Hope we're not on the road to vinegar.

So last night, we were raring to go to start the cider making process.

We had all our equipment ready to go and pulled out the several books/recipes/websites, etc. that we had been consulting. Of course, everything started to seem unclear, incomplete and gave slightly differing opinions on how to do things. Simmer the cider first/don't simmer, add a campden tablet/ that's not necessary....

Either way...

So we bought a large blue tub to hold our "primary fermenter" (or... as we say in the country... BUCKET). We were absolutely expecting and planning for a large volcano of yeasty ciderness to explode over the top- as some books predicted-- and we didn't want that on our kitchen floor... (not that bacteria and mold aren't currently multiplying there anyway... but that's another topic.)

Additionally, we bought a large stockpot to simmer our cider, as one recipe suggested.... Just to find out that it was "Graniteware," and of course, our other cider book said that that material was not appropriate, and we MUST have stainless steel or face undoubted peril. FINE. Back out to the store to buy Stainless Steel, which was three times as expensive.

So we simmered. For nearly 1 hour.

Then we poured the cider into our freshly "sanitized" primary fermenter.... Also for those other noobs out there - sanitizing IS NOT "cleaning." It's not washing... it's not rinsing or scrubbing with some Dawn. Or even Antibacterial Dawn. Even the kind that strips crude oil off ducks and baby otters.

NOoo... SANITIZING is using this precarious powdered stuff mixed in one gallon of water that must touch all surfaces for at least 30 seconds. That's sanitizing. Hmmm... Makes me think everything I ever washed with Dawn isn't clean enough.

Either way. Cider in the bucket (primary fermenter), creepy test tube of English Cider Yeast in the bucket, and... that's it! It was 11:30pm , the cider was still a bit warm, but we were done dealing with it and hoped that the higher temp wasn't going to kill off the yeast (We won't even talk about how we put it outside to cool because it wasn't cool enough and then proceeded to dump ice cubes in the blue tub to cool the bucket because it was freaking 10:30pm and past our bedtime....)

By noon the next day, we had a thickish froth on the top that looked a bit like a flat cake. Interesting. The house had a nice yeasty-apple smell. Scrumptious.

In the process, we (Jed) broke the hydrometer (the little thermometer-type thing that tells potential alcohol content) , and we somehow were misled by one of our ciderbibles that we could keep the lid OFF during this process, but we were promptly told by a homebrew shopkeeper tonight that this was wrong, and we must IMMEDIATELY leave the store and put the lid and airlock on immediately!! Yikes...

So... that's where we're at. On the way to cider? Or vinegar?

Only time will tell....