Reality dawns!

Published by
Rose
at June 20, 2009 in cider making and diary. Closed

ciderbyrosie tank2 300x225 Reality dawns!
The big 6000 litre tank is nearly in position behind the ciderhouse.
Chris and Ness who live a few doors away have a fencing business. They
kindly offered to take the tank from the garden and transport it to
the back of our place using their large tractor. It was quite an
amusing little scene, but one that needed a lot of skill. The first
part of the journey was along the village road to reach the gate to
the field behind our house. The tank was carried on the tractor’s
front loader whose forks had been fitted with special extension tubes.
The tank, being 2 m wide by 2.3 m high, completely masked any view of
the road ahead, which meant that Chris was driving the tractor blind.
Ness walked on one side of the tractor and I walked on the other, each
of us making reassuring, though possibly confusing, hand signals to
Chris as the big black beasty nosed its way along the road. Luckily
there was no other traffic at the time. Crossing the field was much
less demanding but another display of skill was needed on reaching the
fence. We have a 6 ft wooden panel fence along the back. Chris found
that the tractor could not lift the tank quite high enough to clear
it. What happened next was a treat to behold! He slid the tank off the
forks on to the grass. It was now time for Ness to demonstrate her
tractor driving skills. Chris sat on one of the forks and she lifted
him up with it and drove the tractor forward until the fork was
alongside but just above the tank. Chris then climbed along the fork
and lashed the lifting eye on the top of the tank to the end of the
fork. He climbed down and Ness then lifted the tank off the ground as
high as it would go. It still did not clear the fence. I began to
think it was a lost cause but Chris climbed up on the tractor and
tilted the forks, effectively lifting the tank just a little higher.
On the the next attempt the tank just cleared the fence and was then
easily lowered to the ground on the other side

Over the last two weeks a concrete base has been made for the tank to
sit on. The tank will have a built in advantage, due to the ground
behind the cider house being about 3 ft above the floor level inside
the tank room. This height difference plus the the height of the
concrete base for the big new tank means that it will be possible to
gravity feed from it to the 6 IBC tanks in the tank room, after the
first stage of fermentation and blending.

On seeing the big tank nearly in its place behind the ciderhouse I’ve
had several onslaughts of my favourite daydream – to jump the 7000
barrier and grow the business. Several times now I’ve paced out the
area available, and could easily imagine another 4 or even 5 of the
6000 litre monsters sitting there. Now that would look a proper job,
an impressive sight indeed, like a mini Westons! Well I can tell you
emphatically, that dream faded away for ever this week. Circumstances
have forced me to work at the rate that would be required by an annual
output of 18,000 litres. It has been very tiring and time consuming.
I’ve shipped 38 x 20 litre boxes over the last week, delivering by
day and often packaging well into the night. I could never keep that
up on my own, especially not with all the book keeping needed by the
liability for excise duty.

Reality has dawned! But how did this happen? Warm weather created a
surge in demand from the pubs. I did some extra marketing and gained
four more outlets. Silly really, but I can’t help myself doing it.
Then in parallel with this there have been several good orders for
festivals. It seems to have all come at once, but it has had the good
effect of bringing me down to earth. No more daydreams, I will stick
to my 7000 litres, it is a job enough for an old un !

There is only 2000 litres of draught left for this year, so I could
even have a rest period before pressing starts, or at least find some
to make improvements to the equipment.

It was good here today! This morning I acted as collection point for
ciders destined for the Gillingham ( Dorset) Football Club Cider
Festival, to be held on 27 th June ( see wiki ). Last week Barry left
3 of his B-in-Bs for it here. Today I had the pleasure of meeting
Martin Inwood, a craft cidermaker from Bere Regis who had also brought his cider
for the festival. Patrick, the Festival organiser, had arranged to
collect these ciders, together with my own, and was already here when
Martin arrived. It was a sunny morning so it was only natural to have
a little cider tasting in the garden! Martin had anticipated this I
think, as he arrived, bottle in hand. Our first toast to fine weather
was with his latest ‘Lulworth Skipper’, a fine clear golden cider that
had been matured in an oak wine barrel. It was excellent, crisp and
pleasantly oaked. It confirmed that I do like oaked cider after all,
if like Martin’s, the oak is fairly subtle. I can now put the early
bad experience with whisky barrels behind me and move on. I’m getting
to like wine barrel cider! Just as the Monkton Wyld ‘Wider’ delighted
me at Powerstock, Hecks Port Wine has become a firm personal favourite.

