Berry Brew!

In the last couple of years of brewing I've done one batch which has involved pressing the fruit myself, which was also my first batch. It was really satisfying but due to the 2012 crop being quite poor on the whole I didn't get to do it. I also borrowed the press from some friends which was really useful, however this year they too had a good crop to work with so I couldn't get it as they were (understandably) using it.

So, after a lot of looking around and pondering, i bought my own. Of the three sizes, i bought the largest, most because the price difference and capacity were less than linear. the smallest of this design were 2/3 the price and 1/4 of the capacity, the next size up, barely £10 less and half the size. Didn't really seem like a sensible choice to get anything less than the largest.

Another investment was a pack of plain cotton pillow cases, cheap and they'll help keep much of the pulp from entering the juice. 

First up, the blackberries which the pillowcase prove invaluable for as there are SO many seeds and bits.

First press, starting gently.

The press made a pretty good cake of berry pulp, but it still felt fairly moist.

A quick blast in a pan broke them down a little and they gave up quite a bit more. In the end I got nearly half a gallon of juice from them alone.

Sure enough after another press, the result was much drier.

The abundance of juice meant almost 1/8th of the batch was blackberries and the rest apple, more than i'd expected, but in retrospect 1/4 or even 1/3 would have given a slightly better colour.

Cider - The Second Coming

Third post of the day, perhaps mark it on the calender...

The first batch of Cider was a resounding success, but as its no longer apple season, buying loads of apples and crushing them isnt cost effective or fun outside in the cold (this was done in February, despite only being posted about in May).

So as some friends had successfully tested, using cartons of apple juice works just as well.

With this in mind I got two slabs of apple juice, 2KG of brewers sugar and a packet of yeast and started emptying the cartons into the brew bucket.

With the brew bucket full with roughly 5 gallons of apple juice, i forgot just how heavy it was, and in retrospect, shouldn't have filled it in the sink.

The SG of the contents was a bit low, so a kilo of the sugar got added to in theory bring it up to around 7-8%. Not as strong as the last brew (which was about 10%) but enough to be merry.

The bucket got put under the bar into a small tray in case of leakage and ignored until this week.

So the sugar has all fermented and its tastes pretty good, not quite as dry as the first batch, which is good.

Some of it's going to be bottles and fermented a second time to get some fizz, but the bulk is in the keg to be stored and poured as needed.

Once i've bottled it i'll post more about it.

Home Brew 101

Some friends have been making Cider at home for some time now, after finding a couple of friends who have a surplus of apples seemed like a good time to try it myself.

The basic idea is simple enough. Take apples, get juice, add sugar and yeast, leave it alone, drink. Ghettoing something for a press was an option, but in the end a quick trip to Milton Keynes for a proper press and scratter was probably the best decision ever (Thanks John and Vikki).

The scratter is basically a funnel with blades underneath that turn. The blades mesh together and tear the apples apart when the handle turns the gears, turning the blades.

A large bucket is essential :). We had just over 80 lbs to break up, once the apples were in the bucket they were compressed, but it didnt juice them as well as hoped. In the end they were mostly pulped in a food processor and then pressed.

This took most of the day to do and we eventually stopped when it got dark around 8pm. Even with all of this we didnt quite get through all of the apples or get the 5 gallons for the fermenting bucket.

We got 3.5 Gallons of juice form the apples which was pretty impressive and then topped up the rest with apple juice from Costco. You can just use all juice from cartons and it still makes nice cider.

I didnt take a picture of the hydrometer but is measures the specific gravity so you can calculate how much sugar is needed for a given target percentage. You could just add a lot of it and see what happens, but its best to have some kind of idea :). This should, in theory at least be around 10% give or take and take until the first week of December to finish fermenting.

More updates once its done and can be sampled