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Cider Digest #2026
Subject: Cider Digest #2026, 21 May 2016
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #2026 21 May 2016
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
cider-request was broken for a bit (Cider Digest Admin)
GLINTCAP results (Darlene Hayes)
Re: Pollination Group for the red Geneva crab? (Ann Torrence)
ice cider notes (re: GLINTCAP Results) (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: cider-request was broken for a bit
From: cider-request@talisman.com (Cider Digest Admin)
Date: Sat, 14 May 2016 10:05:23 -0600
Folks, I slipped up in converting for a new machine, and the address
cider-request@talisman.com was bouncing mail for a few days. If you were
trying to unsubscribe and couldn't get through, please re-send your
request.
If you know of someone who tried to subscribe and got blocked this way,
please ask them to try again.
Sorry about that!
- -da janitron
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Subject: GLINTCAP results
From: Darlene Hayes <allintocider@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 15:08:20 -0700
I can't tell you how saddened I was not to get a taste of Dick's
award-winning ice cider. I was standing next to Mike Beck and Julian
Temperly when Mike brought it out at the end of it all to let Julian have a
taste. Julian took a sip, went on about how good it was, put the remainder
of the bottle into his pocket, and headed to the airport. So that was the
end of that. It must have been quite brilliant! To assuage that
disappointment I await the cider's story with great anticipation instead.
And I'd like to reiterate what a smashing job Eric West, Mike Beck, Gary
Awdey, Charles McGonegal and the band of volunteers did of organizing it
all, particularly with the huge jump in entries this year.
Darlene
allintocider.com
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Subject: Re: Pollination Group for the red Geneva crab?
From: Ann Torrence <ann@anntorrence.com>
Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 19:55:50 -0600
Barry Topp <barrytopp@newforestcider.co.uk =
<mailto:barrytopp@newforestcider.co.uk>> asked:
> I wondered if any of you across the pond have an idea for suitable
> pollination varieties for The red Geneva crab or Redfield apples?
Liberty and Pristine started blooming at the same time as our Redfields.
Overlapping by a day or two, Wickson crab.
The single Geneva crab we have flowered a few days later, still
overlapping the above, but also Duchess of Oldenburg and Graniwinkle.
Liberty, Pristine and Redfield also bloomed in concert last year,
despite nearly everything else being lost to a 15F frost after a
too-warm winter. This is only our fourth year with the orchard, not much
data, but consistent with what Dick said.
We are at 6850' in central Utah, if that helps with correlating =
to your climate.
AT
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Subject: ice cider notes (re: GLINTCAP Results)
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2016 23:18:16 -0600
OK, Gary is goading me to comment on that ice cider I entered at GLINTCAP.
I should note that Gary and I seem to be in a friendly, undeclared,
competition over which of us will be the "longest not yet licensed
cidery-in-planning" while we're both active in the cider community.
WELL...
The winter of 2014 had such a serious sudden drop in temperature, I've
dubbed it WMD-14 (the Winter of Mass Destruction). It hit the Rockies
Front Range, up into Montana and down south to mid-Colorado. I hear that
the Montana folks have seen this before, but I've seen nothing like it here
in all my decades on the Colorado Front Range. We went from a mild autumn
to -18 F in less than 2 days. Trees froze so hard, so suddenly, that it
literally popped the bark off the trunks.
Gary commented that my GLINTCAP ice cider win may have had "the highest
per-unit production cost of any ice cider ever made." The slam winter
freeze we had did indeed allow production of ice cider, in a climate here
which otherwise wouldn't suit it. But that same freeze cost me about 200
trees, killed completely dead. To be fair, most of them were 1- and 2-year
trees...so mostly it set me back a couple years, rather than an overall
orchard disaster. Still, it hurt, and it means a lot of work to recover.
I wasn't the only one! But I suppose, ref Gary's note, that my ice cider
cost me well over $100/gallon in that sense.
Anyway, since it allowed me to produce an ice cider, hey, why not?!?
Here are a few notes about doing it.
Side item about the ice cider...our huge cold spell came along with about a
foot of snow.
So I decided to try it, so I'm outside in the orchard around the trees which
have (now frozen) fruit still hanging. What to do? Have to shake the fruit
down. Gear up.
Did you know that a completely frozen apple, falling from a couple meters
up, is rather different from a normal ripe apple? It's essentially a small
rock. Maybe it's not terrible, s1nc3 ? libed 2 rite th1s:-), but OUCH!
Then the apples fall into the aforementioned food of snow, so you must
watch the trajectories and fish them out.
OK, gather as many as possible, bring them in to a place which is at least
above freezing. Let them start to thaw, but not too much, and put them
into the press. Yes, directly into the press! Don't mill them! That will
make a major mess.
Press the juice. Take time, yet don't belabor it. You get juice which is
very concentrated (1.080++) but you're not done yet. Now you take buckets
of juice outside in the severe cold and let them partly-freeze overnight
so you can dump the more-concentrated juice out away from the ice. Repeat
as needed (i.e., until your patience is wearing thin or the severe cold
relents).
I concentrated post-pressing only until I had enough for my fermenter...I
would have gone more (higher SG) but I didn't want the extra headspace.
Anyway, at that point it's just a very strong must, so deal with it.
It was interesting and rewarding. We like it a lot.
Will I try it again?...hmmmm...I suppose, if the weather insists.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Cider Digest #2026
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