Gina's English Cider

Since I don't get to hang with my sister as much as I used to, I decided to pack as much into one brew day as possible.  We made another batch of her favorite recipe, an English cider, while Blind Pig was mashing.  She introduced me to English cider a few years ago and it was nothing like the stuff we used to call Woodchuck-only nights back in college.  This recipe is from another homebrewer on homebrewtalk and I take no credit for it, but it is near perfection.  The recipe is a dead ringer for Aspall's dry English cider.  This is batch #3, and I only make it once a year.  The cider finishes dry to off-dry, around 1.002, 6.4% abv.

Gina's English Cider
5 gallons store bought apple juice (I prefer the kosher apple juice)
5 black teabags (English or Irish Breakfast)
3 key limes (or one regular lime)
1 pack s-04 yeast
(yeast nutrients as needed)

Directions
Add juice of lime(s) to 4 cups of water, bring to a boil then turn off heat. Steep teabags for 7-10 mins, cool for a few mins then add to carboy. Add nutrients and juice into carboy with an aggressive pour to help aerate the juice. Add yeast, put an airlock on then place in a cool (60F-70F) environment.

Primary for one month, then rack to secondary, topping off with juice. Leave in secondary until crystal clear (usually 2-3 months or so from pitching) then bottle with 4oz priming sugar.

Takes about a month to carbonate, tastes good after 3 months, but just gets better with age. I usually start opening bottles about 5 months after pitching.

I made this recipe with really expensive fresh pressed cider a few years ago and it was terrible.  A word to the wise, stick with the store bought cheap stuff.   

Blind Pig - Experimental Partigyle

Almost a NYE brew, the Femme Fermental and I set aside the afternoon to brew up a batch of Blind Pig.  We are both raving fans of pretty much anything Russian River so I was very excited to brew the Pig.  I sourced the recipe from several different forums and decided to brew the current version, not the oak aged version that Vinnie originally brewed back in the day.  It was a really fun brew day because we also made a batch of English cider during the mash and an experimental partigyle batch from the second mash runnings.  The Femme Fermental handled the partigyle and she decided to go with a single hop all Centennial brew.  She continuously hopped it during the last 30 mins of the boil.  To keep with the experimental theme I used some S-33 yeast.  For some reason my mash efficiency was way down on the Blind Pig but spot on for the partigyle mash.  Maybe some dough balls, who knows.  I used my single kettle e-BIAB setup.  The beer will come in at 6.2% instead of 7.5%, so we will see.  I am sure it will be very tasty regardless.

1/27/12 - This beer is fantastic and I think it is my best tasting IPA yet.  Blind Pig is making its rounds at local bars right now and I happily sit at home drinking mine.  I am going to enter this in a competition to see how it scores.  It may be a bit young still, but it is darn tasty.

Grain              Additions                                 Results

13 2-row         1.5 chinook at 60                    6.8 at 1050

.5 wheat          .5 cascade at 30                      5.8 at 1058

.5 c-40            1 cascade at 15                      

.5 carapils       Irish moss at 10                                  

                        .5 amarillo at 2                                  

                        .5 simcoe at 2             

mash at 151    .25 amarillo, .25 simcoe, .5 cascade, 1 centennial dry

s-05 at 66-68   og 1066                                    

add dry hops to primary on day 7 (60 degrees), 32 degrees on day 12 and rack off on day 14
FG 1.012

All Centennial 2 gallon partigyle
.5 oz Centennial at 60
.5 oz continuously hopped from 30 to 0
1040 OG
S-33 yeast
fg 1.012

2/1-Sampled the partigyle and it certainly showcases the Centennial hop.  It is much more bitter than I thought it would be, but after the first few sips, that mellows.  Obviously, it lacks the hop complexity of its big brother, but makes for a nice session beer with some hop bite.

Vista, CA Water Profile
Water Adjustments (tsp)	Ca=57
.854 Epsom Salt	SO4=136
.825 Baking Soda	Mg=22
.155 Canning Salt	Na=71
1.254 Gypsum	Cl=88
	Carb=147
	Hard=233
	Alk=122