Updates on cider, mead, and the bottling to come.

So I had Greg try the cider last night, and though he was polite about it - he really didn't care for it. Which is fine for me, as the cider was an experiment and all I did was throw yeast into it to see what happened. However, the experience has taught me that the next time I try to make hard cider - essentially apple cider wine - I'm going to use actual wine yeast, and not Nottingham ale yeast, despite how much people seem to like it. I came to the realization of the yeast when I thought that when it was dry - it wasn't that dry. This is because, or probably because, I used an ale yeast rather than a dry-finishing wine yeast, like champagne yeast.

Next year my plan is to get four gallons, apply the new yeast to all of them, then backsweeten one and I'll have two gallons each of dry and sweet hard cider. Though I'm also wondering seriously if the flat taste came from the pasteurization of the cider. Which means I should have six gallons, or some multiple of three, two raw, four pasteurized, so I can see the differences between dry, sweet, and unpasteurized vs. pasteurized. Problem with that is six gallons of cider is expensive for an experiment. Hopefully I'll have a bit more cash laying around next year for further experimentation.

Mead is fermenting famously, though it seems to have slowed a bit since yesterday. The temperature range has been terrible - from around 76-78 ro just below 68. Hopefully it should be fine, though it's extremely difficult to regulate the temperature in my tiny, old apartment.

I should have another post tomorrow about the christmas ale I've been excited about, as tomorrow is bottling day and I should have somewhere north of 3.5 gallons or so. Bottles ready, can't wait.