Hey all,
I finally decided that for this year -- I would finally get back to basics and quit ruining batches of "Experimental" cider...
5 gallons of 1.05 SG fruit stand apple cider is sitting in my carboy with campden tablets assassinating the wild beasties..... I am going to pour in a few cans of Apple Juice Concentrate to bump it up a bit...
Why buy it when I could smoosh apples.... well.. I don't have a cider press and have succeeded in ruining 2-bushels of apples so far...
The 1st bushel -- I was fooling around with mixing bananas and beano into the crushed apples..... Got nothing but weird off-flavors.... Dumped that batch...
The 2nd bushel -- I crushed them up in September, added Campden tablets and then Yeast... and within 2 weeks they had kicked over and are now solidly in the "Vinegar" camp.... 4 gallons of Vinegar with the floating slimey mother and all.... Tested the acid -- a stout 9% acetic acid... and it tastes it too... Puckery! The shame of it was that it would have probably made a fine cider otherwise.... But.. on the Up side.... I am going to be giving away plenty of home made vinegar this year!
The lesson in all this.... There is a fine reason why people ferment Grape Wine on the Pomace and they ferment Apples on the Juice only! If fermenting apples on the Pomace worked better -- we would be doing it that way....
But... If you want to make Vinegar -- I recommend it.
Thanks
I finally decided that for this year -- I would finally get back to basics and quit ruining batches of "Experimental" cider...
5 gallons of 1.05 SG fruit stand apple cider is sitting in my carboy with campden tablets assassinating the wild beasties..... I am going to pour in a few cans of Apple Juice Concentrate to bump it up a bit...
Why buy it when I could smoosh apples.... well.. I don't have a cider press and have succeeded in ruining 2-bushels of apples so far...
The 1st bushel -- I was fooling around with mixing bananas and beano into the crushed apples..... Got nothing but weird off-flavors.... Dumped that batch...
The 2nd bushel -- I crushed them up in September, added Campden tablets and then Yeast... and within 2 weeks they had kicked over and are now solidly in the "Vinegar" camp.... 4 gallons of Vinegar with the floating slimey mother and all.... Tested the acid -- a stout 9% acetic acid... and it tastes it too... Puckery! The shame of it was that it would have probably made a fine cider otherwise.... But.. on the Up side.... I am going to be giving away plenty of home made vinegar this year!
The lesson in all this.... There is a fine reason why people ferment Grape Wine on the Pomace and they ferment Apples on the Juice only! If fermenting apples on the Pomace worked better -- we would be doing it that way....
But... If you want to make Vinegar -- I recommend it.
Thanks