Some Keeving photos...

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So cool. love the pics.

I've visited a few French cider producers over the years but that was before I got into homebrewing, what a shame. These days I would talk their ears off. They never really went into much detail about cider making since it was just 'how things are done' since the olden times.

I've been thinking a lot about making a batch of keeved cider as a gift for my mother to give her a taste of the old country but it is just so intimidating.

Did you crush and hold your own apples on the skins or just buy juice?
Did you use Calcium salt? If so how much?
Where did you get your PME? (if you used it)
Any tips for a person trying their first batch?
 
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but it is just so intimidating.

Did you crush and hold your own apples on the skins or just buy juice?
Did you use Calcium salt? If so how much?
Where did you get your PME? (if you used it)
Any tips for a person trying their first batch?

If you have access to fresh, non UV treated juice you should just try a batch.

I got my PME from Chris, he has a website now:

http://cidersupply.com/ He can send/sell you the calcium as well.

You could seek help on the Google Group... It's just for Real cider and keeving. It's not a place for recipes.

Cider Workshop | Google Groups

Mine just took three day to separate.

You could PM me if you want advice from a beginner who has 4 days more experience than you. :)


Joe
 
Thanks for that link, $2 well spent there. Now to email a few local orchards about getting some unpasteurized juice.

If only I didn't have to work tomorrow . . .
 
Sorry, but I think I'm confused. Do you HAVE to have unpasteurized cider to do this?

Can you give us a rundown of your procedure to this point?
 
Sorry, but I think I'm confused. Do you HAVE to have unpasteurized cider to do this?

Can you give us a rundown of your procedure to this point?


smh,

This only works by allowing the wild yeasts to grow.

You do not add yeast.

Visit this site for some links: http://cidersupply.com/



Basically:

I added PME and mixed very well.

A couple of hours later I mixed in the calcium.

When the sediment floated to the top I racked the clear juice.

The co2 from the wild yeast lifts the pectin gel/sediment to the top.

The juice will now slowly ferment. In the UK the bottle this style of cider in the spring. I plan to bottle at about 1.010sg

Cider Workshop | Google Groups
 
Just gonna bug you a little bit more Joe.

Why the PME first?

I'm also interested in the constancy of the 'chapau brun'. The only container I have that will fit 7 gallons is my opaque bottling bucket so I was thinking of keeving it in that. But I'm unsure I can effectively rack between the two layers without seeing what I'm doing. Think it would be possible to scoop it off the top without having it break up and mix back with the juice?

Stopping by an orchard on the way home tonight to pick up a few gallons of fresh juice and ask about unpasteurized.
 
Just gonna bug you a little bit more Joe.

Why the PME first?

I'm also interested in the constancy of the 'chapau brun'. The only container I have that will fit 7 gallons is my opaque bottling bucket so I was thinking of keeving it in that. But I'm unsure I can effectively rack between the two layers without seeing what I'm doing. Think it would be possible to scoop it off the top without having it break up and mix back with the juice?

Stopping by an orchard on the way home tonight to pick up a few gallons of fresh juice and ask about unpasteurized.

I have read that the PME can be added at the time of pressing...

PME and Calcium are both present in the juice. The most important thing is to add the dissolved powders at different times. I added the PME first.

I did a total of 10 gallons. Luckily, I have a scale that is accurate to 0.1 gram so measuring wasn't a problem. The issue is to have carboys available that you can top off...

I ladled the "gel" off the top the best I could. There is no firmness to what floats. I saved what I dipped off and let it separate again in a gallon jug. I only lost about 1/2 gallon out of 10.

I forgot to buy a bulkhead fitting to install a valve on my tank so I just set the keeve up and siphoned the juice off carefully.

photobucket-6004-1322770772060.jpg


I may have been lucky...

You need non treated juice. No preservatives No UV. You need to rely on the wild yeast.

Joe
 
I forgot to mention that I needed to chaptalize the juice to bring it up to a a sg of 1.055 for the best chance of achieving a successful keeve.

That amounted to 3.4 oz of sugar per gallon.
 
Did you happen to test the SG afterwards?

