My father in law and I did back to back batches yesterday. We started around three or four and ended … some time before the kids went to bed. The first batch we did was an apple ale that has a bottle of apple extract to add to the end product. There was the option of using pure apple juice to add the flavor, too. That is the route I went with, a gallon of apple cider I think it was, went into the fermenter as a top up. I figured it was pasteurized before packaging it probably has less contaminants than my wort. The apple beer also called to be fermented with cider yeast. It should be interesting, I’m hoping the yeast will ferment it cleanly dry and be a nice fall beer instead of some of the apple beers on the market that end up tasting like syrup.

The second batch we did was a pumpkin spiced beer. That one used a can of pumpkin steeped at the boil, likely to impart color and not much else. I used American Ale yeast for that one, and its fermenting vigorously.

It feels a little like back to normal having beer on tap, beer in the fermenters and ideas for what is coming next. IPA with my homegrown hops and a stout should be in order.

Cheers!
Tony