this is going to be long, and I know very little on the subject
..but anyway here goes...
I have two apple trees... this year I decided that instead fighting off all the bees, flys, and ants just to pick all the rotting apples up off the ground to toss into the compost pile, I should make use of the fruit before it went bad
so I had the bright idea to go get some big glass jugs, rubber stoppers, air locks, racking tube, champagne yeast, and honey, etc...and just kinda see what could happen
I took the apples and used this nifty peeler/corer that slices the apples into this spiral spring shaped coil and then cut and broke those apart so that they were 1/8 inch thin apple chips and filled up a 20 quart stainless steel cook pot, added some sugar, and just alittle water to make a good juicy mess...then I started the yeast in a cup of apple cider and got it all foamy and tossed that in the pot with the apple mess and stirred it up real good
...I found that if I took a square of 'cling wrap' and laid it down in the pot right on top of the apples that the air couldn't get to them to turn them brown, and that when the whole thing would puff up real big that I wouldn't get apples and foam stuck to the lid
...so I let that go for 5 days or so and would mix the apple chips that would get pushed up by the foam back down in
...next I strained it with a colander, then a screen on top of a funnel into the 3.5 gallon(?) glass jug, I had about a gallon of juicy stuff with yeast in it left over so I filled up a 1/2 gallon glass milk jug and tossed the rest(along with what was left of the apple chips) back into the pot, along with fresh new apples to start another batch
...all of the glass jugs and everything I rinsed with bleach water, and rinsed that all out a bunch of times before using or putting anything in them
..I added a small jar of honey to the 1/2 gallon milk jug, shook it up real good and stuck an air lock in it..it started to foam out the air lock so I stuck the racking tube in it and let that bubble into a pint glass(I think I also added some hops in that one), after about 10 hours or so it calmed down enough that I could put the clean air lock back in, and clean out the racking tube
...its been bubbling hard and fast(more than 1 bubble a sec.) in the air lock for about a week now..so hard that everything stays mixed up in there
the big jug(3.5 gal?)I added one big jar(3 lb?)of honey to
..luckily it didn't fill the air lock with foam until about an hour after I got the 1/2 gallon milk jug off the racking tube... I set it up with the tube so that not much foam was able to escape(the foam would kinda turn back into liquid and run back down the tube) and it just bubbled like mad into the pint glass(like "crazy mad" constant fast bubbles)..it bubbled like that for two or three days, with the small bubbles rising and keeping everything stirred up
...finally it calmed down somewhat and I put it back on the air lock...but then the next day it had almost stopped bubbling all together(maybe just 1 or 2 bubbles every min.)...like it had just come to a screeching halt, when it had been going like mad the day before...this did allow everything to settle in the bottom, so after looking at it for about two days like that and scratching my head(did it eat all the sugars and honey?..did it run out of O2...did the yeast go nuts and over populate and kill each other all at once?...did something get in there that was bad)..and seemingly watching less and less bubbles every hour...I decided to rack off all the about 4 inches of muck that settled in the bottom, and replace it with fresh yeast juice stuff that was started in the cook pot for the next batch...now its been bubbling nicely for the last two days
ok, great, let me take a second to say thanks for reading so far
..and for having this forum and web site with all this wonderful info...it has been a great help, and I've been trying to read a few of the older threads...but now on to my concerns and questions
the deal is that I have this great big (like 9 or 11 gallons) tear drop shaped glass jug thing(sorry for not using the proper terms..I know some of them, but I really didn't want to start using them like I knew what I'm talking about...but I'll work on that)...so right, this big Italian glass container..the idea/plan I had/have was to make this apple stuff with alittle honey and start it off in the small 3.5gal jug, rack the bad stuff out, and then put it in the big Italian glass container, it looks like about 3X batches in the 3.5gal jug would fill it almost up...but then once it is in there just start bombing it with honey, maybe add some more yeast and hops?
so I'm kinda ready to dump the first one in(rack it off) so I can start the second batch in the 3.5gal jug with the air lock and alittle honey
...but I really don't want to start filling that big thing, and adding a bunch of expensive honey if this whole thing isn't going to work..as this is looking like I will need a lot of honey to make 9 gallons or whatever
so this stuff I've made is a light tan color, and as thick as milk to see thru..it kinda tastes pretty bitter
...should I say screw it and just keep what I have going from the apple trees in the small 3.5 gallon thing, add about another 6 or 9 lbs of honey to it, just let it finish and toss out the second batch of apples I started...and then work on what to make in this massive 11 gallon teardrop shaped carboy?
again thanks for reading, and all the info I have read here so far
..any help or opinions would be greatly welcomed...I just really needed to 'vent' my situation to people that are interested and knowledgeable on the subject
expect to see more of me and my questions here(hopefully in shorter posts) as I progress over the years with mead, apples and fermenting
thanks -T
..but anyway here goes...
