-Northwestern brewers may be turned off to the style if it hinted of regional exclusivity."

   You know, just like people were turned off of Steam beers when they changed the name to 'California Common', or Kölsch from Köln (Cologne), Germany which are named after the places in which they were created and intensely popular...

   So what do they do?  In an insulting blow, not only do they decide to call it American-Style India Black Ale, but they even modified the specifications of the style.  To make it less Cascadian.

   No one says "Man, I wish we could make a Berliner-Weisse.  If only we lived in Berlin!"  One can still brew the same style of beer, call it a Berliner-Weisse, and thus pay homage and respect to it's roots.  The CDA was created in the Pacific Northwest (Cascadia), the prime hop growing area of the United States, nay, the world. Though not 'officially' accepted as is, it is it's own distinct style.  Utilizing a hop selection exclusively from the region, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and other varieties developed in the area, it's a mascot, a representation of Beervana, Hoptopia, the Craft Brew Paradise which is my beloved Pacific Northwest Cascadia.

   I believe it's our hold on the hop world that inspires this jealous transgression, that causes the style guideline writers to insult us by taking away OUR beer.  California gets theirs, many regions in Europe and elsewhere have their own, official, distinctive styles, why are us Cascadians singled out?

   Obviously I'm proud of the style, that something so delicious was developed here, can only be made with ingredients from the Northwest.  This is a beer review though, so I'll climb down from my soap-box and get to it.

15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA - Stone Brewing

You are not worthy.

Stone Brewing Co. is based in Escondido, California and is known for their ridiculously hop heavy (with the exception of their surprisingly mild Smoked Porter), yet quality brews.  Greg Koch, CEO & Co-Founder is an interesting guy, but has quite the ego.  Though he's very self aware of it and takes pride in shoving that arrogance to the front.
   This is evidenced in every (worn out) diatribe on every one of their bottles, and in any interview I've ever seen him in.  As negative as this sounds, I'm a big fan of their beers, especially their IPA, and just about every other one I've had.  Their beers for the most part, range from awesome, to slightly less than awesome.
   This over-confidence is proven further in their own description of their 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA (wait...a black India pale ale?) brew, stating that the name is a jab at the "Cascadians" and "Cascadian Dark Ales" laughing that if we can just decide to call a beer ours, so can they.  Here is my opinion of the brew:

Appearance: Dark, opaque chocolate color with a rich, dense nitrogen stout-like espresso head.  Pours                                                             thick.

Aroma: Black coffee, sweet cream, with green resiny hop intermingled.  Over all a mild, pleasing aroma.

Mouthfeel: Surprisingly light considering the pour, but a bit more body than other CDA's I've had.  It is very smooth and silky creamy.

Taste:  Roasted chocolate dominates followed by a sledgehammer of bittering hops that isn't accompanied by much needed flavor and aroma hops, but both flavors balance evenly in intensity.

Overall: It's what you would expect from Stone: Overly hopped, very bitter (maybe the bitterness comes from not being Cascadian?), but seems rushed, and not as well made as usually comes from Stone.  I love the rich yet light mouthfeel but I think it's far too chocolaty and bitter without aroma and flavor hops, hops that begin with 'C' which is what a CDA, and it's home region is all about.

   Sure, they call it something different, but it's intended as a representation of a CDA and just isn't a good one.  For a better example of a Cascadian Dark ale, Deschute's Hop in the Dark, or Widmer Bros. Pitch Black IPA (a favorite and prime example, though I don't care for how they wussed out on the name) are prime examples.  I wouldn't buy Stone's 15th Anniversary ale again, but if you've not had it, it's worth a go.

The best example of a CDA I've found, so far.

   Stone is known, and likes to make sure you know they are, for being over the top, revolutionary, etc. 10 or 15 years ago, being revolutionary meant pumping as much flavor and as many hops as you could in a beer since most was just watered down flavorless garbage. Thus, Stone's brews and philosophy were

   Times have changed, Stone hasn't, and the comparatively low-quality of this brew shows, to me at least, that they've run their shtick into the ground, but . Though I didn't find it very drinkable, the beer isn't all bad, and is by far not even close to one of the worst I've had.  However, I think this beer which woefully disengages from the CDA style and is really nothing more than an poorly over hopped, weak bodied chocolate stout, shows that maybe it's time for Stone to try something new, as their smash mouth tactics don't work for every style.  Like an old, punch-drunk boxer, though, they don't know when to move on or how to do anything else.

