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Cider Digest #1829
Subject: Cider Digest #1829, 4 December 2013
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1829 4 December 2013
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Original Gravities English Cider Varieties (Andrew Lea)
Trip in French Ciderland (Claude Jolicoeur)
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Subject: Original Gravities English Cider Varieties
From: Andrew Lea <andrew@harphill.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 07:32:05 +0000
On 29/11/2013 17:16, Robert West wrote:
> I am in Herefordshire, England and I wonder if anyone knows of any
> publication, website etc. which details the expected gravities of pressed
> juice for each traditional cider variety.
You may be expecting too much. By and large sugar content is not a
function of apple variety. It tends to be controlled more by climate and
growing conditions than it is by cultivar, so it is not regarded as a
defining parameter for individual apple varieties.
However, data of a sort is sometimes quoted. The modern but out of print
Somerset Pomona does. A great wealth of information from older pomonas
can be found on the Marcher Apple Network Vintage Fruit CD. You should
get a copy http://www.marcherapple.net/vfruit.htm
Andrew Lea
nr Oxford, UK
www.cider.org.uk
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Subject: Trip in French Ciderland
From: Claude Jolicoeur <cjoliprsf@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 14:55:08 -0500
Now 10 days since I am back from French Ciderland... Been quite busy
processing my own apples since, but here is a short report.
I haven't been able to see all I wanted, some cider makers didn't
reply to my request, others were simply too busy at that time of
year, and others couldn't be available at the time I was in the area,
and also my wife insisted we see a few other things than cideries....
But all in all I was able to see:
In Brittany, 3 producers in the Fouesnant area, one in Northern
Brittany near Morlaix, and one in between. Unfortunately I wasn't
able to make it with a producer that makes Royal Guillevic cider -
these are mostly in the Morbihan area (SE of Brittany).
In Normandy, 2 producers in Lower Normandy, Pays de Caen and de
Bessin, plus a visit to Huet in Pays d'Auge, but I couldn't meet him.
2 producers in Upper Normandy, Pays de Caux and de Bray, plus a small
organic producer hear Honfleur (not sure if he is part of Upper or
Lower Normandy, but he said he was 500 meters away from Pays d'Auge,
and thus couldn't get the "Appellation").
Size of operation: range from 1000 bottles a year, and up to 180000
for the largest. All in the "Craft" range, and no industrial
producer. Most were in the 35000 to 60000 bottles/year range.
Orchard: split between Haute Tige (HT), standards with 10 m spacing,
100 trees/ha, and Basse Tige (BT) their name for a bush orchard,
almost all on M106 with tree density typically 650 trees/ha. Most HT
orchards were without any treatment, while BT orchard were sometimes
treated for scab, cankers, coddling moth, and sometimes chemical
thinning. I was surprised to see there are still plantings of HT and
most producers had orchards of both types. One told me his next
orchard would be planted 1 HT tree with 5 BT trees to get early
production, and as the TH trees mature, he would cut the small trees
to remain with the HT orchard on the long term.
Most producers used mechanical harvesters, hence could not keep the
apples in storage as they get damage from the harvester, and thus are
processed the next day after harvesting. Apples are left on orchard
floor for quite a while. Usually 2 sometimes 3 harvest runs are made,
shaking would be done before last run.
Varieties: Douce Moen is by far and large the most popular variety
everywhere. In Brittany, they use almost exclusively sweets and
bittersweets, while in Normandy they will use some sharp in the
blend. Fouesnant producers use a larger proportion of bitter apples
(and this shows in their ciders).
My big surprise there is that even their most bitter apples tasted
relatively mild to me. I was expecting something really much more
bitter. This means that I'll have to revise my bitterness
quantification internal scale... Also some apples that I distributed
as very mild bittersweets could be full and hard bittersweets...
Pressing: this was pretty standard, with a receiving bin for the
apples, sometimes a first wash, and a sorting conveyor to the mill.
A very popular piece of equipment is this elevator/washer/mill
combination by SPEC: http://www.speccidre.fr/index.php?page=7
The pomace then fell in a large bin equipped with a screw in the
bottom that pushed the pomace to a pump and then to the press.
For press, a popular option is a horizontal pneumatic press, such as
the ATI Softpress: http://www.atifano.it/eng/applescider.htm
These (or similar) were used by 4 of the producers. 2 used a belt
press, 2 used hydraulic rack and cloth press, one used a large
hydraulic basket press, and the smallest used a central screw press
that his grandfather had...
Fermentation tanks: most had fiberglassresin tanks (Italian) such as
those by CMP: http://www.cmpspa.it/jecf.htm
Often they had some with floating lid and some fixed volume tanks. I
saw just a few SS tanks. One producer used barrels for fermentation.
Process pretty much all used the Klercidre kit for defecation. Only
one didn't and simply racked and filtered to achieve the same. One
used a variant where some air is injected under the gel to make it
rise more quickly. He called this "Flottation". He used a flottateur
such as http://www.dellatoffola.fr/pages/oenologie_f1.php
None used centrifugation, but all but the smallest used filtration to
control speed of filtration and stabilize the cider. One made me
understand that a racking is much less efficient in a large tank for
reducing the speed, and thus filtration is required. Thinking about
this, it does make sense, as each CO2 bubble travels a lot more in a
large tank, and thus creates more disturbance.
In all cases, the ciders are racked and filtered at a SG between
1.015 and 1.025 (depending on the end type desired). Then bottled,
expecting a further .004 drop in SG to get the fizz.
In some cases, the last filtration is sterile, and some yeast
inoculation is made for the bottle conditioning. In other cases, the
yeast was counted after the last filtration to evaluate yeasting
required for inbottle fermentation.
Only one producer produced the fizz by forced carbonation.
Ciders: always presented in Champagne type bottles with mushroom
corks. Very inexpensive (for our N.American standards), varying
between 2.50 and 4.00 Euros. Only one producer was more expensive at
around 8.00 Euros (this producer was special, as he hand gathered his
apples, let them ripen in a protected shed, and fermented in barrels,
hence his costs were higher)
The ciders were all quite sweet (but this was expected), even their
"brut" would test at SG over 1.010. And their sweet probably around
or slightly above 1.020. Only a few producers had noticeable malo
notes (and rather pleasant, although my wife doesn't appreciate), but
all claimed complete MLF happened.
Acidity level was low in all cases, maybe slightly higher in Normandy.
These ciders were very good. We had so much given to us, that we had
to drink some at breakfast!!! And it went in very easily.
Claude Jolicoeur
Author, The New Cider Maker's Handbook
http://www.cjoliprsf.ca/
http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_new_cider_makers_handbook/
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End of Cider Digest #1829
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