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Cider Digest #0852
Subject: Cider Digest #852, 7 March 2000
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #852 7 March 2000
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Cider Digest (Ian Merwin)
Re: Cider Digest #851, 3 March 2000 (William J. Rhyne)
Re: Cider Digest #851, 3 March 2000 (Warren Place)
Pasteurization ("Iain Wyder")
Juice properties (Claude Jolicoeur)
Cultivar Characteristics (Andrew Lea)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest
From: Ian Merwin <im13@cornell.edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 15:18:43 -0500
Folks-
I have a copy of Downing's "Processed Apple Products." It is a good source
for information on apple processing and characteristics, and does have
extensive tables for other characteristics, especially in the chapter by
C.Y. Lee. However, there is no quantitative information in this
publication on the tannin content of apples. I have some unpublished
tables of data from R. LaBelle's work in Geneva NY during the 1970's,
giving tannin content values for some 40 varieties ranging from standard
American dessert or processing apples, to French and English bittersweets
grown in New York. I tried sending this in to Cider Digest as an MSWord
table but it got scrambled. If anyone wants this information, send me an
e-mail with your snail mail adress and I will send a copy on to you.
It's interesting to note that the tannin content for several of the
bittersweets in LaBelle's tests was considerably lower than tannin values
published for the same or similar varieties by researchers at Rennes in
Bretagne, and Villaviciosa in Asturias. This may be attributed to the
delay between harvest and pressing (ranging from weeks to months, during
which time active tannin content could decline), or to differences in
terroir or growing conditions in upstate New York vs. Bretagne vs. northern
Spain. Also, the use of different analytic methods for quantifying tannins
in various labs can greatly influence the values obtained, so the
information about tannins is not easy to interpret!
Also, total tannin content in apples may not be so important as the type or
polymerization of those tannins, which may produce on the consumer's
palate a range of sensations from pleasantly astringent to unpleasantly
bitter. My guess is that American consumers will (at least initially as
they discover that hard ciders needn't taste like 7-Up) prefer the softer
tannins, which should influence our varietal selections as we begin to grow
and blend bittersweets and bittertarts with our local favorites here in
North America. In feeding bittersweets from my home orchard to our
long-suffering but ever-willing undergraduates at Cornell, I find that even
students who enjoy a dry Merlot aged in oak will usually find a bite of
Tremblett's Bitter unpleasant indeed, but they will reach eagerly for
another bite of Medaille d'Or or Brown Snout, and they also have learned to
like a dry, tart, tannic hard cider.
Finally, on the recent perry questions: budwood for propagating some of
those perry varieties should be available from the USDA National Crop
Germplasm Repository for Pyrus in Corvallis, Oregon (www.ars-grin.gov/cor).
Two recent articles on perry production in California were published in
Cal. Agr. (1998) vol. 54, no. 6.
*************************
Ian Merwin (im13@cornell.edu)
Associate Professor of Pomology
118 Plant Science Bldg.
Dept. of Fruit and Vegetable Science
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853
Tel. 607-255-1777
URL. http://www.fvs.cornell.edu/Faculty/php/IanMerwin/iam.html
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #851, 3 March 2000
From: rhyne@wli.net (William J. Rhyne)
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 17:51:07 -0800
RE: Carolyn Wood's question about a sweet hard cider without chemicals
One method is to continue rack off the cider during fermentation until
there are not enough yeast to continue fermentation, another method is to
choose a yeast that dies at a certain alcohol level so that it does not
ferment the rest of the juice, and another method is to pasteurize the
cider before it reaches dryness to kill the yeasts.
Bill Rhyne
Rhyne Cyder
http://www.rhynecyder.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #851, 3 March 2000
From: Warren Place <wrplace@ucdavis.edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 22:21:10 -0800 (PST)
On 3 Mar 2000 ThompsonG@DFO-MPO.GC.CA wrote:
> So, the question is 2 part, what is a good sweetener for cider and at about
> what amount should I add for the first time. I realize that is a matter of
> taste but I just need a reasonable starting point.
I've been using Splenda lately with good results. The cider has
been in the bottle a few weeks and no explosions yet. The sweetener is
much more expensive than sucrose (which I also use in conjuction with
bottle pasteurization) but a lot less hassle. For the amount you will
want (probably about 1 cup per 20L) the price isn't so shocking as it will
last you a long time. I say a cup because it doesn't weigh the same as
sugar does but is about the same on a volume basis. You can order it
here http://www.splenda.com/order2.htm
I don't get any kickbacks, I am just very satisfied with the product.
Oh, you may have to heat it up a bit to get it to dissolve in water.
