Homemade

Guide to Homemade Wine, Beer, Cider & Mead

Alcoholic beverages; commonly beer and wines and made at home. Most often brews are made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. Cheap Draft features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and best practices needed to deliver the perfect batch!

I have come to the conclusion that France and the Frenchman do not know what good beer really is; certainly, they do not make the heavier beers as we know them here. If they do, I have been unlucky for I have never found what I would myself call really good beer.

But I suppose if they wanted beers as we drink them they could make them easily enough. Beers in France are more like thin lager and I have a suspicion - probably false - that some of them are produced from remnants of the grape crops. This suspicion was strengthened last summer while drinking in the shadow of the Arc de ‘Triomphe, someone remarked that the beer was like thin aerated grape wine and pretty weak stuff at that. He even suggested the grapes might be the small green ones from a certain area. Knowing wines as I do, I suggested that perhaps batches of poor grapes might be used as a basic material or even that wine from a poor season might be diluted and then re-fermented with just enough malt and hops to make the beer that is quite popular over there.

All this set me thinking, and when I think something usually comes out of it - if only a headache. Anyway, I set out to make beers as I found them over there because I discovered that similar beers are now becoming popular here, especially with the ladies whom I am particularly anxious to please.

Following the continental seems the vogue, but I am not jumping on their wagon for the sake of fashion. I believe that if we can all gain from copying, or attempting to produce a product popular elsewhere, it is a good thing.

One practice I hope will not catch on over here is that of wiping the head off freshly poured beer with, above all things, a lolly stick. In Paris, Lyons, Dijon, Marseilles, Toulon - everywhere we went the barkeeper dutifully performed this deplorable act. My French being better than my Russian it needed only half an hour of gesticulating to make clear that the English do not like their beers guillotined.

Back to the idea. I did not get precisely what I was after, but I did get close to it. As any winemaker knows, four pounds of grapes makes a very poor wine, but four pounds of grapes added to a wort at the stage where the yeast is to be added makes a vast improvement to the lighter ales and lager type beers. Not everybody will like this, so experiment only with a small batch where, if you are not pleased with the result, it will not be a calamity. A friend, with whom I work in almost everything I do in this line, made an excellent lager type beer. I lb. of pale malt extract, I oz. hops, 1 lb. sugar, 2 lb. of small outdoor ripened green grapes, one gallon of water, yeast and nutrient was all he used. He reached the stage where the yeast is added using the same method as that described in the chapter calling for the use of malt extracts and added the crushed grapes. These he strained out after five days, and allowed fermentation to go on until the hydrometer recorded 1.005. He then bottled the lager and kept it for three months. Not being fond of lager of any sort, I was not a judge of the final product, but others were quite thrilled with it. No acid was added because the grapes added enough.

My own efforts have pleased others more than me - but only because I am not fond of lager types. ‘Vine makers are bound to ask, would concentrated grape juice be suitable for such an experiment? I have used a white concentrate - one pint to the four gallon batch of a light ale and lager recipe with some success. Oh, I can hear the die-hard wine lovers accusing me of trying to make winey beer or beery wine and wondering why I cannot stick to one or the other. But if the end product is a pleasure to a number of people the wrath of the few will lie lightly upon my shoulders. I like beer - very much. I also like wines - very much. Anything midway between the two would not, I am sure, be pleasant. These lager types made with a few added grapes are not midway between wine and beer; they are something quite unique.

If you try something of this sort, use only the juice of black grapes otherwise you will have a pink lager owing to the color coming from the grape skins. Pink Lager - well, why not? The die-hards will be at my throat for this one!

Other trials I carried out - readers of my various wine books will know I’m a devil for experimenting - was that of adding half a pound of ripe sloes to a two gallon brew. These were crushed and added just before the yeast was put in. Another was adding a little concentrated Vermouth flavoring.

All these ideas gave varied results; some people liked one while others liked another. Some people didn’t like any of them, but on the whole the results were quite popular. Whatever you do, do not tryout these ideas with your first efforts at beer making. Wait until you have a good deal of experience so that you are able to judge whether you would like the results of such experiments.

If you decide to add fruits to a wort ready for the yeast, do sterilize the fruit first in the following manner. This is necessary because of the yeast and bacteria on the fruit. If these are not destroyed, the chances are that they will set up undesirable ferments as they do in wines made by old-fashioned methods. Sterilizing by boiling will give the wrong kind of flavor and will produce a cloudiness difficult to remove. The simplest method is to use Campden fruit preserving tablets. See the chapter on cider making for more information about these.

Crush the fruit to be added to the wort and judge roughly how much there is and to each half-gallon (there will probably be less than this amount), add half a crushed Campden tablet dissolved in about an egg-cupful of warm water. Stir this into the fruit and leave for about an hour. Then give a vigorous stirring and pour into the wort. Strain out the fruit after four or five days, and ferment on as you would if you had not used fruit at all.

