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1/06/07 – Two Strokes, and She’s Done.

My first two entries in my newly created brew journal revolved around two mediocre projects I embarked upon—my big experiment with the braggot, and my foray into hard cider. I’m not thrilled with either one. I had high hopes for the braggot, expecting it to be a unique, delicious, potent drink that was worthy of table wine status. Alas, as I mentioned in its entry, I wasn’t satisfied, but decided to wait it out and let it age to see if it was worth drinking in a year…or five.

The cider, well, I don’t know why I was so into trying to make two batches of cider. I eventually tried to make a dry cider and a sweet cider by using two different yeasts. The sweet cider turned out to be dryer than the dry cider. Go figure. On top of that, I’m not a big fan of cider anyway. I thought that I’d like it more if I made it, but I don’t. In fact, I’d rather drink the commercial hard ciders available than my own. Not that mine is terrible or disgusting, just that I don’t really like cider.

So I’ve got 10 gallons of cider in my basement that I don’t really want to drink. And I’ve got five gallons of a mediocre, underperforming braggot that I don’t want to drink. What should I do with them?

That question came to mind randomly yesterday while I was at a local brew pub. They had a “Two Pull” on tap. It was half light lager, and half bock. I had the bock that afternoon, but not the light lager. I like my beers robust and malty. The bock was a bit thin, for my tastes. I was reading the “beer menu” and thought, maybe the light lager and bock would go good together. Sounded OK. I wasn’t in the position to try that as they served 20 ouncers and we had to leave soon.

Then it came to me. If they can take two so-so brews, put them together and make something that sounded good, what about the two misfits in my basement? Eureka! Half braggot and half hard cider. One is too sweet, one is too dry, so why not mix them and see what happens? My fiancée thought it sounded intriguing too.

Forward to 30 minutes ago. I had put one of each in the fridge. I got them out and opened them. I poured a pint glass half full of braggot. Then I poured it the rest of the way with the sweet (that turned out really dry) hard cider. I looked at it a moment. I even gave it a light stir with a spoon to make sure they mixed. OK, here goes...

Hmmm… the sweetness of the braggot, combined with the tartness of the cider. My gosh. I’ve created the brewing equivalent of an apple sweet tart.

And it actually tastes OK. Tracy thinks so too. Now I may actually have to see if friends like this concoction. But, of course, that means I’d have to reproduce it if it turns out to be a hit. Maybe I’ll just keep it my little secret. Probably not.

I think I’ll call it “Two Strokes and She’s Done: A Sweet Little Tart”

;)

12/14/2006 - A Braggadocious Braggot? Not yet…

So over a year ago, on the 11th of November, 2005, I embarked on a grand experiment. It was to make a braggot. A braggot is half mead, half beer. By this time in my brewing hobby, I’d switched to all grain. The plan was simple. Create a slightly smaller batch of a medium gravity beer, and then add 8 or 9 pounds of honey. Eventually, after primary, I intended to add some fruit—either blackberries, or strawberries, or something to that effect. Here’s what happened.

I brewed the beer, with a touch of crystal malt for a little color, and a couple ounces of hops to add something (although I don’t know what I intended) to the flavor. At the end of the brew, I added the honey—9 or so pounds of it—to the still hot wort. I cooled it through my chiller, and put it into the primary. Added a strong yeast, put on the blow off tube and let it go.

After about 2 weeks, it fermented nicely in the primary, so I moved it to the secondary and added 2.5 pounds of heated (to kill bacteria) fresh frozen strawberries that were macerated in a couple teaspoons of corn sugar. Moved that mess to the secondary and let it sit for a month. It fermented for a while, then just stopped.

After this, I moved it to a tertiary, to help it clarify. Upon this move, it was still a bit higher in the gravity than expected, so I dumped in some more yeast. Then, after nothing happened there, a tiny bit of corn sugar, some yeast nutrient and a different kind of yeast. Nothing again. I just let it sit. For almost 10 month. It just sat. In my dining room.

Eventually, in October, I bottled it, with some more yeast and some corn sugar to carbonate. (By now this stuff has to be worth $5 a bottle in yeast alone…) The final alcohol content is 10.1% with a finish gravity of 1.036. I expected it to go lower than that, and to be closer to 13 or 14% alcohol, but oh well.

So…tonight, after putting a bottle in the fridge a couple days ago, I’m trying it.

Open it… It’s carbonated. Glad that worked, at least.

Pour… Looks ok.

Taste… Hmm. Not as bad as I thought. Still sweeter than I expected, with not as high of an alcohol content, but hey, I’ll live with it. A little like a sweet, sparkling wine.

So, I plan to let it sit, and try one every 6 months or so, until either it gets really good, or goes completely nasty on me and I have to serve it to the gods of the garbage disposal. It’s in my basement, in a cool, dark corner, completely secluded from everything. Some day, it may morph into something worthy of showing off to friends and family…but that’s being pretty optimistic.

10/21/2006 - Damn The Preservatives! Hard Cider Ahead!

My first journal entry. Wow. Yep, I’ve started a Blog. Well, not so much a blog, but a beer web log. So is that a beerblog? Or a BBlog? I don’t know. Well, whatever it is, here it is.

So after brewing 23 successful batches of beer, I tried my hand at a hard cider. Well, I made a critical error. Not in sanitizing, or in yeast selection, or in temperature, or in anything that I did with the setup. No, I made my mistake in cider selection. I went to the Madison Farmer’s Market and without really looking, picked up some cider. Got my yeast, some campden tablets, and went to it. Added some brown sugar to a gallon of heated cider to get the gravity up, waited for it to cool, then started filling the carboy. Right about this time, I notice on one of the jugs of cider that it contains a preservative. Crud. I’d read that preservatives will prevent your fermentation, but I said to myself, “You’re already committed, so go for it.” I poured it all in, waited 48 hours for the campden tablets to do their thing (not like it was necessary with the preservative, but hey…) pitched the yeast and waited.

24 hours later. Nothing. No biggie, lots of brews take more than 24 hours to get going. I know the yeast was good when I pitched it as it was a Wyeast smack pack and swelled nicely. Just wait…
48 hours. Nothing.
72 hours. Nothing.
96 hours. Nothing.
Damn.
Damn, Damn. Damn. $36 in cider and $7 in yeast. Down the drain.

Take two. The next weekend.

So this time, I read carefully. I even talked to the purveyor of the cider at the farmer’s market. He said people find his cider good for fermenting. No preservatives, not pasteurized. Perfect. I buy 6 gallons, and he even throws in a mini apple pie to boot. I heat a gallon and dissolve about a pound a brown sugar to increase the gravity to 1.050. This time, I even make a yeast starter to increase the chances of a strong fermentation. I allow to cool. Put 5.5 gallons into a carboy and put in the crushed campden tablets.

My fiancé and I eat the complimentary apple pie. Yum! He makes good pie.

Wait 48 hours, then pitched yeast starter which looked very healthy.

Next morning, things look good. Yep, it worked. And, incidentally, this guy’s cider tasted far better than the last. Sweeter, fruitier apple flavor.

So, now that this batch is going nicely, time to make another batch along with it. For this one, I’m going to make a drier cider. The first (successful) batch is a sweet cider. Different yeast selection.

This morning: Went to farmer’s market, purchased 5.5 gallons of cider. (And I purchased another mini apple pie.) I’ve got my starter going, and my next batch of cider resting with campden tablets dissolved…