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Cider Digest #1440
Subject: Cider Digest #1440, 3 March 2008
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1440 3 March 2008
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Very Slow Keeved Cider ("Gary Awdey")
Backsweetening (Charles Mcgonegal)
Carbonating Perry (Bradley Hunter)
2008 National Homebrew Competition Cider Entries ("Janis Gross")
Notice for AHA 1st Round Northeast-Region National Homebrew ("David Houseman")
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Subject: Re: Very Slow Keeved Cider
From: "Gary Awdey" <gawdey@att.net>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:25:15 -0500
In Cider Digest #1438, 17 February 2008, Claude Jolicoeur wrote of four
options for his keeved and very slow wild fermentation:
> 1- Wait and see.
>
> 2- Bring it in another room with higher temperature.
>
> 3- Blend it with my other keeved batch. The inconvenient of this choice is
> that the slow batch has a good part of bittersweet apples which the other
> one doesn't have - I would then dilute the character of this particular cider.
>
> 4- Add a tiny bit of yeast nutrient. The problem here would be to figure
> the quantity. The recommended dosage of the nutrient I have is 5 teaspoons
> (tsp) per 5 gal batch. This is way too much as I know a single tsp is
> sufficient to bring a stucked fermentation to dryness. So, if I choose this
> option, I would probably use about 1/4 tsp per 5 gal.
Another option that Claude has not mentioned is to pitch a commercial yeast.
A number of very good yeasts are on the market that tolerate cold and low
nutrient conditions. However, given the exclusion of this option I favor
the first listed option (wait and see). Although fermentation is slow, if
you are fortunate enough to have some desirable wild yeast fermenting the
cider this may have some inhibiting effect on the growth of undesirables.
Starving the must for nutients with a keeve also tends to starve the
undesirables for nutrients, buying more time for the limited amount of yeast
to finish the job. I also confess a curiosity to find out if fermentation
will stop with sweetness as high as Claude suspects. It may, on the
contrary, prove simply to be an exceptionally slow but fortunate
fermentation.
I have had keeved batches that started out fermenting very slowly like this
(though with commerical yeast). The rate did pick up gradually with
seasonal warming and all turned out well in the end. The exception was a
case in which the fermentation appears to have been caused by something
undesirable. Fermentation was extremely slow until a sudden Spring warm
spell increased cellar temperature about fifteen degrees. At that point
fermentation rate took off like a rocket. A week later the cider was
completely dry but had a horrible flavor. A couple of years later I
realized that the source mill had gotten to rely on the practice of UV
treatment to permit the use of more rotten fruit culled when pulling fruit
from storage bins to stock market shelves. Although the amount was
relatively low and would have tended to be OKdiluted in bulk, the rotten
fruit went into a bucket and presumably from there directly into the mill
all at once so one press cycle would have more of it than others. They had
set some untreated juice aside for me as a favor, knowing I would be
ferementing it. Some of it was very likely already well innoculated with
sulfite-binding crud by the time I picked it up. It had gone right from the
press to individual containers so color, turbidity, level of sediment and
gravity (and apparently microbial loading as well) varied somewhat from
container to container. Most batches from that day of pressing turned out
well and I was genuinely glad to get the cider. Addition of PME and calcium
choride probably did remove some of the crud with the pectin gel but
apparently not enough (and this illustrates the importance of measuring free
sulfite in the must). All that was needed was the warmer temperature for
the undesirables to become more active.
Gary Awdey
Eden, New York
------------------------------
Subject: Backsweetening
From: Charles Mcgonegal <cpm@appletrue.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:21:01 -0600
John H. asks 'why concentrate?'
(quoting emails is really tough from this account)
I think the risk of infection with super-sturdy yeasts is minimal.
I've only had problems with pear. I use concentrates for three reasons.
1) they are really easy to mix in. Much easier to mix in by simply
pumping over the tank than dissolving granulated sugar.
2) They are less of a volume adjustment than adding juice. Just a
couple percent of the volume. I've also mentioned that I don't have
easy means to store a juice reserve, bring it back when I want it, and
my state inspector has problems with me using it unpasteurized.
3) I'm aiming for a specific flavor profile. These are not my most
'artistic' ciders. They are meant to be crowd pleasers. A bit of juice
character is important to that end. A cleanly fermented dry American
sharp/aromatic common cider can easily be winey, I think. White sugar
sweetens, but doesn't change that wine character.
I'm currently experimenting more with yeasts. I have long
underestimated the importance of yeast selection, but it turns out
there was a problem in my micro-scale screening method.