I mention all these experiments to put ideas into your heads so that you will not be afraid to try almost anything once you have been making real and ordinary beers for some time.

Go ahead, experiment - it can be great fun.

Some years ago in the National Press there appeared a recipe for ginger beer made up by means of starting off a ‘ginger beer plant’. Unfortunately, and quite by accident, my name became mixed up with it and I was inundated with requests for details for weeks afterwards. The general direction - not mine, of course - was to put a couple of ounces of yeast in a cup with warm water and some ginger until it began to ferment, or rather erupt like a volcano which it invariably did, spreading its yeasty lava over everything. The direction went on to explain that half of this was then made up to one gallon with sugar and water and the other half given away. This part of it seemed to be a sinister secret; if you did not give half away the rest would die - it would, naturally through lack of sugar or other yeast food. There still persists a rumor that this makes a drinkable drink - it doesn’t.

My reason for writing about it here is that the appearance of this book is certain to revive in the memory of many readers what was known to them in their early days as: Californian Bees, Beastly Beer Organism, Bee Wine, Bee Wine Organism, or Ginger Beer Plant. And I want to forestall anyone hoping to start this off all over again in order to save them endless trouble and disappointment.

Oh, I don’t doubt that forty and more years ago the ‘drink’ made from this stuff was acceptable; so was home made soap and boot polish and knee-high lace-up boots for teenagers.

You may recall, many of you, those bottles of cloudy liquid with some sort of sludge deposit in the bottom arrayed along a window sill that got plenty of sunshine to keep the liquid warm - sunshine, incidentally is another relic of the past, but I cannot concern myself with that here. In these bottles was a ‘mysterious’ substance rising and falling and by some stretch of the imagination giving the impression of bees buzzing about - hence Bee Wine. The same - or a similar effect - is often seen in jars of fermenting wine during the vigorous fermentation stage and when the jar is moved. Clumps of yeast rise to the surface and fall back again and because they have become dislodged, the gas rising carries them up to the top, where the weight of the lumps forces them down again.

But the yeast employed in Bee Wine or the Ginger Beer Plant is a type which forms tapioca-like clumps. There are other sorts which science describes as associations of yeast and bacteria to give a consortium with a possible symbiotic association between its components. In other words, a balanced complex mixture of yeast and bacteria. My advice to anyone thinking of reviving this, if only for the sake of novelty, is to forget it.

‘With modern methods of making wines where top class results are assured and with home brewing taking hold again, also with success assured, surely there is no need to go chasing dreams of a forgotten age - especially since the dreams are likely to turn out as nightmares.

• 12 oz. bran
• 2 oz. hops
• 1½ lb. demerara sugar
• 1 dessert spoonful black treacle
• ¼ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops in a quart of water for fifteen minutes and strain into fermenting vessel. Boil bran for half an hour in half a gallon of water and allow to soak in the hot water after boiling for a further half hour. Strain into fermenting vessel and add treacle, sugar and citric acid. Make up to two gallons with boiling water, stirring until sugar and treacle are dissolved. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F and then add yeast and nutrient.

Cover and allow to ferment as directed for other beers.

• 2 oz. hops
• 1 lb. black treacle
• 1 lb. white sugar
• ⅞ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops in quart water for fifteen minutes. Strain into fermenting vessel, and add citric acid, sugar and treacle and make up to two gallons with boiling water. Stir well to ensure sugar and treacle are dissolved and then allow to cool to 65°-70°F. Add yeast and nutrient, cover as directed for other beers and allow to ferment as advised for these. This may be made as either a sparkling or draught beer.

• 3 oz. hops
• 1½ lb. demerara sugar
• 1 tablespoonful black treacle
• ¼ oz. citric acid (or juice 2 lemons) - yeast - nutrient

Boil hops in a quart of water for fifteen minutes. Strain into fermenting vessel and add citric acid, sugar and treacle and make up to two gallons with boiling water, stirring till all dissolves. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F and add yeast and nutrient.

Cover as directed for other beers and leave to ferment in the manner advised for these.

This beer may be made as a draught beer or sparkling variety.

• 1 gallon young stinging nettle tops
• 2 oz. hops½ oz. root ginger
• 2 lb. dark malt extract
• 1½ lb. demerara sugar
• ¼ oz. citric acid (or juice two lemons) - yeast - nutrient
• 2 gallons water

Wash nettle tops and allow to drain for a few minutes. Put them into boiler with hops, malt and root ginger and boil for fifteen minutes. Put sugar and citric acid into fermenting vessel and strain the boiling liquid on to it, stirring until all sugar is dissolved.

