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Cider Digest #0867
Subject: Cider Digest #867, 29 June 2000
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #867 29 June 2000
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Cider Digest #866, 20 June 2000 (Dave Burley)
New Subscription ("Spence")
New Subscribers, Questions (Jonathan Peakall)
re: new subscribers? ("FLAHIE, PATRICK")
virgin cider maker ("Thomas D. Hamann")
In-bottle pasteurization (Warren Place)
(Philip Sugarman)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Cider Digest #866, 20 June 2000
From: Dave Burley <Dave_Burley@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 09:19:42 -0400
Richard and Susan Anderson. Thanks for your comments. I plan on planting a
small cider orchard for my own use next year but worry that my Zone 7
location in South Carolina will be a problem. Where exactly do you live?
Zone 8 as you noted is pretty warm for apples as I understand it. Maybe a
communication problem as to what you mean by Zone 8?
Dave Burley
------------------------------
Subject: New Subscription
From: "Spence" <drwlg@coollink.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 09:28:20 -0400
As to why I just subscribed... I have been a homebrewer for awhile and have
beer and wine batches behind me. I just made up my first batch of mead last
week. Wanted to learn more about making cider... to sort of keep things
mixed up and new in the hobby. I subscribe to HBD as well. I have lots of
questions, of course.
I assume I could begin a batch of cider from store bought apple juice?
Spence Graham
drwlg@coollink.com
If you're not bleedin'... you're not having fun!
------------------------------
Subject: New Subscribers, Questions
From: Jonathan Peakall <jpeakall@mcn.org>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 07:46:34 -0700
Dick Wrote:
>>Anybody out there have any guess why we just got over a dozen new sub-
scribers to the digest, all in one day? That number is small relative
to the total size of the digest, but statistically unusual.
(No, it wasn't because of the _Zymurgy_ article, at least not as far as
I can find.)
<<<<
It's because cider season is almost upon us! At least, that's why I
joined. While I am a long term and involved home brewer, I don't read
Zymurgy. I just love cider!
So while I'm here, I can see that y'all take cider as seriously as we do
beer on the HBD (Homebrew Digest), and so hope you can tolerate a couple
of newbie style questions:
I made my first batch last year. We used a 60/40 mix of Golden Delicious
and Jonathan's, respectively. It was good at Thanksgiving (still WAY
underdone), and absolutely fabulous at Christmas. Folks were practically
fist fighting for it! We saved about 1/2 and bottled it, using 3/4 cup
corn sugar per 5 US gallons. My questions are:
1) It is under carbonated slightly. Is 3/4 cup a reasonable amount? Next
time I would like to prime it using juice. Anyone have a formula to
figure how much juice of what SG? I have that for brewing, is it the
same?
2) Most of the real "apple" flavor is gone. It's not as if you can't
tell what its made of, but it used to be a sock in the mouth of all
kinds of apple flavor. Is this variety of apples, or simply how it ages?
3) I think I am going to drink mine while young this year. However, I
imagine I could use campden tablets to halt fermentation, and then force
carbonate. Is this dangerous i.e.. bottle bombs? Or can fermentation be
reliably terminated? If so, can anyone point me in the right direction
for achieving this?
4) I notice that very unusual (at least for my area) apple varieties
seem to be the norm here. I have access to TONS of apples, but of the
more common varieties. Any database I can consult about apple types?
TIA,
Jonathan Peakall
------------------------------
Subject: re: new subscribers?
From: "FLAHIE, PATRICK" <flahiep@michauto.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 13:05:07 -0400
It was probably because you plugged it in the Homebrew Digest on June 19th.
:-)
Patrick Flahie
Jackson, MI
(subscriber to both HBD and the Cider Digest)
------------------------------
Subject: virgin cider maker
From: "Thomas D. Hamann" <tdhamann@senet.com.au>
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 15:19:31 +0900
Dick wrote............
>Anybody out there have any guess why we just got over a dozen new sub-
>scribers to the digest, all in one day? That number is small relative
>to the total size of the digest, but statistically unusual.
>
>(No, it wasn't because of the _Zymurgy_ article, at least not as far as I
>can find.)
Hi cider makers, I must be oneof these newbies, looking forward to an
interesting diversion to my beer brewing exploits.
are these 12 all from South Australia? loads of us just collected a whole
heap of juice from an Adelaide Hills crushing, now we are cider buffs! Are
there any Aussie cider digest subscribers who know which apple varieties
are best? it seems that every apple available here is an eating variety
e.g. delicious, royal gala, granny smith, fuji......
are tart, aromatic and astringent apples available here (South Australia)?
my 18 litre batch using 14 grams of ale yeast is fermenting nicely, has
dropped from 1.058 to 1.030 in 4 days at an average temp of 16 C (60 F).
which yeast do you cider experts use if you want a 'not so dry' cider, I've
avoided EC-1118 (champagne) for that reason and have read that an ale yeast
will do this, what do you reckon?
------------------------------
Subject: In-bottle pasteurization
From: Warren Place <wrplace@ucdavis.edu>
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 22:36:26 -0700 (PDT)
Andrew Lea writes about Maturing ciders:
> "Even our Long Ashton Research Station
> experimental and for-sale ciders were in-bottle pasteurised and never
> improved on storage (at least from the mid 60's)."
I was wondering if you could describe the in-bottle pasteurization
process in detail for us. I've tried this a couple of times the way Bill
Rhyne (Rhyne Cider, mmm...good stuff) describes it, I think. Basically,
I've been putting the bottles in room temp water and heating to 170F
(76C), hold for 1 min and remove (wearing gloves, goggles and leather
jacket). The only problem is I haven't quite figured out how to deal with
the next batch. The water is alread 170F, how long do I leave the bottles
in? I have had enough physics and chemistry to know how to calculate
this, but figured asking for a ballpark figure might save me a lot of
time.
Warren Place
------------------------------
Subject:
From: Philip Sugarman <psugarman@fsmail.net>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 20:24:41 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
In response to Andrew Lea's view on shelf life of cider.
I found an astonishing improvement in cider at 2 years,
although it varies from bottle to bottle. Using pure
juice fermented by naturully occurring yeasts, I have
found that unbearable acidity and dryness softens
toward a more balanced cider, occasionally excellent
in quality. Even cider already balanced in ph and
sweetness develop more depth and subtlety. Opening
a bottle is always an adventure, the whole family
can debate the merits of each one. After two and
half years I haven't yet found a detectable loss
of quality in storage.
Philip sugarman
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #867
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