Last weekend I had some extra time and I thought I would get the Cider on its way. It was a fairly painless and easy process that I highly recommend everyone trying out. I think one of the great things about Ciders and Meads is how little effort and time they take to get going. If you don’t have the time to setup for a full brewday you can always squeeze a batch in here and there. I think it took my about an hour from start to finish, mostly because I steeped some grains at the recommendation of the recipe author.
The one thing seen in the picture below that kind of threw me off was how little water was instructed to use to steep the grains.
This was just after placing the grains into the water, it was heated up to about 154′F. I allowed them to steep for about 20minutes at this temp, then sparged with another quart of water at 170′F. It seemed to end up working anyways and I after tasting the wort I noticed why using the grains was suggested in the first place. It really added a nice malty, faint toasty flavor to it. I am really excited that its going to help boost the body as the result, which will keep this from being as “watery” as my last batch of cider.
