I had a brewing itch that needed to be scratched, as well as some homegrown cascade hops, so my 3 gallon American IPA brew session scratched that itch. I speak in the past tense because it happened last weekend and has been bubbling away nicely ever since. The small batch was due to a couple of factors, it’s easier, Continue reading
Bottled the 2014 cider in a few sessions the last few days. As time is a bit more valuable these days I had to do things in stages. I cleaned bottles one evening, Continue reading
Posted in apples, Beer Stuff, Cider, Hard Cider, Home brew, Home Brew Stuff, homebrew, Uncategorized, yeast
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 47 trips to carry that many people.
Posted in Uncategorized
Finally got around to brewing up a quick extract batch. Bought the Brewers Best robust porter kit from my LHBS, Buckeye Brewcraft. Directions are easy, five gallon batch took no time and viola, I pitched the yeast and Continue reading
Posted in Beer, Beer Stuff, Brewing, draft home brew, extract brewing, Home brew, home brew sharing, Home Brew Stuff, homebrew, Homebrew, Hops, Porter, Uncategorized, yeast
Yesterday I finally got around to bottling my pear cider from September of 2013. The three gallons I pressed myself has been sitting, no wait, em>aging… in my basement for over a year. I got the pears from a neighbor of my dad and figured what the heck, let’s through some ale yeast on the juice and see what we get.
Posted in Beer Stuff, Brewing, Cider, Hard Cider, Home brew, home brew sharing, homebrew, pears, spices, Uncategorized, yeast
Today is the third annual apple pressing day here at RSchmidtBrewing. What a day we have planned, 12-15 gallons of cider, apple crisp, brats, mac’n’cheese and a fire. I’m not sure how the day could be better. Read below how the day’s events went and how much cider we pressed.
After road tripping up to Utica, Ohio to buy seven bushels of apple seconds and (maybe a few fry pies) 13 gallons of delicious, fresh apple cider were pressed. The usual suspects from Frank Barley Brewing Company were there, along with my mom and dad, and my buddy John with his son. Mother Nature almost ended our day early with showers, but it never got too much more than a spit rain, so we decided to keep on going. Honestly us brewers were mostly concerned with the water diluting our cider… Numerous varieties were pressed including, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Rome, Cortland and Stayman Winesap. As we pressed we enjoyed a few homebrews and some cider from last year’s effort which continues to please my pallet. Not to mention the bratwurst, apple crisp, macaroni and cheese and numerous chips and dip. All in all in was a great time and I enjoy every year more and more. I decided to add two pounds of brown sugar to my five and a half gallon batch and I’m fermenting with White Labs 720 Sweet Mead/Cider yeast. For the past three years I’ve used different yeast every year and can’t complain. The versatility of apples is remarkable, no wonder why the colonists made so many drinks with cider. A few pictures from the day’s shenanigans below.
Prost!
Posted in apples, Cider, collaboration brew, Hard Cider, Home brew, home brew sharing, Home Brew Stuff, homebrew, sweet mead, yeast
After reading BYO’s latest article on SMaSH brews and DMaSH brews I decided it was a good place for me to start while getting back into all-grain brewing. I’ve been brewing for too long to not have a better understanding of certain ingredients and their impacts on beer. I’ve read countless articles online and in publications about ingredients, but having the hands on experience is where I’ve been slacking.
Posted in Uncategorized
So no particular focus with today’s post, just a wrap up of the goings on in my little slice of beer land. I’m always reading as much as I can and wishing I had space to build a garage to have a permanent brew set up, so I could experiment more and implement so many things I have learned.
The multiple homegrown hops I have planted at my house and my parents house twenty minutes away are doing well in 2014. I started my hop plants in the spring of 2005 and have always brought rhizomes with me wherever I’ve moved.
Apuhihi View 