  Dear, Greg Koch and Stone Brewing,
Keep up the good work making good brews, but stop trying so hard to beat that dead horse.

   Sincerely,
      Stubborn Agnes

                                        

Blue Collar Beer Review 1: Elysian Brewing's Avatar Jasmine IPA

   Welcome to the first Blue Collar Beer Review.

    I love craft beer and home brewing, and the culture, and there are some amazing nuances and complexities in craft beer as there are in wine.  However, looking at the overly poetic, bloated reviews and descriptions of wines from basement sommaliers, and  some of those on Beer Advocate, I realized something: some people are trying way too hard.  These snobby 'evaluations' don't do well, in my opinion, at giving someone an idea of what a beer is like, whether they might want to try it.  Many lead to disappointment because of this, some may even deter someone from a beer they may actually enjoy.  Tasting beer, and wine for that matter, is about describing the flavors and sensations you get, as you get them.  The great reviews on Beer Advocate really embody this, they're plain, simple and real.

   Beer is easy, beer is fun, relaxing, enjoyable.  We shouldn't work too hard at it, or make it intimidating.  The more I learn about beer, the better I am able to enjoy it. I'm no Cicerone, nor am I BJCP certified (yet), and you may not taste or experience what I do, but I hope my descriptions will help you find more of the complexity of, and enjoyment in, your beer.  Perhaps help you re-experience a beloved brew all over again. I'll simply be posting my notes as I wrote them while tasting the beers, trying to follow some form of structure, and give my own, uncomplicated overall opinion, as a regular blue collar beer enthusiast.

   Elysian Brewing Co.

   Elysian Brewing Co. is a series of three brew pubs based in various locations in Seattle, WA.  Elysian was founded in 1995 by President/Head Brewer Dick Cantwell, CFO Joe Bisacca, and Sales & Marketing Director David Buhler.  Their first brewpub, a 220 seat beer hall opened in 1997 in Capitol Hill, one of Seattle's busiest, most populated and diverse neighborhoods.

   Elysian began bottling in 2001, and opened two subsequent brew pubs: Tangletown in 2003, and Elysian Fields in 2006.  In 2008, they began a collaboration with New Belgium Brewing.  This collaboration allows Elysian to brew large batches of their Immortal IPA at the New Belgium facilities, while New Belgium brews smaller, experimental batches at those owned by Elysian.  Elysian has also recently worked out a distribution deal with Anheuser-Busch and is becoming much more widely available nation wide.  You can find Elysian brews statewide in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Colorado, and New Jersey, as well as in the metropolitan areas of Philadelphia, PA, and NYC Metro, NY.

   Now, on to the beer.


Avatar Jasmine IPA from Elysian Brewing

Elysian's description doesn't quite fit.

   6.3% ABV, 22oz bomber poured into a pint glass.

   I'm interested in infusing one of my own upcoming brews with lavender, so I was curious about a jasmine ale.  I picked up a bomber of Avatar, and here are my findings:

   It pours a deep golden, almost a light copper color. The head is thick, frothy, and very resilient.  This beer needed a slightly gentle pour.

   The aroma was very...interesting.  It was very sweet in a floral way, somewhat chalky or dusty.  It reminded me a bit of what candy necklaces smell like.  Jasmine was VERY dominant, I could detect no hop aroma, and certainly no malt.

   The body was quite light, which is okay for an IPA. I found the carbonation to be pretty low, lower than I'd prefer.  Jasmine overwhelms the flavor.  It's a very interesting taste with a very cool, leafy green quality.  Very vegetal and twiggy.   Despite Elysian's description of their beer:

   "...the taste is an elegant balance allowing the subtle flavor of jasmine to prevail while still delivering the I.P.A.'s essential hoppiness."

   I found nothing but a palate bludgeoning sledgehammer of jasmine in every aspect of the taste.  There is a good bitterness to it on the very perfumy finish which I can only assume is from hops.  However, I could not actually taste the hops, and again, as with the aroma, I couldn't detect any malt character either.

