Zombie Brew
Brewing
Since I’m resurrecting the brewery for a Halloween one off, I thought the title appropriate. I haven’t brewed anything for years. With two kids, another project taking priority, and my brewery in shambles, it hasn’t been in the cards. However, one of Trang’s previous coworkers Rich Hunt asked whether I’d be willing to make a hard cider if he pressed fresh apples and provided the cider. Brewing cider is not any more difficult than extract brewing, so I agreed. He handed off 5 gallons of fresh pressed cider at the hospital, and I set it on ice to brew the next day.
I’m a little rusty, and it shows! I went to my local home brew store, Above the Rest, only to find it was closed! The next nearest store is half an hour away. The family made a trip out to Hillsboro for a little Top Golf and we passed by MainBrew while in the area to pick up a few ingredients:
- 1 oz Tettnanger (60 min boil)
- 1 oz Tettnanger (5 min boil)
- White Labs Saison I (WPL565)
When I started washing equipment for the boil, I realized that I’d loaned my burner to a partner so he could do a crab boil. Oh no! Here I am calling the audible and boiling in the kitchen.
Anyway, OG is 1.052. Hopefully, fermentation goes smoothly.
Bottling
Two weeks after brew day, I transferred to a keg for secondary fermentation. Today, 11/4, Rich came by to fill some growlers. It was a bit clumsy because many of my fittings were missing, and we had to improvise a few steps. Final gravity is 0.996 for an ABV of 7.4%. That’s a big cider! The flavor is rather tart and bitter, but carbonation should smooth that out.
