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Cider Digest #1927
Subject: Cider Digest #1927, 1 January 2015
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1927 1 January 2015
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: starting new cider orchard (Ben Watson)
RE: Filtration and shelf-stabilization ("Charles McGonegal")
Reply to cd#1925 Peter Mitchel (Tom)
Sterile Filtration (Autumn Stoscheck)
Re: starting new cider orchard: variety selection? (Claude Jolicoeur)
Chemistry question (Alan Yelvington)
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Subject: Re: starting new cider orchard
From: Ben Watson <BWatson@chelseagreen.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 22:39:58 +0000
Regarding Deborah Shafer's post on varietal selection, I think the varieties
she lists are all good. GoldRush is a wonderful eating and cider apple,
and Liberty is likewise useful. And Ashmead's Kernel as far as high-sugar,
high-acidity apples go is one of my favorites for eating or cider blending.
The only caveat I have is Hudson's Golden Gem. It's a wonderful dessert
apple, but I don't find it as useful for cider as other russet varieties. My
advice would be to plant just a few HGG trees for fresh use, and go with
Golden Russet instead. It's not as "pear-like" or "nutty" as HGG, but it
has very good Brix, produces dependably well, hangs well into the fall
on the tree without dropping and can withstand very cold temperatures
without much effect. It doesn't make (in my opinion) a very distinguished
single-variety cider, but it is useful as a base or blending juice because
it doesn't taste "distinctive" or "unusual". The best old dessert apples, I
think, are ones that have some distinctive or "interesting" flavor (Mother,
Opalescent, etc.), but I don't tend to like odd post-fermentation flavor
notes in my ciders.
Ben Watson
Francestown, NH
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Subject: RE: Filtration and shelf-stabilization
From: "Charles McGonegal" <cpm@appletrue.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 17:15:08 -0600
Peter,
I, also, am limited to chemical sanitation. I'll outline my process.
1) Fine with sparkolloid and kieselsol. This is to reduce the load on
my filter pads. I find the negatively charged silica nicely settles the
positively charged sparkolloid.
2) I have two filter housings - pad and cartridge. I set up a coarse
depth cartridge (1um, but low efficiency, so acts like 10um) and 2um pads
and filter through in one pass. I happen to have a source for the coarse
cartridges that makes them about the same price as a pad set.
3) I reverse the order of the housings and run 0.45um pads to 0.45um
absolute. Sometimes pear gives me trouble and I have to go to 0.2um pads to
make it through the 0.45um absolute. The 0.45um pads are -only- prefilters
for the membrane. Don't ever kid yourself otherwise.
4) I let the cider rest for several days and when I bottle it, I put
the 0.45um filter between the bottling tank and the bottler. This comes
from a tip from a sparkling wine maker in northern MI. Pad filters can
allegedly shear off yeast buds small enough to make it through the 0.45um
membrane. If you let it rest, those buds get a chance to swell up to
filterable size.
I still don't consider that 'sterile'. The output of the 'sterile' filter
is only sterile to about the first hose fitting. Using steam to sterilize
your whole line is great practice, if you can manage it, but still only
pushes the 'sterility' question to your packaging. How good are you 'nuking'
your bottles, caps and corks. And bottling room air, for that matter.
If there's any residual sugar, you should have some control for actual shelf
stability. Think of all that filtering/steam as reducing the work your
stabilization measure needs. You can bottle pasteurize. You can use
chemical controls like velcorin, or sorbic acid (with several caveats). I
also find that 5 volumes CO2 pressure (I practice the champagne method)
works, too.
Regards
Charles
AeppelTreow Winery & Distillery.
------------------------------
Subject: Reply to cd#1925 Peter Mitchel
From: Tom <tom@elfsfarm.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 09:41:23 -0500
Reply to Peter regarding sterile filtration
I got into an argument with one of my State Health Reps when he
called the UV unit they recommend for treating Apple Cider "Ultraviolet
Sterilization". Simply stated Sterilization is a time/heat process and i
believe wet heat at that.
UV, sterox, metsbisulfite, idophore, pbw, etc are not sterilization. They
are cleaners and some sanitizers. The .45um filter will remove yeast and
some phages but you are not sterile downstream ( or upstream).
Since you are working with good size batches at 500 gal and are risking
$10,000 plus each batch i would (if I were you (and I was not long ago))
rethink and redesign your flow.
Blend in tank, add whatever sugar, flavor and cellar additions (sorbate,
bisulfite, etc). When you are ready to bottle go straight thru filters to
your bottler.
If you have a plate filter most can be configured for more than one size
pad. Do no more than 3 passes. Invest in a 10 inch SS cartridge or membrane
filter (or go to box store and get a plastic housing). If money is no object
;-) get a dry steam genny or a large capacity H2O heater. I dont remember
the tables but i think 140 f for 25 min. Pass it through your hoses, filters
and bottler (ss really is better for bottling). Then bottle, disposing of
first case or so because of the water saturation in the filter pads.
