Bottling Day and First Samples

Spent several hours this past Saturday bottling the Cherry Wheat Ale, Welch's Wine, and Hard Cider. We did the beer in the typical manner with corn sugar for carbonation. The Welch's Wine and Hard Cider we split between part carbonated and part still. Carbonation was done with Muntons Carb Tabs and all of the still was prepped with the addition of Potassium Sorbate. We also experimented with bottling some of the wine in growlers to save on bottles (still, as growlers are supposedly not suitable for carbonation).

I decided to pull a couple of bottles over the past few days to sample. I started with a bottle each of the cider and wine on Tuesday. It had only been 3 days since bottling, but because they are still, I wasn't waiting for carbonation to happen (really just aging and clarification).

Hard Cider: Very clear, looks very nice, tastes extremely dry. Slight sulphur taste & odor that could be off-putting to some people. That may have been addressable by allowing the cider to "breathe" longer after adding the crushed campden tablet, but I'm not exactly sure. Overall, it's drinkable. I'm thinking the next time I make a cider I'll use a heat pasteurization method and include some maltose for a bit of sweetness.

Welch's Wine: Not quite clear. You can tell that granulated sugar was used as a large part of the fermentables from the trademark "cidery" taste. Clarity will likely improve with aging, but the cidery taste probably isn't going away. Grape flavor is minimal. If I did this again, I would probably go for more of the grape concentrate and switch to corn sugar (not sure why I didn't use that initially).

I tried one of the bottles of the Cherry Wheat Ale last night, 4 days after bottling:

Cherry Wheat Ale: Mild haze. Good taste, but ends with an "extract twang". Cherry flavor would be hard to identify if I didn't know what it was. Carbonation was minimal, but expected after only 4 days. I expect this one to improve over the next couple of weeks.

I've been reading up on "extract twang" since last night, and most people seem to agree it has to do with the use of old extract or particular extract brands. What everyone appears to be all over the board on is how to avoid it. I've read about:

• Full boil
• Late malt extract addition (last 20 - 10 minutes of boil)
  
• Use of dry malt extract exclusively
• Use of "fresh" or "higher quality" liquid malt extracts from reputable manufacturers
• Use of LME in plastic bottles or jars, not metal cans
  
• Addition of yeast nutrient

I'm going to try some of these in my next batch, although probably not the full boil method since my kettle isn't big enough. The batch I just started last weekend used 9.9 lbs of LME, but the recipe called for 3.3 lbs at the start and 6.6 lbs at the end. It's also from Norther Brewer, who distributes in plastic "milk jugs" and moves a lot of product every week - both of which are supposed to contribute to freshness. We'll see. I can drink beers with this "extract twang" but I'd rather not have to if I can avoid it.

Project Update

Last night we racked the Welch's Wine and the cider into their respective "secondary" fermenters. I use quotes because rather than sourcing new containers to use as fermenters, we used a brew bucket (sanitized, of course) as a holding vessel while cleaning out the original container, re-sanitizing it, then racking the wine/cider back into the original container.

I also took the opportunity to taste both, but didn't have too much since there is still some yeast in suspension (drink too much of that and you'll regret it).

Here are some updates on our projects:

Welch's Wine: This tastes surprisingly good. It has a taste similar to a very dry white. If I bottle carbonate some of it, it could even pass for a cheap champagne. It also has a very strong (alcohol) taste.

Hard Cider: Still has a hint of that sulfur odor, but it's fading and I expect it to be gone soon. The flavor imparted by the champagne yeast is very strong. Not much apple taste left. I'm starting to wish I had used a cider or ale yeast instead of trying to use the champagne yeast. It'll still be very drinkable, but I think it's going to turn out more like a weak apple wine than a hard cider.

Cherry Wheat Ale: A small fermentation is still happening from the yeast eating the sugars in the puree. When I have a chance, I'm going to snap a picture to upload. I'm sure the way it looks is nothing out of the ordinary, but the appearance is interesting. It's likely the yeast proliferating then dying betwixt all of the cherry puree bits.

Orange Clove Mead: Primary fermentation is still going strong. Yeast cake is starting to form on the bottom of the jug.

I realized the other day that I intended to document the varieties of yeast I was using for each of these. I'll have to do that on another update.

Cherry Wheat Ale

We've decided to try a fruit beer using Oregon Fruit Purees. I've used extracts before and didn't really love the taste, so I'm hoping that the fruit taste here turns out to be a bit more natural.

The basis for this Cherry Wheat Ale is a Brewer's Best Weizenbier kit. We started that last Saturday and by Friday, it was ready to be moved to the secondary.


Starting Gravity: 1.049 (Look at that! I actually bothered to measure!)
Ending Gravity (after primary): 1.012
Alcohol By Volume: 4.8%
Primary Fermentation Start: 9/26/2009
Primary Fermentation End: 10/3/2009

Before racking into the secondary, we dumped two 3 lb cans of Oregon Fruit Products Sweet Cherry Puree into the bottom of the carboy. We used a funnel that just barely fit in the opening of the carboy, which regrettably allowed some of the fruit puree to adhere to the "ceiling" of the carboy. I'm hoping that doesn't end up being an issue. I'm not anticipating it to be, since everything is sanitized and oxygen-free.


We then racked the weizenbier directly on top of the puree.


12 hours later, a small fermentation has restarted from the yeast eating the sugar form the cherries, which will likely drive up the alcohol content a little bit. I'm planning on having this sit the secondary for at least two weeks, although longer may be required to get the stuff to clear. If it's not clearing by week 3, I'll probably rack into a tertiary on it's own to clear further.

Plan on bottling and carbonating with corn sugar.