I've brewed cider and mead, although not a lot. I have friends who do a lot
of mead making, they produce some pretty good stuff.
Both cider and mead take far longer for fermentation and then, for mead,
aging.
Cider takes several months.
Mead takes at least as long and really needs to age for at least a year or
two.
The actual brewing process is simpler for both. For cider it's quite
simple, all you really have to do is put unpasteurized Apple juice in a
corner and ignore it. But you get more reliable results using a yeast
starter. The only tricky thing is stopping the cider fermentation before it
eats all of the sugar.
Mead is a little bit more complex.
Both of them need to be in oxygen impermeable fermentation vessels (i.e.
glass carboys like home brewers tend to use, or steel like commercial
breweries use).
So does beer, really, but most beers are quite drinkable in only a couple
weeks, so people can get away with using plastic buckets. Plastic is harder
to sanitize however.
Fresh, quality ingredients are importanr in all brewing, but especially in
wines and ciders because fruits are more difficult than grains in the
freshness department.
Soergel's orchard, up north, is where I go for unpasteurized Apple juice
Steve
On Feb 25, 2016 1:59 PM, "Simon Heath" <icefoxen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just in case people are interested in other stuff as well, I've made my
own cider and mead a time or two, and while the results are not necessarily
the best I'd be interested in getting better at it. So if anyone's
interested in doing that as well as beer, I'm game.
Simon
On 02/25/2016 04:35 AM, James Freach wrote:
For those that are interested here's a few links for recipes , software
and instructions to get yourself a little jump start.
http://beerrecipes.org/ ;<---- over 4500 recipes
https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes?page=1&sort=rank ;<------ 283,606
homebrew beer recipes
( if you can't find a beer recipes you like at this link give up drinking
)
Homebrewers Association | How to Brew <
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/> <------ lots of good
insturctions and tips
*Sent:* Thursday, February 25, 2016 at 4:03 AM
*From:* "James Freach" <Quest-Engineering@xxxxxxxxx>
*To:* hackpgh-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [hackpgh-discuss] Re: When to Brew?
Count me in too. I've brewed in the past and made my own crazy lables for
my beer and entered it in competitions. Let's brew something tasty like a
Raspberry Imperial Stout!!!
Jim Freach
*Sent:* Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 4:56 PM
*From:* "Steven Owens" <stevenjowens@xxxxxxxxx>
*To:* hackpgh-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [hackpgh-discuss] When to Brew?
Folks,
Okay, nobody else jumped in to the discussion of when to do the Brew
Night, so I'll make it more explicit.
First, let's do a roll call - who is interested in attending the brewing
class?
Also, if you're not interested in attending, but want to drink the
results (and hence want to kick in for the materials), please post.
--
Steven J. Owens
stevenjowens@xxxxxxxxx
puff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
412-401-8060
