I am also a home brewer and have been brewing for about a year and a half now and love it. I am a member of the Berks Homebrewers Club; our club meets are on the second Tuesday of every month at Canal Street Pub in Reading, PA.
Traditional Hard Cider
September 29, 2015
A good friend of mine (and fellow brewer) and I thought it’d be nice to try to brew a traditional hard cider for this fall season. We started by going around our neighborhood and picking fresh apples of different variety from our local neighbors. We picked for about 3 hours until we had about 3 bushels of apples. Next we took them back to my house where I already had a cider press; we cleaned, shredded to a pulp, and pressed the apples pulp into cider and yielded about 12 gallon of fresh cider. We then poured the cider into a 5 gallon and a 7 gallon carboy. We pitched a powder into each carboy to kill off all wild yeast and any bacteria, then capped each carboy with an air seal.
09/30/15
Pitched dry ale yeast into the carboy. Placed the airlock tightly onto the spout and wrapped the carboy in an old t-shirt to keep natural light out. Fermentation should start in 24 to 48 hours at room temperature. More info to come.
ABV: 6%
German Hefeweizen
November 11, 2015
This beer is being brewed as part of a Berks County Home Brewers Club “Throw Down” Competition. Was brewed on Sunday, November 11th. I pitched a slap pack yeast starter on Monday, October 12th. Fermentation started 24 hours later on Tuesday, November 12th and is still fermenting in the carboy. Can’t give to much info about this beer since I am in competition. The competition is in December at Canal Street Pub in Reading, PA.
Competition Update: I kegged the beer about 2 weeks before our next home-brew meeting. Put the beer into Berks Homebrewers Club “Throw Down” Cempetition at our December Meeting. It was well perceived and was close on the amount of votes; unfortunately I lost against the other guy. My beer was good but his was just a bit better.
However I do believe mine will get better after aging for another month. I plan to take it back to the January meeting and get some feedback on how it tastes after aging for another month.
Note: Should have raised the Co2 pressure a bit more in the keg before the competition.
ABV: 5%
