Dude your videos are so well produced I absolutely love this. So fun learning about weird styles with some awesome cinematography and editing. I appreciate everything you do.
Since I'm fresh into brewing, I'm not ready to experiment yet, but I've tried two graf recipes; one based on cara malt and ale yeast, and this one. Your recipe knocked the other one straight out of the park! Simply amazing, Trent. I'm definitely going to make this over and over again.
From what I remember the description of graf was a dark golden beer with a sweet tart apple cider finish and a high abv. I like how different brewers are interpreting the fictional brew completely different from each others recipes. One thing to consider is one of many of the themes in the third book of the Dark Tower series is riddles. I wonder if Stephen King was basically describing a high octane version of a Snake bite or Black velvet? Which is a half Stout/ Porter and half hard apple cider, but to make it high proof you are using an Applejack which can be 25-40% abv. I have been working on a recipe on how I was make this brew. Basically make a 5 gallon batch of a dark amber honey ale and use a Imperial ale darkness yeast and try to get as close to 12%abv as possible. Grains used malted barley, spelt, corn, oats, einkorn and dark rye. Some wildflower honey use magnum and first gold hops. Then age in an oak barrel for a year. The make a five gallon batch of apple cider using 12.5 lbs of six different apples that are popular in New England like crab apples, McIntosh, Cortland, Roxbury Russ and RI Green. Use Mangrove yeast, let it ferment dry and as close to the yeast tolerance as possible and age in an oak barrel for a year. Make a five gallon batch of sweet young and tart apple cider 8-10%abv and mix all three together when all batches are ready to bottle. Unless I have miscounted their should be19 ingredients which is how old Stephen King was when he first started writing the Dark tower. Of course their is no way I would attempt doing this by myself and would absolutely need a s skilled brewer that actually knows how to make something like this and not feck it up.
I'm definitely thinking of trying this next, I've been playing around with dome gluten free grain brewing recently but have an apple tree in my garden that gets wasted every year even with the best intentions. I'll try a shop bought juice first fir the experiment then later in the year i use up my apples that's the theory 🍻 cheers
I made a Graf using organic apple juice and a Pale Ale wort SNPA clone about 4 years ago. I split the batch in 2 fermenters with a ratio of 50/50 apple juice / pale ale wort and 80/20 apple juice/wort. The 80/20 came out like a dry, crisp apple cider with some foam stability and slight malty touches. The 50/50 was really an apple pale ale with this champagner like-crispness as you described it as well. The apple aromas can easily handle quite some hops up to around 40 IBU making it the perfect refrehment for summer! Very interesting: I tried some bottles 6 months up to even 2 years after bottling: It really even gets better and more harmonized over time! Keep up the good videos!
Question: How many pounds of the grain did you use for the 1 gallon of wort? You mention the Pilsner and Munich malt % but what was the total weight of the grain?I tried brewing a graf years ago with malt extract and was disappointed with it. This looks good to try.
I made one of these from extract to use some extra DME somewhere in my first ten brews, it would be fun to try this now many brews later from grain! I used plain US-05 and it'll be interesting to see what a saison yeast does with that extra dryness. Great episode and underrated beverage! My recipe from before, 1 gallon scaled/slightly modified from The Everything Hard Cider Book - 5 cups water, 8.5oz pilsner DME, 3g citra hops, boiled for 60 minutes then added to 12 cups cider juice, fermented 2 weeks around 70 with US05.
