What's brewing update

I have finally racked everything into secondary that needed to go there, and the ciders are shaping up to be pretty good, although nothing as spectacular as the ones that won bronze medals in the first annual Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition. (Oh yeah, I won a couple medals. The dry, petillant 2007 Table Cider almost won a silver, I am told.)

The Cat's Tale Stout was all ready to be racked when our Auto-Siphon got clogged up with hops (I had brewed with whole leaf, homegrown hops - not ours, some friends of ours' - and couldn't manage to filter all the leaves out of the primary, hence I essentially dry-hopped in the primary) and Thomas decided to clean the Auto-Siphon out with a chopstick, with the result that he knocked the little bit at the end of it loose. (He has since fixed it.) For our back-up option, the racking cane, I couldn't find any tubing of the right diameter except for a particularly disreputable and grotty bit that I ended up throwing out.

So I went out the next day to Beers of the World to buy 5/16" tubing and another Auto-Siphon. We had social engagements the next two nights (UNYHA Pub of the Month at the Old Toad, followed by Southern Tier night, also at the Old Toad (we would have also gone to the Ithaca Brewing Beer Social at the Tap and Mallet on Wednesday night, but it was sold out). So on Friday December 19th we finally racked the beer to secondary, and it was still a tasty brew. No need to dry-hop in secondary since it essentially got it in primary.

Then on Christmas Day, having nothing better to do (after we finished opening presents and chatting on the phone to Thomas's brother and fellow homebrewer, Philip Barnes, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska with his wife and two very cute, very blonde little daughters), we racked the two ciders we'd made with Schutt's Golden Russet blend to secondary. We'd fermented one with Munton's ale yeast and the other with Lalvin D47, and both were shaping up quite well.

As for the ciders from the pressing at Joe's place, both of the ones done with the Lalvin K1-V1116 have got a pellicle on top of them - the one that sits next to the cats' water fountain has much more pronounced of one. I'm thinking the blow-off type airlock we fitted it with was too loose and something got in there. We've since replaced the airlock. I'm hoping whatever has infected it makes it funky in a good way. Hope springs eternal. Besides, if it's hosed, it's only 3 gallons worth.