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Cider Digest #1357
Subject: Cider Digest #1357, 12 December 2006
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1357 12 December 2006
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
re-sweetening dry cider ("mporch@frontiernet.net")
Re: Using fruit syrups to flavor cider? ("Charles McGonegal")
Cider BOS at the 2007 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out ()
Re: Cider Digest #1356, 5 December 2006 (joshua friedlander)
Great Lakes Expo and GLOWS (Benjamin Watson)
single variety cider trials (Benjamin Watson)
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Subject: re-sweetening dry cider
From: "mporch@frontiernet.net" <mporch@frontiernet.net>
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2006 05:11:53 +0000
if you are doing this for yourself, not for extended shelf life at
room temperatures, just add some white cane sugar dissolved before
capping and keep cold!! it will keep fine for several weeks and if
kept longer will slowly develop some natural sparkle before it
explodes. i'm sure some others will suggest more elaborate and safe
methods! doug
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Subject: Re: Using fruit syrups to flavor cider?
From: "Charles McGonegal" <cpm@appletrue.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 07:19:00 -0600 (CST)
Mark,
I haven't added syrups - but fruit juice concentrates. At 70 Brix, they
are about like honey in consistency.
I think you will find that if you add them pre-fermentation, the flavor
impact will be like that of adding fruit wine, rather than a fresh fruit
note. And if you add it post-ferment, you've _got_ to stabilize it with
some combination of sterile filtration, preservatives, alcohol, CO2
pressure and bottle pasteurization.
I've also had concentrate additions throw hazes, sediments, and (I
suspect) microbial activity. Pear seems especially prone. Concentrates
are not as sterile as you might think.
Syrups might be - but also might bring a jammy character.
Good luck.
- --
"This discussion may also be of some service to the future of Cider, if
it clears up any confusion which may have existed as to the great
difference between a real sparkling Cider, made by the expensive
processes described, and the muddy imitations which, fizzing in beer
bottles, masquerade to the detriment and prejudice of the genuine
product."
Revival of Cider, HP Bulmer & Co. ca. 1908
Charles McGonegal
President / Cidermaker
AEppelTreow Winery
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Subject: Cider BOS at the 2007 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out
From: <Paul_Dienhart@cargill.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 15:13:27 -0600
Finally, a best-of-show award for cidermakers. A coveted, custom-carved
wooden chalice will be presented for the BOS beer, mead and cider at the
2007 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out, Jan. 26-27 in St. Paul, Minnesota. One
of the larger homebrew contests in the country, the Mash-Out provides
prizes along with every medal. Special categories include first-time
entrants and the infamous "Eis Anything" category. Entries are due Jan.
1 to 13. The contest is sponsored by the St. Paul Homebrewers Club and
the Minnesota Home Brewers Assn. Check out all the details on the
Website at: http://www.mnbrewers.com/mashout
Paul Dienhart
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Cider Digest #1356, 5 December 2006
From: joshua friedlander <yettiegreat@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 07:19:14 -0800 (PST)
sweating cider
any mead maker knows that honey is very fermentable. I even use it to
prime my beers. When using honey it's importan to use yeast enigizers and
nutrients. Some thing to rescearch would be an herb called steavia. It's a
herbal sweetener that I don't believe would add any fermentable sugar. it
can be attained at most health food stores. chech it out
------------------------------
Subject: Great Lakes Expo and GLOWS
From: Benjamin Watson <bwatson@worldpath.net>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:30:46 -0500
I had the pleasure of traveling to snowy, windy Grand Rapids last week
to speak at the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Markets Expo. It
was great to see a lot of folks out there who are either Cider
Digesters (like Mike Beck!) or orchardists/cidermakers in the Great
Lakes/Upper Midwest region.
I was really impressed with the amount of interest in cider out here,
and the willingness of many orchardists to consider using good cider
apple varieties and experimenting with making their own. The GLOWS
competition winners were announced after my program, and it was great
to see the level of participation -- most, though not all, of the
winners from the Upper Midwest.
Michigan State University also seems committed to researching cider
apples and their relative merits for Great Lakes growers. Nikki
Rothwell from the Traverse City agriculture station is extremely
engaged in this work, and I think that there will be much
information-sharing that can go on in future. MSU has apparently hired
an oenologist, and this person will hopefully be involved in cider
production research as well.
Bob Tritten from MSU conducted the annual Michigan sweet cider tasting,
which seemed to me like a daunting task -- the judges had to narrow
down 33 ciders submitted, and I'm glad I didn't have that task! In the
end, the most eye-opening thing to me was that the three winning ciders
were all pasteurized (the top two UV-treated, and the third place
winner heat-treated). I can honestly say after sampling all three that
I probably would not have been able to tell for sure that they were
pasteurized -- all were much better quality than I have ever had in
pasteurized juice. So, while I still prefer and promote raw cider, I
was forced to get off my high horse a bit and admit that pasteurized
cider that is made from great apples and with care CAN taste like
something after all.
In any case, I'm encouraged by the energy of the cider community in the
Great Lakes and wanted to acknowledge that and thank MSU for asking me
to attend.
Ben Watson
Francestown, NH
------------------------------
Subject: single variety cider trials
From: Benjamin Watson <bwatson@worldpath.net>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 22:49:16 -0500
Just a quick note to say that I am starting a number of small
single-variety cider batches this week, courtesy of Rich Stadnik at
Pup's Cider Co., who is still picking and pressing late-harvest fruit
in our unseasonably warm and un-snowy early winter.
In the past I have made Golden Russet and Mutsu single-variety ciders,
but Rich and I are interested in learning about the properties of more
regional or lesser-known cider varieties. We are very high on Black
Oxford, an old Maine apple, and in fact the juice tested out at a
whopping 21 Brix (or around 11.5% potential alcohol)!
The other single-variety batches we're testing are Winter Banana,
another apple that I'm starting to really like (12 Brix, 7% p.a.),
Sheepnose, a.k.a., Black Gilliflower (16.5 Brix, or 9% p.a.), and
Tolman Sweet (14 Brix, or 7.5% p.a.).
I frankly don't know if this is worthwhile or not, and I don't expect
any of these to taste like much as a single-variety cider. But who
knows? This is the kind of testing that I wish could be done more
systematically -- though I'm certain Ian Merwin et al. must have done
much of this at Cornell -- not to mention Andrew Lea et al. at Long
Ashton.
In fact, I would be interested in knowing whether anyone knows if
research from Long Ashton is still accessible anywhere -- Nikki
Rothwell at Michigan State might well like to access these sorts of
trials as a starting point for their own program in Traverse City,
Michigan.
However, I've never seen data for many heirloom apple varieties, like
the ones we're trying. I think several people have got a pretty good
handle on fermentation characteristics on Spitzenburg, Golden Russet,
Roxbury Russet, plus the usual European bittersweets and bittersharps.
But Sheepnose and Black Oxford? Never seen anyone do that (maybe for a
very good reason).
Anyway, if anything interesting crops up, I'll report back on the
experimental batches. And one final note -- the Tolman Sweet juice
seems to be falling fairly bright between a pronounced brown cap and a
thick bottom sediment. Is this the illusive defecation? The keeve that
I so thoroughly screwed up when Gary Awdey gave me some pectic enzyme a
couple years ago? I wish I could take credit for this, but if it is a
keeve, it was entirely accidental. Any thoughts? Should I hurry up and
rack off the clear juice before it all goes to hell like last time.
There's no real "gelatin" cap, so maybe I'm imagining things.
Ben Watson
Francestown, NH
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End of Cider Digest #1357
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