Last month I was able to locate 100lbs of Cabernet grapes from Nappa. The price was great, they were already de stemmed and seeded so I bought in on the deal. I could not believe how simple the process really is; well compared to making all-grain beer.

We met at a location where we divided up several thousand pounds of grapes into 100lb units, then placed into a large plastic vessel. Pitch in some nutrient, some pectic enzyme and yeast. It sits for a few weeks and you basically have wine. Everyday you are required to “punch down” the must so that the skins and seeds left over are in constant contact with the must. The skins gives red wine its color, and mouthfeel or body.

On pressing day, I added 12cc of sulphuric acid to get my pH lower and I added a maloactic culture to balace the sweetness and get rid of any other nasties before the wild stuff sets in. Pictured below is me pressing the grapes. It was 1.5 hours from start to clean up. DLB helped out.

Well I officially own a brewery now, er I mean I built a brew cart to make beer more efficiently. The project was pretty simple and I did it entirely under $200; most commercial units cost over $1000. I got the idea from a few guys on the BrewBoard who helped me with the details on gas lines and electrical. So far I have completed the frame, gas lines, and all the kettles. Soon, I will add a March pump, and a water filtration system to allow for even less of a complicated brew day. I am posting a pictorial of this project, plans, and an spreadsheet containing costs and parts numbers.

Use the following documents to create your own. You need MS Excel and Adobe Acrobat reader Brewcart Plans 01
Brewcart Plans 01
Brewcart Plans 01
Parts Listing

I made my first Hoegaarden clone. So far smells great and took off almost 8 hours after pitching.

Ingredients: 9lbs German Pilsner Malt (no Belgina on hand) 9lbs Wheat malt (Briess, ) 2oz Hallertauer 4.6% AAU 1oz Corriander 1oz Bitter ornage peel

White Labs 400 Yeast

Single infusion mash at 152deg. for 95min. Mash out with 180deg water to raise temps to 168 or so. Stuck sparge! Runnings to make 11gallons. Boiled for 60min with 1 hop addition at the beginning of the boil. Last 15 min I tossed in the spices and forgot to grind the corriander, oh well. Cooled to 80degrees and pitched a big starter. Took off in less than 8 hours. I will keg this in 7 days or so. Looking for a target gravity of 1.010 or less.

OG: 1.056 (a bit high, may cut back on the extra pound of Pilsner or wheat.)

When I put this together I never thought that the alcohol would ever get to this level. 20%+ I just made brandy! This will take a year to age before it is good enough to drink. I am planning on adding the apple butter to the secondary because I want to kick start another fermentation on this. I think using champagne yeast is a good idea, but I had to add 2 packets as this really pushes yeast to work harder. The original recipe was from a guy named Cruz from Spain. He rocks. I tasted his recipe before and I am hooked. Every year I am making this! I was lucky enough to get fresh pressed apples and honey locally grown. Here is my interpretation of this awesome cyser.

Apple Butter Cyser
5 gallons OG : 1.170 (no joke) FG: (anticipated) 1.020 ABV Lets just say that it is more than 18%

10lbs of Pumpkin Honey
5lbs Muscavado Sugar (must get this)
2lbs Liquid Light Malt extract
5 Gallons of apple cider (good juice will work too)
1-2 jars of Apple Butter
6-10 cloves
20 sticks of cinnamon
1pinch cayenne
Yeast nutrient
2 paks of champagne yeast or Wyeast 3374 Eau de Vie

Heat to 140deg 1 gallon of cider. Turn off flame. Add in all ingredients except apple butter. Stir to dissolve. Dump into fermenter then add 4 remaining gallons of cider. Mix well. Pitch yeast at 80deg or so. Leave alone for 2 months. After a week or so, stir this to rouse the yeast. After 2 months, or when FG is around 1.020, rack to a secondary fermenter and add apple butter. This will take off again. Some add raisins, but I am not going to as I hate raisins in meads.

I made this spiced pumpkin ale from fresh pumpkins that I picked a few weeks earlier. I simply cut up a few pumpkins in quarters and baked in an oven for 1 hour brushed with nutmeg and cloves. When cooled I mashed up like mashed potatoes and put in the fridge until brew day. The rest is a basic ale.

Old Ichabod’s Pumpkin Ale
5gallons
OG: 1.060
FG:(anticipated) 1.012

5lbs pumpkin
10lbs Marris Otter
8oz Crystal 120L
1lb Wheat Malt
4oz Roasted Barley
9oz Munich

2oz EKG at 60min
1TBSP of the following added at 15min: Nutmeg, Clove, Cinnamon

WLP 001 cake

I mashed half of this on the stovetop. I took 3 lbs of Maris otter, 1lb wheat, and 5lbs pumpkin and held the following temps for 20min each. 120deg, 140deg, and 155deg. This is a great way to build the malt in a recipe. Just like the Germans do. I plan on secondarying this for 2 weeks with some vanilla and more cinnamon. MMMM.