Allow to cool to 65°-70°F then add yeast and nutrient, cover as already directed and leave to ferment in the way recommended for other beers. This may be sparkling or of draught variety. For directions for making either way see beer recipes in other chapters.

Definitely a refresher beer.

• 2½ tablespoonsful spruce essence
• 1 lb. sugar
• 1 lb. pale malt extract
• ⅛ oz. citric acid or juice of 1 lemon - yeast - nutrient
• 2 gallons water

Put malt and sugar in boiler and add half a gallon of water, bring to boil and simmer for five minutes. Pour into fermenting vessel and add citric acid and spruce essence. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F and add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed for other beers and allow to ferment as for these. This is best made as draught beer, therefore merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’, and then bottle.

Best if kept for at least two weeks.

Spruce essence is available from any chemist.

The recipes in this short chapter make what are popularly called ‘mock beers’, and that is precisely what they are. The fact that they are called beers at all is probably because they are too low in alcohol to be called wines and that where one recipe calls for the use of hops another needs some malt. In some recipes both malt and hops are used in smaller amounts than those used for true beers.

Like all aspects of home wine making and beer brewing, the making of mock beers is becoming more popular every day. Messing about in the cellar, kitchen or outhouse, knocking up all sorts of alcoholic drinks has taken such a hold on the country that I shall not be surprised to find a bottle of something fermenting under the seat of my train one morning, or to see a fermentation lock sticking out of my neighbor’s brief case.

If the trend continues, and I can safely predict that it will because we are no longer working in the dark with only hearsay and near-witchcraft to guide us, there will be hardly a household in the country not making some sort of beverage from low alcohol beers to strong beers and high alcohol wines fit for royalty.

The type of yeast is not important in these recipes, but do not use fresh baker’s yeast as this is likely to 87 impart a ‘yeasty’ flavor, or bakehouse mustiness to the beer. A good dried yeast in granulated form is useful. Do not use expensive wine yeast as this would be wasteful because the characteristics imparted to wines by good quality wine yeasts would be lost in these beers.

• 4 lb. crystal malt
• 2 lb. golden syrup
• 2 lb. white sugar
• 5 oz. hops
• level teaspoonful salt
• ¼ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts water to 150°F. Pour this into polythene pail and add the malts at once. Put in immersion heater, cover with polythene and wrap vessel in a blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on heater and keep the wort at 145°-150°F for seven - eight hours. At this stage you may try the starch test if you want to.

Strain into boiler and add three ounces of hops and the salt. Bring to boil for five minutes and then simmer gently for forty minutes. Add remaining hops and simmer for a further ten minutes. Put sugar, syrup and acid into the fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to it, stirring thoroughly until all sugar is dissolved. Make up to four gallons with boiling water, cover with sheet polythene and leave to cool to 65°-70°f. Then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed and leave in warm place for seven-eight days.

If using hydrometer, take readings after six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle as already directed. If hydrometer is not being used, let the beer ferment on until it goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation - and then bottle. If a draught bitter is required - most bitters are of the draught variety - merely allow the beer to continue fermenting until it has gone ‘flat’ and then bottle.

May be used after ten days in bottle, but is better after three weeks.

• 2 lb. crystal malt
• 2 lb. patent black malt
• 1 lb. black treacle
• 3 lb. white sugar
• 3 oz. hops
• 2 small level teaspoonfuls salt
• ½ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts water to 150°F. Pour into polythene pail and add the malts at once. Put in immersion heater, cover vessel with sheet polythene as directed and wrap vessel in blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on heater and maintain mash at 145°-150°F for eight hours. At this stage you may carry out starch test if you want to. Strain mash into boiler and add salt and two ounces hops. Bring to boil and simmer gently for forty minutes. Add remaining hops and simmer hard or boil for a further five minutes.

Put sugar, treacle and citric acid into the fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to it through fine muslin. Stir well, making sure all sugar is dissolved and make up to four gallons with boiling water.

Cover with sheet polythene as already directed and leave to cool to 65°-70°f. Add yeast and nutrient and leave to ferment for six-eight days.

If using hydrometer, take readings after five days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not being used, allow fermentation to go on until beer becomes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation - and then bottle. If draught beer of this sort is wanted merely bottle the beer when it has gone ‘flat’. Improves with keeping for six or more weeks, though it may be used as soon as all yeast has settled and the beer is clear.

• 1 lb. roasted malt
• 1 lb. black malt
• 2 lb. crystal malt
• 3 lb. demerara sugar
• 1 lb. black treacle
• ½ lb. flaked maize (cornflakes)
• 4 oz. hops small level teaspoonful salt
• ½ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts water to 150°F. Pour into polythene pail and add the malts and flaked maize at once. Put in the immersion heater, cover with sheet polythene and wrap vessel in blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on heater and keep mash at 145°-150°F for seven-eight hours. If you want to try the starch test, now is the time to do it.

