A Mind is a Terrible Thing

Still kind of in the waiting phase here.  Status is as follows:

Mr Beer Hard Cider (started Dec 1st): The 8 1ltr bottles have been sitting for about a week now. In another week, I can transfer them to the garage for cooling.  The ‘experts’ all say I should wait two more weeks after that before drinking.  Well, that’s mid January… Talk about deferred gratification.  But I’ll be patient.

1st batch of Whole Foods 365 brand organic apple juice (started on Dec 4th, EC-1118 champagne yeast):  Made in the convenient 1 gallon glass jug with nothing more than warm water activated yeast, a #6 rubber stopper with a hole through it, and a cheap reusable homebrew airlock ($3).  Initial tasting a week ago proved light, slightly tart, but with a noticeable kick.  As for flavor, I’d put it as a kind of combination between Blackthorn and (yes) champagne, perhaps at a 80/20 ratio.  The jug, minus the yeast sludge and that 4oz or so for tasting, has been sitting in the garage since a week ago; I’m planning to try it on Christmas eve.

2nd batch:  2 gallons WF 365 apple juice and 1 gallon of cold pressed local apple cider.  Started on 14 Dec, using ‘liquid cider yeast’ from homebrewery.com.  Didn’t have another spare gallon glass jug, so I reused a disinfected plastic apple juice jug from  Costco.  Added a cup of sugar to the cold pressed cider and brought nearly to a boil.  The WF juice I just did as I did with the 1st batch and added yeast to them.  All three were bubbling within a day.  The cold pressed went a little wild though and fouled the airlock, so I cleaned that out.  A week later, they’re all still active, but slowing.

Meanwhile, I did get 4 glass jugs, some rinse-free disinfecting powder, and several packets of lager yeast, which is supposed to be pretty good with the WF juice.  Today, we happened to be at Whole Paycheck, so I got three more gallons of juice and one of an all natural apple/pear cider.  When that 2nd batch is done and settled — I’m guessing by this weekend — I’ll probably go ahead and start the third batch.

Yesterday I decanted the “Mr Beer” cider yesterday into the 1 liter bottles, it having been two weeks since starting that batch.  Those got a little sugar into each bottle to reactivate the yeast for the sake of carbonation.  Supposed to sit for 2 more weeks like that, then get refrigerated (or, in this case, into the unheated garage) for 2 weeks more…so this batch won’t be ready until mid January at the soonest.

Still, I tasted it as there was a little extra at the bottom of the barrel.  Seemed okay, but not as flavorful as the semi-finished Whole Foods brew 1st batch.  Maybe it’ll improve.

Meanwhile, I started two more WF organic juice batches (1 gallon each)…and I had a gallon of cold-pressed cider from a friend which I wort’ed up by heating on the stove and adding about a cup of sugar.  Unfortunately, I lacked a spare glass jug and so ended up reusing an old plastic one, carefully disinfected and cleaned.  I’ve had a few issues with it, most notably the yeast foamed up overnight and fouled the airlock…but I cleaned it out, reduced the amount of water in the u-tube, and now it’s bubbling steadily.  I used a special liquid cider-specific yeast this time for all three.

Oh, another thing I’ve done has been to put the jugs in pails of water, to help buffer the temperature over time, since we turn down the furnace at night.

Meanwhile, I have more glass jugs and some lager yeast on order from yet another homebrew company…

Okay — my 1st attempt using Whole Foods organic apple juice (in the convenient-for-homebrewing gallon glass jug) is on to the 2nd phase.  After about a week of fermentation, I noticed the bubbling had decreased significantly and nearly (but not quite) stopped yesterday.  So I put the jug in our unheated garage overnight (temp in the upper 40s) and then today I set it outside where it was only in the 30s — this for the purpose of ‘crashing’ the remaining yeast.

Just now, I siphoned the new hard cider into a plastic jug, washed out the gunk (dead yeast) in the glass one, then put the cider back in — this so I can cap it and leave it to age another week or two.  (Actually, I’m thinking this might be a good Christmas decanting.)  It’s back out in the garage.

Well, minus a half glass for taste-testing.  Stephy says it seems gentle and mild, but she’s extraordinarily sensitive to alcohol — and in a minute reported she could really feel it.  My own tasting:  It’s slightly fizzy from natural yeast carbonation, rather dry but with solid apple undertones.  For sure the yeast gobbled up the sugars, so instead of sweet it’s pleasantly tart — but I like that very much in ciders.

Tomorrow it’ll be time to decant and bottle the Mr. Beer batch.  There the process is more involved, where I need to sanitize bottles, add a little sugar, and then fill each.  The recommendation is 2-2-2, where it’s 2 weeks in the keg (fermenting), 2 weeks in the bottles (a little more fermenting, plus self-carbonation), and finally 2 weeks refrigeration (due to lack of fridge space for nearly a dozen bottles, it’ll probably be “sit in the garage”).