I don't claim to be a cider master, just a cider maker :-)
Charles McGonegal
AEppelTreow Winery
Elegant Hard Cider and Orchard Wines
>>Sent from my iPhone<<
------------------------------
Subject: Carbonating Perry
From: Bradley Hunter <hunter@midcoast.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:42:09 -0500
I have five gallons of Perry that I made in Nov. 2006 that has been
racked a couple of times and is now brilliantly clear. Final gravity
reading is .996.
I would like to bottle this sparkling in heavy walled Champagne bottles
that will take a crown cap.
If this were a beer I would normally boil a pint of water with 3/4 cup
of corn sugar and add that, cooled, along with a fresh packet of
rehydrated wine yeast to ensure carbonation.
Is this technique advisable in this situation or is a modified approach
suggested?
Thanks for any advice.
Brad
------------------------------
Subject: 2008 National Homebrew Competition Cider Entries
From: "Janis Gross" <janis@brewersassociation.org>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:46:12 -0700
Hi everyone,
I hope you have all been making some stellar cider to enter
in the 2008 National Homebrew Competition (NHC)!
This year, cider entries can be sent/dropped off at each of the nine regional
sites in the U.S. rather than a special cider region. All of the entry
details and the Rules & Regulations (PDF file) and are posted on the Entry
Information page on Beertown: http://www.beertown.org/events/nhc/entry.html
Entry to the 2008 NHC is by online entry only. You also now have the option
of paying for your entries and/or AHA membership online. Because ciders are
being entered in the regions along with beer and mead entries, there is no
need to write a separate check or make a separate payment.
The online entry link <http://www.brewingcompetition.com/NHC/nhc.php> is now
live.
The entry deadline is March 31 through April 11 at the regional receiving
sites listed on the Entry Information page on Beertown and shown on the map
on page 22 of the March/April 2008 issue of Zymurgy (Volume 31, Number 2).
NOTE: This year, entrants in the Northwest Region from Idaho, Montana,
Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming can ship/drop-off their entries at Pyramid
Brewery in Seattle between March 10 and March 21, or they can ship entries
directly to Anchorage during the regular competition entry deadline, March
31 through April 11. Entries sent to the Seattle location between March
10 and March 21 will be palletized and shipped on a barge to Anchorage at
no additional cost to the entrant.
NOTE: California entrants are again split between two regions. The dividing
line is set by the entrant's Zip code; Zip codes lower than 93600 enter in
the Southwest Region (San Diego, CA), and greater than 93600 enter in the
West Region (Concord, CA).
Good luck in the competition, and please volunteer to judge or steward if
you can!
Cheers,
Janis Gross
NHC Director
AHA Project Coordinator
janis@brewersassociation.org
303-447-0816 x134
------------------------------
Subject: Notice for AHA 1st Round Northeast-Region National Homebrew
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman@verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:56:08 -0500
Judges,
We are preparing to send EMAIL to judges in the region and found many
without valid EMAIL addresses. You are still invited to contact me to
judge. Do update the BJCP with a current, valid EMAIL address.
The Northeast Regional judging for the 1st Round of the National Homebrew
Competition will be held the weekend of April 25-27 at the Yards Brewery
(www.yardsbrewing.com) in Philadelphia. Yards is located at 901 N.
Delaware Avenue in Philly. Check out Mapquest or Yahoo! Maps for location
and directions.
For those of you have judged this competition before expect the same great
time with excellent judges and friends from the region. Perhaps the new
location to be a big improvement over last year. For those of you who
haven't this is a great opportunity to judge in the largest home brew
competition in the world. We expect to be judging on Saturday and Sunday,
although the number of flights and time needed to judge will depend on the
number of entries we receive and the number of judges who commit to judging.
We may do some judging on Friday night for anyone who is available. While
the details haven't been fully worked out expect to start judging on
Saturday AM at 9am, on Sunday at 12:00 and if we judge on Friday night it
will be about 7:30pm. Details will be provided closer to the competition.
This year we will be judging Cider in addition to the Mead and Beer
categories. This will be a chance to try some of the best ciders made in
the US. We are planning a review of Cider judging preceding those flights,
likely Sunday AM, again depending on the final schedule.
Just reply to me to be put on the list to judge. Let me know which day(s)
you will be available, what categories you want to judge, do not want to
judge and can't judge because you plan to enter those categories. We will
make an attempt to honor your requests if at all possible but someone has to
judge the least favorable categories and not everyone can judge the most
popular ones.
So reserve the weekend of April 25-27 and plan to judge in Philadelphia.
Let me know that you can judge. If you know someone who'd like to steward,
let me know as well; we can use several. There is no need to respond if
you cannot judge.
Site Director: Nancy Rigberg
NRigberg@comcast.net http://www.homesweethomebrew.com/
Judge Coordinator: David Houseman
david.houseman@verizon.net
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End of Cider Digest #1440
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