Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Cider Digest #0430
Subject: Cider Digest #430 Fri Apr 15 18:00:04 EDT 1994
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 94 18:00:05 -0400
From: cider-request@x.org (Are you SURE you want to send it HERE?)
Cider Digest #430 Fri Apr 15 18:00:05 EDT 1994
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Jay Hersh, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
RE: sweet sparkling cider (stave)
riddling (Chip Hitchcock)
Seattle Cider Seminar (John Ross)
sweet sparkling cider` ("Steve Daughhetee")
how is cider judged? (Nick Cuccia)
Send articles for submission to cider@x.org
Send subscribe, unsubscribe and address change requests to cider-request@x.org
Raw digest archives available for ftp only on export.x.org
Please note digests are only sent when there are submissions
pending
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 94 9:50:46 EST
From: stave@apollo.hp.com
Subject: RE: sweet sparkling cider
Another sweet sparkling cider idea is mentioned in "Sweet & Hard Cider"
by Annie Proulx & Lew Nichols. It goes as following:
Add sugar to taste, then bottle. Open a test bottle every few days
and when the carbonation is where you want it, pasturize the rest of
the filled bottles by submersing them in a deep pot (one inch of water
over the tops of the bottles) and bring them to a boil. Hold the boil
for 1 minute, then take the bottles out, leaving them on their sides
to cool.
I was going to try this, but the damn batch never carbonated. I'll
try it again next season.
Joel Stave
stave@apollo.hp.com
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 94 10:38:55 EST
From: cjh@diaspar.HQ.ileaf.com (Chip Hitchcock)
Subject: riddling
Stephen J. Butts writes:
> produced -- cider clears very slowly and early bottling captures much of the
> crud, which boils up when the bottle is opened. Champagne-makers solve this
> by fermenting with the neck of the bottle down, freezing the sediment, popp-
> ing it out and re-corking, a bit past the ability of most of us home brewers.
It may not be a common procedure, but it's hardly beyond the ability of most
homebrewers. Note that the secondary fermentation actually happens with the
bottles lying on their sides, often stacked head-to-foot with just bits of
lath to separate and stabilize them. (YHOS, a dexterity-3 type, would much
rather jump out of an airplane than walk past one of those stacks in
cramped quarters.) Also, the bottles aren't corked during this time;
they're crowned-capped.
After the fermentation, the bottles are "riddled" to collect the sediment
in the neck. A 1- or 2-stage riddling rack is easy to put together out of
wood with nails, a hammer, and a drill and hole saw; the ones I saw held
the bottle ~30 degrees from upside-down. Bottles are jerked and rotated a
quarter-turn every day(?) for several days; this is one of the things that
makes genuine methode-champenoise (as opposed to bulk process) more
expensive, and accounts for the white radial stripe (so the riddler can find
where he was before he went on break) on the bottoms of many
methode-champenoise bottles.
Modern freezing methods sometimes involve heavy-duty refrigerators (in a
glycerin bath), or even liquid nitrogen, which are difficult for
homebrewers to get and handle. However, the traditional method using ice
and salt (as for ice cream but slushier) will work. When I was a chemist I
made cold-baths out of 2-propanol (available in most drugstores as rubbing
or isopropyl alcohol) and dry ice (available from many ice-cream stores and
factories---on HBD somebody claimed it can be found in grocery stores,
which I've never seen, but I expect most homebrewers are within reach of a
source); this should be almost as easy and much faster (a salt bath might
get to -10C, where the dry-ice bath could be -50C or lower).
The biggest difficulty I see with this is that champagne strikes me as much
more carbonated than cider---strong enough to force out a plug of ice. But
it is worth playing with if you try the early-bottling method.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 94 16:01:22 -0700
From: John Ross <johnross@genetics.washington.edu>
Subject: Seattle Cider Seminar
The following received today from Washington State University's Mount
Vernon Research and Extension Unit:
TO: Cider Enthusiasts
FROM: Bob Norton
Gary Moulton
DATE: April 1, 1994
SUBJECT: Cider Seminar
Enclosed in the program schedule for our seminar, to be held April 22,
1994 at Larry's Market in Totem Lake. Some of you may be interested in
participating in the entire seminar, others only in certain sessions. In
either case, registration will be needed IN ADVANCE, no drop-ins. Available
space is limited to about 35 participants, so we need to know in advance
how many will be attending the sessions and how many wish to participate in
the lunch and cider tasting.
We would like to bring in the world-renowned cider expert, Dr. R.R.
