Would brewing/fermenting be appropriate here in the cooking channel?

@TheMighty - OH Eff yeah. We brew ten gallons of beer every six weeks at my place.

@Deleted User - Very nice. I usually do 5-6gallon batches. I've been doing ciders lately and have worked out a decent/simple/cheap recipe. I'll take photos and post next time I do it.

How does it turn out? I'd like to try cider

@Deleted User - Took me a few batches, but I think the final batch turned out great! Great balance of sweetness, tartness, dryness, and abv. Most of the store bought was too sweet for me.

Is it apple or something else?

Yes, this current recipe is 100% apple based. Am going to try a 50/50 apple/pear for spring, but currently ive only done apple

alright thanks. will be reaching out to you at some point if that's ok

Anytime!

How big is your set up?

I have two carboys and one of those new catalyst fermentors that I got for xmas, all of them hold 6-1/2gals if you filled them to the brim, but I usually do 5-1/2gal batches so I dont have to worry about using a blowoff.

I also have a home-made mash tun that I use for my all-grain batches

I have three five gallon kegs, four carboys, a co tank, and one regulator. I also have a mini freezer with a mechanical temperature switch

@Deleted User - The mini-freezer would be nice. Have you had any luck with lagers? I've tried a couple times and failed miserably

I haven't tried. We mainly do stouts and an ipa. I'd like a much lighter drink for summer if you have any recommendations

Am not confident enough to give you advice on a lager! I'd recommend trying a kolsch. Thats what i did after my lager failures lol

Here's a good 5gal Kolsch recipe. If the malts listed aren't easily available to you, you can sub the 10lbs of pilsner out for regular old 2-row and the 1/2lb of Munich for Vienna or 60L Crystal.
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/04/05/brewing-a-kolsch-beer-recipe-beer-styles/

Thanks!

👌

@Jbieszczat1031 that looks great man

@Alfred Hoshall - TN#1685 Thanks! I've been experimenting a bit with the smoker, trying to find cheaper alternatives to the priciera cuts of meat usually used. 'Course nothing beats an actual brisket. I'm doing deer today and one of my next days off, game hens.

About as organic as it gets. Smoked, wild hunted deer.

Lovely

http://cideroad.com/switchel/
My wife's people have been making swtichel for generations. I'm just now drinking it. Pretty good.

Interesting, what's the main flavor? Does it taste really vinegary?

Water, ACV, maple syrup, lemon juice, sliced ginger

Obviously mostly water but you can tweak it to taste

https://www.almanac.com/blog/cooking/cooking/switchel-or-haymakers-punch-recipe

That’s the article she recommenda

Haha I sounded Italian. *recommends

Ah okay. i googled it and looked at some recipes. Most of them had apple cider vinegar in them. o.O

I'll make some when weather warms up

***Long post warning***
Okay so here's my hard cider process/recipe.
I explain through some basic stuff here & there just to make it noob-friendly. So for the griseled veterans, don't take offense.

Base Ingredients:
(6) Gallons of apple juice ($18)
(1) Pound of brown sugar ($2)
(2) Cans of apple juice concentrate ($3)
(1) Packet of dry cider yeast ($3)
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Some basics:

***-Juice-***
Your juice can be apple juice or cider, it can be organic or non-organic, you can press your own apples, buy it from a farmer, grow your own trees, whatever. I personally am not a puritan with this stuff, so I use Kroger and CostCo brands (Kroger brand is pictured). There's just a couple things you want to look around on the labels and see if they're present. One of those things is whether or not it's pasteurized. 99.99999% chances are that it is. Most stores, and even apple farmers, won't put something on the shelf that could possibly get them sued. If you are a better man than I am and decided to crush & juice your own 100lbs of apples, then it is NOT going to be pasteurized. The only difference this is going to make in the process is whether or not you need to boil just a little of your juice, or ALL of it.
If you're going with store-bought stuff, you just want to keep an eye out some harmful preservatives. I won't get into the science of each, but here's a quick & easy cheat sheet for the most common one's you'll see:
Sodium Benzoate = BAD
Potassium Sorbate = BAD
Sulfur Dioxide = BAD
Ascorbic Acid = Perfectly fine
The bad preservatives will hurt your yeast's progress or halt it completely. Avoid them.

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***-Yeast-***
The presence of yeast is crucial to making cider, ale, wine, etc, however the type of yeast isn't very important to the un-snobbish amongst us.
I've used wine yeast, ale yeast, cider yeast, and wild yeasts, all with fine results. The only one I have yet to try is bread yeast, so I can't speak to that. Out of all that I've used, I found that the Cider House brand (pictured) is one of the more balanced, at least for the taste I'm going for. You may or may not find it at your local homebrew store, but you can buy it off of Amazon for $9 for a 3-pack. https://www.amazon.com/Cider-House-Select-Premium-Yeast-3/dp/B00N2WGUPW

***-Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate-***
I use this to back-sweeten, add some fermentable sugars to the batch, and to give back some appley-ness to my cider. Much like the juice notes earlier, you don't have to get very fancy with this unless you want to. Just read the label and make sure that the preservatives I noted earlier are not present.

***-Brown Sugar-***
This is another preference of mine. You could easily use white sugar or some other kind of candy sugar, but I found that brown sugar gives the cider a nice amber tone along with some nice earthy molasses tastes. On the practical side, it is adding some fermentable sugars to your cider as well as backsweetening it. Any old brown sugar will do, you can be as fancy or as cheap as you like here. I have found that the British stuff is the best, but it isn't always readily available.

***-Temperature-***
Temperature is a big deal. Too hot will kill your yeast. Too cold and they will quit working and go dormant on you. Ideal temperature ranges between 70 to 85 degrees. A bit above or below that isn't going to be a deal-breaker, but be at least slightly conscious of it. Maybe don't leave your cider to ferment out in the garage in the middle of summer or in the garden shed in the middle of winter. I keep mine in my basement, as it has a pretty steady 70 degree range.

***-Cleanliness-***
Sterilize everything. My routine is to wash everything with dish soap and the soft end of a scrubbing pad. Rinse it well.

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