   Overall, I can appreciate this beer.  It's definitely worth a shot, especially if you enjoy jasmine tea.  I understand why some people enjoy it, but I think it needs work.  The jasmine is simply overpowering, and it just isn't a beer I'd care to drink even a full pint of (which I didn't).  Give it some more clean hoppiness, malt backbone, an English style IPA.  Make the jasmine a truly subtle secondary ingredient, and I believe Elysium would have a winner.


   Thanks for reading my review of Elysian Brewing's Avatar Jasmine IPA.  This is my first beer review so please feel free to comment below or email here and let me know what you think!  I hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers!

Stubborn Agnes

Devil Pig Helles update 1

   That's right.  Devil Pig.

   Carbonation started in Henry the Party Pig on July, 30th.  Since this is the first time I've carbed in The Pig, I thought I'd check every week or so and see how it is.  Being known for patience as I am, I just simply couldn't wait a whole week.

   So, I stuck my little sample cup under Henry's snout and gave it a punch.  To my surprise, a very frothy head instantly appeared, and began to clear to a rich golden hue.  The thick head remained, and was very slow to dissipate as little as it did.  Tasting the brew showed that it still had a little while to go before it was fully carbonated.  This made it even more surprising that it already showed such a perfect head, and decent lacing despite the low carbonation.

                                                               

   Already the flavor has changed and begun to open up.  No more the watery, bland liquid, subtle hoppiness and a quick, light, pleasing sour kick on the finish are already showing up.  It's very crisp and clean, refreshing for summer.  I was surprised by the very slight sour tang, as that's definitely not typical for the style.   I'll be interested to see how that plays out.  The body is still a little thin for my tastes, even for a lager.  It was also a bit cloudier than I'd hoped for but once chilled that should hopefully clear up.

  All in all a very promising beer thus far, I really like where this is going.  If it takes a full 3 weeks to carbonate in these temperatures (mid 70's) I'll be surprised.  Kudos to my model, Elizabeth!

I'm Baaaack...

   This post has been a long time in coming, I know.  After a brief, unexpected hiatus, I will make this post a good one, or at least, a long one.  Without further adieu:


   The cider unfortunately did not go well.  At all.  While the cider made with Hefeweizen yeast was, prior to bottling, to Elizabeth's liking, after bottling and carbonating it had simply dried out too much.  The cider made with the much beloved Nottingham was a loss right after fermentation.  The flavor issues I attribute to the lack of brown sugar, molasses or any other of the usual additions used to add flavor and boost gravity.


   The last, and most dramatic mistake was waiting too long before starting the dishwasher pasteurization process.  Several bottles exploded in the dishwasher, and others began exploding before even making it to the dishwasher (cider was later found on the ceiling).  Luckily, no one was hurt, and the remaining cider was dumped before they could explode.  Elizabeth made a blend of some of what remained of both ciders, and to no surprise, she wasn't a fan.


   So, in addition to adding tasty fermentables, I also need a kegging system.  Hopefully in the near future I can obtain a corny keg or two and will be able to force carbonate her sweet cider.


   Fade to present day.  My lager has been happily lagering away in Henry the Party Pig for almost 4.5 months.  The term lager is from German and simply means 'to store'.  Traditionally, Lager beer was made in the fall or winter, fermented then lagered, stored at low temperatures in cellars or lagering caves.  Many lagering caves still exist in the United States, carved into the sides of sandstone bluffs.  Though these caves tended to stay in the 40F range, deeper caves could fall into the mid 30's F. However, Nature is not to be trusted, so as insurance, brewers packed in large blocks of ice to aid in the refrigeration needed to lager, ideally 36-38 degrees Fahrenheit.


   The caves, as well as the danger of cutting large blocks of ice from lakes, and the cost of transporting it to the caves began falling into disuse as early as the late 1800's due to artificial refrigeration techniques becoming available and financially viable to even moderately sized town breweries.  Prohibition didn't help either.


