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Cider Digest #1532
Subject: Cider Digest #1532, 3 October 2009
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1532 3 October 2009
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Obtaining PME at home (Andrew Lea)
Northeast Cider-makers Short-course Announcements (Ian Merwin)
Blending Wizard (Claude Jolicoeur)
Re: oak barrel (Claude Jolicoeur)
Re: PME (Claude Jolicoeur)
bitter cider apples (George Gruenefeld)
Aging Cider on Lees (Jim Kroon)
Harbor Freight press conversion (Alan Yelvington)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Obtaining PME at home
From: Andrew Lea <andrew@HarpHill.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:27:10 +0100
[Posted to Cider Digest and Cider Workshop]
There has been a lot of discussion recently on both Cider Digest and
Cider Workshop about the difficulty and expense of obtaining small
amounts of PME (pectin methyl esterase) for the French style 'keeving '
procedure. I have started to muse on ways around this, since keeving
was practised for many years without the addition of commercial fungal
enzymes, so it ought to be possible to do without them for the most part.
As far as I know, the natural PME levels in apples and other fruits
increase on ripening/ softening. Soft fruit, so long as not rotten,
might then be a suitable source of extra PME over and above whatever the
bulk of apple is supplying for itself. Let us say one wishes to keeve a
batch of mid-season fruit. One approach to this might be to store in
advance some early season fruit until it is very soft, then mill this
and add the entire milled pulp to the juice or incubated pulp of the
main bulk of mid-season fruit. This would not be limited to apples.
Bananas might be usable, even tomatoes though they are rather strongly
flavoured. I am not sure what other natural sources of pure PME exist
(without polygalacturonase PG which will prevent keeving).
One thing I would not contemplate is the addition of uncharacterised
fungi / moulds. They may have the PME but they will also have the PG
which we don't want. Fungi also product off-flavours e.g. geosmin and
toxins e.g. patulin. Selected strains from a lab is one thing, wild
fungi from the field is quite another.
I would much welcome the contribution of other cidermakers / chemists /
biochemists in developing these ideas!
Andrew Lea
www.cider.org.uk
------------------------------
Subject: Northeast Cider-makers Short-course Announcements
From: Ian Merwin <im13@cornell.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:42:20 -0400
Cider Aficionados:
This is the first announcement for two cider and perry short-courses
that will be offered again this year by Dr. Peter Mitchell--a
well-known cider maker, expert, and consultant from the UK--hosted by
Cornell University and the Geneva NY Experiment Station. The two
courses will take place the first week of December, 2009, at the Food
Science and Technology Dept, in Geneva, NY.
On Dec. 1-3rd, Dr. Peter Mitchell will offer an introductory to
intermediate level short-course entitled:
Cider Production--Building Expertise
On Dec. 4 -5th, Dr. Mitchell will offer the National Association of
Cider Makers (NACM) official certification course in Cider and Perry
Evaluation and Appreciation
These courses are sponsored on a non-profit cost-recovery basis by
Cornell University.
Registration fees for the Cider Production--Building Expertise course
will be $650 per person.
Fees for the Cider and Perry Evaluation and Appreciation course will
be $550 per person.
Registrations for each course will be limited to 20 persons, on a
first-come first-accepted basis. In past years Dr. Mitchell's
cider-making courses have filled up well ahead of time, so it is
advisable to register soon if you want to attend either or both of
these short courses.
To register, or if you have any questions or comments, please call
Nancy Long at 315-787-2288 between the hours of 08.30 am and 01.00 pm
EST, or email her at NPL1@nysaes.cornell.edu
We hope to see you there!
Ian Merwin
- --
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((!)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Ian A. Merwin, PhD
Herman M. Cohn Professor of Horticulture
Dept. of Horticulture, 118 Plant Science Bldg
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, 14853
Telephone: 607-255-1777
Homepage: http://hort.cals.cornell.edu/people/faculty.cfm?netId=im13
------------------------------
Subject: Blending Wizard
From: Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:43:34 -0400
I have a simple Excel spreadsheet program which I call my "Cider Blending
Wizard" that calculates the sugar and acidity content of a proposed blend,
when knowing the numbers for the individual components of the blend. I have
designed this for the talk on blending I will be giving this coming fall at
the Cider Days of Franklin County in Mass.
Imagine you have pressed 4 gallons of a balanced blend (for example S.G.
1.055, and Titrable Acidity TA 0.6%) and you are wondering what would
happen if you add a gallon of Dolgo crab (S.G. 1.064, TA 2.7%) to the
mixture. Would it bring the blend acidity too high? You could make a test
with a smaller quantity, but it would be faster to make the calculation...
For this particular example, the answer is yes, it would bring the acidity
too high at TA over 1% - better add only half a gallon of Dolgo...
So, this small spreadsheet is quite useful to answer these questions. I
have used it last weekend to help optimise a blend of over 10 varieties
that I pressed.
