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Cider Digest #1269
Subject: Cider Digest #1269, 24 October 2005
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1269 24 October 2005
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Cider Competitions ("Gary Awdey")
Quick Tannins aka Chemists at Play ("McGonegal, Charles")
Hobart the ciderdog (Dick Dunn)
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Subject: Cider Competitions
From: "Gary Awdey" <gawdey@att.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 23:18:40 -0400
During the past year I started to enter some cider competitions, or rather,
to enter ciders into homebrew competitions that include ciders. These days,
most of them use the 2004 revision of the BJCP Style Guidelines (found at
the bottom of the page at http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/). This expands the
number of cider categories to two, and adds some new subcategories, such as
English and French style cider.
One thing that seems noteworthy is that often the competition winners are
people who have never made cider before and get lucky on the first try.
Sometimes it's a matter of whether or not it is a well-made cider, while
other times it's a matter of luck in drawing the judges who happen to like
the style. The top cidermaker is chosen on the basis of one cider.
Recognition of new styles presents a new potential challenge to cidermakers.
Wouldn't it be nice if there were a competition in which breadth of
experience was recognized? Something like a cider triathlon. Entries from
any three of the nine cider or perry subcategories (cidermaker's choice)
would be entered. Judging would be by tally of points. Three solid ciders
and/or perries would do better overall than one exceptional one (whether
exeptional by skill or luck) and two duds. It'd give reason to break out of
your routine and try to make new ciders. Unfortunately, the logistics
involved in that sort of judging are slightly difficult since the same panel
of judges would have to do all of the judging or else there would have to be
tremendous uniformity and conformity in how points are assigned in different
subcategories and by different judges (because not everyone would
necessarily enter the same subcategories as you). It'd require a separate
competition from any of the existing ones, or at least some serious
revamping if it's to be done on a reasonably large scale. It'd also require
plenty of advance notice to potential competitors so they'd have time to
prepare their entries. That's my dream competition, though. Anyone have
any thoughts on this idea? I'd be tempted to try to round up volunteers to
organize and run such a competition if there was sufficient interest (would
anyone find it an excessive burder to drink cider and perry for a couple of
days?). Anyone have creative ideas for other sorts of alternative
competitions?
Another thought: Not long ago I'd heard someone who had done very well in
past competitions say that he'd stopped entering competitions to give the
newcomers a chance. That struck me as really sad because it suggested that
he felt there was no challenge--sort of like it would be if Lance Armstrong
had decided to sit the Tour de France out to give the other guys a chance.
It would suggest that it was a foregone conclusion that they had no chance
otherwise. It would detract from the glory of the winner by suggesting that
he won only because someone else chose not to compete. Probably most of us
would rather lose in a hard-fought competition than win in a cakewalk.
Sometimes that's how I feel about seeing homebrew competitions in which beer
guys who have only a marginal interest in cider enter ciders in order to
boost their overall score. It's good that they're trying, but if the people
who really have a true passion for cider started entering more of these
competitions (ahem...who would that be...possibly any of us who post to or
lurk the Cider Digest?) then perhaps we'd see a general improvement in both
the quality of ciders entered and a gradual improvement in the experience of
the judges.
If anyone is considering entering a competition this year, here's another
reminder about the Great Lakes Olde Worlde Syder Competition (also listed
elsewhere as the Great Lakes National Cider Competition). Information can
be found at http://www.michiganbeerguide.com/pdf/GLSyderForms.pdf. Some
other competitions you may want to consider (depending on where you live and
when your cider is ready) may also be found listed at
http://www.bjcp.org/compsch.html.
Gary Awdey
Eden, New York
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Subject: Quick Tannins aka Chemists at Play
From: "McGonegal, Charles" <Charles.McGonegal@uop.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 13:48:41 -0500
I did a quick experiment this afternoon, based on the observation that
my iron-rich ground water turns some of my apple juices black, along
with Andrew's comments on the cause.