Strain mash into boiler, add two ounces of hops and the salt. Boil rapidly for one minute and then simmer gently for forty minutes. Add remaining hops and simmer for a further ten minutes. Put sugar, acid and treacle into fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to it, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Then make up to four gallons with boiling water.

Cover with sheet polythene as directed and leave to cool to 65°-70°F. Then add yeast and nutrient. Cover again as directed and leave in a warm place for six days.

If using hydrometer take reading after six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If not using hydrometer, allow stout to ferment on until it goes ‘flat’. Then prime - add sugar to restart fermentation as already directed - and then bottle.

If a draught stout of this sort is wanted then merely allow fermentation to go on until the stout has gone ‘flat’ and then bottle.

Keep for two to four weeks before drinking. If you must sweeten use lactose to taste as already directed, but I think you will prefer this without it being sweetened.

• 2 lb. black malt
• 1 lb. pale malt
• 6 oz. oatmeal
• 3 oz. hops
• 4 lb. demerara sugar
• small level teaspoonful salt
• ½ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts water to 150°F and pour into polythene pail and add malts and oatmeal at once. Put in immersion heater, cover as directed with sheet polythene, and wrap vessel with blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on heater and maintain mash at 145°-150°F. for seven-eight hours. At this stage the starch test may be carried out if you want to.

Strain the mash into boiler and add salt and two ounces hops. Boil rapidly for one minute and then simmer gently for forty minutes. Add remaining hops and simmer for a further ten minutes. Put sugar and citric acid in the fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to this, stirring to make sure all sugar is dissolved. Then make up to four gallons with boiling water. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F and then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed and leave in a warm place for six-eight days.

If using hydrometer, take readings at six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle as directed. If hydrometer is not being used, allow stout to ferment on until it goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to restart fermentation - and then bottle.

If a draught beer of this sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

Sweeten as required with lactose. Keep for at least two weeks in bottles before drinking.

• 2 lb. patent black malt
• 1 lb. pale malt
• 6 oz. flaked maize (cornflakes)
• 3 oz. hops
• 2 lb. white sugar
• 2 lb. powdered glucose
• teaspoonful salt
• ¼ oz. citric acid yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts of water to 150°F. Pour into polythene pail and add the malts and flaked maize at once. Put in immersion heater, cover as directed with sheet polythene and wrap vessel with a blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on heater and keep the mash at 145°-150°F for seven-eight hours. At this stage the starch test may be carried out if you wish.

Strain the mash into the boiler and add salt and two ounces of hops. Boil rapidly for one minute and then simmer for forty minutes. Add remaining hops and simmer for a further ten minutes.

Put the sugar, glucose and citric acid in the fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to it through fine muslin. Stir well, making sure all sugar is dissolved and make up to four gallons with boiling water.

Cover as directed and leave to cool to 65°-70°F.

Then add yeast and nutrient and leave in a warm place for seven-eight days.

If using hydrometer take readings at five-six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle as directed. If hydrometer is not being used, allow stout to ferment out until it goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar as directed to restart fermentation - and then bottle.

If a draught stout of this sort is required, merely let the stout ferment out until it goes ‘flat’ and then bottle.

Sweeten with lactose as required and keep m bottles for a few weeks or use as soon as required.

• 2 lb. patent black malt
• 2 lb. crystal malt
• 1 lb. black treacle
• 3 lb. white sugar
• 4 oz. hops
• teaspoonful salt
• 1 oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts water to 150°F. Pour this into the polythene pail and add the malts at once. Put in the immersion heater, cover the vessel with polythene as directed and wrap in a blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on the heater and keep the mash at 145°-150°F for eight hours. You may carry out the starch test at this stage if you want to.

Strain the mash into the boiler and add two ounces of hops and the salt. Boil rapidly for one minute and then simmer for forty minutes. Then add remaining hops and simmer for a further ten minutes.

Put the sugar, treacle and citric acid in the fermenting vessel and strain the mash on to it. Make up to four gallons with boiling water. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F and then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as already directed and leave in a warm place for six-seven days.

If using hydrometer, take readings after five days until reading has dropped to 1.005 and then bottle as already advised. If hydrometer is not in use, allow fermentation to go on until stout goes ‘flat’, and then prime - add sugar to restart fermentation - and bottle. Some people like this as a draught stout; if you think you would like it, there will be no need to use the hydrometer or to prime the stout. Merely let it ferment right out and then bottle.

Note. Stouts are usually sweeter than ordinary ales and beers. If sweetening is needed, add a little lactose as already suggested. This will improve after a few weeks in bottle, but may be used after two weeks.