Warren Place
------------------------------
Subject: Pasteurization
From: "Iain Wyder" <wyder@intouch.ca>
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 12:47:56 -0800
Carolyn Wood <natvwine@cut.net> wrote:
"I was wondering if someone would have some insight on
pasteurization of cider. I am interested in making a cider of low
alchoholic strength with some residual sugar and was wondering if the use of
heat instead of chemicals was practical."
The simple answer is yes. In my previous life as a commercial cidermaker I
used pasteurization - and to assure the purists among our community I would
challenge you to tell the difference!
I still have low alcohol cider I made in 1992 that is still clean and fresh.
My technique was the same "post pasteurization" technique as used in
commercial breweries. Mind you the cider had a low pH - under 3.1, there
was no oxygen in the product and the cider was well carbonated.
Home pasteurization is messy and almost invariably one over cooks the
ider - however, if you have a home canning set up you can do it if you do
not mind drinking apple pie cider.
I am currently on the road - if you want further details email me and I will
send you the home procedure.
The best bet is if you can talk you local brewer into allowing you to run
your bottles though his machine you will likely wind up with a satisfactory
cider.
Best regards,
Iain Wyder
email wyder@gastips.com
Find the Best Gas Price at http://www.gastips.com
------------------------------
Subject: Juice properties
From: Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>
Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 16:47:32 -0500
In Cider Digest #851, 3 March 2000
Richard & Susan Anderson wrote :
>Subject: Apple Verities
>These are the 1999 stats on the apples we processed at Westcott Bay
>Orchards.
I think this was very useful information, so I thought I couls also write
on the juice properties from the apples I harvested in fall 1999 at my
orchard located 80 km NE of Quebec City, in zone 4. D is the juice density
and Ti is the titration acidity as % tartaric acid.
Freedom, D=1.044-1.046, Ti=0.45%
Liberty, D=1.054, Ti=0.5%
Empire, D=1.056, Ti=0.5%
Moira, D=1.050, Ti=0.5%
Cortland, D=1.056-1.060, Ti=0.8%
Brown's Apple, D=1.050, Ti=1%
Honeygold, D=1.062, Ti=0.6%
Rubinette, D=1.070, Ti=0.8%
Yarlington Mill, D=1.053-1.058, Ti=0.5%
Pumkin Sweet, D=1.054, Ti=0.6%
Haralson, D=1.050, Ti=0.9%
Bulmer's Norman, D=1.060, Ti=0.35%
Lobo, D=1.055, Ti=0.85%
Transparente de Croncels, D=1.054, Ti=0.85%
Ribston Pippin, D=1.063, Ti=1.1%
Akane, D=1.056, Ti=0.95%
Reine de Reinettes (King of Pippins), D=1.052
Redfree, D=1.041
Claude Jolicoeur, Quebec.
------------------------------
Subject: Cultivar Characteristics
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 09:19:04 +0000
In response to Roger Flanders and Richard Anderson, I'm fortunate enough
to own a personal copy of 'Processed Apple Products' (since I wrote the
Cider Vinegar chapter in that book) so in answer to the pleas for
analytical data on cider apples, I've scanned the relevant table from
Don Downing's chapter and put it on my web site. Additionally, I've
included a table of composite Long Ashton data (which is incomplete but
I will add to it later). Also an apology - due to a typo (or just
ongoing senility!) I gave the wrong value in my last posting for the
break point on acid in Barker's cider apple classification. It should
be 0.45% not 0.2%. The correct value is to be found, together with those
elusive tables, as follows:
Go to my web site (links below - both get you to the same place). Choose
'frames' to get the index bar and then you'll find the page you want as
a link to 'Cider Apple Data' at the bottom of the 'Science of
Cidermaking' list. I've added some other new stuff a couple of weeks
back too if anyone cares to have a look (and there's yet more updating
that needs doing when I get a minute).
Incidentally, on the topic of acid measurements, it's usual to express total
acidity in apples as malic since it's the chief acid. Winemakers
frequently express as tartaric (as Richard does) so to be accurate you
should multiply that value by 0.893 to convert it to malic. Makes fairly
little difference though. Also on the subject of acid, somebody said a
few weeks back that the second acid in apples after malic was citric.
It isn't. The second major acid in apples, and about 20% of the total,
is actually quinic acid (a fairly uncommon plant acid which is though
the major acid in cranberries). So the approximate ranking is malic
(0.4%), quinic (0.1%), citric (< 0.02%).
OK I'll stop being a pedant for now!!
Andrew Lea
nr Oxford, UK.
- --------------------------------------
Visit the Wittenham Hill Cider Page at
http://www.cider.f9.co.uk OR
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andrew_lea
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End of Cider Digest #852
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