hard apple cider and more...

Woot! Woot! My first batch of hard apple cider is ready and oh boy does it have a kick... I generally jump into things with both feet without really taking a whole lot of time to check things out. I started my first batch without doing much more than read the instructions and some comments on a few websites... I didn't make one important connection from any of my sources... the amount of sugar determines the alcohol content - not the sweetness of the finished product... I wanted a very sweet hard cider and got one that could knock down a moose. Not a bad thing, just unexpected. It finished it's fermentation so the next step was to move it to another bucket to allow it to clarify. You have to try not disturb the sediment at the bottom so your supposed to siphon it off into the next barrel - sounds simple enough, until you consider that I have no luck with siphoning that is... I've had waterbeds for more than 20 years and draining them has always been a nightmare until I started renting a pump to do it with. I understand how to siphon and I get it started with no real problems but after a while it always stops and won't restart. That is exactly what happened in this case. Not even half the bucket had transfered when it quit. So I try and try to get it to go again. I ended up a little drunk and never got it going again. I opted to give up and just pour it very carefully into the second bucket... The second bucket has a spigot on it so I've been pouring some glasses to drink. I haven't yet bought bottles to actually bottle it in. I did get a one gallon growler, added some sugar water and filled it with cider. That will cause it to carbonate all on it's own in a few weeks. The rest, now that fermenation is done, I'm going to sweeten it a little bit and call it good. I don't think this first batch is going to make it to the bottling stage... I think instead it is going to stay right in the bucket and be dispensed a glass at a time.
Tomorrow I'm going to start my second batch and this time I'm going to add a little thing of cherry flavor to the cider and see how that goes... other than that I'm keeping it exactly the same as the first batch. Well and now I'll know better than to attempt the siphon again unless I'm actually looking for a buzz that is!

The world has gone crazy...

The last week or so has just been whacked. I've been on vacation, no big plans, hang out with friends, get some stuff taken care of around the house - that kind of thing. That should make for a calm week but it didn't. Among other things there seems to have been a rash of people getting killed lately. First was the shooting at mack and micks in granite city, I've hung out there a couple times and have a friend that lives less than a mile from there. Then a double homicide at a steak and shake right around the corner practically from where a friend of mine works. Then a broad daylight murder with an assault rifle not but a half mile from my house. Then a friend tells me this morning that a guy she knew and we had talked to not long ago got killed in a hit and run accident and his 9 month old baby boy had to be airlifted to the hospital. If that is horrible enough - his wife is 6 months pregnant. It seems to me that there have been an awful lot of people getting killed lately. In addition to that, it seems like nearly everyone I talk to has really had a bad time of things lately. Money problems, job problems, family problems, health problems - you name it. It's almost like the collective stress level of this area is really shooting up. The stock market has lost it's mind, jobs are going away everywhere, cost of living is skyrocketing at a pace few peoples income can keep up with. People are saying things like - if you have a job - hold on tight to it because there isn't anything out there.
The world indeed seems to have gone crazy. The only thing I can think to say is that compassion and understanding is something we need to try and focus on as a society right now. Understand that the people around you are going through hard times as well and cut some slack. It won't fix anything, but it sure might make things a little easier to deal with.