   3-6 months is a good time frame to lager, for the impatient home brewer.  However many brewers lager for longer periods.  The purpose of lagering is to further clarify the beer, as well as give it the smooth, crisp character the style is known for.  As with many things in home brewing, do whatever floats your boat.  I follow a philosophy similar to that of Stone Brewing, I aim to brew beer I like, that I want to drink.  I just hope others like it too.


   Unfortunately, I was unable to take many photos of the process but it's pretty straight forward.  I sanitized my bottling bucket, auto-siphon, the Party Pig activation pump, valve, valve gasket, and restrictor.  I then transferred the unfermented beer from Henry the Pig, to the bottling bucket.  All that was needed to clean Henry was a quick rinse and then I filled him with sanitizer.


   When carbonating in a Party Pig, far less priming (corn) sugar is used, only 1/4 cup to a MAXIMUM of 1/3 cup.  I used slightly more than 1/4 cup.  Based on the instructions, the sugar can be added right to the Pig, or the bottling bucket, but I chose to boil water and dissolve the sugar that way, for sanitation (and habit) sake.  After this cooled, I added it to the bottling bucket and stirred to mix it thoroughly.  Using the bottling wand that is forever attached to the bottling bucket, I slowly filled Henry.


   For those of you unfamiliar with the Party Pig system developed by Quoin, it's a great device.  It is a 2.5 gallon amber PET bottle to which attaches a metal collar and push-button dispensing valve.  Inside, with the beer, is a pouch which when activated (I'll describe that in a moment), expands to fill the empty space, pressurizing the beer inside.  As the beer is dispensed, the pouch continues to expand thus maintaining constant pressure.  A new pouch must be used each time, and they come pre-sanitized.  The system also comes with a somewhat chinsey stand  and a carrying strap.  Check out the Party Pig system here.

                                                                    Henry likes to party.


 
   Leaving the required 4" of head space I opened the pre-sanitized pressure pouch and dropped it into the beer.  After placing the gasket and valve onto Henry's neck, I firmly attached the metal retaining collar.  The pressure pouch contains food grade chemicals that when mixed, produce CO2 gas thus inflating the pouch.  To activate this reaction the activation pump (sold separately of course. Surgical tubing and a hand pump would work just as well) is attached to a bit of tubing, which is inserted into the spout on the Pig.  After the proper amount of pressure is built up (it requires more than one would think) a satisfying, and startling, pop is heard signalling the mixing of the liquids and the pouch promptly expands.


   Through this process, one must keep the valve's button depressed firmly while pumping air into the Pig.  Beer and foam will spray out if you let go and have to restart pumping, though it's only a little so no big deal.


    I'm very excited for this beer.  I've wanted to try my hands at lagers for some time, and this is my first.  I also really love the idea of a portable, self-pressurizing tap/mini-keg system.  It's small enough to even fit in the fridge without upsetting SWMBO!  Carbonation should work the same as it does when using regular beer bottles, it may just take longer 3+ weeks as opposed to maybe 2 since it's a bigger bottle.  Luckily, I can test carbonation periodically without worry of contamination.


   I'm getting ready to start another full batch, and intend to plan it out more, so that it runs much more smoothly this time.  I continue to go back and forth on what type of beer to make.  It's come down to either a Porter, a heather ale, spruce ale, or maybe a heather ale with a bit of spruce.  These ales have been brewed for thousands of years in Scotland, Northern Europe and Scandinavia.  Williams Bros. Brewing of Scotland makes wonderful recreations of these ales (and others including a Kelp ale which I haven't yet tried) which I love.  Traditionally, heather and spruce ales were made without hops, as hops weren't much used until the 13th century, and in fact were banned in parts of England in 1474.


   However, in these ales, a small hop addition is made for modern drinkers.  I'm debating on whether or not to use hops.  My main concern is how to keep 5 gallons of beer from spoiling without the preservative quality of hops.  I may do a smaller unhopped batch to dig into my fascination with historical brewing.


   A new feature coming soon to the Stubborn Agnes Brewing Blog are Blue Collar Beer reviews.  I've got a few waiting to be published, including reviews of Williams Bros. Fraoch (heather ale) and Alba (Pine/Spruce), Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, and a new Stone Brewing Co. collaboration, Japanese Green Tea IPA.  Keep your eyes out for those within the next couple weeks.

