Cider Keeve: Day 62

This weekend is the 2 month mark for the Cider Keeve so I wanted to check in on it, get a gravity reading, and see how it tastes/smells.  As I mentioned last time, I was anticipating a gravity of ~1.010, and at 1.008 it is going right as I hoped.

Keeved Cider at 2 months.

Now for the big question; how does it smell and taste?  To be honest, it was very hard to judge and the smell/flavor was not like any cider I've had.  The smell had this earthy, floral, and licorice combination with a hint of honey and apple skin.  It reminded me of a mead.  When I drank it, the flavor and body made me think I was drinking a mead or a wine.  My wife said it reminded her a lot of Chardonnay.  There was also a strawberry flavor and a slight tannin note.  It had a very nice tartness; not too sharp, but still pronounced.  At it's current gravity, I find it slightly thick, although if it were carbonated, it might be nice.

My biggest hope in checking in on the cider at this point was to see if the Brett was working in tandem to the Saccharo.  Based on the aroma, I would say yes.  However, it didn't translate much into the flavor...at least not at this point.  So I can't really say definitely if the Brett has been playing an active role or not.  I think it is on track for a keeve fermentation, and will just require some more time to see how flavors develop.

Since we were down checking on this, I decided to check on the Minimalist Lambic, which has been fermenting for over 7 months.  Gravity, as expected, is 1.000.  It smells pungent of typical lambic aroma.  Mostly grassy and barnyard funk.  Some hops and a slight phenol.  The taste was very interesting.  It has a very big funky/earthy/grassy flavor, but then has this lingering void, and then a hop bitterness.  The sourness is there, but not that high.  What is interesting is that its hard to call it "watery" or "one-noted", but it is definitely lacking complexity.  This isn't much of a surprise considering it is fermented with a single Brett strain where lambic traditionally has many many strains.

Cider Keeve: Day 23

I checked in on the cider keeve last night.  I wanted to see how the fermentation was going.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, I am hoping for a slow fermentation that will, in theory, allow the Brett a chance to eat some of the sugars instead of the Sacchro dominating everything.

Upon looking at the carboy, I felt hopeful.  The head had kept at a soft dense foam.  I really don't have a lot of experience with fermenting cider, but it just seemed like the type of head that would result from a slow fermentation.  What has surprised me is the color of the cider.  It was so dark before, and now it is an almost vibrant orange color.

Keeved cider fermenting.

When I tested the gravity, I didn't know what to expect.  All I knew is that I was hoping for a high number indicating a slow fermentation and that the keeving process actually worked.  Today I came across this graph of gravity readings from keeved cider fermentations:

Lambourn Valley Cider

My gravity reading was 1.032.  Fantastic!  I am on track with other keeved ciders, so I now know I achieved a successful keeve.

When I think about the lambics I've done (1 and 2), they were at ~1.010 at the 2 month mark.  I anticipate this cider will be at about the same gravity.  The question is, what will the Brett have done in that time, and what, if anything, will it continue to do in this nutrient poor environment?

(Also, I plan to put some Drie Fonteinen dregs in there tonight to make sure there are stronger Brett strains than the Wyeast ones.)

O'so Collaboration: Day 50

I went back up to O'so yesterday to check on the barrels and install the sample port.  It has already been 50 days since we brewed the lambic!  Wow, time flies.  However, when you consider the beer will have to age close to 2 years, that isn't much time at all.  At this point in the game, it is more of a sensory check for off flavors.  I am expecting it to taste/smell essentially like a berliner weisse.  I was also curious if there would be any differences between the barrels.  There are 14 barrels, so hopefully they will develop differently and we will have some diversity to blend with.

Drill a 7/64" hole and catch a sample

As expected, they all taste/smell like a berliner weisse, which is a good sign.  We are on the right track.  There wasn't a whole lot of variety (obviously it is still very young), but there was some.  Some barrels were more lemongrass, some were more minerally, some were more brett/funky.  Aside from tasting and smelling the beer, it is a good chance to take a gravity reading.  All the barrels we tested were hovering around 5 brix (1.009 SG).

