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Cider Digest #1276
Subject: Cider Digest #1276, 14 November 2005
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1276 14 November 2005
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
What's going on with my cider (Jack O Feil)
media rave and rant (White Winter Winery)
ice wine ("David Shenk")
Cider Day - Reflections from Overseas (Andrew Lea)
Re: ice cider (Benjamin Watson)
Hogg and Bull scanned in (Scott Smith)
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Subject: What's going on with my cider
From: Jack O Feil <feilorchards@juno.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:52:00 -0800
I'm a beginner at making cider, about five years now, I make it for my
own consumption. Up until this year I pretty much understood the basics
and made what I thought was a decent drinkable cider but nothing else to
compare it with in my area (North Central Washington). The last couple of
batches were crystal clear until I remove the air locks and transferred
it to smaller containers, in a short time after transfer the clear cider
became slightly hazy and a fine film of white powder like material came
to the surface. The taste was not noticeably adversely affected but I am
curious. The juice is mostly Braeburn with some Newtowns, White Winter
Pearmains and Jonathans thrown in. Do any of you experienced cider makers
have an idea of what's going on with my cider?
Jack Feil
Wenatchee, Washington
------------------------------
Subject: media rave and rant
From: White Winter Winery <goodmead@cheqnet.net>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:26:03 -0600
Hello Charles and Others!
Try doing a somewhat regular press release of your products and/or
winery. PR's work great to announce the release of a new product or the
release of this years ciders. Especially if you have limited supplies,
create the buzz yourself and let the ambitious reporters follow-up with
an article. This can also work great for the "last of the batch, get it
now before it's gone" kind of announcement. Try writing and submitting
an article to the paper too, after all you are the expert! Most papers
are looking for stuff to put in or an idea for a later special section.
Good luck!
Jon Hamilton
------------------------------
Subject: ice wine
From: "David Shenk" <dave@hiddensandiego.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:30:21 -0800 (PST)
In CD #1275 Kirsten Jordan writes:
Of late we have been wondering how to produce an "ice cider".
...we put a bushel of golden delicious in a freezer, then milled and
pressed them just to see what would happen.
I am making an ice perry this year. I started off with bartlett pears that
were 1.056sg, 0.42TA and pH of 3.9. I juice them and then
freeze-concentrate the juice. I used two 2 gallon buckets with lids and
put 1 1/2 gal of juice in each. I then repeat the following procedure:
1. Place buckets into the freezer.
2. Remove when they appear to be frozen solid, then allow them to thaw.
3. Carefully, without stiring them up, place back into freezer.
With each cycle, the water and sugar layers begin to stratify. Three or
four times is all it takes to separate most of the water from the sugar
solids in the bottom. You can even pull off some of the floating ice in
the later stages of the thaw cycle. Syphon off the remaining water and
you're ready to go. With the above juice I ended with: 1.098sg, 0.71TA and
ph of 3.7. I have also done this with apple juice, but don't have the
numbers handy.
David W. Shenk
Julian, CA
------------------------------
Subject: Cider Day - Reflections from Overseas
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:54:07 +0000
Last weekend, encouraged by Dick Dunn and others, I was privileged
enough to be a participant at the Franklin County Cider Day in Western
Massachusetts (www.ciderday.org). Although I was there as a part of the
show (helping with Gary Awdey on the "Keeving" presentation and
contributing to the "Art and Commerce of Cidermaking" panel discussion),
it was tremendous fun for me to meet a whole host of people who were
only names and e-mail addresses before. Some I'd met in person before
but most I hadn't. Although the internet has opened up whole new
exchange possibilities for amateur and small-scale professional
cidermakers worldwide, sooner or later people have to get together, chat
face to face and actually taste and compare some ciders. The Franklin
County Cider Day gives them the chance to do just that. We had around
60 people in our admittedly esoteric panel on keeving, and there were
probably double that number of interested amateurs when it came to the
"Cidermaking Workshop" session. Plus there were heritage apple
tastings, demonstrations of cider and jelly making, orchard tours and
all the usual things we've come to associate with 'Apple Day' in the UK
- - though the Cider Day Dinner (the first ever, I believe, but a great
success) was something I've never met before! And the Cider and Cheese
Pairing session, run by Ben Watson and linked to the Slow Food theme,
was quite an eye opener for someone who thought that Scrumpy went with
Cheddar and that was the end of the matter (it ain't - not by a long shot!)
What made it stand out for me, as a visiting Brit in New England, was
the level of enthusiasm for cidermaking and the sharing of information
on the craft at all levels. Many of us on this side of the pond forget
that cider exists in pretty much all temperate climates, and the North
American cider tradition is almost as old as ours, dating from early
colonial times. The products are very different of course. There's no
bittersweet fruit apart from the French and English imported varieties,
which are certainly being used to good effect, but in some ways it's the
ciders made from local varieties which are the most interesting.
Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, Cortland and many others show enormous
potential for truly distinctive North American blends, not to mention
the older New England style of cider (or cyser?) fortifed with raisins,
honey and other fermentables and spices to give high alcohol and to keep
out the bitter winter cold (although last weekend was as unseasonably
warm there as it has been here). All the ciders are bottled, of course,
unlike those at our predominantly draught UK cider festivals, but it
struck me as curious that we have nothing quite like Cider Day in the
UK, to celebrate and compare directly the diversity and the manufacture
of small-scale ciders that are possible (and in small size tasting
glasses so the party remains convivial but sober!).
For those of you already in the US and Canada, please continue to
support Cider Day, which for 2006 will be the 12th since its creation by
Terry and Judith Maloney of West County Cider and their band of
volunteer helpers. For those of you in the UK, give a visit some
thought! Flights to Boston are as cheap as they get in early November
(mine was less than £250 on a scheduled BA return), and the 100 mile
drive west is to some of the prettiest landscapes and villages in New
England. Plus a band of real enthusiasts at the end of it!
Andrew Lea
- --
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk
------------------------------
Subject: Re: ice cider
From: Benjamin Watson <bwatson@worldpath.net>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 09:34:57 -0500
Kristen Jordan wrote:
> Hello fellow cidermasters;
>
> Of late we have been wondering how to produce an "ice cider". Being on
> the balmy west coast, ambient temperatures aren't generally conducive to
> apples freezing on trees, so we put a bushel of golden delicious in a
> freezer, then milled and pressed them just to see what would happen.
> Our results:
> - - Milling: the apples went through the mill fine. They were hard as
> stones but it didn't matter to the mill.
> - - Pressing: we used a small belt press. 10 lbs of apples yielded 500
> ml of juice. This was definitely a low yield, but what we expected.
> - - Specific Gravity: I was expecting a specific gravity of at least 1065,
> and preferrably over 1085. Instead, the s.g. was 1030. The juice to
> taste was definitely bland (very low acid) and very low sugar.
> We were very surprised at the low s.g., and wondered if anyone has any
> thoughts on why we didn't achieve a higher s.g. - when making ice cider
> can one achieve a higher than normal s.g. by freezing the apples? How
> do others make ice cider?
I am working on an article about ice cider and have been making a small
(1 gal.) batch since early this year, courtesy of some pressed juice
that Rich Stadnik of Pup's Cider Co. pressed from frozen Baldwins.
I haven't bottled or tasted the finished product, though Rich says he
is somewhat disappointed with the way his turned out. He and I picked
apples in the twilight before a hard frost at a local orchard
yesterday, cleaning their trees of some remarkably sweet and
long-hanging Red Delicious fruit (we probably should see if we can get
some fruit this winter that freezes on the tree). I'm thinking that
Rich might try a control batch using 100% high S.G. Red Delicious and
another batch with a mix, or with using one variety that still has a
lot of acidity.
I don't know yet what varieties Domaine Pinnacle in Quebec is using,
but they tend to achieve one of the best "viscous" or "oily" mouthfeels
in their ice cider. Also, since I'm not crazy about sweet alcohols (or
apples), I tend to like the vein of malic acid taste in their product,
which keeps the very sweet ice cider from tasting cloyingly sweet to my
palate. I suspect they must use some apples with good acidity. Maybe
we'll try making some ice cider some year with my friend Roger's
seedling variety, Castle Rock, which has tons of acidity.
At any rate, I started my test batch of ice cider on 3/9/05 from 100%
pressed Baldwin juice. This measured around 1.080, which is I think
where you should be (translates to about 20 deg. Brix. Potenial alcohol
is probably meaningless, since the yeast won't ferment all the sugars.
But, just for fun, it would be 11% potential abv.
I boiled and cooled 1 cup of the concentrated Baldwin juice and pitched
it with 5 grams dehydrated Lalvin D47 yeast, and added 1 tsp. yeast
nutrient to the must when I pitched the starter culture into the carboy.
On 4/11/05 I racked the ice cider into a new jug and topped it up with
some thawed concentrated Baldwin juice that I had frozen. The specific
gravity measured 1.002 -- lower than I would have expected.
I'll try and bottle this up and taste it, and report back.
Ben Watson
Francestown, NH
------------------------------
Subject: Hogg and Bull scanned in
From: Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 11:49:46 -0500
I recently made a pdf file of Hogg and Bull, "The Apple and Pear as
Vintage Fruits" (1886). Here is the link:
http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~scott/cider/HoggBull.pdf
Somehow I left out pages 44-45, and a few pages are not the best
copy. Also it is a scan so the file is large, 15MB. This book is
one of the classic English cider texts, certainly worth a read. It
also contains many pages of variety descriptions of cider apples and
perry pears. Enjoy!
Scott
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End of Cider Digest #1276
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