Cider #1 Review

I have recently been branching out from beer into other fermented beverages besides beer. In October 2013 I started a cider, and lasted weekend I started a mead. The cider was actually ready and drinkable in mid-December 2013. After only a week in the bottle it had a bit of a nasty sulfur note, but by January that seems to have mostly disappeared. I've heard that cider tends to age pretty well, so perhaps this tasting will be a further improvement.

Appearance: Pale yellow and translucent. (Even though it doesn't come across in the photo.) Almost zero foam on the surface. Lots of small carbonation bubbles cling to the side of the glass. It could be mistaken for nearly flat Champagne or a glass of white wine.
The color is much light than that of the opaque, coppery-brown pre-fermentation cider. How does fermentation change the color and transparency of the cider?

Aroma: I still get a sulfury not from the yeast, and not a whole lot of apple-like smell. The Champagne yeast does seem to have imparted a kind of white-wine like smell that may obscure the apply quality. Still my wife said that it did have a sourish apple smell. She and I do seem to have differently calibrated noses.

Taste: It doesn't have a strong taste, but I would say this it does have a nice apple taste, and like the nose, some white-winey notes. It does not have a sour bite at all - the campden had its intended effect. I get almost no sweetness. It's very dry, as I was told to expect with Champagne yeast. Also the flavor seems to improve a little bit as it warms. It doesn't have any boozy note in the taste as it is likely around 4%-5% ABV.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation. It's doesn't have a big body but fortunately doesn't seem thin and effervescent, like highly-carbed Champagne can. The aftertaste does seem to have an apple quality.

Overall:  A pretty dry, low carbonation cider, with some apple flavor and quite some similarity to white wine. Some sulfur in the nose.

As yet, this cider is young. I will need to keep a few bottles around to see how it taste after a year of aging. I will probably make some cider again, though perhaps use a less attenuative yeast, and some sour apples. The sourness can accentuate the apple flavors.

3 Gallons of Mead

So, I brewed some mead today. No special reason, except that off-brand "Kirkland" honey at Costco was $13 per 5-gallons. I'm cheap, and I'm not expecting to make an award winning mead with stuff, especially as it's my first venture with mead.

 Mead:
10# Kirkland Clover Honey
2.25 gallons water
1 tsp. Yeast Energize
1.5 tsp. LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient

Red Star Premier Gran Cuvée Wine Yeast 

Expected OG / FG: ??

Brewed 2/2/14.
 

Put a little bit of Campden in 2.25 gallons cold water to de-chlorinate it. Began heating up the water.


Poured the honey directly into the brewpot as the water was being heated. Stirred to mix in the honey, so that it didn't sink to the bottom and get scorched. Each 5# bottle of honey was about a 1/2 gallon, so I probably got around 3.25-2.5 gallons of "wort".

Immediately after pitching, w/ Star-San foam.

Heated to 180F. The "wort" smelled good - like honey. It developed some bubbles and a little bit of dark stuff on the top. I didn't skim anything off of it. Just stirred a bit.

Turned off the heat at 190F, then let air-cool, although eventually I did put the kettle in a tub of cool water.

Fermentation has started, but no Krausen.

Rehydrated yeast as per instructions, and pitched after aerating 70F "wort".

Measured the OG at 27 Brix, or 1.115 Gravity. So I'm looking at a brew of approximately 16% - 17% ABV.

2/5/14 - Airlock activity at about one bubble every 2 seconds, but unlike beer, no krausen or foaming on the surface. I can see some activity in the liquid however. The appearance of the mead has not changed substantially. It still looks like a murky, yellowish liquid.

Late march - added 3 lbs of mixed berries - strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries to ~2 gallons, and racked the un-fruited portion to a 1-gallon jug.

6/7/14 or thereabouts - Bottled the un-fruited portion in screw-cap wine bottles, and racked the fruited portion to a tertiary fermenter.

West Coast IPA Review

Still working on my hoppy beers. This one is good, but again not exactly what I was hoping for. At some point, I will need to do a DIPA in order to basically see how much hop aroma I can get into my beer.

Appearance: Orange-copper in color, with a fluffy, slightly off-white head that sticks around pretty well. Nearly transparent, especially if I am very careful not to pour in any yeast.

Aroma: Fruity American hops- perhaps a bit a Cascade coming through. Aroma was good, but generally not as strong as I would hope for.

Taste: There's a reasonable amount of hoppy flavor - kind of fruity, a bit piney. I also get a little bit of malty sweetness in the aftertaste. Bitter, but smooth. The first-wort hopping seems to smooth out the bitter finish, especially in contrast to the Rye-IPA I made a while ago, in which the high bitterness and the spicyness of the rye combined to make a bit of a harsh taste.

Moutfeel: Medium carbonation. A bit thin in the mouthfeel, in my view. Aftertaste is a smooth bitterness.
 
Overall:  A smoothly bitter, somewhat fruity American IPA with a thin body. In my view, not bursting with hop aroma enough and a little too thin in body. Perhaps more like a Pale Ale. Still, it's good, and I do enjoy is, as do my wife and brother.

For next time: Try to find a way to get the huge hop aroma some beers have. Is it a recipe issue - i.e. volume of hops - or a technique issue - i.e. cooling time? Experimentation is in order. I will set up my March pump for the next brew, and do a whirlpool hopping system. I'd also like to get a resiny, coating mouthfeel that some IPAs have, in contrast to the kind of thin body here.