Was only a matter of time before I moved into mead. Got my first batch bubbling now. Very simple for starts. Git some all natural local farm honey, a little over a pound, maybe 1.5 (I know, a lot for 2 litres but I like sweet) 2/3 cup brown sugar, then water n yeast. Very easy. Very simple. Oh and two Raisens for food for yeast. Letting sit until I get back in town in January. Maybe longer, Idk.

Well as I posted in the cider posts, I have a batch of strawberry rhubarb wine. I recently put it in the fridge to begin clarifying. The recipe, as well as I can remember it, includes .7 liters of rhubarb juice (homemade) and .7 liters of strawberry juice $store bought fruit then juices at home). Mixed into the batch is white sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and a bit of honey. I am not planning on aging this batch. Keeping it sparkling for a party at a friends. But if its good as when I tasted it, I will be making another, more recorded batch. This one will be racked, bottled, Corker, and aged.
Again, any thoughts or constructive criticism is much appreciated!

Well I'm going to list my cider recipes and such on here that I make. Comment if you'd like, I just feel like sharing
My first recipe is what I'm calling "straight hard cider"
Fairly simple, at least from what I've been reading.

2 Cans Apple Juice from Concentrate (Frozen, but I put in fridge so its liquid when i start mixing)
1 cup brown sugar (will know if that's enough or not when done, subject to change)
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla (I put it in everything, and my first batch had it, and it turned out good, so just throwing it in there for luck)
1/8 tsp nutmeg (for flavor and to mix in with that cinnamon smell i love)
1 tbsp All Natural Honey (Just because I had it, I love honey, and it might help the taste a little. If anything more food for the yeast, greedy lil buggers)
1/8 tsp EZ Caps wine yeast.

First thing I did, as said above, is stick the frozen cans of juice in the fridge overnight to melt. Easy enough.
Then I mixed everything but the yeast, along with three cans of water, for about five minutes, to make sure the cinnamon, brown sugar, nutmeg, and honey all got mixed in good. At this point, it had an amazing smell of what could only be described as the best cider I've ever smelled, and a rich dark texture. (I'm tempted to make another batch just for that, will post picture later).
I then transferred this mixture into a two liter bottle, where I added the yeast and placed the ezcap lid, gave it a few light shakes, and put it in the cupboard.
Planning on letting it sit for ten days.
Then Into the fridge for another three days.
Then tasting. Then, if all goes well, bottling and repeating
Thanks for reading! Any advice/tips/comments/constructive criticism would be enjoyed. My first batch of cider my friends loved, hoping this one will top it

Wasn't thinking about joining as a member, but after my first batch of cider and an experiment if strawberry-rhubarb wine on the way, with the ingredients to my next batch of cider collected, I decided to join, share, and learn. Name is Jab, though those are my initials. Live in Omaha, Nebraska. And yes, we do have cities in Nebraska I was looking for a way to start my brewing career and I believe I found a good start here. I'll share my stories as I go, as my next batch of cider I will be recording everything on. Thanks for having me.

received my easy caps kit on monday and started 4 different flavours of using pure fruit jucies cherry, apple and mango, cranberry and rasberry and orange peach and passion fruit. was very surprised by how fast it started to ferment. will let you know the results. Just one question will they be safe to bottle into wine bottles withn screw tops after i have finished with the fermentation and clearing process.

Some of you may be wondering what happened to the beer kits.

Due to economies of scale (well, actually lack thereof) we have been unable to source the hopped dried malt extract at a significant enough savings to make it a commerically viable product, and the high cost of shipping 7+ pounds per kit certainly didn't help. In other words, the price was too high even though we were offering it at cost. The high price resulted in poor sales which resulted in expired product which made it a real loser from a merchant standpoint. It was an excellent way to be introduced to truly effortless beer making and we were happy to do it as a "public service" while we were breaking even, but when the product started expiring we had to stop offering it all the time.

We still plan on offering the beer kits seasonally. Look for limited availability every fall and early winter, think Oktoberfest-Christmas time.

That being said, all the ingredients in our beer kits are readily available online and at your local homebrew store. It's the same ingredients and easy brewing technique you can get in our beer kits. Check out our beer recipe section.

im confused on how much yeast to use, i dont have anything to measure with so i put a size of a finger nail in and used 2 cups of sugar,im using a litre pop bottle, will this be enough, also what are the signs of fermentation please?what signs should i expect after 24hrs? im making some honey mead for the first time.

Hi Steve. This is my first attempt with the caps.. some questions:
1) are the caps reusable ?
2) it's winter approaching, and I don't have access to any area warmer than a consistent
60-64 degrees. How many days should I leave the bottle fermenting @ say 60 degrees ?
3) slush is elevated to the upper level of the bottle. I rolled the bottle around to mix it
every day, is that bad ?
4) when ferm is complete, should i sieve thru a coffee strainer ?

you're going to laugh at what I made. about 80% cranberry juice, 2 green apples,
2 prunes, a small box of raisins (solids liquified in a blender) 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1 1/2 cups white sugar.
I'm hoping to max out the %. Also, any vendor suggestions or tips for small distilling tools which I could use
say if I wanted to boil the mix on a gas range, collect the vapor from a pot, how much time would that take ?

thanks, Ron from RI. :?
appreciated

OK, so I've gotten the hang of this and the holidays are coming up. I have a few friends I'm planning to get an EZcap set for as a gift, but I'd like to give a bottle of my brews with it to help show them how it's done.

So my question is, where do you buy fresh bottles for gifting purposes? So far I've just been using my old soda bottles, but that seems a bit crass for sharing with friends.

Any suggestions? Should I stick with plastic or can I move it to glass after clarifying? What tops work best to retain the carbonation?

Thanks!

Hi! I'm seeing conflicting reports/recipes here. Some say ferment for 1 week, some say for 2. Currently I have 2 -2gallon batches of Hefeweizen brewing. One is 8 days old... I tasted it using the tip the bottle and squirt trick.. tastes great!

But of course the recipe calls for a 2 week ferment and another 1-2weeks bottling/settling.

Lets hear some opinions.. Meahwhile after reading, calling, and researching, I have ordered ingredients for a 100% organic Hefeweizen. If it's successful, I will post the recipe and ingredient source for you all.

-Shaun