• 2 lb. roasted malt
• 2 lb. patent black malt
• 4 lb. white sugar
• 4 oz. hops
• 2 small level teaspoonfuls salt
• ½ oz. citric acid - yeast - nutrient

Bring seven quarts water to 150°F. Pour into polythene pail and add the malts at once. Put in immersion heater, cover vessel with sheet polythene as directed and wrap vessel in blanket to conserve warmth. Switch on heater and maintain mash at 145°-150°F for seven-eight hours. At this stage you may carry out the starch test if you want to.

Strain mash into boiler and add the salt and two ounces of hops. Boil rapidly for one minute and then simmer for forty minutes. Add remaining hops and simmer for further ten minutes. Put sugar and citric acid in fermenting vessel and strain mash on to it through fine muslin. Stir well, making sure all sugar is dissolved and then make up to four gallons with boiling water. Allow to cool to 65°-70°F. Then add yeast and nutrient.

Cover with sheet polythene as already directed and leave to ferment for seven-eight days. If using hydrometer, take readings after six days until 1.005 is recorded and then bottle. If hydrometer is not being used, allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then prime - add sugar to recommence fermentation as already directed - and then bottle. If draught beer of this sort is required, merely allow fermentation to go on until beer goes ‘flat’ and then bottle. Keep for a few weeks to improve and clear, but may be used as soon as clear.

Unlike beers and cider, meads, being wines, are drunk in small quantities. Therefore, we make them as strong as we can. The amount of alcohol we can make in meads is limited by the capacity of the yeast we add to withstand alcohol. And here it is important to understand that yeast cannot live in a solution containing more than 14% of alcohol by volume. This is the usual amount that will destroy the yeast. But under certain circumstances, and with suitable yeast the percentage might be as high as eighteen. On the whole an amateur is unlikely to produce more than 16%; this is because he is unlikely to be able to carry out his ferments under laboratory conditions with constantly favorable temperatures and a scientifically balanced must.

Therefore, it is always wise to presume that you will not make more than 14% by volume and work accordingly.

Now, honey is made up of approximately 70% sugar; the remainder is made up of some impurities - such as yeast and bacteria, water, albumen and ash. Our concern is the amount of sugar, for it is upon this that the amount of alcohol we make depends. The yeast and bacteria are also our concern, but these are dealt with under the Causes of Spoilage.

Recipes for mead follow, but here it is as well to point out that if you want to be sure of the amount of alcohol you make, then the same type of hydrometer as used for beer brewing becomes essential.

In the ordinary way, three to four pounds of honey are used to make one gallon of mead. And because the amount of sugar will vary slightly in the various honeys available, there is no guarantee when using recipes that the mead will turn out to precisely the fine degree of sweetness or dryness required. Use little honey and the wine will be dry, of course; use a lot of honey and the wine will be sweet. Whether too dry or too sweet or merely medium dry-sweet will depend on the amount of sugar the honey contains.

As will be seen in the recipes the honey is mixed with water, and in the ordinary way, no sugar is added because the honey contains enough.

If recipes are being followed, and if readers are satisfied with the results of using them, as most will be, then all well and good. But those who want to make their meads to fine degrees of sweetness or dryness will have to use the hydrometer, and in so doing, these operators will be able to calculate at the start, how much alcohol they will make in addition to knowing whether their mead will be dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet or sweet. The only way to do this is to mix the honey with water as given in a recipe using the smallest amount given. A sample is then put into the hydrometer sample flask and the hydrometer itself slipped into this. The flask is stood on a level surface and the reading taken where the sample cuts across the stem. This reading is compared with the Hydrometer and Alcohol Table for Meads. Let us say that the reading is 1.090. As will be seen from the table, this will make 11.9% of alcohol by volume, and the mead will be bone dry. Now, we can add more honey - or if this is in short supply, sugar - to increase the gravity to 1.100. If this is done, 13.4% of alcohol will be made, but the mead will still be dry. Not until you go above the figure of 1.110 will the mead begin to turn out sweet. This is because two and a half pounds of sugar will be used up in making 14.5% of alcohol by volume and this amount of sugar per gallon is represented by the reading of 1.100. Actually the exact amount of sugar for a reading of 1.110 is an unimportant fraction above two and a half pounds. Therefore, if a bone dry mead is required you should start off with a reading of 1.100 or 1.110 and end up with a dry mead of between 13.4% and 14.5% of alcohol by volume. Because this figure of 1.110 represents the maximum amount of sugar the yeast can use, it follows that if a higher gravity is used to start with (in other words, if more honey is used or sugar added), all sugar or honey in excess of 1.110 on the hydrometer, will be left unfermented to sweeten the mead. A reading of 1.120 will make mead just a little above dryness or medium-dry, while ten degrees above this will make for medium sweet and so on until sweet mead results. Now take a look at the table below and you will see just how all this works out in practice.

