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Cider Digest #0904
Subject: Cider Digest #904, 11 June 2001
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #904 11 June 2001
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
NYTimes talks cider (j/kbooth)
Pressing issues down under (David Pickering)
SO2 and low temperature tactics (David Pickering)
travel in west/north (j/kbooth)
watering trees? (Dick Dunn)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: NYTimes talks cider
From: j/kbooth <jameshbooth@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 19:55:45 -0400
>
> Tastings: The Apple Bites Back
>
>
> By THE NEW YORK TIMES
>
> MAGINE biting into a crisp, perfectly ripe apple. Next, imagine
> that piercingly pure apple flavor in a lightly carbonated, lightly
> alcoholic drink made subtly more complex through fermentation, and
> you have a tall glass of cool apple cider, a refreshing
> warm-weather alternative to beer or chilled wine.
>
> Once, 200 years ago, fermented, or hard, cider was the most
> popular beverage in North America, the chosen quaff of farmers and
> presidents alike. Then, beer and wine took over the market and hard
> cider largely went the way of powdered wigs.
>
> But cider has been making a comeback, with many small producers
> fermenting apple juice. In addition, importers are bringing in
> outstanding examples from Britain and France.
>
> My favorites are the French ciders, mostly from the apple regions
> of Normandy and Brittany, where small producers are making
> handcrafted versions with exceptional care and skill. They are not
> too sweet, the apple flavors are delicious, and they are light in
> alcohol, generally 2 to 5 percent.
>
> Some producers, like Etienne Dupont, whose luscious ciders have
> long been available in New York, have made cider for centuries. His
> family established itself in the Pays d'Auge, the heart of Calvados
> country, in 1837.
>
> Erich Bordelet, whose ciders are just showing up in New York, was
> a sommelier in the Paris restaurant Arpege from 1986 to 1991 before
> beginning production at his family's farm in Normandy.
>
> The best producers treat apples the way the best winemakers treat
> grapes, handpicking them if possible, blending bitter, sweet and
> acidic juices to reach the preferred balance of flavors and
> allowing slow, natural fermentation. Most of these ciders are
> unpasteurized, which leaves them looking cloudy, but the flavors
> are far more intense than those in pasteurized versions, offering
> the difference between a wonderful, just-picked apple and one of
> those industrial apples that age in a grocer's case but never
> change.
>
>
> ERICH BORDELET, SYDRE ARGELETTE 1999 $13
> Softly carbonated; aroma of apples, herbs and Camembert.
> ETIENNE
> DUPONT, CIDRE BOUCHE, BRUT DE NORMANDIE 1999 $7
> Deep apple scent, tart apple flavor.
> HENRI BELLOT, CIDRE BOUCHE
> $8
> Aroma of caramelized tarte Tatin, sweet apple flavor.
> LECOMPTE, PAYS D'AUGE 1997 $9
> Bubbly, pure apple flavor, light
> bodied and refreshing.
> DUCHE LONGUEVILLE, CIDRE BOUCHE, MUSCADET DE DIEPPE $6
> Very
> light and sweet aroma, gently carbonated and refreshing.
> DUCHE LONGUEVILLE, CIDRE BOUCHE, NORMANDIE ANTOINETTE $6
> Dry and
> direct, clean and fresh, slightly heavy carbonation.
> Listed in order of preference. Prices are those paid in wine shops
> in the New York region.
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/06/living/06TAST.html?ex=992878634&ei=1&en=97d1
859ca325d1cb
------------------------------
Subject: Pressing issues down under
From: David Pickering <davidp@netwit.net.au>
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2001 21:30:50 +1000
A borrowed heading, but all in a good cause.
My latest incarnation of cider press - Mark V if I remember correctly -
has now acheived some sort of fame on the net.
Visit the website www.supplierpipeline.com and click on the rosy red
apple at top left!
Powered by (muscle and) two 4WD jacks it gives a pressure of 7 tonnes
and a good aerobic workout at the same time. Pressing plates are 500 *
500 mm.
David Pickering
------------------------------
Subject: SO2 and low temperature tactics
From: David Pickering <davidp@netwit.net.au>
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2001 21:31:03 +1000
In searching for techniques to bring an early stop to my cider
fermentation (see Cider Digest 902 - any words of advice anybody?) I
came across a publication "The Principles and Practice of Cider-Making"
by VLS Charley from 1949, which is a translation of "La Ciderie" by Prof
G Warcollier (1928).
He quotes a "normal" dose of sulphur dioxide as 1.5oz of K.M.S. per 100
gallons. I guess KMS is potassium metabisulphite but that is a guess,
and I suppose a French gallon is the same as an English one ie bigger
than a US gallon. How does one get rid of the SO2 odour from the cider?
The book has lots of interesting info on the state of the cider-maker's
art circa 1928-1949. Lots of encouraging things then a full chapter on
"Disorders of Cider". I think I'll read that properly when and if I have
problems with ropiness or green cider.
There were also some hints that low temperatures of around +1 to -1C
(ummm... 34 to 30F ?) may be a means of halting fermentation and
preventing spoilage in the incompletely fermented product I am trying to
produce - dare I say a Scrumpy style with lots of fruit. Has anybody
gone down this road?
Lower temperatures than these, eg down to -4C, can apparently be used to
concentrate the cider by removal of ice that separates out. The book
quotes French work with a start point of sg 1.010 and 3.75% alcohol and
the strongest of the fractions produced as 1.016 and 5.95.
The book later quotes work from Long Ashton using a single freezing to
- -12C that gave increases of:
sg acid tannin alc%
sg acid tannin alc%
Knotted Kernel 1.008 0.37 0.23 5.25 1.016 0.61
0.40 8.55
Sweet Clusters 1.018 0.26 0.18 3.02 1.039 0.54
0.34 6.02
Woodbine 1.010 0.39 0.14 4.32 1.019 0.65
0.27 8.15
Not a bad concentrating job - hope the table is still readable after
going through all the email systems.
David Pickering
------------------------------
Subject: travel in west/north
From: j/kbooth <jameshbooth@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 22:19:16 -0400
I will be arriving in Bath area July 13 with my wife and granddaughter (14 yrs)
and traveling north by car to Blackpool, York and then to fly out of Glasgow
July 27. I love cider and cider making but will have very limited attention of
my traveling companions to indulge myself attending to the craft.
Recommendations of events and places to visit would be appreciated, and also Bed
and Breakfasts. Both those cider related and memorable for a 14 year old girl.
wassail and TIA, jim booth
respond to jameshbooth@worldnet.att.net
------------------------------
Subject: watering trees?
From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 10:20:10 -0600 (MDT)
I've got a few dozen trees of various cider-apple varieties, all still young.
I'm thinking about how to irrigate them over the long term. (Hoses or
buckets, as I've used so far, are _not_ a long-term solution!)
Cutting furrows for a row-type flood irrigation just isn't an option. I've
been thinking that some sort of drip arrangement ought to work, but I can't
get a good handle on what sort of drippers, and how many per tree, I should
use. Anyone with advice or experience, especially for dry climate?
(This is on the fringe of standard Cider Digest topics. I think most
replies should go via email unless they are of unusually general interest.)
- ---
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
...Simpler is better.
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #904
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