Like every fall, one point in time my mom calls with "Hey Martin, we made some apple juice. And there is too much of it. Again, yes I knoiw. Do you want some for what ever you do with it?". I'm like - "Sure mom, what ever makes you happy! (and whisper to myself: aww-yiss!!1!oneone!!1!).
I had actually lent out all my gear. I had been living at places that were not good for brewing or cider fermentations. My colleague Rahel was making wiking-mead for her wedding and I had borrowed some of the gear to her. I actually was kind of glad not to have any of the brewing gear at home, so I would not be tempted. But then came the "excess apple juice" call and I decided to go for it. And so I gathered all my gear from Rahel and different appartement cellars, where it was laying around... And here it is.
After putting all the "cider" (for us, read "juice" for europe") and the oak cask chips into the bucket, we let it stay there for 3 weeks. Pruulmeistrid helped with proper yeast. When the bubbling cooled down - re-racked, cold haze, then to the "christmas tree":
Together with the Christmas tree there comes my first attempt on a blog for a time-lapse and the gorilla-pod.
Now when it came to actual bottling I asked my SO for helping out with labelling. As we were lazy, we picked the shortest name that was not used before. Anya! And for the ones with excess yeast - we named it Banya!
After 8 weeks, the crisp vanilla from the french cask blows the mind. What i am missing is some bubbles. I'd love for it to be stronger. But it is what it is. Welcome to the family (b)Anya!
None of the cider is from Russia, we just love the slavic names :)