It may be that your first reading will be below the first figure on the table - this being 1.070. Do not let this confuse you, merely add sugar or honey until the reading you want is reached. On the other hand, it could be that the first reading quite by chance is above 1.100. In this case, if a bone-dry mead is wanted, a little more water will reduce the gravity reading, to the required 1.100.

Bear in mind that if one gallon has a reading of 1.100, two gallons with the same amount of honey in each will have the same reading. Three gallons with the same amount of honey in each will also have the same reading. It will be seen from this that no matter how much mead is being made the reading will be the same as if one gallon is being made. This is because each gallon contains the same amount of honey. For example, let us suppose three and a half pounds of honey made up to one gallon gives a reading of 1.100; seven pounds made up to two gallons will still give a reading of 1.100. Similarly, ten and a half pounds made up to three gallons will also give this reading, and so on up the scale no matter how much mead is being made.

Important. If you start with a gravity of 1.100 to make a dry mead - the most popular sort - and this turns out medium sweet or sweet, then it means that fermentation has stuck, in other words, it has stopped prematurely. See Sticking Ferments.

If it had not stuck, fermentation would have gone on to make the amount of alcohol required so that all the sugar in the honey had been fermented out, leaving a dry mead.

Those using the hydrometer may take the reading when all fermentation has ceased to check the amount of alcohol made. Those starting off with a gravity of 1.110 or below should end with a reading of 1.000 or less. Those beginning with a reading above 1.110, will find that the figure above this will still register on the hydrometer. For example, if they began with a reading of 1.120, they should end up with a reading of 1.010. This is because sugar representing 110 degrees on the hydrometer has been fermented out. In this case, the resulting mead is of 14.5% of alcohol by volume with sugar representing 10 degrees on the hydrometer left unfermented to sweeten the mead slightly. The same will apply to all readings above the 1.110 figure.

Note. Many people are puzzled when diluting honey after taking the reading with a hydrometer. One person wrote that they had a mixture of honey and water with a specific gravity of 1.180. He wanted to reduce this to make two gallons with a reading of 1.090. In other words he wanted a bone-dry mead of 11.9% of alcohol by volume. But, he wrote, ’surely in making this up to two gallons I shall reduce the reading to ‘590?’ The point overlooked here, of course, was that the water he would have added already has the gravity of 1.000. Therefore, no matter how much water he added, the reading would not go below 1.000. He had overlooked that the figures above the 1.000 mark are all we are concerned with as it is these that record the amount of sugar in the mixture. In his case, if he had done as he wanted to he would have done the right thing, for he would have reduced the reading of .180 - the reading above the 1.000 which represented the sugar content of his mixture - to the figure 1.090. The fact that his hydrometer would record a reading of 1.0g0 is because the water in the mixture has the gravity of 1.000. To make it even more simple, look at it this way -

Water – 1.000
Sugar 90
Specific Gravity - 1.090 or total gravity of mixture.

Certain operators using the hydrometer, like to use enough honey to give a reading of 1.100 and to ferment this, as they know that this is the best figure to start with. I do recommend this for it will be found that whichever yeast is used, it will ferment much better when not too much sugar is present. The reading of 1.100 is the best to use as this ensures that the yeast action is not impeded and that maximum alcohol will be obtained. This means, of course, that unless more honey or sugar is added, the mead will be dry. But because the yeast does better when less sugar is present, more sugar or honey may be added after some of the sugar already there has been used up.

Therefore, always start off with a gravity of 1.100 and add sugar or honey representing the figure above this after say five or six days fermentation. Sugar is best for this later addition as it is easier to calculate how much to use. ~t oz. will raise the gravity of one gallon by five degrees; 5 oz. will raise it ten degrees. Therefore, if you want to start with a gravity of 1.110, start, actually, with a reading of 1.100 and add five ounces of sugar later on. Ten ounces added after starting with a gravity of 1.100 will have the effect of having started with a reading of 1.120. These points are made for those who will want to make less dry or sweet meads.

One variety of apple alone will not make for a balanced cider. The chances are that it will lack flavour, body, and in fact, most of the characteristics of a good cider. Almost any sort of garden apple may be used but do use some sweet, a few sharp and, if possible a few dry sorts of apple, or some pears not over-loaded with juice. It would not be sensible to recommend any particular blend of apples simply because one will have to use those available; only those living in cider-growing areas will have the true cider apple at his disposal and he will already have someone at his elbow to tell him how best to handle them.

To select the right type of apple for the job would involve knowledge of the acid, sugar and tannin content of each variety, and hardly any amateur is likely to have such knowledge at his disposal. If he had, he would not necessarily know how to utilize it.

