Bottling: BowThai 2 and Cider

Mmm...Cider

Bottled the BowThai and "Not your daddy's dorm room cider" last night.  Both tasted great.  The BowThai is right on track, very close to how I remember it tasting at this stage last time, and I think that some carbonation, cooling, and time will do it perfectly.  Lots of honey tones, a lovely herbal character, great coconut (and oatmeal) smoothness, and that oh-so-beautiful twinge of heat on the finish!  I want the alcohol to mellow out a bit, but I know it will (my efficiency was good so the ABV was just slightly higher than projected).

The cider is great, too.  It's a hair under 6 % ABV so it has a perfect draught cider taste, very much like Strongbow.  It's nice and dry with a little sweetness (I would call it semi-sweet), nice fruity apple character, a little tartness, and a slight hint of tannic vinous flavor.  S-04 was a perfect choice for the yeast, definitely left the apple character that I was looking for.  I am really looking forward to experimenting with cider in the future.  A lot about it is much easier than making beer, and certainly faster, so that leaves a lot of room for experimentation.  I definitely want to try some different juices, since I think that my yeast choice was just about right for this one.