If you would like to give it a try, you can download it from:
http://www.ciderworkshop.com/claudeswizard.html
It is hosted on the Cider Workshop site, so while you are there, you can
have a look...
You can use the spreadsheet either with MS Excel, or with Open Office.
Maybe some other programs may open it, but I don't know. When you open it
you go to an introduction page with some guidance. Then you need to select
the Wizard tab in the bottom to get to calculate things. There are also a
few other tabs filled with some examples.
So go ahead and download it. If you have comments let me know...
Claude
------------------------------
Subject: Re: oak barrel
From: Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:50:24 -0400
In Cider Digest #1531, 28 September 2009
>Subject: oak barrell
>From: Tim Sandstrom <tunisontim@gmail.com>
>I was given an oak whisky barrel from my daughter 3 years ago.. She found it
>at , of all places, wal-mart. I have not opened it and it has been well
>cared for. I wish to have Hollenbecks Cider Mill fill it for me. They can do
>it unpasteurized if I get it to them early.
>Should I fill it with water first to rinse it(?) or to swell up the
>fittings(?)
>any suggestions?
>After full is it OK to roll it up ramps to get into/out of my truck??
>Thanks
Tim
You will find much information on how to care for barrels in the internet,
mostly on sites of barrel manufacturers. For my part, I have a small oak
barrel that came from Thousand Oaks Barrel Co. - in their site, there are
some instructions. See:
http://www.1000oaksbarrel.com/
I am sure you can find many others similar...
Claude
------------------------------
Subject: Re: PME
From: Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@gmc.ulaval.ca>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:12:44 -0400
In Cider Digest #1531, 28 September 2009:
>Subject: PME
>From: "Mark Johnson" <friendlypool@astound.net>
>Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:15:42 -0700
>
>I answered my own question. PME stands for Pectin Methyl Esterase. I found
>2 producers in the US.
>.......
>My Question would be what size package should the product be broken down
>into? 30 grams? 60g? 100g? 500g? 1kg?
>
>Then what would be a reasonable mark-up and what would the market really be?
>
>I think I remember a message saying one to 1.5 ounces per five gallon batch.
>That plus the Calcium Chloride. Would it be beneficial to work out a
>Keeving Package, more or less standardized to a five gallon batch which
>would include both chemicals?
Mark,
The amount required is ridiculously small - about 2 to 5 ml for a 5 gallon
batch. This means that a 20 kg drum (i.e. 20 litres of enzyme solution)
would be enough for somewhere between 4000 and 10000 5 gal batches - the
cost of enzyme per batch being of the order of 10 to 25 cents...
If you would like to get into that, you could buy one 20 kg package for
1000$, split it into 4000 doses of 10ml (or 10 grams) and resell them 2$ a
piece, for a possible profit of 7000$!
However, the stuff doesn't last forever, so if you don't sell your 4000
baches, you might not make your profit...
There is a French company that does exactly what you suggest, selling a kit
consisting of PME and calcium salt for 1000 litres of juice for about 15
euros. The name is Klercidre. However, they don't seem to answer emails (I
have sent 2 already, in French). I was told that they do answer the phone
however... If we could finally contact them, we would still have to arrange
to have the kit shipped across the ocean.
Claude Jolicoeur
------------------------------
Subject: bitter cider apples
From: George Gruenefeld <moulac4@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 15:03:42 -0700
I read Stephen Wood's message with interest. Unfortunately, getting apples
shipped across the border can be problematic. Does anyone know of a source
of cider apples such as Chisel Jersey, Kingston Black, Dabinett, Michelin
or any of other similar bitter varieties in British Columbia? I have a
three-year-old Yarlington and a Dabinett, but it will be years yet before
they're productive.
------------------------------
Subject: Aging Cider on Lees
From: Jim Kroon <jimmy.kroon@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:54:36 -0400
I've read about winemakers aging on lees to increase mouthfeel and
perception of sweetness. Has anyone done this with cider. If so, I'd like to
hear experiences.
Thanks,
Jim
Delaware
------------------------------
Subject: Harbor Freight press conversion
From: Alan Yelvington <alany@semparpac.org>
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:53:20 -0400
I would like to humbly offer the following video as an example of how to
use a 20-ton arbor press from Harbor Freight as a cider press.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0_Ez14bIwA
The solution is a blend of build-or-buy using materials from Home Depot
and Goodnature. I tried to provide alternate sources of supplies when I
could. I built the tray platform and top plate in my apartment when I
lived in DC, so you don't need a lot of room to do this. (An
understanding roommate does help though...)
20 tons gives a distributed pressure >100 psi. I'm going to grind and
press some apples this weekend, and I hope to be able to weight the
product before and after to get some metric of efficiency. There's
always ciderkin if to much juice is left behind...
Best regards,
Al
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End of Cider Digest #1532
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