Apple Cider

I post here today with the sad news that our cinnamon wine is not turning out very well after all. Joe and I have decided to dump it. We didn't get the chance today because we spent too much time dealing with apples (I don't want to look at another apple for a week), but we will figure out what to do with it tomorrow. I will explain later.

Since our cinnamon sugar water is biting the dust, we decided to make some cider next. We went and got 51 lbs (that is not a typo) of red delicious apples and 2 lbs of honey. Then we went back to his place and got to work...grueling, awful, appley work. Here are the apples ready for rinsing in the sink, gorgeous looking and perfect for luring Snow White into her sleepy pseudo-grave:

That's 15 lbs right there. To the left is the cheesecloth and cutting board, ready for chopping, juicing, and straining into this gigantic pot on the stove:

POT OF DOOOOOM! We sliced the apples into quarters and put them through this poor juicer from the 80's which seems to use centrifugal force to get the juice out. The leftovers are everything fibrous and look completely disgusting (and according to Joe, they didn't taste that good).

By the time we were FINALLY finished juicing, we had 4-5 gallons of brown apple juice, strained through the cheesecloth and heating to 60-70 C. We were supposed to simmer it for 45 minutes, and Joe might do that later tonight, but he had to get to work so we didn't have time. We had spent all of our time slicing and juicing. That's almost 3 hours of work. By the time we were finished we were soooo sick of apples.

Since he had to get going, we took the apple juice off the stove and threw it in a big bucket to ice it back down again. I added the honey while it was still warm, which might also help to keep it from oxidizing further. I will return tomorrow to rack the strawberry and grape wines, and to finish off the cider.

We are going to try to make this without sulfonation, and part of the 5 gallon batch will be carbonated, the other part not carbonated. The carbonated part is bound to have stuff at the bottom of the bottle when it's ready to drink. We are thinking that in a mass production setting, artificial mechanical means are used instead of natural ones for carbonating cider so no one gets grossed out by the yeast poo at the bottom of the bottle.

Whatever. Whimps.

When it comes time to top up to 5 gallons, I'm going to inquire about using our failed cinnamon wine instead of water. We could have an apple cider with a hint of cinnamon! Or we could boil some of it down into syrup to use for pancakes and such. Or we could just toss it if we suspect it's no good. We'll see - I will keep you posted.

Stuff from the other weekend

The weekend before last, Joe and I racked all three of our wines. Here is an update of how our strawberry is going:

Doesn't that color look AWESOME? For some reason it reminds me of watermelon Jolly Ranchers. See all the yeast poop at the bottom? Here's how our grape is doing:

Don't you LOVE that color?? Actually, all three of our wines have very interesting and cool colors. The pictures just don't do them justice. Our grape wine is this gorgeous purple. It also smells (and tastes) fantastic so far. On to the cinnamon then!

First, we had to boil cinnamon sticks. Believe it or not, this all started from about a handful, and with the water, they blew up to chunks of bark that made the entire house smell like potpourri.

Afterward, we made a cinnamon syrup out of it with tons of sugar, the cinnamon water (throw the bark away), and hot water. Then you just throw it all in and wait 24 hours before tossing in the yeast.

I did go to Joe's place just last night to rack the cinnamon wine since we accidentally waited over a week to do it (not too big a deal). There was just one problem: our specific gravity was really high! It's supposed to go down over time, and we had waited especially long. So we went ahead and tasted it and realized we didn't taste any alcohol at all. Our other two wines tasted boozey right away, but this still tasted like cinnamon syrup. Thinking that perhaps the yeast hadn't had enough natural nutrients it would normally get from fruit to grow, we mixed together some yeast energizer (super nutrients for cases like this) in warm water, then threw in another packet of yeast to be safe. We decided not to airlock and we're going to see what happens in a week or so. On the bright side, the wine, paired with the yeast and energizer, now smells like cinnamon French toast.

A final picture for your enjoyment. Don't these look delish? They smell great. All three wines are currently sitting in Joe's basement inside the boxes the jugs come in to prevent too much light exposure, these two with airlocks, the cinnamon open with a towel over it. Pictures of cinnamon wine will come whenever Joe gets around to uploading them and I'll let you know how our little yeast buddies are doing.