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Cider Digest #1639
Subject: Cider Digest #1639, 22 June 2011
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1639 22 June 2011
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Pumps (Nat West)
Just learning cider ("Joanna Bailey")
Re: liquids pump (Bill)
sulfites as sanitizers (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Pumps
From: Nat West <natjwest@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 08:56:01 -0700
Rich, do you have a link for that pump?
I bought a highly-recommended pump this year, the March 809, which I am very
disappointed with. Apparently, it is a PUMP, not a SUCK. In addition to not
being self-priming (if you have shut-off valves on each end of your tubing,
it's not too much of a pain), it only pumps juice up, from the pump to a
higher location. It does not suck juice into itself from a higher location.
So to use it, I have to prime-siphon cider from a higher vessel, into the
pump (which must be physically lower than the inlet line) and then it can
pump up. When using 55-gallon barrels, you have to elevate them on wood
blocks or otherwise, and place the pump below the barrel on the ground. This
is a major hassle and is causing me to look for a new pump. Especially since
I'm going to start using barrels sunken below the ground in future years.
- -Nat West, Portland Oregon
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Subject: Just learning cider
From: "Joanna Bailey" <joanna@seventreesfarm.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 09:33:25 -0700
Hi all,
I'm new to the cider digest, and fairly new to making cider. I've been
brewing beer, mead, fruit & grape wines off and on for years, but now live
on a small farm and have access to apples and a press when harvest
quantities permit.
I don't get very technical with my brewing. I like the fun of experimenting
most of all. Previous apple-related batches include a cyser that was
fabulous, a sparkling hard cider (used Nottingham ale yeast) that was mostly
drinkable but not 'good enough for company', and the twin to that batch
(used some kind of wine yeast) that I just racked onto a pint of homemade
rose syrup & will bottle today.
This year is shaping up to be a bumper crop for apples in the neighborhood.
My neighbor has a lot of Gravensteins, and our newish Ashmead's Kernal,
Kingston Black & Enterprise trees are making a go of it finally. Since I
won't have many cider apples, how should I best use them? What proportions
would work well with Gravensteins?
Thanks & looking forward to learning more here...
- -Joanna
www.seventreesfarm.wordpress.com
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Subject: Re: liquids pump
From: Bill <squeeze@mars.ark.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:22:17 -0700
I was reminded of the queation of a good affordable pump as I was
dealing with the annual task of transfering vinegar out of the tank for
filtering and bottling, and replaceing that volume with last falls
finished cider - 3 transfer operations, including filtering the vinegar.
I have a filter with an excellent strong pump that's removeable and
portable, with plumbing I rigged myself. The filter, is from ENOTECNICA
PILLAN in Italy, model AF10. Might check your favorite equipment
supplier for it if you also have a use for a good filter.
Bill <http://mars.ark.com/~squeeze/>
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Subject: sulfites as sanitizers
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:41:44 -0600
(or sulphites as sanitisers, over there:)
Steven Edholm wrote in CD 1636:
>...I was rather surprised to hear Dan say that sulfites are not very
> effective sanitizers on their own since they are widely used as a
> sanitizing wash for equipment and for bottles before filling, but I'll
> take that under advisement and think about trying some more aggressive
> sanitizers.
(I'm not sure who "Dan" is, but since Dan apparently wrote the same thing I
did, I'll respond on his behalf:)
OK, WHO uses sulfites as a sanitizing wash?
Now, put this in some context:
Recall that when you're figuring how much sulfite to add to a cider at the
very start, if you're trying to use just the right amount you will check
the pH of the juice, then sulfite accordingly. Look at the tables and
you'll see that for a pH above 3.8, the advice is "lower the pH" - because
above that pH you won't release enough SO2 to have any anti-microbial effect.
Doesn't matter whether it's juice or a "cleaning solution". And water has
a pH of 7, so a metabisulfite in water simply won't release any useful
amount of SO2.
What you -can- do is mix a metabisulfite plus an acid in water, the acid
being there to drop the pH so that the sulfite can do something useful.
The use of just sulfite in solution seems to be a common misconception.
I plead guilty to just this mistake in the past! (It's not that I'm too
smart to make the mistake; rather I made it but was corrected.) And I've
seen it recently not just here on the Cider Digest, but over in the Cider
Workshop (in the context of washing apples) and also in a cidermaking book
published just this year.
In the area of preventing microbiological contamination, small cidermakers
are generally trying to follow established procedure. If something goes
wrong they try to figure out where they deviated from the procedure, NOT
where the procedure was wrong! So an ill-conceived procedure is bad for
all of us.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #1639
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