Okay — that half a glass is half gone.  Oh yeah… This stuff is deceptive.

Next batch I’m gonna try the lager yeast; 1st batch was champagne yeast.

Those who know me usually know of my predilection for hard apple cider; my preferred brand is Blackthorn, which actually I haven’t been able to find here in New Mexico — and so I buy out the entire stock at Trader Joe’s in Sunnyvale CA whenever I’m visiting there.

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of homebrewing, too — although I hate beer, ale, stout and the rest.  So, waste of time there.  But then I heard you can homebrew hard apple cider and started to look into the ‘how’.

At first, it looked too hard and complicated, all kinds of expensive gear and not knowing if I’d even like it or find the effort worthwhile.  Finally, I decided what the hell, let’s try something cheap first.

So I ordered a “Mr. Beer” Hard Cider rig from Amazon, which comes with everything you need to brew up 2 gallons of cider, including some cider syrup concentrate, a plastic brewing barrel thing, and 8 quart-sized bottles for post-fermentation bottling.  Again, all plastic, but that keeps the cost down, I’m sure.

Last week (1st Dec), I started the first batch and have been watching with interest as it developed the layer of yeasty foam… The instructions say wait at least a week before bottling, so I’ve a ways to go yet on that — I’m planning to let it go at least 10 days, maybe two full weeks.

Additional research, of course, led me to alternative methods of cider making (including some interesting notions for deriving applejack, which is freeze-distilled cider).  One of the most intriguing I found via Google at this site here.  The method?  Even simpler:  Buy a gallon of organic unfiltered apple juice at Whole Foods ($7), which happens to come in a glass jug perfect for fermentation.  Add some homebrewer’s yeast; I went with 1/3 a packet of Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast ($0.85), mixed in warm water to activate.  Then topped the jug in-situ with a #6 rubber stopper and S-curve airlock (these cost about $2).  (Later, I may try lager yeast, as the website recipe suggests.  I also got a packet of ‘liquid cider yeast’ which could prove interesting, but would best be for when I’m going to make at least 5 gallons at one go.)

Did this last night, with two more gallon bottles — and stoppers and airlocks — in reserve…figured I’d try it 1st and see what happened if anything.  Initially, for the first 12 hours, it didn’t look like anything would.

This morning though, I woke to discover bubbles coming through the airlock at a steady rate of about one every 1.5 seconds and a steady stream of tiny bubbles making a froth at the top of the juice.  Still active, too.  According to the website, I should have something drinkable in about a week and a half.  We’ll see.

A worthy cause:  “Friend a Gorilla“.

They’ve only just launched the site, so there are some holes yet in it, but it’s a great idea: For just $1 each, individuals can “friend” (as in Facebook or Twitter) an actual individual mountain gorilla in Uganda.  There are also corporate sponsorships available, or one can donate directly to the gorilla preservation trust funds.

I have five gorilla friends now.

How much government control in cybercrisis? – Security- msnbc.com
There’s no kill switch for the Internet, no secret on-off button in an Oval Office drawer.Yet when a Senate committee was exploring ways to secure computer networks, a provision to give the president the power to shut down Internet traffic to compromised Web sites in an emergency set off alarms.

Hey, I know — let’s call this system “Skynet”.  And automate the hell out of it, so it can react on its own in the case of some global crisis.  Give it neural-style networking and a learning, adaptive architecture, so it can become smarter and smarter over time.

What could possibly go wrong?

A notion:  “Live like a tiger, work like an elephant, play like a dolphin, and love like a dog — in every case, with total joy and abandon.”

- Me

Had us a few hours of downtime here because I forgot to update the domain registration info…and so of course the notices went to a defunct email addy, and my CC on record had expired.

Anyway, all’s well now.

Oh, came up with a winner in the kitchen earlier today for brunch:

Red potatoes sautéed with half a white onion, one sweet red pepper, crushed garlic, half a fresh green chilé pepper, chopped vegetarian sausage (4 patties, pre-fried).  Cooked one-skillet style with olive oil, tamari, toasted sesame oil, a dash of soy, dill, cilantro, and paprika.  Start to finish, less than 30 minutes.

Wasn’t a book recipe, just invented it based on available ingredients and an amateur cook’s instincts.

Stephy’s already asked me when I’m planning to make it again.

We happened to be in Santa Cruz CA today, to visit a friend and pick up a few things he’d been keeping for us.

I noticed the smog and distinct aroma of woodsmoke as soon as we drew near to Scotts Valley on Hwy 17.  Down in the city itself, there is no blue sky, just an oppressive, smoky haze thick enough to obscure landmarks.  No doubt, the Lockheed fire was (and still is, although is mostly contained) a huge one.