I must get one or two ex wine barrels from somewhere before the
autumn. Anybody know where?

Rose

My website

Published by
Rose
at June 18, 2009 in diary. Closed

Two and a half years ago I began to think about having a website. I
mentioned this to Andy Roberts. I told him that I was not in a
particular hurry but that I felt I needed to make a move in that
direction and asked for his advice. He advised me that it would be a
good idea to at least lay claim to the ciderbyrosie domain name and
then think about the website later on. I thought this was sensible and
so I asked Andy if he would kindly arrange it for me. Me being me, I
then procrastinated for ever and a day about getting my own website.
After all, what need had I of a website, with absolutely no intention
of ever selling cider on the Web? However I now had a web address that
led to nothing at all so, I asked Andy if the address could link
automatically to my Cidermaking Year on UKcider. He agreed and this
interim measure this has been useful. As well as the UKcider
connection, the wiki pages were found and read by a number of people
who happened on them after seeing the web address on my cider boxes in
pubs. A few even became fans, telling me that they were keeping up
with the latest episodes! A lady in our village likened me to Eddie
Grundy on the Archers; a somewhat dubious compliment!

I had come to the conclusion after the first year or so, that I really
ought to have my own site. I’d noticed that other craft cider makers
had already taken this step and I found some of their sites very
appealing. The problem was that I had no idea how to go about it.
Following our real cider pub sticker campaign, Jez, who having clearly
demonstrated his design expertise in providing us with no less than
three versions of the sticker to choose from, mentioned that he could
even be persuaded to design websites if asked nicely! I thought that
this was very civil of him but did not like to ask, and so was
delighted when some months later he suggested it to me directly. I’ve
gradually been getting bits and pieces together for it and still have
some writing yet to do. In the meantime Jez has started the technical
bit and produced a temporary home page that is activated by www.ciderbyrosie.com
or www.ciderbyrosie.co.uk . I’m looking forward to having a site of
my own. Being already familiar with Jez’s smart and purposeful Cider
Workshop site, I know that I am certain to be pleased with my own,
when it is up and running.

I intend to keep updating The Cidermaking Year. During the
construction of my own site, this still remains available via the
UKcider wiki. The ‘Year’ is now 6 years old but I can’t just cast it
off like an old jacket. Entry by entry it builds the picture of how my
little cider business came into being, so I want to have a link to it
from the new website.

Rose

PS. Thanks to Andy’s recommendation, Cider by Rosie is now going
down well with the holiday visitors at the Castle Inn in Lulworth
Cove. Alex the landlord emailed to say that he had seen the Real Cider
sticker at the Square & Compass and asked if he could have one or two
of them for his pub. I will be happy to oblige him tomorrow on my
delivery round. Fortunately I still have a dozen or so of the batch
that Dick printed for us.

A question of yeast

Published by
Rose
at June 9, 2009 in diary. Closed

There is often discussion amongst cider makers as to whether it is
best to use a wine yeast for fermentation, or just to let the natural
or ‘wild’ yeasts of the apples themselves do the job. I like my cider
to be entirely a product of the apple and for me this means that it is
essential to use apple yeast.

I came to this conclusion some years ago on reading of the work
carried out in England by Lloyd in 1894. He studied the effect of
inoculating apple juice with various yeasts, both from wine and from
cider apples such as Kingston Black. He found that the ciders so
produced could be distinguished from each other by their aroma and
bouquet. The juice fermented by the wine yeast had acquired a vinous
character, whereas those fermented with the Kingston Black yeast
produced a series of ciders corresponding in character to the true
Kingston Black product.

In my own way I have proved to myself that there is something in this
theory. In August each year I collect the early apples from my
orchard. These are mostly eaters at this time of the year, the
majority of them being Discovery and Tom Putt. It is of course too
early for Kingston Black. I select only those that are perfectly ripe
and wholesome, wash them thoroughly and then make a few gallons of
their juice. It is gorgeous to drink, but I make myself put a couple
of demijohns of it aside to turn into cider. I add one Campden tablet
per gallon as a precautionary measure and then just leave the jars to
ferment. About 4 weeks later, I begin the pressing season proper with
the early season cider apples. By this time, the demijohn ciders are
well advanced. Their yeasts have multiplied, they are fizzing well and
the airlocks are merrily plopping. I pour them into the juice of my
first main pressing. They then become the starter for the main blend
and their characteristics are thus permeated through out all the cider
that is made throughout the season.

