Home brewin'

So it's fall. How did that happen so quickly? As sad as it is to see summer go, I love autumn. I love sweaters, and pumpkins and opaque tights and new prime time dramas. I also love apple cider, and have been fantasizing about making my own boozy batch since reading the seemingly simple instructions laid out in the 2007 August/September issue of ReadyMade. Each fall since reading this article, I have pulled the issue off of my bookshelf, flipped to the earmarked recipe, and debated whether or not fermenting a large batch of fruit juice in a small, poorly ventilated apartment, having limited knowledge of sanitation protocols and using crude equipment was a good idea.

This fall, there was no debate. Now that I am older and wiser than I have ever been before, I can see that of course it is a good idea! My home brew is going to be delicious. And potent. And it is going to have a really cool name, printed on a really cool label. Everyone will be very impressed that I made my own moonshine, because it is an impressive thing to do. Just ask a prisoner, or a guy from the 20's.

This year, conveniently, Darryl got a beer making kit for his birthday. (From me). It includes a carboy, a bucket, and all of the necessary nozzles and hoses (do I sound like I know what I'm talking about?) to make beer, wine or CIDER. We're in business!

So this past weekend we went to an orchard outside of the city, bought 40lbs of apples considered to be "seconds," and got to work.

I started by washing each apple very carefully. I filled the sink with baking soda, distilled vinegar and a bit of dish detergent before dropping them in and scrubbing them up. After rinsing the apples well, I started pushing all 40lbs through the mouth of my juicer, an apple at a time. I filled all of the jugs and large pots in our kitchen with fresh apple juice, and set the pulp aside to strain with cheesecloth in order to collect every possible last drop of booze-to-be.

The next step was to kill off any wild yeast that happens to have survived my powerful apple bath, and the frenzied ride through my Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Pro Juicer. I had a bit of trouble deciding how best to do this. We have a few Campden tablets, which are used in brewing to kill off any bacteria or yeast present in the juice, however I am a bit apprehensive about sulfite use, mainly because of the hangovers they tend to encourage. Pasteurization, on the other hand, does the same job without chemicals, but alters the taste of the juice, and changes the body of the cider.

We went with pasteurizing - a decision I feel OK about right now, but may feel differently about after tasting our final product. We'll see!

This is where we're at now. I'll try to post some updates soon regarding bad smells, funny sounds, accidents, cider-related arguments, etc.