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Cider Digest #0981
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Subject: Cider Digest #981, 15 July 2002
Cider Digest #981 15 July 2002
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
My best cider so far, but... (Mark)
Variety Question: Binet Blanc ("McGonegal, Charles")
Re: Freezing Yeast (John DeCarlo)
Vermont heirloom apples ("Benjamin Watson")
Kingston Black (Dick Dunn)
New Cider Orcharding Book (Andrew Lea)
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Subject: My best cider so far, but...
From: Mark <scaffnet@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2002 20:59:08 -0700 (PDT)
Hello,
Is there any way to get rid of sulfurous nose
that interferes with a very pleasant dry cider
that I made last fall? My wife actually called
it 'pretty good' which is as damn near a
compliment as I've ever gotten, considering most
of my ciders have been pretty funky so far. The
cider was made with a vintage apple blend and a
sweet mead yeast, fermented in a glass carboy
since November. I just tried some the other day.
I am thinking about bottling it in the next few
weeks.
Mark
------------------------------
Subject: Variety Question: Binet Blanc
From: "McGonegal, Charles" <cpmcgone@uop.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 13:20:21 -0500
For those growers who have this variety (and trees old enough to taste :-)
where does Binet blanc fit in?
I'm using a scale of:
Sweet -> Sweet/Soft (tannins) -> Sweet/Hard -> Sharp/Hard -> Sharp
I suppose that leaves out Sharp/soft - but it's a scale that works for me.
For that matter - I'd be happy to hear about any of the other binets -
blanc/rouge/rose/violet/gris/noir, etc.
Thanks.
Charles McGonegal
Aeppeltreow Winery
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Freezing Yeast
From: John DeCarlo <jdecarlo@mitre.org>
Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2002 10:15:56 -0400
Hello,
The American Type Culture Collection makes use of freezing in distilled
water and stores many more microorganisms than just yeast. One of the
employees taught a class for brewers a few years ago. I did find one URL
which discusses this, as well.
http://www.user.fast.net/~dwhitman/yeast/intro.htm
Andrew Lea wrote:
> I am not a yeast man but I think deep-freezing is more difficult than it
> sounds. You can't just shove the yeast into the freezer and forget about
> it - most likely the cells will just rupture as the ice crystals form.
> You have to have some sort of 'cryoprotectant' which is usually a glycol
> solution of some sort. There is a URL which seems to cover this aspect
> for home use at http://home.highertech.net/~cdp/freezeyeast.htm
- --
John DeCarlo, My Views Are My Own
------------------------------
Subject: Vermont heirloom apples
From: "Benjamin Watson" <bwatson@monad.net>
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 10:14:18 -0400
Terry Bradshaw wrote:
>> All trees will be on semi-dwarfing rootstock, M7 or CG30. Obviously I have
>> included some eating fruit in here, but ones that I do not have at the
>> research orchard. I will most likely weed out a few of these, and am
>> looking for advice on which to avoid in a zone 4 location.
>>
I recently gave a presentation on "Vermont's Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables"
at the Vermont History Expo, and refreshed my memory on some apples for
cold-climate areas.
Terry's orchard selection looks great (I'm jealous), but I would add a
couple of Vermont-originated apples to the list, if they're still available.
The first is Bethel, which comes from Bethel, VT (before 1886) and is
probably related to Blue Pearmain. It's definitely a Pearmain type, but
doesn't have the purplish blue bloom common to the Maine BP. The trees are
reputedly hardy to -50 degrees F. This apple is a great home orchard variety
that deserves to be more widely known and grown (much like Blue Pearmain).
The fruit is large and a mottled or striped red.
Another good Vermont apple is Malinda, which originated in Orange Co. It's a
yellow fruit with a red cheek and is juicy with a sweet aftertaste.
Reportedly hardy in Zone 3.
Northern Sweet (a.k.a. Northern Golden Sweeting) is from Chittenden Co.,
probably around 1800. The fruits is yellow with a bright crimson cheek.
Flesh is fine and tender; flavor is sweet and very good. Ripens midseason.
Finally, there's Scott (or Scott Winter), a seedling variety that originated
around 1864 in Newport, VT. The tree is hardy to -50 deg. F. and the red or
red-striped fruit is medium size and a long keeper. The flesh is firm,
crisp, juicy, and aromatic.
All of these varieties are rare and deserve to be propagated and carried on.
Good luck to Terry, and anyone else who tries them out!
Ben Watson
Francestown, NH
------------------------------
Subject: Kingston Black
From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 15:32:54 -0600 (MDT)
Morgan Miller wrote in the last digest about White Oak's Kingston Black:
...
> For those who don't know, Kingston Black is the only perfect cider apple.
...
That's a bit over the top. It's like saying that Chardonnay is the only
perfect white-wine grape[*].
Kingston Black is a very good apple for cider, but its reputation exceeds
it. There are a few varieties of cider apple considered to have the right
balance to make a good single-variety cider, and of the English cider apple
varieties Kingston Black is often at the top of the list. But there are
several other candidates arguably as good. The term which is generally
applied to a variety which is balanced so as to make a good single-variety
cider is "vintage". (Yes, it's an odd use of the word, but it's traditional.)
And just to illustrate, Morgan and Richards in _The_Book_of_Apples_ list all
of the following as "vintage":
Ashton Brown Jersey
Backwell Red
Black Dabinett
Brown's Apple
Court Royal
Crimson King
Dabinett
Dymock Red
Foxwhelp
Frederick
Harry Masters Jersey
Kingston Black
Major
Northwood
Stoke Red
Sweet Alford
Sweet Coppin
White Jersey
Yarlington Mill
Now, that might be stretching the idea of "vintage" too far in the other
direction. Certainly that list includes apples that very few people, even
on this list, have ever heard of, let alone tasted. But I'll argue that
even a much more conservative list would not consist of a single variety,
but perhaps half a dozen...just as in the world of wine there are at least
half a dozen types of grape that can make a good single-varietal wine by
almost anyone's standards.
I guess I'd hate to see aspiring cider-makers . . . and especially aspiring
orchardists! . . . be put off of trying some of the other really good
apples. In particular, KB might not be the best in your area.
Dick
[*]Obviously it's semillon, not chardonnay.
------------------------------
Subject: New Cider Orcharding Book
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2002 18:18:33 +0100
Here's a new book just published:
"Growing Cider Apples - a guide to good orchard practice"
Written by Liz Copas the NACM pomologist and Roger Umpleby an ADAS
entomologist, and published by the National Association of Cidermakers
April 2002.
It doesn't seem to have an ISBN number but I got mine for [pounds]12.50 from
George Thomas at Bulmers (the NACM information officer). However,
according to the NACM website http://www.cideruk.com/home_set.htm their
new Information Officer is Simon Russell at Matthew Clark. His e-mail
is given on their website. So perhaps he's the chap to contact? Not
sure about the overseas distribution arrangements.
It is a good book but only for serious growers, though. Runs to 94
pages. It's strong on the IPM (integrated pest management) approach.
Chapter headings are:
Planning and recording
Site selection
Tree selection
Site preparation
Crop husbandry
Crop protection
Harvest, collection and transport
Pollution control and waste management
Energy efficiency
Health and safety
Wildife conservation
Andrew Lea
- ----------------------------------
Visit the Wittenham Hill Cider Page at
http://www.cider.org.uk
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #981
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