Thar she blows!

   Well, after sitting over night the ciders had really gotten to work.  The Hefeweizen yeast actually had a blow over.  This isn't a problem, and luckily it wasn't a bad blow over making a big mess.  The Nottingham cider was still just chugging along at a seemingly mild pace.

   After the blow off, the temperatures had gone down a bit, as well as the foam in the Hef cider.  However, over the next few days with very warm temperatures, there would be several spikes of activity.  This created blooms of yeast population which sometimes can affect flavor.  I'm unsure if it was due to the yeast nutrient or the volume of yeast I used that caused the Hef yeast to ferment so violently, while the Nottingham didn't.

   I'm not sure how much, if at all, the variance in temperatures affected the cider, but Head of Quality Control and Tasting, SWMBO, approved.  I get ahead of myself a bit.

   On 06-08, after four days in primary fermentation, the ciders were racked to secondary.  Racking a brew, whether cider, beer, or wine, serves the purpose of pulling the liquid off the cake of spent yeast on the bottom of the fermenter.  The biggest benefit to this is clarifying the brew, but in the case of cider (which is normally fairly cloudy), this helps to remove some yeast and slow or stop fermentation.

   A hydrometer reading of both ciders was taken, and I was very surprised that they had reached full fermentation within such a short period.  I imagine this was due mostly to the high temperatures.  My goal with both ciders was to ferment until around 1.015 and test that to see how the sweetness was.  The specific gravity of the Hefeweizen IV yeast was 1.020, which puts it's abv at 4.04% (thanks to me forgetting to raise to original gravity).  I fully expect much more change in the gravity since the fermentation was so aggressive.  The sweetness level of this cider was approved, so we added some apple juice to top it off and to over sweeten it back up to 1.030.  The purpose of this is to compensate for the continued fermentation and drying out during bottle conditioning.  The bottles will sit and carbonate for two weeks, where we will open one and test carb levels.

   Normally this is a no no.  Trying to bottle condition/carbonate sweet ciders will eventually result in exploding bottles.  So, as I believe I referenced in a previous post, once the bottles reach the desired carbonation levels, they'll be run through a cycle in the dishwasher to pasteurize and kill the yeast.

   The Nottingham, with it's much calmer fermentation was much more efficient.  After four days the gravity of the Nottingham was 1.010 and 5.21% abv. The abv is mid-range for the style, the taste was described as a bit bitter and dry. Surprising since FG numbers I found put the notoriously over sweet (still delicious, and SWMBO's favorite) Hornsby's cider at 1.010. I'm not sure if the perceived sweetness has to do with the yeast, or if the numbers I found for Strongbow (FG 1.007) and Hornsby's were incorrect.  Either way, my goal was to hit somewhere in between the two and I've succeeded.  So far, no fruity, banana, and clove notes were prominent enough to have been commented on.
 
   So, the Nottingham yeast was racked again to pull more of the yeast out of solution and on bottling day had held it's gravity of 1.010.  We'll let it dry a bit more, then use the remaining apple juice to sweeten it back up, and then follow the same process as the Hef.

   Each brew I make is getting substantially better, and although I did forget to raise the original gravity (I think I may try Hef IV again since it came out well, but add molasses to up the OG and add complexity), they're very drinkable.  They just aren't very potent, and that's ok.

We're Off Like a Herd of Turtles

   In my previously limited research on cider making, it was my impression that one used either a wine (predominantly champagne) yeast, or a cider specific yeast.  Wine yeasts are fine, and great because of their resilience and attenuation.  Perfect for making a dry sparkling cider.  However, I've since learned that there's as much experimentation by home brewers with various yeasts in cider as in beer.  Especially when looking for a sweeter cider, many times ale yeasts are used.

    The two most significant elements in brewing, in general, are temperature, and yeast.  I believe yeast plays a greater part than temperature, but only just since although yeast gives the overall character to the beverage, temperature can greatly effect how a yeast behaves.