It is a big leap of faith, but it works well for me. Over the last 4
years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve found that my cider is
remarkably similar to that of previous years. It has the same
marmalade colour, and virtually the same taste, aroma and body. This
happens in spite of the fact that the blend of varieties and the
weather throughout the ripening season, inevitably changes from year
to year. Other cider makers tell me that this phenomenon is due to ‘in
house yeasts’ on my equipment and within the ciderhouse itself.

I prefer to believe that those late summer yeasts from my orchard have
a lot to do with it!

Rose

Steam Cleaning Oak barrels

Published by
Rose
at June 7, 2009 in diary. Closed

>
> BucklandSwifty wrote:

>> I have two 40 gallon oak ex whiskey barrels, one of which was used to
>> mature last years cider in. I am pondering the best way of cleaning
>> it. There is only the usual bung hole in the top, I had thought of
>> half to two thirds filling with water/sterilising solution and
>> introducing an airline to get it “boiling” around. Having done that,
>> pump out the water. My next cunning plan was to steam the barrel,
>> here is my problem, what to use to supply the steam? Any ideas? The
>> major drawback with the 40 gallon oak barrel is handling to my mind!
>> Any advice gratefully received.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>>
>>> Chris,
>>>
>>> I used to use these ex whisky barrels. They were bought from
>>> distilleries in Scotland at £2 each and brought down here by the
>>> HGV load by a smart guy in Somerset, who sold them for £25 each.
>>> Mostly they were bought from him by gardeners and sawn in half to
>>> make big planting tubs. I insisted that the ones I bought still
>>> had their bungs intact and were thus still whiskey sterile ( one
>>> still had a litre of whiskey in it, that I discarded!). They made
>>> good cider in their first year, but I took against the strong
>>> whiskey overtones. I’m not fond of whiskey, but I had imagined
>>> that the lingering effect would have been much more subtle than
>>> proved to be the case.
>>>
>>> However I decided to give the barrels another go the following
>>> year hoping that the whiskey flavour would be reduced to an
>>> acceptable level. I was then faced with the same problem as you
>>> are now, how to clean the barrels. I’d read the books that mention
>>> thrashing chains around in the barrels and steaming them out etc
>>> and decided that I just could not be doing with all that palaver.
>>> I just hosed out the barrels with tap water then dangled a Vigo
>>> sulphur candle on a piece of wire through the bung hole of each
>>> and put the bungs in to contain the sulphur dioxide smoke. Half an
>>> hour later I quickly removed the wires and rebunged the barrels.
>>> Perfectly good cider was made in all of them the following year,
>>> though I still did not like the whiskey flavour, albeit much
>>> reduced.
>>>
>>> The barrels have now been relegated to garden planters and two
>>> have been printed up to advertise my cider business at the
>>> entrance to our property. These are now leading a very useful life
>>> as they have stimulated a fair bit of business!
>>>
>>> Rose.

High excitement and a bit of bother

Published by
Rose
at June 2, 2009 in diary and events. Closed

Towards the end of last November I spent a sunny day on my knees in
Venetia’s orchard picking up the last fallers from amongst her various
cider apple trees. I had previously collected the Yarlingtons, but now
the Dabinetts had decided that their time had also come. The grass was
full of them, beautiful, big and rosy. Next along the row, another big
carpet from the Brown Thorns, brightly orange, also beckoned. I picked
solidly all day, ending up with over half a ton bagged up in the back
of the Landrover. My back ached terribly but I felt satisfied to have
picked enough that day for one complete pressing on St. Em. There must
have been even more than I thought, because next day’s pressing
produced 400 litres of juice. Having laboured so hard and seen the
beauty of the apples close at hand, as compared with my usual casual
regard of machine harvested apples, I felt loathe to add the juice to
the main blend. Rather than that, I decided to keeve it and make it as
a special. Unfortunately the keeving did not work, so in January with
this separate 400 litres of now fully dry cider, I found myself
wondering what to do with it. The sensible thing was to put in with
the main blend. This I did for the most part, but I could not bear to
lose all of this rather special pressing, so I kept 120 litres of it
in a blue tub, to bottle for home consumption. I happened to give this
cider a try, just as I was about to put some cider into demijohns for
the Bath and West. I liked it so much that I decided to send it to the
Show instead of the main blend. What was to happen next has become one
of the most memorable episodes of my life.

