I have jumped into the fermentation vat feet first and have started a one gallon batch of brew. The ingredients are at the end. So far the ferment is looking, smelling, and tasting quite wonderful as of 24 hours in.
If I am to understand how it usually goes: I should remove as much of the solids (not just the sediment/lees) when I rack it after the first ferment? Or should I leave them in to go through the secondary ferment? Or only leave them in for a day/days/week/weeks before straining (sparging?)? Is it OK to add additional solid flavoring items for the secondary fermentation like a vanilla bean, or some ginger root? If so how long can they stay in? All or part of the secondary ferment? What about additional natural sugar sources to boost the alcohol levels during the secondary ferment? Or adding natural sugar sources to (back?)sweeten if it's too dry? What kind of natural sugar sources would be recommended? Is cold crashing an option? What is the best way to do the krausening? Wire bail (Grolsch type)? Crimp top? What about bottle bombs? And I probably will/have a million more...
So my problem is: I am just not sure how long to leave all the fruity bits in for, or a rough timetable for the length of the ferment. I have read all kinds of conflicting information for dealing with all those lovely tasty bits, but no wild fermentation styles.
I have looked online at all kinds of home brew sites, but they really don't have much information other than to sterilize this, boil, boil, boil, gloves, mask, sulfites, bleach, additives, chemicals, bizarre sugars, splenda! BLEH!! and DOUBLE BLEH to splenda!!! I refuse to sanitize and sterilize like I'm going to do open heart surgery! Clean yes, sterile no!! I'm a Computer Tech, NOT a doctor!!!
The ingredients: Local feral apples (unwashed for the natural yeasty beasts & bacteria), banana, mango, pineapple, zante currants, 1 vanilla bean split, juice of one lemon, fresh grated ginger, evaporated cane juice, and a large blob of blackstrap molasses.
I do have an order in for a specialty yeast to do experiments in meads, cysers, metheglins, ciders and more another time, and a different forum...
Any and all comments, recommendations, real life experiences, discussions, criticisms, etc are welcome. Thank you for any and all help and/or information!!!
Ed Money