This is a hybrid of a cider and a stout. I was thinking of making both separately but stumbled onto this recipe on another forum and decided to give it a whirl.

Dark Tower Graff -

Ingredients -

• 3.75lbs of Pilsner LME
• 1lbs 120L Crystal Malt
• 0.25lbs Roasted Barely
• 0.25lbs Chocolate Malt
• 1 0z Target @ 45 minutes
• 1/2 oz Irish Moss @ 10 minutes
• 2 Gallons SunRype Pure Apple Juice
• 1 Package SafeAle US-05 (Rehydrated, pitched at 26c)

I steeped the grains for 20 minutes at around 70c. Following that I brought the grain tea to boil and added the LME and hops which were boiled for 45 minutes. When that was done it was moved to the fermenter where the cooled apple juice plus an additional 2.5 gallons of cooled water was added (bringing the temperature down rapidly). Finally I took the OG and pitched the yeast.

The Original Gravity was 1.052 which is exactly what I was aiming for. I am a little concerned about the yeast I pitched as it clumped together when I added it. I shouldn’t matter too much but I am going to keep an eye on it. The plan is 3 weeks in the primary, followed by a 7-14 days in the secondary to clean it up.

If all goes well I should have a tasty malted dark cider to enjoy by the end of May.

Oh and on a side note I finally got around to bottle my Apfelwien which finished at 0.996. I took a small sample taste and found it very tart and sharp which may require an extended bottle conditioning to mellow out.