I have two apple trees... this year I decided that instead fighting off all the bees, flys, and ants just to pick all the rotting apples up off the ground to toss into the compost pile, I should make use of the fruit before it went bad
so I had the bright idea to go get some big glass jugs, rubber stoppers, air locks, racking tube, champagne yeast, and honey, etc...and just kinda see what could happen
I took the apples and used this nifty peeler/corer that slices the apples into this spiral spring shaped coil and then cut and broke those apart so that they were 1/8 inch thin apple chips and filled up a 20 quart stainless steel cook pot, added some sugar, and just alittle water to make a good juicy mess...then I started the yeast in a cup of apple cider and got it all foamy and tossed that in the pot with the apple mess and stirred it up real good
...I found that if I took a square of 'cling wrap' and laid it down in the pot right on top of the apples that the air couldn't get to them to turn them brown, and that when the whole thing would puff up real big that I wouldn't get apples and foam stuck to the lid
...so I let that go for 5 days or so and would mix the apple chips that would get pushed up by the foam back down in
...next I strained it with a colander, then a screen on top of a funnel into the 3.5 gallon(?) glass jug, I had about a gallon of juicy stuff with yeast in it left over so I filled up a 1/2 gallon glass milk jug and tossed the rest(along with what was left of the apple chips) back into the pot, along with fresh new apples to start another batch
...all of the glass jugs and everything I rinsed with bleach water, and rinsed that all out a bunch of times before using or putting anything in them
..I added a small jar of honey to the 1/2 gallon milk jug, shook it up real good and stuck an air lock in it..it started to foam out the air lock so I stuck the racking tube in it and let that bubble into a pint glass(I think I also added some hops in that one), after about 10 hours or so it calmed down enough that I could put the clean air lock back in, and clean out the racking tube
...its been bubbling hard and fast(more than 1 bubble a sec.) in the air lock for about a week now..so hard that everything stays mixed up in there
the big jug(3.5 gal?)I added one big jar(3 lb?)of honey to
..luckily it didn't fill the air lock with foam until about an hour after I got the 1/2 gallon milk jug off the racking tube... I set it up with the tube so that not much foam was able to escape(the foam would kinda turn back into liquid and run back down the tube) and it just bubbled like mad into the pint glass(like "crazy mad" constant fast bubbles)..it bubbled like that for two or three days, with the small bubbles rising and keeping everything stirred up
...finally it calmed down somewhat and I put it back on the air lock...but then the next day it had almost stopped bubbling all together(maybe just 1 or 2 bubbles every min.)...like it had just come to a screeching halt, when it had been going like mad the day before...this did allow everything to settle in the bottom, so after looking at it for about two days like that and scratching my head(did it eat all the sugars and honey?..did it run out of O2...did the yeast go nuts and over populate and kill each other all at once?...did something get in there that was bad)..and seemingly watching less and less bubbles every hour...I decided to rack off all the about 4 inches of muck that settled in the bottom, and replace it with fresh yeast juice stuff that was started in the cook pot for the next batch...now its been bubbling nicely for the last two days
ok, great, let me take a second to say thanks for reading so far
..and for having this forum and web site with all this wonderful info...it has been a great help, and I've been trying to read a few of the older threads...but now on to my concerns and questions
the deal is that I have this great big (like 9 or 11 gallons) tear drop shaped glass jug thing(sorry for not using the proper terms..I know some of them, but I really didn't want to start using them like I knew what I'm talking about...but I'll work on that)...so right, this big Italian glass container..the idea/plan I had/have was to make this apple stuff with alittle honey and start it off in the small 3.5gal jug, rack the bad stuff out, and then put it in the big Italian glass container, it looks like about 3X batches in the 3.5gal jug would fill it almost up...but then once it is in there just start bombing it with honey, maybe add some more yeast and hops?
so I'm kinda ready to dump the first one in(rack it off) so I can start the second batch in the 3.5gal jug with the air lock and alittle honey
...but I really don't want to start filling that big thing, and adding a bunch of expensive honey if this whole thing isn't going to work..as this is looking like I will need a lot of honey to make 9 gallons or whatever
so this stuff I've made is a light tan color, and as thick as milk to see thru..it kinda tastes pretty bitter
...should I say screw it and just keep what I have going from the apple trees in the small 3.5 gallon thing, add about another 6 or 9 lbs of honey to it, just let it finish and toss out the second batch of apples I started...and then work on what to make in this massive 11 gallon teardrop shaped carboy?
again thanks for reading, and all the info I have read here so far
..any help or opinions would be greatly welcomed...I just really needed to 'vent' my situation to people that are interested and knowledgeable on the subject
expect to see more of me and my questions here(hopefully in shorter posts) as I progress over the years with mead, apples and fermenting
thanks -T