Love your videos man! With that said, having used Wyeast 3711 and OYL-026 quite a bit (in my almost 2 decades of home brewing) there's no way I would assume fermentation was done after 1 week. Those yeasts are STA1 positive (i.e. diastatic); they work slowly and are such different beasts than something like US-05 or London Ale III. In my experience they almost never finish lower than 85% apparent attenuation. In light of the fact that half of your 'wort' was simple fruit sugars I would expect something more like 90-95% apparent attenuation. I think kegging off the yeast cake and consuming quickly prevented you from having a catastrophe occur but if you had bottled after a week surely you would have encountered bottle bombs. 1.050 to 1.010 is only 79% apparent attenuation. I'd put every dime I have on that yeast attenuating significantly further if you had left it in primary longer. I usually let French Saison strains do their thing for a minimum of a month, especially if I mash in the 150's (though I typically step mash my saisons starting at 140 F). Last time I brewed an adjunct-free wort with French Saison it took a 1.063 wort down to 1.005 after 2 weeks (92% apparent attenuation)...and I was still afraid to bottle it. I'm not commenting to rag on you; I just want to make sure your viewers don't get hurt.
Great call out about STA1 and something I should talk about. I almost never bottle saisons but good for people to know this. I’ll also add to clean that gear well after using it cuz it can stick around if you don’t do a good job. Thanks for the comment!
Is that 30 IBUs for just the malt-wort half (resulting in 15 IBUs overall after diluting 50-50 with unhopped cider)? Or is 30 IBUs the estimate for the total (i.e., 60 IBUs for the wort half, diluting down to 30 after adding cider)?
I have a dark graf thats been sitting for 3 months in secondary and has developed a film of pellicle Its gonna be an interesting xmas brew to say the least.
In Ireland and the UK we call that "Snakebite"... I know they also call it snakebite in Austrailia and New Zealand.... so most English speaking countries already have that name I imagine. Graf is cool too.
No idea what "mildly pasteurized" means but you probably want to boil that cider if you want a consisten recipe. The wild yeast won't harm the product but it's be impossible to control. Cool video! Keep it up!
Still a fresh Homebrewer, I started watching you and have been learning so much! Seeing this video, I was curious on what your take on a Braggot (mead+beer) would be. Hope to see it one day, until then I'm learning to try it myself!
could you tell a difference from the fresh apple cider vs "regular" juice you've used in the past? I just had some really fresh cider and I was thinking it would make a slightly more complex cider.
Would you ever consider trying the challenge where you have to make beer from grocery store ingredients? So finding substitutes for hops, malt and brewers yeast
Great idea! Last time I heard anyone talk about Graf was on BrewingTV actually. Any difference noted from using the fresh cider vs the storebought stuff?
Thanks, yeah I watched that video for some inspiration! I think the fresh a bit stronger on the apple flavor but I don’t know if that just in my head. I definitely want to do some cider experiments with the two side by side
@@TheBruSho Hey guys it's not in your head. Any passionate cidermaker will tell you it is a night and day difference when using fresh apples especially apples for cidermaking. Freshness really affects the depth of flavor and allows for variations in style. Variety of apples matters too.
In the US “cider” is also unfermented apple juice. Sorry I know that can be confusing. But I used unfermented juice to make this recipe and then fermented it mixed with beer wort
In the uk it is often know that young piss heads will have half a pint of lager mixed with half a pint of cider ( only the us calls it hard cider ) and it’s called snakebite ( if you and blackcurrant cordial as well it’s called diesel). I might have a go at this 👍
Hi there! Thank you for alot of good videos for a brewing-n00b, but i got a question: What is the ammount in kg/lb/oz on the grains? Or is that a 'given' assuming the OG and ammount of wort? Cheers!
Dude your videos are so well produced I absolutely love this. So fun learning about weird styles with some awesome cinematography and editing. I appreciate everything you do.
Thank you so much man, I appreciate that! I’m a big fan of your channel as well, looking forward to your next vid
Maris Otter and crispy sweet apple cider. Biscuity and bready + tart and sweet.
Since I'm fresh into brewing, I'm not ready to experiment yet, but I've tried two graf recipes; one based on cara malt and ale yeast, and this one. Your recipe knocked the other one straight out of the park! Simply amazing, Trent. I'm definitely going to make this over and over again.