   This post in www.homebrewtalk.com by a member was very informative, in layman's terms, about the outcome of using various ale yeasts.  One such ale yeast is Danstar's Nottingham Ale dry yeast:

   Based on this poster's results, and my own research into the qualities of individual yeast strains I came up with a list of five various yeasts, which I'd like to eventually try.  For the two batches I'm making now, I decided on the tried and true Nottingham yeast, and White Lab's WLP380 Hefeweizen IV liquid yeast.  I chose it over WLP300, the basic hefeweizen yeast because of WLP380's pronounced fruity flavors, in addition to the banana and clove hefeweizens are known for.  The profile of WLP380 can be found here.

   Apple juice is also lacking in the nutrients needed for yeast to thrive, as opposed to beer wort and grape juice.  Although fermentation can and will still happen, in an effort to help make sure the yeast does it's job, and is healthier, I purchased some yeast nutrient.  There are various options, chemical and natural.  All work well, and are used for ciders, beers, everything.  Think of it as cheap insurance.  I opted for the natural kind, Fermaid K.  A little of this stuff goes a long way.  The package recommends 1g/1 US gallon.  Based on info at Making Hard Cider, I just used 1/4 teaspoon.  It may work out the same, I didn't measure.

   So here's what I used:

• 2 gallons Lattin's Old Country Cider (http://www.lattinscider.com/)
• 2g Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast (in gallon 1, though the whole packet can be used)
• White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV liquid yeast (whole tube)
• 2 1 gallon glass jugs
• 2 #6 1/2 bungs
• 2 airlocks
• Iodophor Sanitizer
• 1 funnel
• Hydrometer (measures specific gravity of a liquid)

   I left the cider and yeasts on the kitchen counter to warm up to room temperature while I left for work.  Upon returning I sanitized both glass jugs using about 1/2 teaspoon sanitizer.  Iodophor is an iodine based commercial sanitizer used by home brewers and restaurants and does not need to be rinsed if diluted down enough.  I also filled a Tupperware container with sanitizer solution where I sanitized the airlocks and bungs, as well as my hydrometer and funnel.

   I transferred the cider from the plastic jugs, to the glass carboys.  Although the Nottingham packet says the entire 11g packet can be used for batches as small as 1 gallon, since they're usually used for full 5 gallon batches I added 2g, plus the 1/4 teaspoon Fermaid K.  I then placed the bung, and gently mixed.

   The process for the other gallon was identical save that I used the entire tube of liquid WLP380.  Mostly because liquid yeast does not keep well without making a starter, and for convenience sake.  Over pitching really isn't a valid worry as I'll be stopping fermentation via pasteurization once I reach my target gravity.

   At this time I took Original Gravity readings.  The Nottingham cider came to 1.050, the WLP380 (hefeweizen) came out to 1.051.  That is average gravity for apple juice/cider.  However, with a targeted final gravity of 1.015-1.010, this will only produce a 4% abv beverage.  What cider makers do, and which I forgot, was to raise the original gravity by adding fermentable sugars.  This usually comes in the form of brown sugar, black strap or regular molasses, or honey.  I imagine Dry Malt Extract could be used, and would also give the cider a bit more body.  Usually, enough added fermentable sugars are added to raise the original gravity of the juice to somewhere around 1.070 (Beersmith software puts the og at 1.045-1.065 for Common Cider).  The goal of a cider is to be between 5-6%, though some commercial ciders are 4%.  With an OG of 1.065, and a FG of 1.015, my ABV would be 6.53%.

   Forgetting to raise the OG simply means that I will have lower alcohol content, and possibly less body.  Next time I'll make the same ciders, but use either maple brown sugar or black strap molasses to add some flavor complexity.

   The ciders will sit in primary fermentation for four days before being racked to secondary.  The very warm temperatures, mid-high 70's in the area helped speed things up, and I'm sure the Fermaid did it's part.  Very vigorous fermentation and thick layer of krausen (foam caused during fermentation) was seen within the first 2-3 hours!  Usually fermentation isn't going strong for 24-48 hours in my experience!  My only concern now was the heat, and the inconsistent ambient temperature.

   In my next post, I hope to have you all caught up with how the process is going now.  It's going much more quickly, and a bit differently than I'd expected, but will allow me to use conventional as well as unconventional finishing methods.