So, at first attempt, chances will have to be taken on just how the final cider comes up to hopes and expectations. But with a little experience gained in making a few lots, any operator should be able to learn how to blend the apples he has available in order to make the cider he is after. Alternatively, he can make several different sorts in small quantities and then blend them to get an improved produce as wine makers blend their elderberry, damson and plum wines. You would be surprised (if you are not already a wine maker), just how this making of small lots of varied, yet similar wines and then blending them makes for some really top-class products. This does not mean that the individual wines are not in themselves top-class products. It is merely that in a poor season one of these wines might disappoint. It is at times like this when blending with other wines will make that disappointing wine into something quite remarkable.

And so it is with ciders. Small lots may be improved by blending with each other, but a large amount of one sort if it is not up to expectations has to be drunk as it is. So use of your common sense will bring you very close indeed to making the cider you like at first attempt - even if it does mean blending two or three lots made with different sorts of different mixtures of varieties of apples.

Sugar

White household sugar is quite suitable, but very good results are obtained when golden syrup is used. Try this, for many people find this gives some character and flavor to a cider made from unsuitable apples. Demerara sugar should not be used; nor should other brown sugars. Either white sugar, which adds nothing but sweetness, or golden syrup, which adds both color and some little flavor, are the best to use.
If golden syrup is used, more will have to be used to raise the gravity to the required level. Stir in a little at a time, taking the readings after each addition until the required reading is obtained. Pound for pound, there is less sugar in syrup than in dry sugar itself, this is the reason for using more syrup than sugar.

Water

Many people find sugar additions difficult, or they fear that adding water will reduce the flavor of the cider. They therefore overheat the juice to dissolve the sugar, and thus dissolve or make active pectin in the apple, and as every wine maker knows pectin causes cloudiness difficult to remove. So let me make it clear that the use of a little water will not reduce to any appreciable extent the flavor of the cider provided the amount used is the absolute minimum needed to dissolve the sugar, this being about one pint to two pounds of sugar.

Put the sugar in the water and bring slowly to the boil, stirring frequently to avoid sticking to the bottom of the saucepan or burning. When sugar is dissolved, cool the resulting syrup and then stir into the apple juice. The procedure after this is the same as already stated.

Method

The apples should be washed in water, and even if a press is available, they will first have to be pulp. This is best done if they are put in an open tub and pounded with the end of a stout pole. Mincing small quantities is a good means of extracting the juice. Large quantities are a problem, but if you know a friendly butcher, he might be willing to mince them for you with his much larger machine.

Modern domestic fruit juice machines are ideal for small amounts of ordinary fruit, but are not suitable for apples or pears. One can overcome to some extent the problem of pressing to get the maximum juice by fermenting the pulp-pounded apple. This method of making cider is described separately.

When using a press, put in only small amounts of pounded apple at a time otherwise you’ll not be able to screw down properly. Directions are supplied with the different presses and because each is used in a slightly different way and the directions will vary with each press; for this reason I cannot give here general purpose instructions to cover each one. Minced apple may be strained through a strong coarse cloth and wrung out, that is, when all juice that will drip out has done so, two people may twist the cloth in opposite directions while the part containing the pulp is held over the vessel catching the juice.

Having produced all the juice you can, strain a sample as free as possible of particles of apple pulp and take the reading using a specific gravity hydrometer reading from 1.000 to 1.100 - the same as that used for home brewing. From this reading you will be able to see how much sugar the juice contains .and calculate how much to add to raise the gravity to give the amount of alcohol you want to make.

Having done this, the sugar is added (or syrup if this is being used). Dry sugar will have to be dissolved in a little of the juice warmed until the sugar is dissolved. Do not make juice hot otherwise a clearing problem may crop up later on.

Where only a gallon or so is being made and therefore comparatively little sugar being added, this may be dissolved in a little hot water - say half a pint and then added to the juice. This half pint is not likely to reduce the flavor of the juice to any great extent, but because it will reduce slightly the hydrometer reading, another ounce per gallon of juice should be added.

The type of vessel used for fermentation purposes will depend on the amount of cider being made. If ten or so gallons are being made an open barrel will be needed. But if it’s just a gallon or two a two-gallon polythene pail will be ideal - these hold a little over two gallons.

Having produced the juice and added the sugar, the amount you have should be assessed as accurately as possible or measured, for it is at this stage where we must destroy the yeast and bacteria in the juice.

To each gallon crush and dissolve one Campden fruit preserving tablet. Dissolve this in about an egg-cupful of warm water and stir into the bulk. Leave for a few hours, stir vigorously and then add your yeast. This adding of Campden tablets may be carried out before adding the sugar if you wish.