Wow that is amazing to hear! Thank you
The first experiment that comes to mind is half hefeweizen and half cider. The phenolic clove flavor paired with the cider might be apple pie-like.
Oh man that sounds like an amazing combo
Nice!
Thank you!
@@TheBruSho I think our brains are on the same wavelength because I just posted my graf whiskey vid;-)
@@BeardedBored oh damn that sounds good, I’m gonna check it out!
I think Sauerkraut Graft sounds wonderful Trent!😆. Seriously, interesting hybrid.
Hahah one of these days I’ll get to the kraut!
@@TheBruSho Ya, Ya, heard it all before😂😂
From what I remember the description of graf was a dark golden beer with a sweet tart apple cider finish and a high abv. I like how different brewers are interpreting the fictional brew completely different from each others recipes. One thing to consider is one of many of the themes in the third book of the Dark Tower series is riddles. I wonder if Stephen King was basically describing a high octane version of a Snake bite or Black velvet? Which is a half Stout/ Porter and half hard apple cider, but to make it high proof you are using an Applejack which can be 25-40% abv.
I have been working on a recipe on how I was make this brew. Basically make a 5 gallon batch of a dark amber honey ale and use a Imperial ale darkness yeast and try to get as close to 12%abv as possible. Grains used malted barley, spelt, corn, oats, einkorn and dark rye. Some wildflower honey use magnum and first gold hops. Then age in an oak barrel for a year. The make a five gallon batch of apple cider using 12.5 lbs of six different apples that are popular in New England like crab apples, McIntosh, Cortland, Roxbury Russ and RI Green. Use Mangrove yeast, let it ferment dry and as close to the yeast tolerance as possible and age in an oak barrel for a year. Make a five gallon batch of sweet young and tart apple cider 8-10%abv and mix all three together when all batches are ready to bottle. Unless I have miscounted their should be19 ingredients which is how old Stephen King was when he first started writing the Dark tower. Of course their is no way I would attempt doing this by myself and would absolutely need a s skilled brewer that actually knows how to make something like this and not feck it up.
I'm definitely thinking of trying this next, I've been playing around with dome gluten free grain brewing recently but have an apple tree in my garden that gets wasted every year even with the best intentions. I'll try a shop bought juice first fir the experiment then later in the year i use up my apples that's the theory 🍻 cheers
I made a Graf using organic apple juice and a Pale Ale wort SNPA clone about 4 years ago. I split the batch in 2 fermenters with a ratio of 50/50 apple juice / pale ale wort and 80/20 apple juice/wort. The 80/20 came out like a dry, crisp apple cider with some foam stability and slight malty touches. The 50/50 was really an apple pale ale with this champagner like-crispness as you described it as well. The apple aromas can easily handle quite some hops up to around 40 IBU making it the perfect refrehment for summer! Very interesting: I tried some bottles 6 months up to even 2 years after bottling: It really even gets better and more harmonized over time!
Keep up the good videos!
Wow I’d love to make a big ABV version of a graf and let it age. That would be super interesting, thank you!
I know I am late to the party on this one, but I have been thinking about a Caramel Apple Graff, kind of a blend of an English Mild and Cider.
Question: How many pounds of the grain did you use for the 1 gallon of wort? You mention the Pilsner and Munich malt % but what was the total weight of the grain?I tried brewing a graf years ago with malt extract and was disappointed with it. This looks good to try.
I really want to make this. Had it at a local brewery. It’s delicious.
I want to see a full apfelwein barley-wine hybrid, something with real chew to it.
I made one of these from extract to use some extra DME somewhere in my first ten brews, it would be fun to try this now many brews later from grain! I used plain US-05 and it'll be interesting to see what a saison yeast does with that extra dryness. Great episode and underrated beverage!
My recipe from before, 1 gallon scaled/slightly modified from The Everything Hard Cider Book - 5 cups water, 8.5oz pilsner DME, 3g citra hops, boiled for 60 minutes then added to 12 cups cider juice, fermented 2 weeks around 70 with US05.
