Cider Digest #0012

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Cider Digest

 · 7 months ago

Subject: Cider Digest #12 Mon Aug 26 18:00:06 EDT 1991 
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 91 18:00:07 EDT 
From: cider-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu (Are you SURE you want to send it HERE?) 

Cider Digest #12          Mon Aug 26 18:00:06 EDT 1991 
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues 
Jay Hersh, Digest Coordinator 
                              
Contents: 
  Long awaited excerpts from AHA conference (hersh) 
                              
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Send requests to cider-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu 
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Date: Mon, 26 Aug 91 16:46:56 EDT 
From: hersh@expo.lcs.mit.edu 
Subject: Long awaited excerpts from AHA conference 

 
As promised here are the long awaited excerpts from the AHA conference tutorial  
on Cider making. Paul Correnty gave the talk, and the following was in his 
notes: 

There are 4 categories of apples to use: 
1) Neutral base: 30-50% of total juice. Sweet, low acid apples that provide 
sugar and are slow to oxidize. Varieties include: Baldwin, Red Delicious, 
Cortland, Rome Beauty, York Imperial 

2) Tart: 20-40% of total juice. Medium acid that give zest to the juice. 
Varieties include: Jonathan, Northern Spy, Rhode Island Greening, Wealthy, 
Winesap (aka Staman Winesap), Granny Smith 

3) Aromatic: 10-20% of total juice. For crisp apple bouquet. Varieties include: 
MacIntosh, Gravenstein, Pippin, Roxbury Russet 

4) Astringent: not more than 10% of total juice. Gives zing & tannin. Varieties  
include: Crab Apples, or wild apples. 

 
(*** Additional paraphrased excerpts follow ***) 

The goal is to acheive a balanced blend, not too tart, not too sweet. 

Initial gravities in the range 1.043 to 1.052 are typical. 
Addition of honey, cane or brown sugar (or any combination) to raise the 
gravity to 1.070 is recommended for producing a "traditional New England Hard 
CIder."  For each gravity increment of 0.005 add 2.25 oz. of sugar, or 3 oz. of 
honey per gallon. 

Russets, Baldwins or other thick skinned (or crab or wild) apples are 
 recommended as good sources of tannin, which aids in maintaining balanced 
flavor. 

Wild yeasts which appear on the apple are known as the bloom. They work best at 
cool temperatures (40-55F), though ale & lager yeasts work well for low alcohol 
cider, and Epernay Wine Yeast for a stronger wine like cider. 

Add Campden tablets (one per gallon of juice) and wait 24 hours prior to 
pitching the yeast. 

Traditional fermentation is done by filling sanitized uncovered vessels 
(carbouys, stainless steel kegs, wooden barrels) to the top and cover with 
cheescloth loosely. In a week or two the cider will begin vigorous 
fermentation. At this point the vessels should be wiped down daily with a mild 
bleach solution, and topped off with fresh cider. By the end of a month the 
activity will slow and an airlock should be put in place. One cup of natural 
raisins (unpreserved) may be added to give a yeast & tannin kicker as well as 
provide the active yeasts with additional nutrients. This helps prevent stuck 
ferments. The cider will continue to ferment slowly, and clear during the 
winter. Optional racking part way through the winter is OK. 

Racking off is done in early spring (anytime after the beginning of March). The 
still cider then can be quietly siphoned into bottles and corked or capped,  
or aged in oak for a few weeks. The bottled cider should be allowed to rest for 
a month or so before consumption. To make sparkling cider add 1 cup of sugar 
per carbouy before siphoning, then cap or cork (wire the corks!) and let them 
rest six wekks or so before consuming. 

If stored at 45-55F hard cider can be kept for two years without deteriorating. 

************* End paraphrasing ************* 

Well that's it. Those are excerpts of Paul Correnty's notes. Paul speaks mostly 
of Traditional New England Ciders. I think now many homebrewers are making 
similar beverages, but using different techniques, say working with added 
yeasts instead of natural ones, and perhaps paying a little more attention to  
the Cider vs. the traditional toss it in the basement and come back in spring  
method (which has it's merits in ease of production, though you need A LOT more 
spare carbouys to do it that way!!). 

Well try it and judge for yourself. 

 - JaH 

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
assume that you are moderate in everything. 
you now have an eXcess of moderation, a contradiction. 

eXcessiveness is clearly the way to go... 

 
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End of Cider Digest 
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