Recent content by bensira

I took your advice and didn't do the chip budding. Instead I took the cuttings dipped them in rooting agent and put them in some soil under a bag in the greenhouse. Some of them are sprouting buds, but it will take a while until I know whether that's just the latent energy in the cuttings or...

I've just picked about 2kg of cherries this evening from a tree on my street. I think they're St Lucie cherries. They're quite tart, and there are loads more ready to be picked, so I'm happy to experiment. I also have about 300 grams of gooseberries in the freezer. I have two little...

Out of interest, do you know how long budwood is likely to last for if stored correctly? Mine will be about two weeks between coming from one tree and being grafted onto the other. I've found loads of places which will supply scion wood up to February/March time, but nowhere to get budwood...

I'd like to graft some bud wood onto some apple trees. If anybody could give some advice, I'd be grateful. As it's the end of May, I understand that chip budding is the technique to employ at this time of year*. I live in the UK, and my family live in Ireland. In Ireland, there are five young...

Hi Qopzeep. I'd love to hear some more updates. I have two batches of cider in secondary at the moment. I used Braeburn and Pink Lady apples for the juice, so they lack a certain something. Would love to hear your final thoughts on using lemon and tea to increase acidity and tannins

I racked a cider from primary into secondary and topped up the secondary carboy with some apple juice to get rid of head space. The sugars in the apple juice have restarted a gentle fermentation which has been going on for five days now. Will I be able to measure the alcohol content with gravity...

Polyphenol is what we would refer to (perhaps less accurately) as tannin/tannic acid, right? Snowden, would you be willing to summarise and post some headline numbers to match the different cultivars? I imagine that constitutes fair use if it's been properly attributed.

How necessary is it to rack cider off the yeast cake after primary fermentation? This post on Stack Exchange suggests that a racking into secondary isn't necessary to prevent autolysis, however the post is discussing beers, not cider. The reason I ask is that I would like to make a batch...

I'll take a reading tomorrow, thanks for the tip. In general terms, is that how you know when secondary is finished - when the SG readings stay stable? If I choose to leave it in the carboy after secondary is finished, is it likely to age a bit and turn out nicer?

Hi there I'm new to home brewing, and I've found this forum to be a great source of info. I'm working on my first home brewed cider and I have two batches on the go. I'd love some advice about timescales for secondary fermentation. Batch 1: About four litres of apple juice, which I...