Kitchen Sink Cider and Hoppy Pale Ale

Last weekend was a rather busy one with my brewing projects. I created a yeast starter last Wednesday with a quart or two of apple cider, some yeast nutrient, and a vial of White Labs English Cider yeast. Friday night, I created it...a hodgepodge of juices, 4 gallons of apple cider, 1 quart of pure cranberry juice, 2 quarts of a delicious Belgian blackcurrant nectar, 4 cans of apple juice concentrate, and a couple pounds of dark brown sugar. The brown sugar was a gamble and I'm not sure if I will like it in there...it added a distinct nuttiness to the sample, but after it all ferments out it might be quite interesting. The fermentation has been wild, almost violent, ever since it was pitched on Friday. Original gravity was 1.078, give or take. This is going to have a lot of flavour!

The ale brewing went well too...I added a great deal of hops to this one. Not much to report...it has Nugget, Kent Goldings, Cascade, and Mt. Hood hops, as I recall. Another dousing of Cascade and Mt. Hood hops will go into the secondary to add a strong aroma. Should be fairly standard, so to speak; being a American Pale Ale, albeit an insanely hopped one. It isn't especially strong, but I boiled the volume down a bit. The target OG was 1.045 but I ended up at 1.052.

I'm thinking of brewing a Koelsch to share with family at the holidays...I'd better get cracking. Also this Friday I'm brewing a monster of a Double IPA.