Yes.... and it was very close to the desired sg of 1.055


Before adding sugar I had measured the sg of the 8 gallons in the tank. I had a final gallon to add so I did the calculation for 9 gallons.

Chaptalization Calculator | Brewer's Friend

I slowly dissolved one pound and 15 ounces of sugar in a cup or so of cider. When it was cool enough I mixed it with the rest of the gallon.... and then stirred that into the 8 gallons.

I felt that I was more certain to get a thorough mixture by not simply stirring the heavy sugar "syrup" to the keeving tank.



A 10th gallon jug was setup as a "monitoring" keeve so I could see more clearly what might be happening in the large translucent container.

2011-11-29_10-57-54_929.jpg
 
I made a quick check of my cider today and the gravity is at about 1.020

I'm thinking that I might be bottling it in about a month, but I'm thinking of raking it before then.
 
Nice! I finally got a successful keeve myself. Why the urge to rack? Is the fermentation speeding up too much?

I bet your wife will enjoy a little taste of home. Whip up some buckwheat crepes and quig-aman or a far for dessert and you've got it made.
 
I love the Blé Noir crepes... and desert was always more crepes! :)

My cider travels a lot according to the temperature. It went from the den, to the garage, to the attic for the winter, and now it's in the garage. To avoid to quick of a finish I may rack it.

I need to find a Cider Friend with cool basement benefits ...
 
We had our first taste of my keeved cider. If other bottles are similar I'll be very pleased. The cider was sweet and sparkling without back sweetening.

I'll need to sample bottles from other bottling dates and sg's, but for now, I'm declaring this a success.
 
Just bottled my keeved cider last night. Poor temperature control made it totally dry but it's still great.

How did the carbonation turn out? High like a champagne? Lower like typical conditioned cider? Do the bubbles linger like in a good French bottle?
 
Just bottled my keeved cider last night. Poor temperature control made it totally dry but it's still great.

How did the carbonation turn out? High like a champagne? Lower like typical conditioned cider? Do the bubbles linger like in a good French bottle?

I bottled cider at 1.006, 1.008, and 1.010 sg's. For a sparkling sweet cider, 1.010 was the target. The bottle we tried was from the 1010 bottling. There was just a slight bubbling over when it was uncorked. I should have taken a picture of the glass... the co2 was streaming up nicely and did linger.
 
I'll be getting 10 gallons of juice this weekend for my 2012 batch of keeved cider. Last year's juice was from a mixture of desert apples. This year I will be using a pressing of traditional cider varieties. Some of the juice may end up in some cyser...
 
Joe,
I may add to this thread, Saturday is pressing day for me.
First go around at Keeving will be tomorrow. This will be 7th year of pressing/fermenting, but first attempt at keeving. Stumbled on this, since you just posted again to this today.
Good to see someone documenting keeving.
 
I get them from the orchard down the street. This weekend I'll be doing 16 bushels, 10 Stayman Winesaps, 3 yellow/3 red delicious (filler), with about 70lbs of crabs. I'll have to plant new ones since the Yarlingtons and Kingstons got girdled by squirrels last year.

377.jpg
 
Lobsters were not in season.......
But a shot at the clinic would clear that right up...
Here's a pic of said crabs.

376.jpg
 
Huh, musta forgot...
Yeah....ZERO Keev. Cider turned out nice. Quite tart, needed backsweetening back to 1.017ish (1.02 max). It did stop at 1.006, and many batches before had gone negative.
Crabs gave it a wonderful amber hue. Its tart, but not like a fake green apple tart. Lightly carbonated, my homebrew swapping buddy wants more. Said "not sharing this with anyone". I'll see if I can get a pic of the cider by next week. (just being a realist)
The crab must was profilewise, very similar to cranberry. both in color and astringency.
I've blended the final with sweet cider (frozen from pressing) and clear apple juice.
The cider is better tasting by far, but the filtered apple juice allowed me to maintain a clear product.
Cider does not want to carb easily though. I forget the pressure I had to crank it to initially, but its like it doesnt want to "hold" any Co2.

hey Hokie....forgot to add....I'm up to my neck like Toluse Latrec......

Joe, so how'd it go?
 
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