Wow, Been way too long since I posted, but in that time a bunch of folks I know have been brewing cider and it got me all fired up.  So I decided to make some ‘Graff’ tonight.

My understanding is that ‘Graff’ is kind of a ‘cider/beer’.  It’s got a bit of malt, a bit of hops, and a bunch of apple cider.  Sounds damn good to me.

The basic Recipe is located here http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

But here are the general directions, incase that link goes away.

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Materials needed for a 5 Gallon Batch

Clean fermenting yeast I have used Nottinham and Safale-05, both are good

.5 lbs of Crystal 60L If you use cheap store brand juice, I reccomend 120L. Cheap juice tends to turn out a tad tart and this will balance it.
1 oz of torrified wheat ( head retention, I’ve never used more than 2oz)
4 Gallons of apple juice.
1 gallon of water
2 lbs of DME ( I use 1 lb. amber and 1 lb. light DME)
0.5 oz of you favorite hops ( right around 6% AA, I have used 18.5% AA summit hops before and it took a month after kegging for strong bitterness to blend nicely)
WARNING! IF YOU ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE AMOUNT OF HOPS USED, MAKE IT LESS NOT MORE, it’s really just too bitter with any more.

Directions for brewing

Steep the 60L and torrified wheat in .75 gallons of water @ 155 degrees for 30 mins.
Sparge with .25 gallons 170 degree water and throw away grains.
Add DME and bring to a boil.
Add hops when boiling starts and boil for 30 mins.

Cool down the wort (if you choose not to cool the wort and just let the AJ do the cooling then your cider won’t be as clear). I don’t care about clarity so I just let the AJ do the cooling, but if you stick your pot in the freezer and let this get down to 70 degrees or so your cider will clear fairly easy. Pour the wort and apple juice into your carboy and pitch yeast.

Ferment 2 weeks at 64-68 degrees then keg or bottle.

I keg, and this stuff is VERY drinkable as soon as it is carbonated.
SUPERB taste and drinkability after 2-3 weeks of aging.

People bottling, it will have SUPERB taste and drinkability after the standard 3 week bottling period for carbonating.

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I have it on good authority, this should taste good, At any rate, here are some pics I took while I put it together.

Ingredients, Ready to go.

Apple cider, in the carboy

Chilling down the malt component, old school style.

Sitting in my new school ferementation chamber.  Will keep it at 65 degrees for a couple of weeks.  

Keg inventory is getting a little low, so decided to brew up a Special Bitter last night.

OG of 10.50, pale ale extract, some crystal malt, fuggles hops, and West Yorkshire 1469 yeast.  It’s always nice when you wake up in the morning to a nice active fermentation!

Oh, The beer on the left is a milk stout a buddy of mine made using my equipment last weekend.

Bottled some of the Manifesto Mango and Spine bender today. I had kegged both of these beers and force carbonated them.  It gives me more control over the carbonation level, and makes the beers ready faster than using corn sugar to ‘naturally’ carbonate them.

Here you can see me using the filler and the capper.

It took me a little while to get the hang of using the filler, so I had a ‘factory reject’ that needed to have some ‘quality control’ peformed on it.  Here’s a picture of it in the Nevada sunset.  I have to say, it’s delicious.  It’s strong, 10.5%abv, but you’d never know it.  Strong grapefuit notes, but the bitterness never overwhelms the flavor.

You can smell the mango on the initial taste, and it’s just a juicy tasting beer.

Cheers My friends!.

Will be doing some bottling this weekend, so need to get some labels ready.

Worked with Greg Lonesome at the Rock and Roll manifesto on both of these beers and labels.

Loving the way the labels turned out, can’t wait to see how the beer turned out!

Ok, Up next is from the same mother batch as the black beery.  In fact, everything was pretty much the same except for using peaches instead of black berries during the primary and only fermentation.

Again, Nice, Light, effervescent, and a touch of peach really does come through in the aroma and flavor.

Notice the difference in color from the blackberry.  That is entirely due to the different fruits used.

Made a little 1 gallon batch of beer from the second runnings from the Mango Monster.

Added a couple of handfuls of blackberries during the primary, and only fermentation.

Turned out nice, effervescent, and light.with a touch of blackberry.  Not bad at all, to tell the truth.

Had to do a little Brew work today.

Needed to keg the summer ale.  Managed to get about 8 gallons out of the fermenter.  I had some issues with it as the dry hops I put in kept plugging the outlet tube.  Ended up using a standard siphon to get the beer out of the fermenter.  The kegs are in the keezer and quietly carbonating away.

Also Racked off the Mango and the Spine Bender Ale today.  The mango was just a huge blast of hops and citrus and sweetness.  Can taste the alcohol, but not in a boozey way.

The Spine bender was mild, and the non traditional hop choices added an interesting flavor profile.

Put them both in the outside fermentation chamber so I can get the temperature down low and help them to clear up a bit before bottling.

I will bottle condition both of these.  Bombers for the Spine Bender, 12 ouncers for the Triple Mango IPA.