Homebrew

A couple of weeks ago, we bottled our latest batch of beer.  We use these for beer.  Being newbies and bearing mind that this is only our second batch of beer, we used a kit - German Hefeweissen.  Now, we were supposed to wait three weeks after bottling to drink it, but Tuesday was the Son-In-Laws birthday so we cracked one open.  Ooooh, that's nice.

Of course, a week before bottling the beer, we bottled our cider.  We use these for cider.This was a new recipe, our third.  The first attempt, a few years ago, was made in a milk bottle using no extra ingredients ... no yeast, no sugar, just juiced apples that had fallen to the ground from the neighbor's tree.  This first batch was delicious but weak.  Subsequent batches have used more "traditional" processes ... store bought yeast, sugar to boost the alcohol content, etc.  The second batch ended up at 14% alcohol through a mistake on my part and the third was 10%, as planned.  Now ... we don't drink much but this stuff doesn't last long because we do tend to share.
If you are interested on making cider, this book has a ton of information although I tend to tweak the recipes.

Maybe in the future, we will lean on a bit more experience and ask our friends from Fleecenik Farm to assist with our first batch of beer without a kit.  Of course, we'll need to ask ... hint, hint.