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Cider Digest #2007
Subject: Cider Digest #2007, 14 December 2015
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #2007 14 December 2015
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
keeve not happening. What to do next (steven buczkowski)
750ml crown cap clear bottles ("C. Thomas")
Re: Line items for building a start-up budget (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: keeve not happening. What to do next
From: steven buczkowski <steven.buczkowski@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2015 10:27:44 -0500
Morning all,
I presently have a 7 gallon bucket of blended juice that was started as
a keeving experiment. A successful keeve was always a long shot but,
now that I'm getting convinced that it isn't going to happen, I'm
trying to decide what to do next. The juice was purchased untreated and
I added PME and CaCl. It has had no other additions. I'm starting to
get significant fermentation from wild yeasts in the must and am trying
to decide whether to let the experiment now be a natural yeast cider
just without the keeve. If it were a smaller batch, I'd absolutely just
let it run. As I see it, I can 1) let it run as is 2) pitch a new yeast
and try to get it to take over (I have carboys with the same starting
juice inoculated with 71b-1122 and LD Carlson Cider House Select yeasts
both of which are fermenting nicely.)
So, I'm looking for some opinions: let it run or, not? If option 2,
should I sulfite it and knock down the wild population before
inoculating? How about pectic enzyme at this point: worth it or, not?
I could even split the batch into smaller volumes to let some run
naturally but, the question is still open how to treat the rest.
I'll take any thoughts.
thanks!
steven
- ------------------------------
Steven Buczkowski
Email: steven.buczkowski@gmail.com
Cell: 413-687-9102 (No texts. Email instead.)
2m/70cm: KB3RRJ (147.135+[156.7]/448.275-[156.7])
Smoke Signal: Two long, Two short. I'll send a rider.
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Subject: 750ml crown cap clear bottles
From: "C. Thomas" <thomas.cris@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 12:09:20 -0500
I don't know why these are so hard to find but I am looking for 750ml
clear (flint) crown cap bottles.
I figure I'll need between 15 and 20 cases this year (I haven't done the
math yet) and I may not be able to afford to get them all at once.
However, I can't find anyone online who is selling these. Does anyone
have a reasonably priced source? I'm located in Pennsylvania.
Last year I used 750ml clear screw cap bottles but I wasn't happy with
the seal they made and I had a lot of the plastic screw caps break. I
definitely want to do 750ml and I definitely want to do clear, corking
seems like a lot of work, added expense and doesn't really give me the
'feel' I want for my finished product but if I can't find crown cap
bottles I may have to consider it.
- - C. Thomas
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Subject: Re: Line items for building a start-up budget
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 12:19:29 -0700
A few Digests back, Ann Torrence asked about "going pro" and help/cautions
for categories of "Best purchases", "Don't bother/hold off until later", and
"Items you wished you'd budgeted for right away that you acquired later".
I've pondered this for a while and have only come up with a few points, but
maybe if I mention those it will spur more discussion.
One of my first in "hold off" is lots of stainless, tanks especially. You
can go a long way before stainless is "necessary", and HDPE tanks have been
getting much better in the last few years.
That said though, be sure you have enough tank space for a good harvest,
and don't forget that you need a spare tank for racking.
Plan for it now: Pump(s) or good ways to move the cider around, and
adequate hoses/couplings. Once you start to move out of the home producer
and carboy stage, you should mostly forget about lifting containers in
order to rack from them. Oh...and figure out (or test) flow rates against
container sizes.
One of my best small purchases was a pH meter, instead of trying to use pH
indicator strips. The strips aren't very accurate and they're hard to
read. With some light sources you can't read them at all.
If you're doing your own pressing, a pressure washer (even a small electric
one) is a vast help. You're using it at the end of the pressing day when
you're probably dog-tired and tempted to put off some of the cleanup.
Bottling equipment is worth some attention because modest amounts of cider
turn into LOTS of bottles: A mere hundred gallons of cider becomes 40-60
cases (750 or 500 ml), which is 480-720 bottles. Get a good bottle
sanitizer--manual is OK but it should be purpose-built so that it only
takes a few seconds per bottle. Get bottle draining tree(s), again
purpose-built; don't try stacking bottles upside-down in makeshift crates
or containers.
Bottlers can be very expensive, and if your cider will be carbonated you
need a bottler which will preserve the carbonation. Small manual counter-
pressure fillers are tedious but can carry you for a few years.
That's my initial take. (Now I need to post this to the Digest so that I
can remember the important stuff I've forgotten so far:-)
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #2007
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