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Cider Digest #1002
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Subject: Cider Digest #1002, 8 November 2002
Cider Digest #1002 8 November 2002
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Cider Digest #1001, 6 November 2002 (Tim Steury)
Normandy visit (Derek Bisset)
Re: Hobby-level cider and homebrewing. (Mike Dowling)
Re: Cider Digest #1001, 6 November 2002 (Bill Rhyne)
Cider Tours ("Richard & Susan Anderson")
Quality of commercial Cider in Northwest US ("Mary Peters and Matt Swihart")
Heirloom Apple Trees (Jeff Smith)
Second Fermentation? (DLebeck@aol.com)
Some Press! ("Richard & Susan Anderson")
Report on Franklin Co. Cider Day 2002 ("Benjamin Watson")
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #1001, 6 November 2002
From: Tim Steury <steury@wsu.edu>
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 09:53:44 -0800
>re: French cider tour
Warren,
We just returned from a cider tour of Brittany, Normandy and England. I
recommend the Route de Cidre in the Pays d"Auge, an article about which is
included in Dave Matthews' book. Situate yourself in Cambremer, midway
between Liseux and Caen, and pick up a tour brochure at the tourist
information center. There is one in English. You're probably not going to
get much time with cidermakers right now, as they're still
harvesting. Regardless, the tour is marvelous. But most revelatory for
us was simply the experience of drinking Norman cider. It is available in
every restaurant and every store--and everybody drinks cider. Within the
Pays d'Auge you'll find "cidre" signs every half kilometer. The ciders are
wonderfully complex and diverse. Start with Pierre Huet's cidery right
outside of town. Be sure to eat as many times as possible at Aux Petits
Norman in Cambremer. They serve M. Huet's cider. Be sure also to try his
"tradition" Calvados. Also, eat at least one meal at Le Cheval Blanc in
nearby Crevecour en Auge. If you speak any French, be sure to stay with
Madame Camus, about three kilometers outside of Cambremer. Oh, and if you
go through Beauvron en Auge, eat at the restaurant on the town
square--can't remember its name, though I think it had "Or" in it. They
serve a very interesting draft cider.
Tim Steury
>Subject: French cider tour?
>From: Warren Place <wrplace@ucdavis.edu>
>Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 09:17:14 -0800 (PST)
>
>Hey all,
> I'm planning to visit Northern France in a few weeks and was
>wondering if anybody could make recommendations for things to see that
>would be interesting to cider maker. I'm really at a loss for cider
>info. I know the French produce great cider in the Normandy area, but how
>would one find out more? Any english tours? Brand recommendations?
>
>Warren Place
>
------------------------------
Subject: Normandy visit
From: Derek Bisset <derek_bisset@telus.net>
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2002 04:02:12 -0800
Warren Place asked about cider visits in Normandy.
At this time of year cider making farms in Normandy offer weekends au
pressoir meant for visitors who want to see the cider process .These can
include weekend stays on the farm .
I suggest contacting Christian Bosshard of the Chambre d'Agriculture de
Normandie
cbosshard@cra-normandie.fr Tel:0231472262 who knows all the farmers
in the region and speaks English.
My wife and I had a very pleasant stay this Summer on a farm near
Vimoutiers in the southern area of cider production . The farm is called
Les Gains and Madame Wordsworth, who is English ,was very helpful in
suggestions for cider visits . Her telephone number is 033 233 36 She
prefers being called to using e-mail.
As a result of that visit I am now watching 150L of precious Yarlington
Mill /Chisel Jersey/Dabinett juice sit for a week with only a light
sulphiting while I wait for chapeau brun to form and a natural fermentation
to follow. These are all my cider apples for this year and the urge is very
strong to pitch a commercial yeast and avoid moulds and spoilage of the
lot . The only thing keeping me going is some small successes in the past
and the great taste of that Normandy cider
Derek
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Hobby-level cider and homebrewing.
From: Mike Dowling <politas@excite.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2002 12:00:57 +1100
>Subject: Hobby-level cider and homebrewing.
>From: Adam Funk <adam.funk@blueyonder.co.uk>
>You probably wouldn't be too excited about the "cider kits" sold in homebrew
>shops in the UK, usually with the beer kits or between them and the wine
>kits. The typical kit is a 1.5kg can of mostly concentrated apple juice
>(with some sugar and occasionally caramel). I think that (as with beer kits)
>the instructions are generally to dissolve the kit in hot water with 1.5kg
>of sugar, top up to 22 litres, and add the packet of yeast.
