Cider Digest #1488

eZine lover (@eZine)

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Cider Digest

 · 8 months ago

Subject: Cider Digest #1488, 2 March 2009 
From: cider-request@talisman.com 

 
Cider Digest #1488                                         2 March 2009 

                 Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues 
                      Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor 

Contents: 
  HDPE vessels, moving cider by vacuum (Jason MacArthur) 
  TA Testing (Jason MacArthur) 
  1st Round NHC Judging - NE Region ("David Houseman") 

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Subject: HDPE vessels, moving cider by vacuum 
From: Jason MacArthur <rotread@localnet.com> 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:51:49 -0500 

I have two questions for all of you in cider world: 

1) There are a number of new HDPE vessels being marketed for winery 
use which claim to either breathe at the same rate as a two year old 
oak barrel or essentially not at all.  (The manufacturer whose 
products I have been looking at is FlexTank, from Australia, but I am 
sure there are others.) Does anyone have any experience with these or 
similar HDPE materials, and if so would you recommend using them?  I 
know that many HDPE tanks admit too much oxygen, but I don't know to 
what extent they differ porosity. 

2) My other question involves moving cider with vacuum, essentially 
creating a slight vacuum in one container and then using this 
pressure differential to rack into the evacuated container.  I know 
this is possible with carboys, but I wonder if it is practical for 
larger vessels, specifically those not rated to hold pressure.  How 
much vacuum is needed to move cider, and is this amount small enough 
that most containers can take it without imploding? 

Jason MacArthur 
Marlboro, Vt. 

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Subject: TA Testing 
From: Jason MacArthur <rotread@localnet.com> 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:01:47 -0500 

I am hoping that someone with a better Chemistry background than mine 
can help me clarify something. 

I have, from Peter Mitchells excellent cider making class, the 
following formula, assuming .2M Sodium Hydroxide Solution and 25 ml 
of sample cider, for finding Total Acidity: 

  Malic acid(gl -1 ) = Volume(ml) of Sodium Hydroxide Solution used x 
0.536 

I recently purchased some Sodium Hydroxide, the strength of which is 
defined as follows:    N/10 (0.1N) 
How do I adjust the above formula for the different strength of 
Sodium Hydroxide solution? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! 
Jason MacArthur 

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Subject: 1st Round NHC Judging - NE Region 
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman@verizon.net> 
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:18:47 -0500 

The Northeast Regional judging for the 1st Round of the National Homebrew 
Competition will be held the weekend of April 17-19 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 this location to 
be even better than last year there as Yards is now in production and the 
facility is completed and open for business.   For those of you who haven't 
this is a great opportunity 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 if needed depending on the number of entries 
and judges who are available on Saturday and Sunday.   While the 
details haven't been fully worked out expect to start judging on Saturday AM 
at 9am, on Sunday at 10:00 and IF we judge on Friday night, it will be about 
7:30pm.   Friday night might be a great time for pub crawl for those coming 
from out of town.  Details will be provided closer to the date of the 
competition. 

Again, 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.   Those 
of you who attended last year's cider training session will want to put 
their training to practice. 

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 17-19 and plan to judge in Philadelphia. 
If you have not done so already, 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. 

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 #1488 
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