[strangebrewer]

As discussed in the other thread here is the process thread for the Fall Bounty Cyser group brew. The recipe is shared via PM to respect the wishes of its initial creator Ken Schramm. If you would like to jump on board with this group brew at any time let me know and I can share the recipe. Use this thread to discuss any alteration to the standard recipe you have made but please do not post the recipe.

I chose the last day in October as a start date as a middle ground date for those who need to round up ingredients still and for those who already have some fresh cider trying to take off without them. Depending on what group you fall in fire when ready!

[strangebrewer]

From the standard recipe I'm making the following changes:

Bumping up the honey by 1lb
omitting the secondary spices all together
Following the Staggered Nutrient addition schedule found in the FAQ's
Changing the yeast to Lalvin 71B

[psolio]

From the standard recipe I'm making the following changes:

Bumping up the honey by 2 lbs
Following the Staggered Nutrient addition schedule found in the FAQ's
Changing the yeast to Lalvin 71B

I will be getting started here in a little bit, so expect my process post in a few hours.

[psolio]

Since today is my weekend, I started early.

As stated above, I made a few changes to the recipe. I upped the honey by 2 pounds ended up rounding the cider to 5 gallons. I am also using HT's SNA schedule found in the FAQ section.

Here's how it went down:

I bought all my ingredients except honey and yeast from Sunflower Farmer's Market (a regional chain store). This included bulk raisins and dates:



Because of the dates whole size, and because of my experience in 2005 with raisins turning back to grapes, in came the foodmill:



The milling turned them into an amalgam mush of dates and raisins:



I proceeded to heat 2.5 gallons of cider to 110*F with the above mush, dark brown sugar, 4 tablespoons of supposed¹ pectinase, and step one of the SNA (4.5g DAP & 4.5g Fermaid-K). Constant stirring broke up the sticky, gooey amalgam of the dates and raisins. During this time, I also rehydrated two packets (10g) of 71B yeast in 1/2 ounce of water at 100*F; unfortunately, I did not notice I was entirely out of Go-Ferm for rehydration.

After the cider temperature reached 110*F, I added the total amount (original amount plus 2 lbs) of raw wildflower honey (Colorado Honey Company). After thoroughly dissolving all the honey, the mixture went into my bucket along with the remaining, chilled cider. The must got a good mixing:



The OG ended up at 1.112 at 84*F, corrected to 1.115 at 60*F. I pitched the yeast at 2040 UTC² on Wednesday, October 28th. The primary bucket is now resting comfortably in my closet at 66*F (Garage is now officially too cold with no insulation and the two feet of snow outside).

I, unfortunately, failed to get the SG of the cider beforehand.
__________

¹ About four years ago, I purchased a pound of pectinase and use very little of it. After using it, I think I failed to label the bag. Therefore, today I put 4 tablespoons of an unknown, white powder in my must. It was certainly not corn sugar, but I cannot say for certain if it was not cocaine nor anthrax.
² I will be using UTC (Coordinated Universal Time/Greenwich Mean Time/Zulu) for all of my time related posts. This is to keep me from being confused in lapsed time since beginning, with the Daylight Savings occurrence this Sunday - as UTC does not observe this.

[psolio]

10/29/2009 0300 UTC (6h20m elapsed)

I noticed airlock activity, very fast bubbling. I added 2nd stage SNA (2.8g DAP & 2.8g Fermaid-K).

1.110 at 74*F correct to 1.111 at 60*F

[psolio]

10/29/2009 1700 UTC (20h20m elapsed)

1.100 at 66*F corrected to 1.100 at 60*F

[BeesNBrews]

Picked up my cider last Thursday from my favorite supplier; he is always intrigued with my use of his cider, especially when I purchase 6 gallons at a time--two for the kids and four for me.
UV treated but nothing else. It kept well in the cool garage w/ no activity.

I have Ken's book but also made a couple modifications. Prepared everything on 10/27.
kept the raisins whole
bought pre-chopped dates
used 4 campden
OG cider 1.052
brought volume to 5 gl w/water
added dark honey to bring OG to 1.114 (about 2 additional pounds)

Used 1 pint to hydrate the yeast, Lalvin 71B, overnight.

10/28 - Added the very active yeast starter, one-half of the nutrients and one-half the energizer
10/29 - working very nicely.

Have not decided if spices are in order yet. I really like the cinnamon vanilla methelgin we did last year so I may end up using the spice.

[psolio]

10/30/2009 1740 UTC (45h elapsed)

1.088 at 66*F corrected to 1.088 at 60*F

[psolio]

I have forgotten how much cyser foams up in primary. I have about a 2.5" thick "krausen" when I open to check SG. Then I give it a good stirring to purge the CO2 and get foam to the top of the bucket (about 4 inches). This is making me estimate the SG readings. I let the sample sit in the graduated cylinder for a while, but the foam never completely goes away. I might be off by 2 points or so for each reading since start of fermentation.

[BeesNBrews]

10/30
1.096 SG
72*F
Rapid ferment, little foam.

[psolio]

10/31/2009 0700 UTC (58h20m elapsed)

1.076 at 66*F corrected to 1.076 at 60*F

[wengared]

used 9.47 lb wild honey
added one qt. water to get it to 5 gal. mark
rehydrated 71B with 2 tsp. yeast energizer and 1 tsp yeast nutrient
1130 hrs' WTZ 1.112 at 68 degree

[psolio]

10/31/2009 1800 UTC (69h20m elapsed)

1.074 at 64*F corrected to 1.074 at 60*F

[strangebrewer]

And I'm off!

Due to the joys of pouring honey I ended up with 2.1 lbs over the recipe so I added an extra gallon of apple juice to get it back into a reasonable gravity.

SG: 1.118 @ 68F
Volume: 6.25G
Time yeast pitched: 2PM MST

[wengared]

2030 hrs WTZ, nine hrs. in. i have active fermentation with about 1/2 " foam.will feed and get a gravity reading in the morning.

[psolio]

11/01/2009 1820 UTC (93h40m elapsed)

1.064 at 63*F corrected to 1.064 at 60*F

I added 3rd stage SNA (1.8g DAP & 1.8g Fermaid-K).

[VolFan]

10 gallons
OG Cider 1.050
Added 9lbs dark amber honey
Chopped dates & left raisins whole
Added ~1qt filtered water to each fermenter to reach 5gl
SG 1.108
Chest freezer set at 62dF
Will aerate and pitch yeast with SNA
*A little nervous about having only one pack 71B for each 5 gls*

[BeesNBrews]

11/1/9
1.048
72*F
Added remaining nutrient and energizer.

[zymot]

OK I got my apples ((red del, golden del, fuji, granny smith, + misc others) together and pressed ~95 lbs of apples and got >7 gallons of cider. (about 13 lbs per gallon) Happy with the cider.

I added Sage Blossom honey to get about 5.5 gallons of must at 1.110 OG. The lone addition from teh recipe was 1/2 lb of chopped dates.

Pitched 16 g of 71B yeast re-hydrated with Go-ferm & standard SNA.

zymot

[psolio]

11/02/2009 2030 UTC (119h50m elapsed)

1.054 at 63*F corrected to 1.054 at 60*F