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Cider Digest #1170
Subject: Cider Digest #1170, 9 October 2004
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1170 9 October 2004
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Ciderday 2004 information (Mark)
Posting information (Andrew Lea)
Re: Cider Digest 1169 ("Colin Mills")
Re: Cider Digest #1169, 6 October 2004 (Steury & Noel)
Bad cider (tblists)
Re: Vermont mystery (tblists)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Ciderday 2004 information
From: Mark <mark@thealchemystudio.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 00:12:28 -0400
I hope that many of you will visit beautiful western Massachusetts this
November for the 10th annual Ciderday festival. Here is some additional
information. Consult the web site for the complete schedule of events.
Mark Lattanzi
Ciderday Planning Committee
Ciderday 2004 -- November 6-7
Apple and cider lovers from all over the region and world will converge on
Colrain, MA and the surrounding towns and orchards for the 10th annual
<http://www.ciderday.com>Ciderday celebration on November 6 & 7. This
two-day apple extravaganza features workshops, tastings, meals, activities
and games that all revolve around our favorite fall fruit.
Are you looking to set up your own home orchard? Learn the ins and outs
from Michael Phillips, organic orchardist and author of the definitive
The Apple Grower.
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1890132047/002-8398376-1669624?v=
glance>
Are you a hard cider aficionado? On Saturday, attend the world?s largest
tasting of artisinal hard ciders from western Massachusetts and New
England, the Midwest, West Coast, England and beyond! On Sunday, get guided
through six special cider and cheese pairings at the Deerfield Inn.
Renowned Great Barrington cheese monger Matthew Rubiner and New Hampshire
cider maven Ben Watson from Slow Food are your friendly guides.
If you are looking to taste some of the rarest heirloom apples available
anywhere, stop by the Brick Meeting House on Saturday or the Deerfield Inn
on Sunday and introduce yourself to the Chadwicks from Buckland ? they grow
over 100 old varieties you won?t find anywhere else. And you can taste --
and take home -- them all.
Looking to learn how to ferment your own hard cider? Local orchards are
pressing special blends, and local experts are ready to teach you how. Pick
up some cider and supplies and get fermenting this winter.
Do you love fall food and cuisine? Restaurants all over the area are
cooking up apple delights this weekend, and the Deerfield Inn offers a
sumptuous fall menu on Sunday at its Apple Festival.
All this and more, and most of it is FREE! For all the details, visit
www.ciderday.com and make sure to set aside some time November 6 & 7 to
experience this unique and special local event. You won?t find anything
like it anywhere else, and it only happens once a year.
------------------------------
Subject: Posting information
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 19:26:58 +0100
John Campbell wrote:
>
> The illustrious Andrew Lea provided some most excellent advice regarding
> SG, acidity ; SO2 additions and U/V sterilization utility / application,
> on UKcider. In the event that some of Janitor Dick's readership does
> not follow that other board (UKcider), perhaps he could be persuaded to
> cut and paste his commentary on the subjects above from his sent folder?
> I found the information particularly on acidity, very, very useful.
It's kind of you to say so, John, but I would rather not clutter up
'Dick's Digest' by re-posting answers to questions which were not asked
here! However, the UK Cider Google Groups transactions are available
online for public viewing at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/ukcider
, where it is possible to search by poster's name and to browse the
results in date order!
Andrew
- --
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest 1169
From: "Colin Mills" <cdjmills@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 18:58:52 +0000
From: Colin Mills <cdjmills@hotmail.com>
To: cider-list@talisman.com
Subject: RE: Cider Digest #1169, 6 October 2004
Sent: 07 October 2004 18:48:46
Subject: Re: quinces
>From: Benjamin Watson <bwatson@worldpath.net> Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004
>09:27:38 -0400
>
>I know that when you press half pears and half apples, by convention you
>call it perry.
Here in GB, Customs & Excise allow a maximum of 25% pear juice in cider or
apple juice in perry. So here in GB anything between 25% apple juice and 25%
pear juice did not have a name until it was decided to call it pider.
I'm not entirely clear what a fermented mixture of apple juice and honey is
called, but I'd assumed it was called cyser or ciser which I find from my
Oxford English Dictionary is the old name for cider.
Regards, Colin Mills
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #1169, 6 October 2004
From: Steury & Noel <steurynoel@mail.potlatch.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 20:55:45 -0700
Subject: while we're on quince
From: Tim Steury
Regarding quince, has anyone tried adding quince to dessert apples for
their tannins?