Peter until you can sterilize your cider will be prone to blowing up. Even
then without pre and/or post sterlization of your cider itself you are
still at risk. Keep it cold!
But thats why its a craft beverage! Good luck and cheers!
Tom Frey
518-593-7904=
------------------------------
Subject: Sterile Filtration
From: Autumn Stoscheck <autumnstoscheck@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2015 15:18:59 +0000 (UTC)
In response to Peter Mitchell and sterile filtration:
First, I would not trust a pad filter for sterile filtration. Even at
.45 micron it is a nominal, not absolute filter. If you would like to
rely on sterile filtration for bottle stabilization use the pad filter
as a pre-filter and follow with a membrane filter.
Second, Star-San and SO2 sanitize but do not sterilize. Sanitizing is not
good enough in a sterile bottling situation. In my experience, there are
3 suitable sterilizing options for a sterile filter bottling: steam, heat,
and peroxyacetic acid. With either of these options you have to make sure
you have the time/temperature or time/concentration equation correct.
Third, you MUST clean-in-place to achieve a sterile bottling. Handling
anything once you've sterilized will only serve to contaminate it. This
includes the membrane filter. When we do a sterile filtration bottling,
we sanitize and rinse all of the equipment prior to assembly. Then,
we pump a peroxyacetic solution through our membrane filter, into our
gravity feed tank and into the bottler and let it sit for the allotted
time. Once drained, we run regular cold water through the sterile filter as
a rinse, and let drain. CIP sounds high tech, but we do all of this with
fairly inexpensive simple and DIY equipment.
Two resources I recommend: take a winery sanitation seminar by Dr. Randy
Worobo. Everyone in cider making should take a class with him, regardless
of whether you are sterile filtering or not. Sanitization is sexy! Also,
get your filtration set up with a reputable company who can provide you
with service and advice. I highly recommend AFTEK in Rochester NY, which
is a family owned company with excellent service. Again, I'm not talking
about high tech bottling lines or expensive filters. They can set up the
smallest winery/cidery to achieve success with sterile filtration.
Autumn Stoscheck
Eve's Cidery
308 Beckhorn Hollow Rd
Van Etten, NY 14889
autumn@evescidery.com
607-229-0230
------------------------------
Subject: Re: starting new cider orchard: variety selection?
From: Claude Jolicoeur <cjoliprsf@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:46:01 -0500
In Cider Digest #1926, 31 December 2014
Sam Irish wrote about rootstocks:
>I'm looking for rootstock advice and or experience for a small/med
>sized commercial cider apple orchard in the Bangor Maine area. Here
>are some attributes I'm most interested in that might help with the
>recommendation:
Sam, if you are not in a hurry, the criteria you mention seem to call
for a standard rootstock! Antonovka for example would surely meet
your requirements.
And Deborah wrote about variety selection:
>So far, I am planning to get 1 Dabinett and 1 Amere de Berthcourt,
>English and French bittersweet types that are both reported to bear
>annually and are very productive.
>add to that maybe a Court Pendu Plat sharp, Reine des Reinette sweet?
>The following varieties are on the list for fresh eating, cooking and
>cider: Hudson's Golden Gem and Airlie Red Flesh (Oregon natives),
>Liberty and Gold Rush (two modern disease resistant types), and
>Ashmead's Kernal (just tastes great).
Lots of good varieties in your list, but I would recommend to plant a
higher percentage of bittersweet varieties. Ideally, you should aim
for 1/3 to 1/2 of the trees as sweet/bittersweet cider varieties. And
by the way, I am surprised you mention Reine des reinettes as a
sweet - it is quite sharp as grown here. Possibly in Oregon it is not
quite as sharp, but I don't think it could qualify as a sweet...
Claude
------------------------------
Subject: Chemistry question
From: Alan Yelvington <alany@semparpac.org>
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 19:26:02 -0500
I'm re-purposing the basement bar into my food lab since it has a sink,
and the cats aren't allowed down there :)
Do folks make or buy their own reagents for doing titrations? My NaOH
tablets went bad on me (no clue how moisture got through container
AND overpack.
Now I'm trying to figure out if I should just buy premade solutions,
or stick with making my own from scratch.
Also, how do your store your reagents? Glass, plastic, etc.
Any experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Al
P.S. I use a triple-beam scale for weighing solids (calibration
weights on hand), and I boil and cool (to de-gas) store-bought
distilled water prior to preparing the solutions.
Total acidity is pretty straight-forward, but prep for total SO2 is
a bit trickier. I use titrettes for free SO2.
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End of Cider Digest #1927
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