Williams from Long Ashton, England, but we need at least another $700 in
sponsorship funds to do this. If you can help, please call ASAP, either
206-332-8795 (Norton) or 206-424-6121 (Moulton). Those listed as program
sponsors on the schedule have already contributed.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
REGISTRATION - CIDER SEMINAR
Name:
Address:
Phone: FAX:
Please sign me up for the seminar:
Registration ($25 per person, includes lunch and cider tasting) _____
Donation for guest speaker (optional, suggested $25 or more) _____
TOTAL _____
Luncheon selection (see enclosed menu) #_____
I will bring cider for tasting Y N
Type(s)____________________________ Quantity)____________
Cooling facilities available at the Market)
Please return BY APRIL 15 to: Cider Seminar
c/o WSU-Mount Vernon, 1468 Memorial Highway, Mount Vernon, WA 98273
Make Checks payable to Washington State University
- ----
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
HARD CIDER PRODUCTION SEMINAR
April 22, 1994
Co-Sponsors: Cascadian Farm, Key Bank, Larry's Markets
Place: Larry's Market, I-405 Totem Lake, NE 124th St. Exit
Advance Registration Only
9:00 - 9:45 AM Introduction to Cider Tasting - A selection of domestic
and imported ciders: Paul Thomas
9:45 AM Welcome and Opening Remarks: Bob Norton, WSU
SESSIONS: Each session will be introduced by the discussion leader(s), who
will open the topic with a brief statement, act as moderators in the
discussion, and summarize the session with specific recommendations or
actions.
10:00 AM Session 1 - Defining the Market: Bill Shepard, VP Sales and
Marketing, Cascadian Farm; John Ross, Writer and Cider Enthusiast,
Seattle
10:45 AM Session 2 - Capital & Investment Opportunities/Requirements: Jay
Solomon, Chief Financial Officer, Cascadian Farm; Susan Gates, Key
Bank, Seattle
11:30 AM Cider Tasting followed by lunch
1:00 PM Session 3 - Growing Apples & Pears for Cider: Varieties,
rootstocks, pest control, use of non-cider varieties from commercial
orchards: Gary Moulton, WSU Mount Vernon; Porter Lombard, Professor
Emeritus, OSU [Oregon State University], Medford, Oregon
1:45: PM Session 4 - Making Quality Cider: Equipment, crushing,
fermentation, blending, containers: Ron Irvine, Vashon Island; Alan
Foster, Newburg, Oregon; Special Invited Guest Al Piggott, Cobble
Hill, B.C.
2:30 PM Session 5 - Regulatory Aspects of Cider Manufacturing: Corbin
Hutchins, Seattle, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms
representative
3:00 PM Session 6 - Cider Research: Problems, priorities, funding: Bob
Norton, WSU; Gene Kahn, Cascadian Farm
3:30 PM Seminar Conclusions: Closing comments, more cider...
- ----
Lunch Options:
Sandwiches
1. Smoked Turkey and Havarti on Armenian Soft Cracker Bread
2. Panini bread with mixed Italian cold cuts
3. Turkey & Havarti on Muesli Hoagie bread
4. Roast Beef & Cheddar on Country Italian Roll
5. Black Forest Ham & French Emmental on Pumpernickel Roll
6. Three-Grain Chapati (Vegetarian)
7. Cajun Meatloaf on Italian Roll
Salads
Cantonese Chicken Salad
Caesar Salad
Mediterranean Vegetable Salad
Southwest Chicken Salad
- -----
If you have questions about the seminar, please contact Bob or Gary at WSU.
They are not on the Net, so telephone or postal mail is probably best.
I can answer some logistical questions via e-mail, but I am not directly
involved in organizing the seminar, and I can't speak for them. As you may
have noticed, I have agreed to chair one of the non-technical sessions.
I plan to take extensive notes at the seminar, and I will post them to Cider
Digest after the event.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 14:41:56 EDT
From: "Steve Daughhetee" <sdd6@cornell.edu>
Subject: sweet sparkling cider`
While I have not yet tried this technique with a cider (I prefer dry
ciders), it would seem to work. Begin with a sweet, still cider. This can
be made with an alcohol-intolerant yeast, potassium sorbate, etc. Place the
cider in a five gallon soda keg (talk to one of your brewing friends).
Chill the keg to near freezing and force carbonate the cider with CO2 from a
cylinder. The cider can now be bottled with a counter-pressure bottle
filler into cold bottles. If the bottles are immediately capped, the cider
will keep its carbonation. I realize that this technique is rather
equipment-intensive, but isn't uncommon in the homebrewing community. Good
luck.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 1994 12:24:15 -0700
From: Nick Cuccia <cuccia@Talamasca.Berkeley.CA.US>
Subject: how is cider judged?
My homebrew club has an internal judging at our monthly meetings. Each month,
we judge four or more examples of a particular style category as a club, with
scoring statistics (means, deviations, maxs, mins) and commentary written up
for the following month's newsletter. We use the standard AHA scoresheets as
a basis for our scoring.
Anyways, this month's style category was cider. One of the problems that we
had was figuring out how to map the various attributes (aroma, appearance,
flavor, etc.) of cider onto the AHA beer score sheet. Obviously, attributes
regarding maltiness, hoppiness, etc. don't map to cider, unless you called
maltiness "fruitiness".
If someone out there who is a cider judge (or who is otherwise familiar with
cider judging) could provide a brief writeup on how cider is judged--not only
how scoring is tallied, but also what the judges are looking for (and not
looking for) in each category, I'd greatly appreciate it, and so will my club;
I plan on writing up an article on this topic as part of the scoring for this
month's style of the month, and I'll make sure that those of you who provide
information are cited as appropriate.
Thanks,
- --Nick
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest
************************
