which beer is the best in the world?

Good map: Thanks for sharing. It brought back a lot of beers I have drunk in the countries visited.

BUD LIGHT?
Oh, the shame. . .

Not really. I also drink Bud light. History of Budweiser in the US. There's a Bud brewery in Fairfield, CA. We pass by there every few years. There are tours there. http://www.budweisertours.com/locations/fairfield-california.html

SEPTEMBER - MAY
Tours Daily: 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tours start at the top of the hour
(Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays)
Gift shop 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Bar- 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Well. I'll admit you're a stand up guy C..I. So I give plus for your opinion.
I was a regular Bud slugger for many years until I hopped on the hop wagon.

When I was young, I harvested hops on the farms in Sacramento.

Hop-a-long Cicerone

I remember a summer day many years ago I had worked all day on a project outside. I was hot and tired and dirty and at the end of it I cracked open a beer and sat down on the grass to drink it. The sun had sunk below the hilltop so it was a lot cooler and since the job was done I could relax. I don't remember the brand of beer I was drinking but I do remember it tasting like heaven on Earth.
THAT was probably the best beer I have ever had.

Last night I had some of the cider brewed from the apple tree in the garden. This was the first time I used a fruit press so it was all fruit juice, no added water and sugar. I did get a few other varieties of apple including crab and a few pears but it's still about 98% one tree.

I just added pectolyse to increase juice yield, nutrient and yeast.

It was very good, initially very sharp with a lovely sweet apply aftertaste. It's strong too, I slept in lunchtime today, something I've not done since the kids were born.

That's awesome that you can drink cider from your own trees!

Just the one tree, it's not that big but when it crops, (usually every other year,) it goes for it big time.

Last year was a bit of a dead loss, I got a few apples, but only enough for a couple of apple pies. I don't think it will be cropping much next year either.

I've not just had cider, we drank some juice and I made numerous apple based cakes pies and tarts. All gone now though, except the cider.

What's interesting is that the juice was brown, but the cider is pale yellow. I'm sure there's some scientific reason.

I have apple trees also, but around here we call them scrub apples. They're wild grown and all different and I don't know any of the varieties. I do pick them for apple butter, which turns out pretty good. I tried fermenting some juice some years ago but the resulting "wine" was just awful.

The juice may be brown because it still has particles in suspension. The cider has had time to settle and so becomes paler. This is just a guess.

It's always best to use more than one variety of apple. Also you need to use a specialist cider yeast, and nutrient. If your apples are very sour you might need to add some more sugar as well.

A lot of it's trial and error, and I've been doing it for a long time.

Apple wine is something different entirely, and a more complicated recipe, it takes a lot longer.

The juice/apples turn brown about 30 minutes after being exposed to the air, I think it's oxidation.

If I was superfast I could probably get the juice pressed before it goes brown, but with my equipment I don't think it's humanly possible.

I half the apples and soak them in water with pectolase for a few hours, then I put them through a food processor before piling them in the apple press. This takes hours, at least 20 lots of food processing before the fruit press is anywhere near full enough.

we had a hance to try some of the ressurected hard ciers in New England as we drove home. I asked a cider guy at a restaurant hw they made their own brand (It was a very clean crisp cider with no hint of that yeasty fetidness that you often get at these brewpub sites).
He said they use a mixture of Rambo. Cortland, and an old "hritage" cider apple which i picked earlier in the autumn than the sweeter ones. This cider apple, (he gave me the name and I promptly forgot it) was a more bitter apple (more like a quince) and it required some cooking to kill the astringncy and bing out the spicyness. Then they take this as a "must" and core the others (skin on) and smoosh the whole thoing and use little cider yeast (he said their cider yeast has a tops of like 10% alky before it croaks ) and they also use the wild yests on the apple skins

I dont drink with the exception of enjoying a hard cider every several months . I prefer a clean slightly sweet fizz. Most of the commercial ones have the clean done well but their flavors miss something that If the brewpubs and cider houses would only spend more time in getting rid of that yeastyness, they would have a superior brew.

How long ya been cidering?

when you add your pectin enzymes do you measure it out or just use a "more is better" recipe?? I heard that the fining of the liquid benefits from healthy dose to really bust up the pectin and render the wine (or cider) much clearer

I've been brewing wine off and on for about thirty years. This is the first year I got a proper fruit press, before I'd soak the pulp in boiling water and then run it through a pillowcase and add a bit of extra sugar.

Pectolase has two uses to clear wine/cider or to increase yield. I use it for the latter, sprinkle it over a bucket full of apple halves in water. I don't really measure much. I do most things by eye.

The few years I was making "wine" I was basically fermenting anything I could get ahold of. It was a lot of fun and I threw a lot of parties! I eventually moved on to wine and slowly came to realize (as my tastes became a little more refined) that I couldn't make anything nearly as good as what I could buy.
It was very satisfying however to serve homemade hooch!

Matcha beer anyone?