Well, tax season has ended, about a month ago, and unfortunately I'm rather behind on several projects.   The temperature fluctuations hasn't helped the beer that I had out in the storage room of my apartment, even though I was monitoring it to make sure it didn't drop below freezing, but somehow, the process didn't go as smoothly as the first lager I had made out there several years ago.    It was the exact same recipe using saaz hops and sorghum syrup, however, I'm beginning to wonder if the pressure based fermentation did have an effect on it.  The first result was a pale, clear beer, however the one this time is more amber, and has the definitive taste of sorghum, and the fruity esters of the yeast.  It will still age under pressure for some time, and I may be trying it this weekend.

I've finally run out of the cider that I've had on tap for two years.  Admittedly, I had been only slowly going through it, due to last year's disastrous apple crop for Michigan.  I don't have a particular apple blend, nor do I have a source for specific apples, or fruit grinder, so I normally pick up ciders from certain producers, I usually look for a tarter cider, rather than sweeter when I was doing this for the prior years.   As of two days ago, there has been a frost, but while there are reports of frost damage, it's nowhere near the damage that existed last year.

I've also finally run out of a too-sweet white zinfandel that I've had for three years.  These have been in kegs, and yes, has been drinkable despite being 3 years old.  This was one of the early batches where I had followed the instructions, rather than the later batches where I've been adding half the sweetener pack during the first fermentation and the other half at the end.

I also brought a keg of a plain gluten free beer that had used the New Zealand hop motueka.  Because of the timing of my drinkers (usually just me), it's been about half a year since it was made, so it had lost a lot of the up front grapefruit flavors that the hops introduce.  The remaining tropical fruit flavor did, however, blend well with the diminished sorghum flavor and my initial testers liked it.  I wound up dragging several gallons out to a brewing day in Ann Arbor to see if I could receive any feedback.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of detail.   It wasn't a terrible beer, but it was not a favorite (in comparison to the normal barley based beers).  It was, however, the only gluten free beer out there.  Among the taps, it was one of the last two remaining beers at the end of the day, and I still took home a gallon or two.

Again, I managed to discuss some gluten free brewing to people who were looking at trying it out for friends and family, but nothing to the extent of people who were currently brewing gluten free, or had any suggestions for changes.

With two empty kegs, and the third expected to be empty this weekend, this does mean that it's time to start making something again.   Perhaps I might have been able to fit something in January or February in a carboy and let it sit for a few months, but I honestly didn't expect for three to come up at once.  I do have a Cellar Craft Sterling International GSM that is currently in secondary fermentation, so I do expect this to go into one of the kegs, and to finally bring out either the Cranberry mead, or the other Red wine.

I also need to catch up on cleaning, since I won't brew in a dirty kitchen, (And being in an apartment, it's all I've got).  But once that's done, then I can expect at least two more posts of something being made.  I'm considering another variation on the Orange & coriander beer.  Also, I really need to finish the sprayers that for the grain sprouting test in the spare bathroom.

I think this is the first weekend I've had open for a while where I'm not working, but unfortunately, I came down with some sort of cold.  Because of this, I don't think it would be wise to do any baking, or brewing.  However, in the past few weeks, I have been making hard cider.  Two of the gallons (Using D47 yeast)are sitting outside in a shed where it's cold, and one is in a fridge (using EC1118 yeast).  I have two more gallons in my regular fridge waiting for yeast to be added, however I'm not sure which I want to use.

I feel like trying to do this one gallon at a time has been rather annoying.  Because of the one gallon quantities, I have to bottle them up, especially if I want them carbonated.  If I left them as a still (non-carbonated) drink, I suppose I could put them into a gallon sized growler so it's still not sitting on the yeast.

I've toyed with the idea of combining all 5 gallons into a single container, but I'd prefer to keep them slightly separate for the taste difference between the yeasts.  Next year, I'm going to get 5 gallons at a time, just so it's easier.  I'll eventually bottle these into champagne bottles, which means I need approximately 20 or so bottles (50 bucks).  It'll definately be easier to keg next time.

Speaking of kegs, I picked up another keg, as well as some supplies to make a kit wine.  I've been wanting to try making a wine and thought it would be easier to use a kit, a kit being mainly juice and a few other additives.  Many people have said that kits are pretty decent and that the lower end kits will create wines that are around $8 a bottle retail, and that the higher end kits can do wines that are similar to the $20 a bottle retail.  Kits contain supplies to make about 6 gallons of wine and can range from 60-several hundred.   Ideally, I'll be using a large bucket to start this in, then move it to a plastic carboy (I'd use glass, but the weight and possiblity of breakage dissuaded me), then move it to a keg and bottles.  From the keg I expect I can bottle whenever I want to.

Also, I had actually picked up the keg since I *thought* that my earlier lager was ready to be transfered.  It turns out that it probably wasn't ready, and that the gravity was 1.020.  About midway between beginning and ending and that it had just stalled.  I did wind up transferring it to the keg and it seems that the fermentation has restarted.  I keep measuring the pressure since I had added some sugar to carbonate prior to testing and it keeps jumping up to far higher than I want. 
What I'll do is let it ferment more completely, keeping it at a pressure of around 30 psi, then transfer back to an empty keg.  I suppose that I should let it stay in the cooler environment outside, because inside, it's around 68 degrees, which is too high for the yeast.
I keep having trouble with the new keg though, and it seems to be holding pressure, but it's annoying that I had to continuously reposition the lid and pressurize it in order for the pressure to hold.  We'll see how this holds up and what I may do with the cider.