The week in pictures: 10 August 2012
How did it get to be August already?
I was toying with doing NANOWRIMO Summercamp for August just this weekend. Didn’t dawn on me that I’d best get writing…
Might still try, haven’t done much of anything since publishing my book. I thought I needed to let my mind cool off, but people keep asking me about a sequel.
No, I should not write, I should learn to code. I have an iTunes Author book half done, but its not about word count with that.
Ack, too many choices, and TV is there expecting me to use this time to finish series while the Mrs is out.
I’m going to start another batch of cider tomorrow.
I wanted to let you know what I’ve done in the meantime. I’ve made ginger beer.
The mrs. found a recipe on the BBC food channel webpage and I gave it a try in a 1/2 gallon jug I had handy.
It came out very drinkable for something that only fermented about 7 days. I will definitely try it again in larger amount. My wife loves ginger beer but can’t drink alcohol for health reasons. I might have to experiment with CO2 and add fizz to it for her without the wee little yeast beasties.
I wanted to let you know what I’ve done in the meantime. I’ve made ginger beer.
The mrs. found a recipe on the BBC food channel webpage and I gave it a try in a 1/2 gallon jug I had handy.
It came out very drinkable for something that only fermented about 7 days. I will definitely try it again in larger amount. My wife loves ginger beer but can’t drink alcohol for health reasons. I might have to experiment with CO2 and add fizz to it for her without the wee little yeast beasties.
Well plants anyway. 🙂
Here’s the recipe I tried, have a look while I read back and remind myself what I did right last time.
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/ginger-beer-recipe
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notes mainly for myself.
SG right at 60, showing 6% potential alcohol.
Will measure again before bottling, and again when finished. One of these days I’ll figure out what they mean. 🙂
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July 28th:
Decanting to secondary fermentation, new numbers are surprising:
Potential Alcho: 1/2% (the math means this is 5.5% at the mo.)
SG: 1% – I think that means nearly all the sugar was converted to alcohol.
I’ll move it to two gallon water bottles, and add 1/2 cup honey and lighly chill for a month. Early September I’ll check for flavor and add sugar or honey again. Then bottle after that.
I’m going to buy the honey now, and think about how much sulfite to add to stop fermentation. 5 1/2% is enough alcohol.
That’s the plan anyway…
wish me luck!
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Discovered there was room for a third 2 gallon bottle in my mini fridge. That just means room for another batch sooner than I expected success.
Recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon for 6 gallons of liquid and so having 3 gallons I made it tiny tiny bit I just couldn’t bring myself to even put 1/8 teaspoon into my mix. Sue me I don’t want to sacrafice taste!
As best I can….
Cheryl, Indy and Buster at Sophia’s. The Bermuda Triangle Breakfast Away Team is under-attended these days…
Are wee strawberries in my backyard. The seem to have evolved to grow just shy of law mower height.
I just drank an excellent bottle of cider.
I would have gladly pitted it against 80% of all the ciders I’ve ever tasted. And it was mine. It was one of the current “Luck of the Irish” batch mentioned earlier.
The problem I now have is that the bottle I drank just before it wasn’t spot on. It was good, I drank it, but I wouldn’t have wanted it to be publicly judged.
This bottle, perhaps number 6 out of 12 was perfect. Several but not all of the others from that batch were just as nice.
I don’t know how to achieve consistency in output. As previous notes can attest I precisely measured ingredients, aged the whole batch in exactly the same conditions, added the same amount of honey to it all on the same day and even handled every single empty bottle the same way. Yet each blue tinted bottle is a universe unto itself, and I can’t fathom out how to be sure when I hand a bottle to a friend that he’s going to go home and enjoy the same refreshing drink I just had.
The only option I’ve come up with is to not bottle condition –age the cider in the bottles– but in a secondary fermentation container and then bottle when close to the date of consumption. This gets me a less fizzy, slightly sweeter cider. But even then fermentation can slowly continue. My basement remains cool but not cool enough to stop fermentation completely. The test batch I made this way was well received, but I have to admit I missed the fizz and dryness more than I thought I would.
Scrubbing the web for ideas gets me only one thing I haven’t tried and that’s adding some sodium metabisulphite at the end of the process to kill the yeast where I want it to. You use it to sterilize the bottles and equipment and to kill off any wild yeast that might be in your mix and so it follows that it would work to ‘fix’ the cider at the peak drinkabiltiy. Those same sources mention it affects the taste too, so there’s a trade off.
I’ll soon be starting the next batch, utilizing freshly pressed apple juice from a nearby orchard. (Link once I’m sure I can still buy some this year’s crop could be less than stellar from what I hear. I will do as they suggest, but the proof is in the tasting, and that will happen sometime in early October. I’m excited and I can’t wait!