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Cider Digest #1307
Subject: Cider Digest #1307, 14 March 2006
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1307 14 March 2006
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Multiple Threads in #1306 ("McGonegal, Charles")
Foundling Perry scion ("McGonegal, Charles")
In Bottle Pasteurization ("Drew Zimmerman")
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Subject: Multiple Threads in #1306
From: "McGonegal, Charles" <Charles.McGonegal@uop.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 08:30:04 -0600
Post-bottling preservation:
I have three reasons I use filtration/sorbate to stabilize a
bottled product.
1) It's a low capital investment.
2) It's effective on the kind of cider 'wine' my customers like.
3) I'm ignorant of details of the implementation and effects of
in-bottle pastuerization.
I have one question that comes to mind when this topic is
bandied about - if you're willing to heat the final product, why aren't
you willing to heat the starting juice? (Or are you?)
There is one more option, but only for commercial producers -
Velcorin. I'll post my thought on it over on the Cider Net site.
Come to think of it, I use three more options to preserve
various products I make.
1) Nothing - a dry, country cider is quite stable enough.
2) Champagne methode - even a sweet cider is stable at 5 bar
after disgorging.
3) Fortification - if pommeau counts as a style of cider.
My MADMC presentation:
Thanks for the kind words Mike - but you'll already seen me
present this material :-) It's essentially the same as the GL Expo
presentation from a few years ago. I did put in a few of the
cidermaking notes from the Vintage Virginia Apples Forum last fall.
Didn't use them, it wasn't a technical audience. Thanks again to Ben
Watson, who provided a wonderful library of ciders to taste at the
conference. They were really appreciated by these folks. They may be
prospective cidermakers, but the complexity of PA law makes it extra
hard for them to get craft ciders to try.
Cider competitions:
I agree with Mike that there is a concern that beer contest
mindsets drift over into cider competitions. That makes perfect sense -
beer organizations are hold the competitions! But do we want wine
competitions judging cider any more than beer competitions? The Indy
International has a category for [hard] cider. As does the Los Angeles
County Fair. And I mean cider categories distinct from the Apple/Pear
fruit wine categories. Are these competitions doing a better job at
judging cider than the BJCP, that we see no criticism of them on forums
like this one?
<soapbox/>
I think that what we (as a community) would like to see are
_cider_ competitions that respect and reward the complexity and
diversity of our products in a way that we, as a community, have built
some consensus about how to go about the process. If we could come up
with a set of guidelines, I would hope that we could go to organizations
like the BCJP and the various wine competitions and say 'This is how we
think our products are best considered. Please respect our industries
wishes.' Or that our suggestions would serve to help make cider-only
competitions do an ever better job.
</soapbox>
Given that interest in cider seems to overlap more with brewers
than with wine snobs, it looks like helping the BJCP improve its process
will be easier than influencing wine organizations, or coming up with
our own, independently.
An observation from the polls I have running on the Cider Net
site - we seem to prefer (unamimously so far) Gold/Silver/Bronze
multiple-awards (like wine comps) over 1st/2nd/3rd single-awards (like
beer comps). This may be a more fundamental conflict than defining
sytles or setting productions rules for certain categories.
The BJCP is looking for input, folks. Let's give it to them.
Feel free to vote on the polls I've set up, if you don't have time to
write letters with suggestions. I've tried to capture the basic
concerns.
Stinky Fermentations:
A lot of comments have been made about concerns with
fermentation _rate_ being linked to sulfer problems, with the
implication that a slow ferment won't 'starve' the yeast.
It may be a factor - but it's not the whole story. Slow
ferments and sitting lees will stink up, too.
Charles McGonegal
AEppelTreow Winery
------------------------------
Subject: Foundling Perry scion
From: "McGonegal, Charles" <Charles.McGonegal@uop.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 08:37:50 -0600
I have a limited amount of a (possibly seedling) perry tree. I'm afraid
it's mostly small in diameter.
I'm calling it Wisconsin Red Huffcap. It highly resembles the
description of Jenkins Red, excepting the bark. I've not found
photos/illustrations of Jenkins Red bark (which is supposedly unique -
but not described) to compare.
The juice from my pressing of this pear came out at about 15 Brix, 16
g/L acidity and a pH down near 3 (I don't recall exactly). Remarkably
tannic/astringent, but not in a hard/sour/dandelion way.
Contact me off list, if interested.
Charles
AEppelTreow Winery
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Subject: In Bottle Pasteurization
From: "Drew Zimmerman" <drewzimmer@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2006 15:44:21 -0800
John Brett asked for some thoughts and experiences about pasteurization.
