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Cider Digest #1724
Subject: Cider Digest #1724, 4 August 2012
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1724 4 August 2012
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
How long will yeast remain viable in fermented cider? (denniswaller@comcas...)
Competition Clarification and Mushroom Corks ("Gary Awdey")
RE: Cider Digest #1723, 31 July 2012 ("Julian Temperley")
RE: corker/corks ("Charles McGonegal")
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: How long will yeast remain viable in fermented cider?
From: denniswaller@comcast.net
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:34:54 +0000 (UTC)
I have about 80 gallons of cider fermented with #4766 yeast aging in glass
carboys under airlocks.? T o carbonate the cider I? transfer 2.5 gallons
into plastic "party pigs" with an inflatable bladder and add a small amount
of sugar, just enough to provide carbonation. In the past I have filled the
pigs 2-3 months after fermentation but my schedule slipped this year and I
now have many gallons of cider that have been aging for nine+ months. Aging
takes place in my basement where it is dark, cool and about 60F year round.
Question: will there be enough live yeast in the cider to initiate
fermentation of the new sugar or must I add a small amount of yeast when
I add the sugar?
Dennis Waller
denniswaller@comcast.net
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Subject: Competition Clarification and Mushroom Corks
From: "Gary Awdey" <gawdey@comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 00:30:04 -0500
In Cider Digest #1723, 31 July 2012, Andy Sietsema's signature block noted
him as "The 2011 Great Lakes Cider Winner."
No doubt well-deserved congratulations are due to Andy and his dad, Skip,
for this award. However as a point of clarification the Sietsema's First
Place was earned in the 2011 Michigan Cider Competition. The fact that this
unfermented cider competition was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during the
Great Lakes Fruit and Vegetable Exposition could perhaps tempt one to call
it the Great Lakes Cider Competition when discussing it with others who are
familiar with the Exposition. Unfortunately this unofficial stretch of the
competition name out of context creates confusion about winners of the 2011
Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition (GLINTCAP), which was
unaffiliated with the Exposition, took place several months later and drew a
massive number of fermented entries from a wide geographical range.
The commercial division of the 2011 Great Lakes International Cider & Perry
Competition awarded four awards of highest distinction. In the Standard,
Specialty and Unrestricted Cider & Perry division the Best of Show award
went to Hogan's Cider Ltd. of Warwickshire, England. Best of Show Honorable
Mention went to Tideview Cider of Nova Scotia, Canada. In the Intensified
Cider and Spirits Division the Best of Show award went to County Cider
Company of Ontario, Canada. Best of Show Honorable Mention went to
Blackstar Farms of Suttons Bay, Michigan. Other 2011 GLINTCAP awards for
commercial and noncomercial divisions may be seen at
http://www.greatlakescider.com/glintresults2011.html. The more recent
21012 winners are also available at
http://www.greatlakescider.com/glintresults2012.html.
Andy, with respect to your query about corks you may find that some other
people disagree with what some of your initial sources had to say about what
type of cork is required to get a good mushroom shape (though there are
other reasons that quality of cork may make a difference). Take a look
around at sparkling wines and you won't have to look far to find inexpensive
corks made from bits and binders that nevertheless have a well defined
mushroom shape. Sizing the cork properly for the bottle is critical, and a
North American bottle with a smaller neck/cork won't be quite as impressive
visually as the European equivalent. Assuming the cork is large enough to
fit the neck properly and provide a good seal under high pressure it should
gradually expand to the shape you desire after insertion into the bottle.
Keep in mind that some of this expansion will be slow. If your bottle
fermention is abnormally rapid and you're looking for a trick for reshaping
the cork more quickly to make the cider visually presentable for sale you
can try compressing the top half of the cork downward while tightening the
wire hood (though this only works if bottle neck, corks size, degree of cork
insertion and size of wire hood are all very well matched to each other).
It also helps to have an extra set of hands available if you want to give
this a try. A bench capper works reasonably well for applying downward
compression while tightening the wire since hand pressure alone will not be
sufficient.
Gary Awdey
Valparaiso, Indiana
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Subject: RE: Cider Digest #1723, 31 July 2012
From: "Julian Temperley" <somcb@globalnet.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 10:11:52 +0100
Hi Dick,
Quite a number of US Cider makers who have visited the UK will be
amused to see that the Olympic opening ceremony in London featured a hill
which they recall as very very similar to the hill at Burrow Hill Cider in
Somerset. There was even a cider orchard and apple pickers, one my niece.
As the ceremony progressed the countryside scenes were destroyed by the
industrial revolution, but Burrow Hill survived as a symbol of the best of
our past and future and will remain in the stadium surrounded by the 204
of the world's flags.
The press has the hill as Glasonbury Tor, but it's the wrong shape
and Glastonbury has a chapel on top of it , not a tree. A fun story for
cider and 1,000 million viewers. ( pictures to follow) Julian Temperley
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Subject: RE: corker/corks
From: "Charles McGonegal" <cpm@appletrue.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2012 09:24:05 -0500
Andy, getting the mushroom shape is a two step process. And you will need
to use agglomerated cork, either the microagglomerated cork often used for
belgain ales, or the standard champagne corks, which have 2 solid cork disks
on the bottom (and thus are directional)
The champagne cork should be set to put the cork into the bottle about ¾?.
The exact value has some leeway. And that number is for the regular
champagne cork. The microagglomerated cork I would assume is different. Be
careful sourcing the champagne corks. You need to try them out with your
bottles. Regular size is 31mm (OD), I think, and I find it breaks the 26mm
crown W106 glass I get every time. I order a custom 28mm size. I?m told
that the supposedly same W106 sold on the west coast has a bigger throat and
takes these corks ? but I don?t know that I believe it.
For the second step, you move the bottle with the cork sticking out of the
top to the wirehooder. You put the wirehood over the cork, and compress the
top down so that the wire is under the skirt of the bottle, then tighten it.
I use a wirehood built out of a Ferrari capper with a pneumatic lift stage.
You can do the compression with the arm of the capper ? it?s just tiring. I
use a 29mm bell on the capper so it goes around the wires.
Charles McGonegal
AEppelTreow Winery
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End of Cider Digest #1724
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