Happy Wife = Happy Life: Giving Cider Another Try

   I finally decided to get serious, and more clinical about brewing.  Along with learning the technical side, numbers and such, that means taking notes.  Looking for an easy way to access and save those notes, as well as share them, I thought about starting a blog.  I've never blogged before, but at the suggestion by a friend, I went to it.  Here, I'll post all my observations, notes, and really anything having to do with home brewing beer, cider, and mead.

   My last foray into cider making wasn't terrible, but certainly ended up with far too much dumping.  The reason being, that fermentation was not ended, and because of the very aggressive wine yeast I used, it over fermented resulting in a very dry, sour beverage that was far too hot (too much alcohol).  I had used the same yeast and roughly same techniques, though a longer fermentation time, to make a mead at the same time, with similar results. In addition to having learned much more about brewing techniques, and the brewing process in general, I did, however, learn a few things specifically related to these newest batches:

• Red Star Cote des Blancs champagne yeast makes a very dry, very bland cider.
• Back sweetening with sugar alcohols (Splenda, Stevia, etc) can compensate for this.
• My fridge was not, at the time, cold enough to properly cold-crash unracked cider.
• Rack.  Then rack some more.
• Dishwashers are useful brewing tools.

  Doing much research to find a way to make a sweet, yet sparkling cider for SWMBO, I came across a great post here in one of my favorite home brewing forums.  The original writer of this info is/was (it's an old post, Google digs deep) the president of a Michigan home brew club, and winner of multiple consecutive Cider Maker of the Year awards.  It gives lots of great info, explains things many other forum members talk about but of which never state the whys and results, and is actually from what I've seen, innovative.

  You see, conventionally, you can either have sparkling dry apple cider, or still sweet cider which is essentially low-gravity Apfelwein.  If one were to try to bottle carbonate (as is done with beer) a sweet cider, the fermentation would not bottom out and the resulting pressure would cause exploding bottles.  So, to create a sweet cider, the cider is cold-crashed once the cider reaches the desired gravity.  This means storing the bottled cider at ~36F for 24-48 hours after racking to a secondary or tertiary fermenter, then bottling.  This effectively stops fermentation, killing the yeast.  This also stops any chance of carbonation.

   For a sparkling dry cider, the cider is allowed to dry out to a FG (final gravity) of around 1.005-.995.  Then  bottled, then pasteurized or cold-crashed.

   So, how to create a sparkling sweet cider, without the bottle bombs?

   The commonly accepted solutions to this are to make a very dry cider, then adding Splenda, Xylitol, or Stevia (sugar alcohols which cannot be fermented by yeast) which will sweeten the cider without causing a continuation, or re-start of fermentation.  The other is to force carbonate by injecting CO2 via a kegging system.

   Though most people are happy with the results of back-sweetening, not being a fan of those sweeteners, I was wanting to avoid it.  Though this helped convince SWMBO that a kegging system is a necessary household fixture, it just isn't yet in the cards.  So what to do?

  As mentioned in the article above, one could brew a semi-sweet cider to more on the dry end, say 1.007 (think Strongbow), then add 'too much' preservative free apple juice during bottling time.  Checking the carbonation levels every two weeks or so.  Once desired levels of carbonation are reached, soaking the bottles in 160F water for 10-15 minutes will pasteurize, killing the yeast, while maintaining the sweetness and carbonation.  Easy way to do this: run the bottles through the dishwasher (do not use high heat dry).

   Forum members posted good results with this technique.  So, one problem solved (the problem of a lack of  kegerator is still there).  At this point I wonder, why dry out and back sweeten at all?  I believe, that after multiple rackings (transferring cider to a fresh fermenter, which will remove the cider from the cake of yeast at the bottom), which should slow fermentation down due to fewer yeast cells, why not just bottle and pasteurize once the cider is at the desired gravity/level of sweetness?

  I believe one poster left a comment that they had done just the very thing with success.  So, this will be my goal.  Tonight was the first racking, and with amazing efforts of SWMBO, things went well.  However, very active yeasts due to very warm temperatures (and possibly the added yeast nutrient, I'm not sure how much that affected the violence and speed of fermentation), things moved much more quickly than I had intended.

   Everyone loves a cliffhanger, so I will end this post with that.  I will post the continuation tomorrow, with my notes and observations of the last four days of fermentation!