OVHA Chat

Well, today I wound up with about 6-7 bushels more of good apples. I may have a lead for even more [in the Darmstadt area]. I would like to press and freeze some juice but it looks like if I wait until October 4th, these apples could spoil [since I don't have any cold storage]. I am leaning toward Sunday September 28th if anyone is interested.
Just give a holler!

Dutch,
I'll try and come up w/ some more apples for the 29th

A little apple info from the Extension Agent

Apples are often picked too early. Try tasting them. If they are not ready they will be puckery and have an astringent taste. If apples are picked too green, they will never really become sweet like they should, or develop a good taste. Except for solid red varieties, the ground color is always a good indicator of readiness. When this basic green ground color shows considerable yellowing, most apples will be ready. The seeds should have gotten pretty dark. Apples whose seeds are still green should not be harvested. Lift an apple and twist it slightly; those that are ready should separate easily for the branch and the stems should remain attached to the fruit. Apples which are to be eaten relatively soon should be allowed to ripen to the tree. Those to be stored should be picked a week or so before the ripe stage.

Looks like 9AM Sunday 9/28 works best. Bring containers for cider as well as plastic garden tubs to hold apples. It would also help if someone has a compost pile that can take the pulp.
Any questions just send me an EMAIL

So how was Ciderfest 2008 Part II?

Another trip to the orchard and another fun day smashin' apples!
We produced somewhere around 40 gallons.

I made "hard cider II" Sunday. First batch went down the drain.
I added 2 lbs. sugar and pitched bread yeast, didn't use campden tablets. Fermentation started immediately!! CO2 thru airlock within 10 min. Hope this results in cider w/ some residual sweetness. Joe's ancient cider??

John, any idea on your OG? I measured the ciders gravity and got a 1.055 without any sugar additions. I'm planning on hitting it with the yeast this afternoon, but at this point I don't think i'm going to add any sugar at the head of things.

OOPS! Didn't measure OG. 1.055 is a lot of sugar w/o any additions, but this was sweeter than the 1st squeeze. I may end up with something more alcoholic than planned. Hopefully, the bread yeast will not bring the final gravity down too low

I got 1.050 on one carboy and 1.055 on the other, no real need for more sugar unless you want wine instead of cider.

I've done some reading, I think we will need up adjust the acidity with malic acid to get good cider, and may need some tannic acid as well to keep it from being insipid. More like wine than beer, I think.

I'll dredge up some more info (and malic acid!) for the next meeting -- you can adjust the acidity later, before bottling. Cider needs to age about six months before bottling anyway, I think. I would aim for 0.5% malic acid -- you will have to titrate this, instructions later.

The pH of mine were 3.99 and 3.77 -- rather high (the suggested pH is 3.0 if I read things right).

Obviously we didn't have "real" cider apples! From what I've discovered so far, we won't be getting any, either, as cider apples are unpalatable as eating apples and are long gone due to Prohibition. The only ones left are Baldwins, which appear to make a decent cider. We did do well to use some Red Delicious, as they have lots of tannins.

Don't toss your "bad" cider until it's had a few months of aging (excluding the very first stuff through the press -- it took all the rust off!).

Peter

Pitched my yeast tonight. I found good reviews for using Winsor yeast. I had a couple of packs of Winsor stashed in the fridge(only 3 years past expiration) I made a starter and it started taking off last night, trouble is, even after using 5 camden tablets(crushed and mixed with water), I had some activity before pitching the Winsor. I hit it with some O2 and its taking off like a freight train. I'll be attaching a blow-off tube soon.

Now we wait.

I used Lalvin RC 212 because the Coop was out of LV1116, the yeast most recommended. Normal lag time as I pitched it Monday and it was showing signs of activity last night, going full blast today. Smells nice, too!

Peter

I am about to give a taste to my first batch. I'm almost afraid to take a look! We are learning a bit. I have ten gallons frozen. I am using Lalvin 71B1122 I am sure there will be more to follow.
It sure is teaching us a bit about Johnny Appleseed.

I used Wyeast Cider, 3766 I think on mine. I got about 18 hours lag time after that, but its been going strong since. The only thing I've noticed is that it smells a bit sulfery, but I think that will come out with a bit of aging. Of course its still fermenting so its still got a ways to go.