That sounds like a delicious version, I would love to give this another try with completely different grains, hops, and yeast!
you have definitely found my sweet spot with the cider hybrids...great info man..
I’m loving it too, thanks man!
The color might be too off putting, yet my mind went to other juices like blueberry, cherry, passion fruit juice, raspberry on and on.
Love your videos man! With that said, having used Wyeast 3711 and OYL-026 quite a bit (in my almost 2 decades of home brewing) there's no way I would assume fermentation was done after 1 week. Those yeasts are STA1 positive (i.e. diastatic); they work slowly and are such different beasts than something like US-05 or London Ale III. In my experience they almost never finish lower than 85% apparent attenuation. In light of the fact that half of your 'wort' was simple fruit sugars I would expect something more like 90-95% apparent attenuation. I think kegging off the yeast cake and consuming quickly prevented you from having a catastrophe occur but if you had bottled after a week surely you would have encountered bottle bombs. 1.050 to 1.010 is only 79% apparent attenuation. I'd put every dime I have on that yeast attenuating significantly further if you had left it in primary longer. I usually let French Saison strains do their thing for a minimum of a month, especially if I mash in the 150's (though I typically step mash my saisons starting at 140 F). Last time I brewed an adjunct-free wort with French Saison it took a 1.063 wort down to 1.005 after 2 weeks (92% apparent attenuation)...and I was still afraid to bottle it. I'm not commenting to rag on you; I just want to make sure your viewers don't get hurt.
Great call out about STA1 and something I should talk about. I almost never bottle saisons but good for people to know this. I’ll also add to clean that gear well after using it cuz it can stick around if you don’t do a good job. Thanks for the comment!
Looks amazing! Great job!
Thank you! 🍻
Very interesting. I need to try one of these. Cheers!
For sure, make it your own and have fun with it!
That's such an awesome idea I'm going to have to try it
Go for it, very refreshing
Another banger Trent! You make the rest of us look bad with all this content and I cant say enough about the variety as well. . . . it is masterful.
Haha thanks man, would love to see your take on this
@@TheBruSho I am not a fan of cider but might be a fan of this buuut I am more interested in a beer wine hybrid.
@@Unsub-Me-Now I’d love to see that too
Looks so delicious! 🍏🍺
Cheers! 🍻
Is that 30 IBUs for just the malt-wort half (resulting in 15 IBUs overall after diluting 50-50 with unhopped cider)? Or is 30 IBUs the estimate for the total (i.e., 60 IBUs for the wort half, diluting down to 30 after adding cider)?
Another great video!
Thank you! 🍻
I have a dark graf thats been sitting for 3 months in secondary and has developed a film of pellicle Its gonna be an interesting xmas brew to say the least.
Interesting.. is it gonna be a sour?
@@TheBruSho It wasnt intended to be that way bu i guess we will see in 3 weeks XD
In Ireland and the UK we call that "Snakebite"... I know they also call it snakebite in Austrailia and New Zealand.... so most English speaking countries already have that name I imagine. Graf is cool too.
Guess the US didn’t get the memo 😆 thanks for watching!
I've heard of that, but i thought that was mixing beer and cider together in the glass
No idea what "mildly pasteurized" means but you probably want to boil that cider if you want a consisten recipe. The wild yeast won't harm the product but it's be impossible to control.
Cool video! Keep it up!
Thanks for watching, yeah I wasn’t sure about that too but apparently it was lightly heat pasteurized
I believe ”gently pasteurized” means that it was pasteurized at a lower heat for a longer time, rather than high heat for a short time.
Still a fresh Homebrewer, I started watching you and have been learning so much! Seeing this video, I was curious on what your take on a Braggot (mead+beer) would be.
Hope to see it one day, until then I'm learning to try it myself!
