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Cider Digest #1753
Subject: Cider Digest #1753, 26 December 2012
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1753 26 December 2012
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Hewes Crab and Wickson (Jack O Feil)
Diminishing flavor in packaged cider (Nikolai Braun)
Historical evidence of hops in cider (Yann Fay)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Hewes Crab and Wickson
From: Jack O Feil <feilorchards@juno.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:39:51 -0800
My orchard is in arid North Central Washington, fruit growing is
dependent on irrigation. I don't have any problem with the Wickson, hangs
well and keeps well, ripens late mid season. We sell some to cider makers
but sell a lot roadside as a desert apple.
As for the Hewes, the problems are well documented,at least here
they are mid summer when temps can approach a hundred degrees or more,
they water core, that's good for juice but do drop and even picked don't
keep at all, but they do bear well. I find the best time to pick them is
when the water core starts to develop, the apples that drop on their own
seem to be overripe, rot rapidly and are worthless. If you don't want to
make cider that early in the season, would freezing or preserving the
juice in some other way for later use be an option, maybe for blending or
is Hewes overrated or better adapted cooler and damper climates?
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Subject: Diminishing flavor in packaged cider
From: Nikolai Braun <nikolai.braun@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 07:37:13 -0700
I am a hobbyist cider producer. I have a happy valley scratter/press,
buckets + carboys, and a capper for bottles. This fall I made several
great bold-tasting ciders, as well as some "standard" milder-tasting
ciders.
Everything tasted good and as expected at the first racking, at bottling,
and up until 2 weeks after bottling. After that point, it was fairly
obvious that the total flavor in all ciders was dropping.
It is currently ~10 weeks since bottling. The standard ciders are watery
and taste like nothing. The bold ciders taste like standard ciders, and
the 100% crab-apple cider I made has become drinkable, whereas two months
ago it required a 1:1 dilution with sprite. I don't detect any weird off
flavors in any batch.
I don't think I experienced diminishing flavor in previous years, or at
least I didn't experience it anywhere close to the extent that I have this
year.
The packaged ciders have not been stabilized (sulfited). I did not purge
any container with CO2 at any step of the process. The packaged ciders
have been stored in the basement @ 60F/15C.
What might be the cause of this? I welcome any ideas you can suggest for
improvements to future batches.
Thanks!
Nikolai Braun, Fort Collins, CO
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Subject: Historical evidence of hops in cider
From: Yann Fay <Yann.Fay@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:57:37 -0500
Hello everyone,
I've been doing a lot of research recently on the history of cider, both
foreign and domestic (US for those of you who don't know me). Spending time
combing through the Cornell University library catalogs and archives as
well as online databases, sifting through a lot of unhelpful text and
occasionally uncovering some hidden gems.
Last night while enjoying a glass of last season's cider and reading a book
by John Marquart written in 1867 I came across a recipe titled '*How to
keep common cider good for years' *in which the author boils hops in cider
for it's preservative effects.
*Take the cider when you think it will suit your taste, put it into a
kettle, and boil it very little. Make a bag and put into it 1/4 pound of
hops, then put the bag with hops into the kettle with that cider, and tie
it fast to the handle so that the bag with hops will not touch the bottom
of the kettle; scum off the cider while you have it on the fire, and after
it has boiled a short time take it off the fire, and let it cool down
lukewarm; put it into a good sweet barrel, and add 1 pint good fresh
brandy, bung it up, and it will keep the same as you put it into your
barrel for years.*
I always just assumed that adding hops to cider was a relatively new
development, seems I was wrong.
- -Yann Fay
Bellwether Hard Cider <http://cidery.com/>
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End of Cider Digest #1753
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