Hard Cider and Pumpkin Pie: Results

The 'pumpkin pie' turned out pretty good.  I wish it were a bit thicker, but the flavor is pretty close to what I was shooting for.  1 thing for improvement:  use twice the pumpkin.

And my hard cider turned out pretty good too, especially for being my first cider!  Something in it has a flavor similar to the pumpkin beer, likely the pumpkin pie spice.  And next time I make it, I think I'll pasteurize after 4 days instead of 5... A little too carbonated this time.  Also for next time, I'll be adding cloves and allspice along with the cinnamon, those are the ingredients that are in Bob's spiced cider around here, the best cider ever.  Oh and I think I'll use filtered juice/cider to begin with.  It's pretty darn cloudy right now.

Cider: Pasteurized

Ok so it's been 5 days since I backsweetened and bottled this cider.  Today I pasteurized it.  I followed these instructions:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

Basically it goes like this:

1.  Heat water to 190 degrees or so, then turn off burner.

2.  Place bottles in water for 12 minutes.

3.  Pull bottles out carefully with tongs and hotpads and place on counter to cool.

4.  Reheat water to 190.

5.  Repeat until all bottles are pasteurized.

I learned something today.  No, no bottles broke or exploded, which is good.  However, I noticed air bubbling (hissing) from the swing cap bottles.  At first I thought these types of bottles/caps just couldn't take the heat... But then I opened one.  BOOM!  Cider volcano!  Sure enough, I think I let them sit and bottle condition for 1 day too long.

Lesson learned.

Should be interesting as I go to open the rest in the coming weeks/months!

Cider in bottles

Boom.  Start the 4 day clock.  And notice the plastic bottle I filled as my canary in the coal mine.  We tried a glass each.  Overall a little on the weak side, though fairly well balanced it seemed... Hopefully it is amazing after a bit more fermenting and aging....

Spice it Up.

Spice it Up.

Ok so the cider has been fermenting for 1 week.  Deciding against racking it to a secondary.  Not gonna lie, I'm too busy to clean another carboy and worry about it right now.  

So, I just boiled my spice mix.  Here's what I decided to do:  1/2 cup brown sugar, 4 cinnamon sticks, 2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cinnamon powder, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice.  

It's cooling now, then I'll dump it in with the cider and give it another week.

Cheers!

Pumpkin Pie ale bottled and a bonus...

Yep, bottled the pie ale.  

And I started my first cider as well, based it on this forum post:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/fantastic-hard-cider-recipe-instructions-fall-spice-cherry-variations-411469/

-5 gallons of organic apple cider, no additives.

-Montrachet Red Star yeast.  

-about a half teaspoon of yeast nutrient

The first 4 gallons are fermenting right now.  No need to boil or anything like that.  Plan to rack it to a secondary in 1 week, and add in a cinnamon/nutmeg mix at that time.  

Oh, and that's my Ryker boy.  :)

Rackin that pumpkin pie ale!

Pumpkin Pie Ale brewed!

Brewed a pumpkin pie ale on Aug 29th, will be ready in time for Thanksgiving!

After some Interwebs research and some great input from The Bald Brewer, here's what I did:

Pumpkin pie ale.

1 can 29 oz canned pumpkin.
Bake in crock pot 60 mins to carmelize the sugars.  I also added a Tbspn of butter, hopefully that didn't ruin anything.  

Meanwhile, boil water and begin the partial mash:
20 min steep grains @150 degrees.  I actually heated all the way up to 200 this time, then shut the burner off and dropped the grain bag in.  It was at 150 by the time I pulled the grains out 25 mins later.  This was about 2 lbs of a select grain mix that Dr Mark chose for me.  About 5 different types.

Then the wort boil begins.  Dumped in 7.5 lbs of Pilsen LME, and 1 oz of Willamette hops at the 60 min mark.

Next up, I scooped the pumpkin into a nylon bag and steeped that in the wort for 10 mins starting at the 20 min remaining mark.  At the end of that, I dumped a little bit of the pumpkin into the wort itself, why not!

Then at 10 mins remaining, I added 1 oz of 'tet' hops and also a pound of lactose powder.  Mark says this lactose is what will give the ale a little sweetness.

Then at 5 mins left, I dumped in 3 tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice.

Used Whitelabs WLP002 English Ale yeast for this brew.  

There you have it.  Hopefully this one turns out good!  I'm always filled with so much hope at the time of brewing, it's a fun feeling.

-R

Thoughts on recent brews...

Blueberry honey Kolsch was 6/10.  Honey Ale was 6/10.  Smooth Nut Brown was 5/10.

Overall, I'm not that impressed with my recent brews... 

Perhaps I'll stick to the lighter beers, I seem to have better luck with those.  Blonde ale and hefeweizen are my best two beers so far.

At least they've all been drinkable!  Cheers to brewing!

R

Blueberry bottled.

Thats right ladies and gents.  Did so today.

It'll be ready right about the time we move.  Perfect!

We have blueberries!

Added the blueberry/ vodka mix to the secondary.  3lbs berries and about 1-2 cups vodka.

Oh boy!

Honey Kolsch Racked

Yep.  Blueberries soaking in vodka for about a week now.  Plan to dump them in the carboy here in a day or two...

Blueberry brewed! With baby!

Thats right ladies and gents.  Finally brewed the Blueberry honey Kolsch today.  Baby D helped, we had fun!  I used a Honey Kolsch kit from NB with WLP001 yeast from the local homebrew store.

In a few weeks, I'll be adding 5 lbs of vodka-soaked blueberries to the secondary!

Looking forward to this one....

Smooth Nut Brown: bottled

Smooth Nut Brown racked

I need to get a filter of some kind for my siphon...

Honey Ale bottled.

Yep

Smooth Nut Brown: brewed

Honey Ale: racked.

Fat Tire finally ready!

And it's pretty good!

Honey Amber Ale

Brewed!  And I rigged my outdoor burner to not need babysitting every 15 mins too, it's sweet.

Oh, and the Kolsch has finally matured... Into perhaps my best beer yet!