Diane Noel, Tim Steury, and David Steury
1021 McBride Road
Potlatch, ID 83855 USA
208.875.0804
------------------------------
Subject: Bad cider
From: tblists <tblists@pshift.com>
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 16:14:51 -0400
I don't wan to join the alarmist crowd, but this is a real threat. Mills
that custom press fruit, including and especially windfalls, open
themselves up to serious liability and chance for people getting
sick. Just a week ago a mill in upstate New York had some kind of outbreak
associated with its own fresh cider. The full details haven't been
announced, but five people were hospitalized.
(http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/commish/2004/apple_cider_alert_10-01-2
004.htm)
I enjoy fresh, unprocessed cider. I know that fermenting the juice will
kill off any bugs in it. I know that juice made from clean fruit on a clean
mill does not have a large chance of hurting anyone. I also know that kids,
the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems cannot handle even
small levels of some microorganisms. If I were commercial, you can bet my
mill would be scrupulously clean, and I would seriously consider treatment,
probably UV, even of juice I sold on-site which does not fall under the
regulations. One of my main reasons for working on building my own press
(launch date fall 05) is to assure the quality of the juice I make.
The problem extends beyond E. coli to include salmonella, cryptosporidium,
and numerous other bugs. People who fit under the on-site sales rules and
do not have to treat/pasteurize, yet who produce unclean product, only hurt
everyone else. Again, I don't know all the details about the recent case,
especially fruit source and mill sanitation, but I would not be impressed
if someone ran a dirty operation and put a bad light on everyone who does
pay attention to things.
Off the soapbox,
TerryB
At 08:12 PM 10/6/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>I find myself in the same predicament as Donald Shelton. Here in CT, the
>Health Dept.has over- reacted to the possibility of E.Coli in cider and
>requires that all apples for cider be verified by an orchardist to be hand
>picked. In other words, the tons of "drops" on the ground can no longer be
>used for cider by a commercial mill. Speculation is that the Health Dept.
>here also plans to require that all cider be pasteurized in the near future.
>This will require all cider lovers to begin to acquire their own equipment.
>I am planning to build my own press from info obtained from your archives
>but I need to find some leads on the availability of a good grinder. I
>contacted one currant producer of backyard mills but because they are
>already behind in orders, they didn't feel that they could provide outside
>needs at this time.
================
Terence Bradshaw
1189 Wheeler Road
Calais, VT 05648
tblists@pshift.com
(802)229-2004
1450 feet, zone 4A/B?
The views represented are mine and mine only........
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Vermont mystery
From: tblists <tblists@pshift.com>
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 16:28:11 -0400
>Woodchuck Cider was originally a brand introduced by the Joseph
>Cerniglia Winery in Cavendish, VT. Cerniglia retired and shut down the
>winery a few years ago, and sold the Woodchuck brand to Stroh's, which
>owned and operated Green Mountain Cidery in Springfield, VT until the
>sale to Bulmer a few years ago.
Both the Springfield and Middlebury plants are located near Vermont's two
main fruit producing ares: the lower Connecticut and Champlain
Valleys. The fact that they set up in an area where they had access to
large amounts of culled McIntosh fruit should raise a red flag regarding
the quality of their product (not to knock the Mac as a fresh apple, it
just makes lousy 'real cider').
>With all the sweet, fizzy draft cider being made in Vermont (and
>inflicted on the rest of the country), it's too bad the state doesn't
>have more and better artisan cideries. One would think that with its
>strong agricultural traditions and tourist economy, there would be a
>lot of farmstead cidermakers. At present, there is only Flag Hill Farm
>in Vershire, which makes an interesting and "wilder", more natural
>cider than other producers (plus an apple eau de vie). And there's
>Putney Mountain Winery, which makes chaptalized sparkling apple wines
>and a good pommeau.
It seems that the focus in the state among ag leaders and investors is on
the growing wine/grape industry. There are at least six growers and more
people interested every year. The vineyards are reaching a level of
maturity where some good wines are being made. I think the fact that wine
has an established market helps to focus the attention on grapes, whereas
cider is still looked at as either; 1) sweet/unfermented, 2)fizzy
Bulmer's/Woodchuck stuff, or 3) backshed hooch that your uncle used to
make. We have covered the issue with cider being an undefined market many
times, and I believe that this factor steers people away from it. Maybe
things will change as Poverty Lane just across the river grows and settles
into its market.
Waving the Green Mountain Banner,
TerryB
================
Terence Bradshaw
1189 Wheeler Road
Calais, VT 05648
tblists@pshift.com
(802)229-2004
1450 feet, zone 4A/B?
The views represented are mine and mine only........
------------------------------
End of Cider Digest #1170
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