It is now time to add the yeast. A good all-purpose wine yeast is quite suitable, but when these are used, fermentation is rather slower than when one of the vigorous yeasts in granulated form is used. The granulated yeasts do not settle and stick hard to the bottom of bottles as wine yeasts do. But this is not important where a draught cider is being made. Dried wine yeast in tablet form may be started off as a nucleus as directed for reclaiming yeasts from commercial beers. The tablet is put into a small amount of water in which some sugar has been dissolved by boiling. When cool, the tablet is put in; in a few days the yeast will be fermenting. This should be prepared three or four days in advance of preparing the juice. Dried yeast in granulated form may be added as it is, as this usually starts fermenting within a few hours, whereas wine yeasts take several days to get going, and it is important not to leave the juice inactive for this period. Fermentation will be seen as frothing on the surface. After about ten days, the cider is transferred to gallon or two-gallon jars - according to the amount being made. Fermentation locks are then fitted. The use of these is included in the chapter on beer making.

When the lock has been fitted the cider is kept in a warm place until all fermentation has ceased.

This will be draught cider of an alcoholic content according to the amount of sugar used. It will also be dry.

Sweetening this or making it into a sparkling cider has been described in Cider Varieties.

Cider does not improve greatly on keeping. But it should be kept for three months at least. After six months there is never an improvement.

Not quite so easy to make as other sorts; the difference being the same as making draught and gaseous beers. In making sparkling cider one must make a dry cider first and then prime this with sugar as directed under Priming. The bottles for sparkling cider must be the strong screw-stoppered sort. If these are used, the draught, dry cider may be made into sparkling cider quite readily. But as most people want their cider crystal-clear the problem of removing the inevitable yeast deposit that will form in each bottle after priming will arise. As in beer making, if a good sedimentary yeast is used, this will stick to the bottom of the bottles so that all but a little of the cider may be poured off clear. I do not know who first said this, but he was absolutely right when saying: ‘The English drink with their eyes rather than their palate; they will drink anything provided it is crystal clear.’ How true, and how much time and trouble they would save themselves if they were content to drink ciders and other alcoholic drinks with just a haze in them. They will drink fruit juices as cloudy as a muddy puddle, but just because it has been seen to be crystal clear, it now seems that wines, cider, and the pale-colored beers must also be crystal clear. The faint yeast haze found in these drinks sometimes does not mar the flavor, only the appearance. If you cannot tolerate the idea of a yeast deposit in your bottles of cider, you may remove it, but this is not as easy as it sounds; though after some experience it can be done quite effectively.

The primed cider is put into bottles, the stoppers are screwed home and the bottles stood in a cardboard crate upside down. This allows for the yeast to settle on the stoppers of the bottles. A gentle twist from day to day will assist the yeast to slide down the necks so that when the renewed fermentation has ceased after about a week - longer in some cases - all the yeast has settled to about a quarter-inch-thick deposit on the stoppers. The bottles are then held upside down over the sink, the stopper of each is given a twist in the open direction and then back again at once. This action allows the gas to squirt out the deposit. You won’t do it first time, but if you are patient, you will learn to do it with practice.

Freezing is another method, but few have the facility, so there is little point in including details here.

This is the easiest to make because if just enough sugar is added to make the amount of alcohol required, the cider will turn out dry when all the sugar has been used up in producing the necessary alcohol. Therefore, all you need do is to allow fermentation to go on until it ceases and the cider becomes clear. It may then be siphoned off the deposit into bottles or into jars and used as draught cider.

Medium Dry, Medium Sweet or Sweet Cider

These are not really any more difficult to make than dry cider, but it must be borne in mind that to add more sugar at the outset in the hope of leaving some unfermented to sweeten the cider will only result in this extra sugar being converted to alcohol so that the cider becomes a high alcohol dry cider or rather dry apple wine.

As will be seen by those who have read the chapter on mead making (p. 124), up to two and a half pounds of sugar per gallon will be fermented out by the yeast - and this amount will produce 14% of alcohol by volume; much too much for cider. Therefore, the only way to make a medium dry, medium sweet or sweet cider is to add just enough sugar to give the alcohol required and to finish with a dry cider and then sweeten it to taste. But because this sweetening will give rise to further fermentation, we must preserve the cider, or in other words, we must destroy the yeast so that further fermentation cannot take place.

Using Campden fruit preserving tablets for this is the easiest way out of the problem. Having made the dry cider with the amount of alcohol required this will result automatically when the right amount of sugar has been used - so much in the juice and so much added - the amount of cider must be measured after sweetening to taste. To each gallon, crush and dissolve two Campden tablets in a little warmed cider and then stir this into the bulk. Bung down and keep in a cool place. This should be enough to prevent further fermentation, but if after a week or two, the bung blows out of the jar, similar treatment with a further tablet per gallon will be necessary. Keeping in a cool place is a great help in preventing further fermentation. This is because yeast likes warmth - indeed, it must have warmth to ferment well. But a cool atmosphere, the amount of alcohol present in the cider, together with the preserving qualities of the Campden tablets is usually sufficient to prevent further yeast growth.