Home Brew Mead and Chicha de Manzana aka hard cider

Well I took my Dental Admissions test this last Wednesday and scored fairly well. In order to celebrate I decided I was going to make some Chicha de Manzana a Chilean favorite that I couldn't find on my last trip.

Apparently Chile has sent all there apples to the US because of an apple shortage in the US. A friend that works in major produce tells me at least.

Anyway I started with 2 gallon jugs of organic fresh pressed and pasteurized cider from Sonoma county. I pitched 1/3 packet of some S-04 ale yeast and put the air locks on. I figured this would not be enough so I went out and got two more gallon jugs but I have one filled up with 5 cups honey, enough water to go to the top and some yeastex nutrients with some wine yeast this is the beginning of some hopefully tasty mead. The other jug I used a COSTCO apple juice not from concentrate with out preservatives and put the last third of the ale yeast and some yestex nutrients. Well they are all bubbling away and have me very thirsty. The Chicha should be ready for Thanksgiving and the mead maybe for New Years.

Anyone else make there own brew?

Thanks Lunker. They are starting to slow fermentation a little now and the Costco apple juice is starting to clear up. I think the apple ciders should be ready for secondary fermentation on Wednesday. I need to find some bottles for bottling soon. Or maybe a small keg which is a lot easier to sanitize. When the temps lower a little more I will start to make some French salami too. That's always a hit as well as the duck prosciutto.

Quote from smilinmatt

I've got an Indian Pale Ale and a Vanilla Porter conditioning in bottles right now. I'll probably start a mead in the next few days - that's one of my favorites.

I've managed to keep about 12 bottles of blueberry mead that I made in '07. Those are incredible right now. I've also got some carambola mead that I made a couple years ago. For the first year or so, it tasted like something a whino would piss out, but it's mellowed and tastes pretty good now. It makes it easier to let it age, when it tastes like crap the first year.

The photo is of a barley wine I made about a year ago. A little more work, a lot more patience, and a ton of ingredients, but the finished product was awesome.

Well thats good to hear about the mead. I'm hoping it tastes great in a couple months but if not I will keep it around for while. I have never made it before so this will be my first batch. I use to make beer in college but between girls and dollar pint draft beers I let the home brewing go to the side. Since I haven't been able to find a good hard cider I figured I would just make it. The mead just materialized with a 5lb jug of honey I had sitting around. Blueberry mead sounds amazing can I get your recipe? I was thinking of doing a sugarcane mead or cider too. Cheers!

Quote from makelymyday

If you all are ever out in Colorado, besides having a ton of other amazing local breweries, my brother-in-law is getting ready to open a brewery in Loveland CO. He makes amazing beer. Northern Colorado is really trying to develop a beer touring industry.

That would be awesome! Not sure when I will be in that part of the country but I will let you know.

Quote from smilinmatt

Fruit meads are a nice way to make a good "wine-like" drink without all the effort that goes into making wines (meads are tough to mess up). I don't really have a recipe for making fruit meads. Usually I just add what looks like a reasonable amount of fruit (~1# blueberries per gallon). The steps to making a fruit mead:

1. Boil the honey, acid blend, yeast nutrient, Irish moss and water for about 15 minutes. During the boil, scoop off the foam (it's mostly protein that will give it an off-flavor).
2. While that's boiling, I'll crush the fruit. You don't have to juice it, just crush it to break the skins.
3. After the boil is finished, turn off the heat and add the fruit and juice while it's still hot. This will sterilize it. Don't continue boiling the fruit, or you'll end up with a hazy finished product - or worst case spiked jelly.
4. It's easiest to start the primary fermentation in either a 5 or 7 gallon bucket with a lid. That will make it easier to filter out the fruit later. Once it's cooled off, pitch the yeast.
5. After 3 or 4 days, rack into a carboy and filter out the fruit (I use a big funnel with cheesecloth over it. Try to do this before the end of the heavy fermentation that way the yeast is still active and you can minimize introducing bacteria.
6. After fermentation stops and you're ready to bottle, if you want to make it carbonated, add about 1/3 cup sugar per 5 gallons.

For the most part, the more "complex" flavor of the fruit, the longer you need to let it sit before it's ready to drink. Fruits I've done:
mulberry - best fruit mead I've ever made and it's ready to drink right after bottling
blackberry - almost as good as mulberries. It works really well even with wild blackberries that don't taste good (we have lots of those in Florida).
blueberry - really good, but takes a while to mellow. About 6 months before it's ready to drink.
carambola (starfruit) - doesn't add much flavor to the mead, but it does make it undrinkable for about a year.

If you have access to pomegranites, they're supposed to make the best mead and wine. I"ve got three trees in my yard, but with the Florida climate, I hardly get any fruit that make it all the way to maturity.

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Thanks for the recipe!

I have been toying with the idea of another mead. I was thinking either a persimmon and now that you mention black berries I may try that. Black berries are on sale here too. Or maybe I will just make both.

A friend of mine brought over some white sapotes and they were getting pretty ripe. I decided on making some sapote wine according to a persimon recipe I found online.

3 lbs ripe persimmons (freeze until ready to use)
7 pints Water (enough to fill)
2 1/4 lb sugar (4.5 cups)
2.5 teaspoons Acid Blend (optional)
1/2 teaspoons Pectic Enzyme (recommended for pulpy fruit)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (optional)
1 pkg wine yeast

I crushed the fruit and added a campden tablet with the Pectin Enzyme and was told to continue the rest of the recipe tomorrow to let the enzyme and tablet function. Tomorrow I will bring the water to boil add the sugar, yeast nutient and acid blend and then when the temp drops I will pitch the yeast to start primary fermentation.

I think that next time instead of the campden tablet I will just pour boiling water over the mash. I just read up on it and its sulfites something I was hoping to avoid. Oh well I will learn as I go. I hope it turns out tasty.

Quote from Hardline

I'd be interested in trying a good home brew cider...lately Ive been drinking Angry Orchard.

I tried the Angry Orchard yesterday it was pretty good. Thanks for the recommendation.