I don't make meads but I would be curious to maybe try one day. Thanks for watching!
half the hops, secondary with eighths of one whole grapefruit p gal
could you tell a difference from the fresh apple cider vs "regular" juice you've used in the past? I just had some really fresh cider and I was thinking it would make a slightly more complex cider.
I think there will be a difference but I can’t say for sure because I’ve never done a side by side comparison. Sounds like a fun experiment to try.
How much grain in LBS was used in this recipe ?
Would you ever consider trying the challenge where you have to make beer from grocery store ingredients? So finding substitutes for hops, malt and brewers yeast
I have actually been thinking about that a lot recently. I think I’ll definitely give it a go some day!
@@TheBruSho Would be an interesting video to watch for sure
I grew up calling a mix of cider and beer "snakebite." I know it's normally a lager/cider mix, though.
Sounds delicious!
Im thinking about brewing this for my 50th brew, woop woop! Is there anything about the recipe you would change in hindsight?
🍺
killer vid braj!
TY man! Would love to see you make a graf
Great idea! Last time I heard anyone talk about Graf was on BrewingTV actually. Any difference noted from using the fresh cider vs the storebought stuff?
Thanks, yeah I watched that video for some inspiration! I think the fresh a bit stronger on the apple flavor but I don’t know if that just in my head. I definitely want to do some cider experiments with the two side by side
@@TheBruSho Hey guys it's not in your head. Any passionate cidermaker will tell you it is a night and day difference when using fresh apples especially apples for cidermaking. Freshness really affects the depth of flavor and allows for variations in style. Variety of apples matters too.
@@familyguyrofl thank you, I figured that was true, I’ll be trying to use more fresh cider when I can!
awesome make it all the time with a remash and a little sugar.
Oh dang that’s a genius idea! I’ll have to try that
@@TheBruSho Got the idea from small beers made from a remash.
You tell you add cider as in fermented applejuice, or is what you really mean you add just apple-juice meaning unfermented juice? I’m a bit confused..
In the US “cider” is also unfermented apple juice. Sorry I know that can be confusing. But I used unfermented juice to make this recipe and then fermented it mixed with beer wort
@@TheBruSho ok just apple juice then:)
In the uk it is often know that young piss heads will have half a pint of lager mixed with half a pint of cider ( only the us calls it hard cider ) and it’s called snakebite ( if you and blackcurrant cordial as well it’s called diesel).
I might have a go at this 👍
I always thought about doing this, but I wasn't sure if hop bitterness and apple sourness would actually taste good together.
I think they do work well. If you pick the right hop i think it actually accentuates the apple flavor. Definitely room to experiment
Trent: Great video and the Graf sounds amazing. What was the weight of your grain bill?
Yo Richard,
Not sure if you are still interested or already figure it out. Pilsner-3lbs/Munich-0.5lbs
I think a brown ale grain bill with cider and brown sugar would make more an apple pie graf
Yum that sounds really great!
Doing a neipa/mango apple juice
Dannng sounds bomb!
How about grape juice
Definitely, I think that is called oenobeers. Something I wanna try for sure!
Nice Trent! My buddies have a killer recipe (they won’t share though :( They call it Apple Pider, and it’s delicious! I like your saison twist!!
Oooh that sounds phenomenal. Guess you gotta bribe them for the recipe
Hi there! Thank you for alot of good videos for a brewing-n00b, but i got a question:
What is the ammount in kg/lb/oz on the grains? Or is that a 'given' assuming the OG and ammount of wort?
Cheers!
Yeah really depends on your desired OG and batch size but typically for a 5 gal batch of an average beer your looking at like 10-13lbs of grain
So….. redds apple ale?
No because this one actually tasted good.
@@MrBfuzz but it’s the same concept??
Hahah I guess. Haven’t had that in a long time. But you could totally make this your own with changing the grains
@@patrickglaser1560 never said I did. I just asked a question. So hit me with you great knowledge sir.
@@Frank-the-Tank-13 knowledge is over rated if you lack it.