Monday, March 05, 2007

Cider Continues

7 days after pitching yeast, there was no more visible fermentation. I checked the gravity and it came in at 1.01. This was low enough for me to move it to second fermentation.

I pulled out a taste and it was dry and tart, but had apple flavor and a slight sparkle to it. Overall it would be drinkable, but not pleasantly so. I grabbed a 22oz swing top bottle, dropped a priming tablet in and it is now sitting in my closet. I took the rest and racked it to my 5 gallon glass carboy. I am going to keep it in the secondary for 2 more weeks, take a taste and think about adding 2 pounds of lactose to it. In the meantime I am thinking of doing an Irish Dry Stout next. The BeerAdvocate magazine for March had a recipe for this and suggested it as a first attempt. The dark roasts of the malt help cover up any problems that might occur. The only thing I am planning to change on their instructions is that I will rack to secondary for a week. They suggest that you bottle after a week and just get to the beer, but I have enough patience, plus there is no way to get this done in time for St. Patty's Day so there is no rush. Plus I really need around 100 bottles for these 2 batches and I am just short of 40 right now.

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