blasterooni
PIpe line is now well established
Man, Saturday was busy! I think I hit damn near every aspect of cider making outside of planting or grafting an apple tree. I picked the apples from around the neighborhood again and ended up with over 7 gallons this time 
The whole day started with chopping apples and cutting out the worm damaged areas, and running them thru a juicer (surprisingly, this took till 3am, but other stuff happened in between juicings), filtering and separating out the foamy crap, and putting it in a carboy. These were largely pippins and possibly a granny smith, and some other dessert varieties I picked here and there (goldens, honey crisp, (gala or fujis?), some kind of deep red ones, and some very tart green apples, oh and crabapples. The OG is 1.072! What the heck? Must have been those trippy colored apples that I think might be Newtowns. I showed a friend a picture of it, and while he agreed that it could be Newtown, he thinks it might be a wild variety, and that I should send it in for testing. If its a "new" variety, an orchardist may want a scion (he owns a cider bar, so he seems well connected).
Meanwhile, I was air drying ophaug kveik, which came out nice, just have to test it.
I also kegged and bottled a batch of Sprouts Organic Juice fermented with opshaug. ABV 6.9%, FG 1.004, apparent attenuation is 93% (or around there). I would call this one an off-dry; not sweet enough for semi-sweet in my opinion. When using these store bought juices, I found that going all the way to dry just leaves me with little flavor, so I stop a little early to preserve some flavor. I filled 3 750's to bottle age. I also used a closed transfer system using CO2 instead of the siphoning method. Its really easy and less messy. The rest went into a corny for force carbing.
At around 8pm, we went to the Cider Shop (Redfield Cider Bar and Shop in Rockridge) to go taste some new ciders that hit the California market. I had some from Vermont, New York, and Sweden. The Vermont (Eden Cider) one was certainly dry, the one from New York was semi-sweet, and the Swedish one was done like an ice cider. All of them were VERY good. The vermont one was made from cider specific apples (I'll post a pic of the ingredients that are on the back label). I came home with a bottle of a single varietal cider, Baldwin Apples. We will crack this 750ml bottle tonight, or later this afternoon
When we returned home, there were more apples to juice. And after all that was done, I put it all in a carboy, with a gallon left over, which I may just do a wild ferment with it to see what the East Bay has to offer as far as wild yeast. The 5 gallons got 5 tabs of campden, and pectic enzyme. Its currently wrapped in a fermwrap getting ready for Voss. Once it hits 95F, I will pitch. I'll be doubling up on the nutes, and starting with a bow off tube instead of waiting for the airlock to explode.
Finally, CLEAN UP! The kitchen was a disaster, and I DID NOT want to wake up to have to deal with it. So, poured another pint of cider, and got to cleaning.
It was a fantastic, and fun as hell Saturday. Wifey cutting the apples and me juicing them. Finally got here on the team
The whole day started with chopping apples and cutting out the worm damaged areas, and running them thru a juicer (surprisingly, this took till 3am, but other stuff happened in between juicings), filtering and separating out the foamy crap, and putting it in a carboy. These were largely pippins and possibly a granny smith, and some other dessert varieties I picked here and there (goldens, honey crisp, (gala or fujis?), some kind of deep red ones, and some very tart green apples, oh and crabapples. The OG is 1.072! What the heck? Must have been those trippy colored apples that I think might be Newtowns. I showed a friend a picture of it, and while he agreed that it could be Newtown, he thinks it might be a wild variety, and that I should send it in for testing. If its a "new" variety, an orchardist may want a scion (he owns a cider bar, so he seems well connected). Meanwhile, I was air drying ophaug kveik, which came out nice, just have to test it.
I also kegged and bottled a batch of Sprouts Organic Juice fermented with opshaug. ABV 6.9%, FG 1.004, apparent attenuation is 93% (or around there). I would call this one an off-dry; not sweet enough for semi-sweet in my opinion. When using these store bought juices, I found that going all the way to dry just leaves me with little flavor, so I stop a little early to preserve some flavor. I filled 3 750's to bottle age. I also used a closed transfer system using CO2 instead of the siphoning method. Its really easy and less messy. The rest went into a corny for force carbing.
At around 8pm, we went to the Cider Shop (Redfield Cider Bar and Shop in Rockridge) to go taste some new ciders that hit the California market. I had some from Vermont, New York, and Sweden. The Vermont (Eden Cider) one was certainly dry, the one from New York was semi-sweet, and the Swedish one was done like an ice cider. All of them were VERY good. The vermont one was made from cider specific apples (I'll post a pic of the ingredients that are on the back label). I came home with a bottle of a single varietal cider, Baldwin Apples. We will crack this 750ml bottle tonight, or later this afternoon
When we returned home, there were more apples to juice. And after all that was done, I put it all in a carboy, with a gallon left over, which I may just do a wild ferment with it to see what the East Bay has to offer as far as wild yeast. The 5 gallons got 5 tabs of campden, and pectic enzyme. Its currently wrapped in a fermwrap getting ready for Voss. Once it hits 95F, I will pitch. I'll be doubling up on the nutes, and starting with a bow off tube instead of waiting for the airlock to explode.
Finally, CLEAN UP! The kitchen was a disaster, and I DID NOT want to wake up to have to deal with it. So, poured another pint of cider, and got to cleaning.
It was a fantastic, and fun as hell Saturday. Wifey cutting the apples and me juicing them. Finally got here on the team