Not having any access to cider apples (or too lazy to look hard), I
use these kits myself. Following the instructions gives you a pretty
boring cider. Following advice from my LHBS, though, I took two of
the better brand of cans (William Tell, the can is 100% Apple juice
concentrate), stirred into a relevant quantity of hot water and topped
up the carboy to 25 litres. No sugar added at all (The William Tell
brand actually doesn't include any sugar in its instructions). The
cans came with a sachet of Aspartame each for sweetening, and I added
one sachet. Note that one can is supposed to make 15 litres, so I was
effectively fermenting slightly concentrated apple juice. I added
both sachets of champagne yeast and yeast nutrients to ensure a
healthy fermentation.
After fermentation finished, it sat in the carboy for a week and a
half or so to settle and blend, then I bottled and primed, laying the
bottles down in my pit "cellar" for three months before starting on
them.
Made for a very tasty brew indeed, with a very full flavour, certainly
far beyond any of the commercial ciders available in Australia.
My last batch was also made using the two-can method, though of a
different brand (a New Zealand one), and with the stuff-ups I had in
the brewing, I'm not sure if it'll be any good. I'll keep
experimenting, but the William Tell certainly came up a treat.
Mike
- --
Mike Dowling
(http://www.geocities.com/politasau)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #1001, 6 November 2002
From: Bill Rhyne <theo9us@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 21:33:42 -0800 (PST)
RE:
French cider tour
Warren, try to visit Eric Bordelet, Duche De
Longueville, Herout Et Fils, and others in the
Normandy and Brittany areas. I would like visit there
myself someday. Our cider was invited and sent to an
International Cider Exposition in Rennes, France back
in March 2000. There is a university there and I guess
many cider makers.
Bon Voyage!
Bill Rhyne
------------------------------
Subject: Cider Tours
From: "Richard & Susan Anderson" <baylonanderson@rockisland.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 08:31:07 -0800
In Normandy, there is the "Route du Cidre" east of Caen which links about 20
producers who are all A.O.C. Pays D'Auge. In the UK, there are cider routes
in both Hereford and Somerset. All of the above have easy to follow maps
which you can pickup at the regional tourist information offices. We visited
all three areas earlier this year and had a great time. You will be
surprised at the variety of products and the quality of cider. On one such
visit to a farm in Somerset, the first thing the proprietor did was to rinse
out a mug and pour you a half pint of keg cider to sample. Enjoy the trip.
------------------------------
Subject: Quality of commercial Cider in Northwest US
From: "Mary Peters and Matt Swihart" <marymatt@gorge.net>
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 09:15:49 -0800
Hello-
As a neophyte to cider in general and the cider digest in particular, I've
been making a few batches and tasting as much cider as I can find available.
I'm quite interested in the French approach but have just been burned by
what I have purchased. I went to a very reputable local wine guru/merchant
in a large metropolitan area and brought home about a dozen french ciders,
mostly pretty dry, all around 4-5% alcohol by volume. Here's the rub. For
the most part, all were pretty tainted with heavy lactic, phenolic, and
acetobacter character. I'm appreciative of the french method of natural
fermentation, but is this indicative of the fresh product?
I am guessing that although knowledgable, my local wine guy has no control
over the age of product and the imported ciders have all suffered from too
much aging and the small bacterial populations have run amuck. Or are all
these ciders supposed to taste like out of control Belgian Lambic beers?
May Gambrinus bless sulfites.
Matt Swihart
------------------------------
Subject: Heirloom Apple Trees
From: Jeff Smith <jeff_smith_8992@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 10:11:14 -0800 (PST)
For anyone intrested in "heirloom" apple trees, the
Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting article in
this month's edition (Nov, 2002). You can read it
online (for free) at:
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/nov02/apples.html
Jeff
------------------------------
Subject: Second Fermentation?
From: DLebeck@aol.com
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 19:21:09 EST
I am 4 weeks into my first batch of still cider. I started with 5 gals of
fresh sweet cider. I used white labs cider yeast and nothing else. Things
went well I guess for the first two weeks. Finally, things slowed down so I
racked the cider into another carboy, added another gal of fresh cider and
some potassium sorbate. The potassium sorbate was supposed to stop a second
fermentation - it didn't! Although it is very slow - about 1 bubble every 3
or 4 min. it is not the less still fermenting. My goal was a sweet still
cider - not a dry one. As of this writing, the stuff has a pleasant taste
but is dry like wine, not sweet like cider. What should I do?
Thanks
Doug
------------------------------
Subject: Some Press!
From: "Richard & Susan Anderson" <baylonanderson@rockisland.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 19:35:50 -0800
Good Enough to Eat: Sampling this local artisanal cider yields pleasant
surprises
I've always wanted to taste artisanal cider, a product being
made in this country by a mere handful of small producers using
traditional cider apples and traditional methods. At the Western
Cascade Fruit Society's Fall Fruit Show the end of October, I
got my chance.