Testing gravity with a refractometer. 

All and all I am pretty happy with the progress.

Barrel Notes: Day 60

Wow, already 2 months in.  Last time I took a gravity reading was Day 9, so I thought the 2 month mark was a good time to do it again.

Gravity reading: 1.010

This is about what I expected.  What I didn't expect was the color of the beer.  If you compare that to when I got the wort (far right in this image), you can see there has been a huge change.  It use to be dark brown, and now is orange.  I wasn't sure why this happened, so I asked expert home brewer Jay (aka Fear025):

The wort was dark because there were caramelized particles suspended in the liquid. As time passed, gravity pulled those particles downward to settle at the bottom of the vessel.

Pretty simple answer really.  I wasn't really worried about the color, but it is nice to know it will clear up to a more traditional lambic color.

Now on to the pellicle, here is a picture of it from today:

This I find odd.  Compare that picture to the image from Day 34, and then to the one from Day 22.  Its almost as if the pellicle is clearing up.  I have read that the brett will eat the pellicle, but I thought that is something that would occur very late in the aging process and at a minute scale.  Any ideas as to what is going on?  The only other thing I can think of is that the weather has been very warm lately, which should have kicked in the pedio stage.  Is this the beginnings of my beer turning "ropy"?  I hope so!

Barrel Notes: Day 9

While installing the sample port yesterday, I took a bit out to measure the gravity and see what it tastes like.  Its at about 1.018 (OG was 1.057).  Taste is as if you mixed a Wit with a Berliner Weisse.  Obviously its very very young, so I'm just checking to make sure there are no off flavors.  All is well!

Filling the Barrel

My Friday was spent filling the barrel.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of pictures as I was too busy working, but i'll share the ones I did take.  The wort was ready for me and was split into 2 drums with 30 gallons in each.     they had the drums sitting on a pallet and simply fork-lifted the pallet into the bed of my friend's truck.  As I mentioned earlier, my plan was to simply siphon the wort down to the barrel once I got the drums back to the house.

With the truck backed up to my house, I slowly submerged the siphon into the drum.  I closed the valve and pulled the siphon out of the drum, through my basement window, and to the barrel.  Opening the valve, wort started flowing!  However, the end of the tube that was in the drum had turned and was above the wort, so instead of pulling in more wort, it was pulling in air, and the siphon ran dry.  After figuring out what went wrong, I was able to get some assistance and kept the end of the tube in the wort.  The drums quickly emptied, however, I didn't think about putting a tube after the valve which would enable me to fill the barrel from the bottom.  Instead, all of the wort dropped from the top of the barrel to the bottom, which created a lot of foam. For future reference, I would suggest adding that section of the tube to the siphon, as well as designing a way to make sure the other end of the siphon stays at the bottom of the drum.

OG: 13.95 degrees Plato (1.057 SG)               Ambient Temp: 57°F

Here I am with the filled barrel.  The yeast from East Coast Yeast has also been added.  There ended up being enough wort left over that I was able to fill one of my small 5 gallon barrels.  So, with some friends visiting that night, we fired up the steamer and drank a glass of Tilquin Oude Gueuze.  After the small barrel was steamed, I gave it a quick rinse, and then we added the wort.  However, we lacked yeast.  We were headed to Central Water's 14th Anniversary party the next day, so I filled a Nalgene bottle with some wort and brought it along.  I knew there would be a bottle share and likely a good assortment of sour beers that I could collect the dregs from.

As you can see, I got just that, and there were probably another 3 bottles added after that picture.  The next day when I woke up, that Nalgene was under pressure, and I had to burp it throughout the morning until I was able to get home and add it to the barrel.  Its not as big of a yeast culture pitch, so it will likely be a while before I see activity in the small barrel.  The big barrel on the other hand....