Hard Cider

Fall and Winter come around every year and what is better than to enjoy these cooler temps with a nice spicy glass of hard cider? Nothing.

Since we've been brewing our own beer - definitely a post for another day - I've had a urge to make cider. Now I took some steps to make it easier and I'll give you the option to do it either way.

Item 1: Apple juice/cider - I like 5 gallon batches so you need enough juice or cider (cider is unfiltered juice) to get there. The hardcore way is to press your own fresh apples and use that fresh cider to ferment - I used bottled apple juice. If you're using store bought juice it MUST be preservative free and if you can get unpasteurized that's even better.

Item 2: Yeast - you have 2 basic options, cider yeast or champagne yeast. I wanted a higher alcohol content, a dry cider, and less stank fermenting so I went with Champagne (White Labs liquid WLP715). There are a few options out there so do some reading on the specific different options for yeast and what they do to the finished product.

Item 3: Sugar - Sugar is food for the yeast and creates alcohol. You're thinking to yourself: "Self, apples already have sugar in them so why do I need to add more?" I would answer you: It changes the finished product and you'll get a super dry cider if you don't add sugar - this is semi optional, I recommend so type of "Spiced" sugar (brown sugar, molasses, DME, etc)

Item 4: Spices - This is optional and up to the individual, think of spices you'd use with apples.

Item 5: Priming Sugar - This is also optional, if you want still cider do not prime, if you want bubbles prime. Follow standard priming rules for beer - brown sugar is an option to consider for some added flavor

You're fermenting sugar to make a more interesting beverage - it's a bit of a blank canvas to play with.

Now for a recipe:

5.5 gallons apple juice
2 lbs dark brown sugar
0.5 gallons water
1 TBSP Cinnamon
1 TBSP Nutmeg

Pour room temp yeast into 0.25 gal of room temp juice 1-8 hours before starting. This will activate the yeast and help get a better product.

heat 0.5 gal water and 0.25 gal of apple juice, when warm add spices and sugar, heat to a boil, let boil for a minute or two, shut off heat - This will kill anything in the spices or sugar and make sure the sugar gets dissolved.

While this is heating, jump the rest of your juice in a LARGE pot and warm up (100-120 F) so it will take the sugar better.

Pour sugar water into juice, mix well, take off heat, siphon into 6 gallon carboy.

Cool to 70-75 deg, swirl up to add oxygen, and pitch yeast.

I'm planning on 2 weeks in the primary, then siphoning off 5 gal into a secondary for 4 weeks, then bottle and age for 2-3 weeks. We'll know then how the recipe turns out.

Smoking Brisket

Lets start with what is a brisket? A brisket is a tough cut off beef seen here:

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It is used for pastrami, BBQ Brisket, and is popular as part of a Passover Sader.


The process I'm going to take you through started on a Monday with a call to the butcher at my Local Lunardi's market to let him know to cut me a whole brisket from the Humboldt Grass Fed cow that they get each week. Then we jump to brisket pick up on Thursday, Dry rub on Friday, and smoking all day Saturday. I think smoking is the best way to prepare brisket.

To start is the cut, you'll likely need to talk to your butcher. You can either get a whole "packer" with or without the fat cap or a "Flat". A Packer with fat cap will be 13-14 lbs, without fat cap 10-11 lbs, flat 6-8 lbs. I prefer a full packer without the fat cap and trimmed nice and lean as seen here:



Once I peeled the fat that I didn't want I made some slits (that you can't really see in the picture) along the grain of the meat to let the marinade and rub in.

The "marinade" I did is an unconventional step when smoking a brisket and is kind of a cross between a marinade and a brine. It consisted of 32 0z water, 2 oz red wine vinegar, a healthy amount of salt and pepper, 1/2 cup of bakers sugar, and some holy trinity chunks



I threw it in all in a bag I got from the butcher and let it sit overnight in the fridge. In the morning I flipped it over so it'd be nice and uniform



Friday after work I pulled the brisket out, let it drip dry for a minute, and lightly patted dry. Then I applied the dry rub listed in my previous blog entry.



You want a nice layer all over and you want to be able to let it sit at least overnight so the rub can soak into the meat and really flavor it. Also, you don't "rub" it in, you sprinkle it on and lightly pat it in.

Now onto Saturday smoking. The coals were fired at 9:00, smoker loaded at 9:30 and at temperature



at 9:50 when the brisket was thrown on. The plan was 9 hours at 225 F smoking with hickory. Here is a shot at about 6 hours in. The fin that you see is the point flaring up when I flipped it. Once I flipped it back over to finish it stayed nice and flat.



Now we get to when to pull the brisket off the heat. You cook brisket to 180-200 F to allow the meat to break down and tenderize. I pulled this one at 185 then foiled it and let it rest (and continue cooking) for 20 more minutes. Then we got to slicing:



Beautiful bark, thick pink smoke ring, TONS of flavor. Uses for brisket are unlimited. This 10 pounder went to slices for dinner that night, thin slices for sandwiches, diced for chili, pizza, and tacos.

Give it a try and have fun.

Perfect Meat Rub

It's taken some tweaking but I finally got the perfect dry rub. This is an all purpose rub good for chicken, turkey, pork, ribs, beef, mutton, lamb, etc. If if had parents it'll taste good after being rubbed with this. 1 caveat - it does work best on smoked/slow cooked meat.

1 cup bakers/superfine sugar
5/8 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup garlic salt
1/4 cup celery seed
1/4 cup granulated onion
1/4 cup paprika
4 TBSP chili powder
3 TBSP table ground black pepper
2 Tsp Sage (ground)
1 Tsp Mustard (dry/ground)
1/2 Tsp Granulated Garlic

Pinch - Lemon Pepper

Dash each - cumin, ground corriander, ground ginger


Mix together and seal in an airtight container. it'll make about 3 cups and it keeps well.