* Read the full article at:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nwgardens/94462_goodtoeat07.shtml
------------------------------
Subject: Report on Franklin Co. Cider Day 2002
From: "Benjamin Watson" <bwatson@monad.net>
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 13:14:48 -0500
Last weekend (November 2-3) marked what I believe was the 9th annual
Franklin County Cider Day, which is held in rural western Massachusetts.
Local apple growers, cidermakers, chefs, inns, and artisan producers all
participate in this event, which takes place at several different locations
- -- though the focus of activity is usually on the beautiful hill town of
Colrain, home of Terry and Judith Maloney's West County Winery. The Maloneys
have been making excellent artisanal ciders since 1984 (from their own
traditional cider apples, and with fruit from local orchards).
One of the highlights of the event this year was an all-American cider
tasting, featuring a panel of five artisan cidermakers:
Terry Maloney, West County Cider, Colrain, MA
Sebastian Lousada, Flag Hill Farm, Vershire, VT
Murdo Laird, Murdo's Farmhouse Cider, St. Helena, CA
Tom Hoey, Sow's Ear Winery, Brooksville, ME
Steve Wood, Farnum Hill Ciders, Lebanon, NH
In addition, we tasted ciders from Charles and Melissa McGonegal's new
AEppel Treow (pronounced "apple true") Winery in Burlington, WI; Bill
Rhyne's Rhyne Cyder from Sonoma, CA; and Roger Mansfield's Macbeth's Three
Witches Cider from Culver, OR.
The event -- an informal and definitely not blind tasting -- was a real
success, with more than 150 interested people (amateur cidermakers, apple
growers, and others) crowding into the old Brick Meetinghouse in Colrain to
try ciders from all over the country and listen to the producers talk about
their methods. Terry Maloney and I believe that this event was the largest
artisan cider tasting (in terms of public attendance) ever attempted in the
U.S. (at least in modern times).
The program started with a few words about American cider, and the question,
"Is there such a thing as an 'American cider' style?" The resounding answer,
of course, is NO!!! There are as many different styles are there are
cidermakers, because every artisanal producer is making cider that he or she
likes to drink -- and all are influenced by their choice of varieties, their
terroir (soils, climate, and other factor that are site-specific), and by
their production methods (oak vs. no oak, yeasts, malolactic fermentation or
no, etc.).
The ciders themselves were fascinating to taste against one another,
especially since we were really only trying to show a range of styles, not
to try and score the ciders. Of the two new ciders (released in 2002),
Charles McGonegal's Applely was highly sparkling, while Murdo's Farmhouse
Cider was one of the most distinct, with a complete ML fermentation yielding
a very smooth, rounded cider that is undeniably well made -- though some of
us sourpuss Yankees like the sharper bite and balance of malic acid.
Murdo Laird has suggested as a starting place for discussion -- a great
debate for this Digest, and anyone can play! -- that the nine ciders we
tried seemed to fall into three broad categories:
1. English (Loyalist) ciders like Alan Foster's White Oak Cider from OR
(which gets its "farmyard" nose from West Country cultured yeasts), Tom
Hoey's Sow's Ear Cider from ME, and Steve Wood's Farnum Hill 2001 Kingston
Black Reserve from NH, which is perhaps the finest cider the Woods have ever
produced -- and that's saying something!
2. French-influenced "champagne" ciders like Flag Hill Cyder from VT,
Applely from WI, and Rhyne Cyder from CA -- very, very different products,
but all in that tradition.
3. "Winemaker's Choice" ciders that don't suggest any particular regional
tradition from Europe, but borrow from one or more, and reflect the
winemaking tradition in America (Macbeth's from OR, West County's excellent
Tremlett's cider from MA, and Murdo's Farmhouse Cider from CA.
Categorizing the ciders like this is incredibly arbitrary, but perhaps there
is some truth to where they fall. I mention this only to stimulate
discussion in this e-group, and to suggest that there we in America are
blessed with some fine commercial cidermakers, all of whom deserve our
support and promotion. The quality of our ciders gets better with each
passing year -- and slowly but surely we are beginning to redefine a new
American cider tradition.
Finally, attending this event made me realize that Slow Food USA -- the
national chapter of the international movement -- has an important role to
play in helping to preserve the American cider tradition and expose more
people to the fine products that are being made today. I plan to post my
list of US and Canadian artisan cidermakers on the Slow Food USA site soon
- -- www.slowfoodusa.org, and I encourage Cider Digest subscribers to send me
names of good cidermakers that I have not yet added to the list.
Ben Watson
Francestown, New Hampshire
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #1002
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