Here's a picture:
www.appletrue.com\images\tannins.jpg
Each vial is 0.1 mL juice in 1 mL of 0.1% Fe(NO3) (Ferric Nitrate).
This might be hard to quanititate, but it's easy to tell the cider
apple!
Charles
AEppelTreow Winery & 'Stillery
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Subject: Hobart the ciderdog
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:58:43 -0600
I've been wanting a good way to be able to mill moderate amounts of cider
fruit--on the order of half a dozen bushels in a day's pressing. I've got
a basket press (HVR), and as I've mentioned here now and then, it isn't
especially efficient due to the grinder pulling large chunks of apple
through.
I found Hobart, who is a dog who can chew up fruit pretty quickly and spit
it out, and it comes out a better texture than the HVR grinder can do. See
http://www.talisman.com/cider/hobart1.jpg
for a picture of Hobart.
OK, Hobart is actually a commercial food-processing unit, but he looks like
sort of a squarish robotic bulldog, complete with that big upturned muzzle.
A friend of mine who is an auction addict acquired Hobart for not very
much money and cleaned him up. At first I doubted that Hobart could
do a reasonable job with apples--some quick tests showed that it would
make shreds that seemed too large, so I said "nice idea but forget it."
However, last year when I was testing tiny batches (under ten pounds each
batch) I used a food processor (Cuisinart type) with a shredder disc, and I
got good efficiency. I also remembered seeing a commercial shredder-disc
type of mill at Westcott Bay. So I tucked my tail between my legs and
asked Dave to bring Hobart back for a real test, and it did a good job.
See
http://www.talisman.com/cider/hobart2.jpg
for a picture of how Hobart is fed. It's just a big chute, plenty big
enough for several apples, and wide enough you'd never have to cut an
apple, with a hinged plate that presses food against a rotating disc:
http://www.talisman.com/cider/hobart3.jpg
The disc is about 9"/23cm in diameter and turns a few hundred RPM--
yes, quite slowly compared to a home food processor. The motor is
1/2 HP, obviously with a substantial gear-down. It never even began to
labor or warm up while we were using it.
Back to the grind...
Apparently the shreds work because they don't compact right away during
pressing, so that they help the juice flow out of the mass? The length of
the shred doesn't otherwise matter to the efficiency, of course; it's the
cross-section which determines how much juice is released. There are
multiple sizes of shredder disc available. Unfortunately I found that
the one which would be best for apples is in-between two standard sizes.
There are 3/16" and 3/32" plates; the ideal is probably right between
those two. (The picture in hobart3, URL above, shows the 3/16" disc in
place.) The finer plate tends to produce mush especially if the fruit is
fairly ripe, so it's messy and hard to feed, but overall it gives better
efficiency than the coarse plate. I'm going to try a mod to a 3/16" plate
to reduce the holes some. Flatter shreds would be better even if they're
still the full width. With a higher pressure press (say, hydraulic rather
than the screw of a basket press), the larger shreds might be best.
Like any dog of this type, Hobart is a messy eater--he snarfles it right
down but scatters it around. Pulp tends to ooze out around the hinged
front of the housing and dribble here and there, with an occasional squirt
of juice. Just putting it on the side drainboard of a sink made it easy
enough to manage the mess.
As to speed of grinding, it's about the same as the hand-cranked shredder
on the HVR press, but of course it's less work. Anyway, with a basket
press, the time-limiting factor is the press, not the mill.
So what's the conclusion? Is this a good grinder for a home pressing
setup? NO...not unless you stumble across one of these units and can
get it in working order for a song. But keep heads-up, especially if
you do auctions, liquidations, and the like. As long as you can get
the power unit and the main shredder housing, you're good. The individual
shredder plates are about $40.
Also, I'm thinking this might stimulate some other ideas of turning
cast-off food processing equipment into apple mills. I've got a juice
extractor that I've used successfully for very small batches.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #1269
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