The Urban Survivalist

I just finished the last of my hard cider. It turned out really good. It tasted like sour apple juice. There was very little alcohol smell and little to no alcohol flavor. The second batch was slightly better than the first batch. The only thing that I did differently to the second batch was added a cup of dissolved sugar and champagne yeast rather than white wine yeast. I'll be this again. I really like those 1 gallon jugs, too. They're great for making small batches of wild wine. They're also nice to have around just in case the batch of whatever you're making ends up being too big for your fermenter. I also kegged my beer. This was my first attempt at kegging. I've had a cornelius keg in the garage for the last year or so. I finally decided to clean it out and try using it. When I went to put the fittings on, though, they didn't match up. Apparently there are two types of cornelius kegs. The ball lock keg is much more popular and easier to wo...

One thing that I hate about homebrewing beer is that you're stuck with a bunch of spent grains when you're done. They're the grains that are left over after you're done mashing. Basically you heat up some water to a certain temp and let your crushed grain sit in it for a while. The resulting liquid is the base for your beer. If you've got livestock then it makes great animal feed. It also composts very well. If I don't throw it in the compost bin then I just cook it up with some leftover vegetables and old or freezer burnt meat and feed it to my dogs. They love it. This time I decided to break out my cheapo cast iron grinder and make some bread with it. First and foremost I had to dry the grain out. It's a wet, sticky mess after you're done mashing. I just threw it in the oven at 200 degrees for a few hours until it was mostly dry. Then I roasted it for another 30 minutes or so at 350. That got it nice and dry and it tasted awesome. From the...

I picked up another gallon of that cider since the first batch was doing so well. With the latest batch I started the yeast with a cup of cider and a few tablespoons of sugar. As recommended I used champagne yeast this time. We'll see how it does. I've also had the ingredients for a good batch of beer lying around for a few months that I never did get around to brewing. They've been sitting around long enough and it was beautiful outside tonight. I took lots of pics of the process so I'll put up a guide to brewing from liquid malt extract within the next couple of days. Meanwhile, I found a use for that weight bench that I bought a while back. I think I can fit a few more gallons of home brew on it.

It's been a while but I finally decided to brew up some alcoholic beverages. I was at the local grocery store and noticed that they had gallons of cheap, organic apple cider in glass jugs. I just couldn't help myself. On the way home I stopped by the local homebrew store to pick up a rubber stopper that would fit the jug and a packet of wine yeast. You can use bread yeast but the flavors that will result will be much stronger. Different strains of brewers yeast will impart different flavors to the finished product. Calling it brewing is a bit of a stretch. I just dropped the blowoff tube and rubber stopper in some boiling water to sanitize them, popped the cap off of the jug and pitched about 1/2 a teaspoon of yeast. Then I installed the stopper with the blowoff tube and put the other end of the tube in a jar with some water. This allows air to leave the jug without allowing any air in. You would usually sanitize everything but since the jug is already sanitized from ...