I?ve been working with this method of preserving sweetened cider for about 4
years now, first on a small home scale, then at the WSU Research Station in
Mt. Vernon, WA and finally in my commercial products. The beauty of in
bottle pasteurization is that it is reliable, repeatable and incredibly
inexpensive to do. Also, you are not adding preservatives which makes me
feel better about promoting cider as a healthy libation. Oh yeh, don?t be
lulled into thinking that sulfites and sorbates are effective against all
spoilage organisms ? there are some yeasts that are completely resistant to
SO2 at any level and others that will tolerate both sorbate and sulfite at
legal levels.
The part about sterile filtering that has always bothered me is how does one
maintain sterility after the product passes the membrane? All of the
downstream process, even the facility air would have to be guaranteed
sterile to assure that no bugs wound up in the product, wouldn?t it? How
does one do that economically? There is also the issue of flavor and color
stripping that can come with very tight filtering.
Bill Rhyne pointed out that the amount of heat needed to be effective in
fermented cider is actually only a small fraction of what is needed for
pasteurizing fresh juice. Pasteurization effectiveness is dermined by
something called the Pasteurization Unit (PU) which is a combination of time
and temperature that the product is exposed to. The magic number to
calculate PUs is 60C. The amount of time and the number of degrees above
60C are combined to give the total PUs absorbed by the product. The UK cider
industry has determined that for clear fermented cider, around 50 PUs are
sufficient to prevent biological activity. This number has a hefty safety
margin built in ? as little as 2 PUs can do the job depending on the amount
of microbial loading in the product. As a comparison, the recommended number
of PUs needed to pasteurize fresh pressed apple juice is around 3500.
Bill also mentioned that the challenge is in scaling the equipment to the
size of the operation. This is very true, but with a little thought and
planning it can be done very inexpensively. In bottle pasteurization is
most easily done in a water bath. For home use, a large kettle or a
galvanized steel wash tub or livestock trough will work fine. My home
equipment cost around $100. I have a tub that holds two cases of bottles,
just the amount that a 5 gallon carboy holds. I fill it to the level of the
liquid in the bottles and place it on a propane burner (one that I use for
deep frying turkeys). One bottle is uncapped and filled with water that is
as cold or colder that the cider. I use a digital cooking thermometer that
has an alarm feature and insert it in the water bottle. I set the probe for
65C, crank up the burner and let ?er rip. When the alarm goes off, I take
out the bottles. You need to take great care here, bottles will fail on
occasion. I wear a heavy cotton jacket, hat and a clear plastic face shield
to protect against flying glass. I also have insulated rubber gloves to
fish out the bottles. Make sure everyone is out of the area. I got my
alarm set temp. from calculating PUs from timed test runs using my
equipment. I counted how many minutes per degree during the temperature
rise, and also the number of minutes per degree during the cool down phase
after the bottles are pulled out. 60C is the killing temperature, every
minute above 60C counts. For more on PU calculations, take Peter Mitchell?s
cider making course, or perhaps there is info available on the internet.
Make sure that the formula is for cider. There are different formulas for
different products.
I essentially use the same system for my commercial ciders. I use a larger
tank and two burners, and put the bottles in milk crates to facilitate
loading and unloading. This system cost less than $300. I sized it to fit
my two head counter pressure filler which I also made for under $300. The
time it takes to fill a load of bottles for the pasteurizer is equal to the
cycle time of the pasteurizer. With one helper, we can process 50-60 cases
a shift.
The biggest challenge I face with this process is bottles. In the US we
have a wine drinking culture and a beer drinking culture. To support this
we have wine and beer industries and therefore other industries to support
them. We don?t have a cider drinking culture, at least not large enough to
have support as far as supplies and equipment go, so we are forced to borrow
from the wine and beer industries, or get stuff from Europe where they have
a cider industry. To do in bottle pasteurization of carbonated (or still
for that matter) cider, you need a good, strong bottle, at least 6 bars.
For home use, champagne or Martinelli bottles work well. I can get some
sparkling wine bottles made in Canada that work pretty well, however there
is some breakage. You can also use beer bottles, but they need to be the
heavy returnable ones. Corona and Japanese beer bottles are hefty and work
well. Commercially I get mineral water bottles from Europe. I like the
size and shape, they are rated at 250 psi and they have a nylon screw cap
that comes with a tamper proof ring. These caps will fail in the
pasteurizer before the bottle does, which is a nice feature. Also, if a
bottle does happen to start fermenting again after a customer has purchased
it (God forbid!) the cap will leak instead of the bottle exploding.
Lastly, on flavor. I haven?t been able to fine anyone that can detect any
cooked flavors in my ciders. I?ve done a good amount of surveying on this,
including some very keen sensory professionals. Also, the GLOWS folks liked
it enough to give it an award.
Drew Zimmerman
Red Barn Cider
PS I?m in the cider making business, not the equipment business. I?m more
than happy to share anything and everything I have or know about
carbonation, counter pressure filling or pasteurization equipment and
methods. Please contact me off digest.
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End of Cider Digest #1307
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