UPDATE: Bolshevik Imperial Stout

I bottled the Bolshevik Imperial Stout tonight and all I have to say is WOW that is one amazing beer.  I began the process of waking the beer up from it's 6 week slumber with a little bit of brown sugar water last night, primed and bottled it tonight. 

Final "Stats"
OG 1.099
FG 1.020
ABV 10.4
Calories/Pint 463

Strawberry Pear Hard Apple Cider

So the other day I got this crazy notion while walking through the grocery store.  I'll make a hard cider.  Knowing the basic premise behind doing this I grabbed me some apple cider.  Then I noticed the price and wow maybe I'll just make 2 gallons to start with I thought to myself.

A gallon of cider later and a few hours of research on good recipes and what yeast to use I have it down I know what I want to do. 

Here's my recipe:

1 gallon apple cider (I would prefer unpasteurized but it is March not going to happen)
1 lb brown sugar
1 lb frozen strawberries
1 large fresh pear cubed

Mix the brown sugar with 1/2 gallon of water and heat to 150 degrees.
Steep the fruit in the brown sugar water mixture for 20 minutes
Add the cider to the fermenter and add 1/2 gallon of water.

Add fruit and water to fermenter; pitch with Red Star Champagne yeast. 

I'll let it ferment in the primary for about 4 days and then transfer to secondary and remove the fruit.  (And yes I plan on eating it.)

Let fermentation finish and store in the basement at 55ish degrees for 7 days then add .3 oz of priming sugar

This should be a nice little experiment.