I’m still dazed and amazed at my unbelievable good fortune with this
cider at last week’s Royal Bath and West Show. To win the cup for the
champion Farmhouse Cider was like a dream in itself. When that same
cider was then chosen as the Supreme Champion of the Show, I scarcely
was able to take it in. It seemed just incredible! Having had a
completely trophyless lifetime, (I was totally useless at all sports
in my schooldays), to unexpectedly win two silver pots, big ones at
that, was certainly breaking new ground. I was thrilled to bits! For
me this was not only the high point of this cidermaking year but of
all my cidermaking years and doubtless of those yet to come. A joyful,
once in a lifetime experience, thanks to the golden juice from a tiny,
18 tree, Dorset orchard!

I felt honoured to be the first cider maker to bring these two trophys
to Dorset. On coming back here with them last Saturday, I had the
curious thought that bringing the Worshipful Fruiterers Supreme Cider
Cup out of Somerset, seemed rather like stealing the Stone of Scone. I
note however that Alex Hill wrested it across the boundary into Devon,
after winning with his Bollhayes Cider in 2006. But in all other
years it has remained solidly in its home county, being won by
Somerset producers, large, medium and small (notably our Michael Cobb
in 2004).

I might have known that such braggart thoughts could elicit an ancient
Somerset curse, perhaps muttered by some old farmer on the Levels,
into his mug of scrumpy. And so it was that on Sunday morning I found
water was pouring out from under the ciderhouse door and there was an
unpleasant hissing sound coming from within. A pipe had burst during
the night, spraying water upwards and drenching everything. The
electrics had tripped due to water in the light fittings. The steel
vats had been topped up with water on top of their sealed lids.
Fortunately this was unable to penetrate into the cider held below the
seals. Most things were none the worse for a soaking but there was one
terrible exception. A few days earlier I had worked hard bottling,
corking, wiring and labelling, 150 bottles of keeved Kingston Black.
I’d then packed them into cardboard boxes and stacked them below the
table for temporary storage. This whole stack of boxes had now become
a soggy mess. It took most of Sunday to get the water out, from in and
under furnishings and equipment. Today I set to work rescuing the
bottles of Kingston from their squelchy cartons. I found that a large
number of the bottle labels had also been ruined. There is a lot of
work that now has to be done again.

It was a chore sorting out this little disaster area today, but I was
buoyed up with a new resolve. When the Kingston has been reworked I
intend to bottle the winning cider with a little sugar into heavy
weight bottles. This should then preserve it as a sparkler that can be
enjoyed as a memento of last week’s success, for a good few years to
come. I wont put any boxes of it under the table though, just in case.

Rose

Cider Festivals

Published by
Rose
at May 15, 2009 in diary. Closed

In my Powerstock report I noted, what I have come to see, as an
increasing trend for dedicated cider festivals. Powerstock is of
course a prime example. I have always thought that cider as a beverage
has more than enough variations of flavour and form to excite the
interest of the general public in ‘cider only festivals’. Since
Powerstock I’ve been excited to note two further examples of the
trend. The Drax Arms at Spetisbury near here, is holding a cider
festival on the week end 23/24 th May and has put posters out that
amusingly say ‘ Bring your own mug!’ A few days ago I was visited by
the landlord of The Cricketers in Southampton. He was out and about
with a cider drinking friend collecting cider from local craft makers
for his own cider festival. As he put my B-in-Bs into the back of his
Landrover, I was interested to see a good collection of boxes already
stowed, notably from Mr Whitehead and our good friend Barry in the New
Forest! ( everybody seems to be using B-in-Bs for cider now. I
remember when people thought that I was mad to use them with a live
cider.)

It may be that landlords in this difficult time for pubs, are perhaps
looking for innovative ways to stimulate business, other than the
standard beer festival, but from my perspective I see the trend
developing as a result of the increasing interest and demand for real
cider. I see it in the increasing demand for boxes of cider for
private functions, especially weddings. Here no doubt the economic
aspect of units of alcohol versus cost holds sway, but it is not that
alone. It is the quality and the flavour that they want for their
special occasion. Increasingly I find that people are aware of the
difference when they sample the real thing. In conversations with
several landlords, I’ve been pleased to hear that they are becoming
more aware it too. Yesterday, on my delivery round, I’d dropped my
usual full juice mantra into conversation with one of the landlords. ”
Oh, I can tell the difference, Rose”, he said. ” When I turn the tap
on for a pint of yours, I can really smell the apples”. He is not a
cider drinker, but I’m working on it. The pleasure of that little
aside stayed with me all day.

May I also add as a footnote re cider festivals, there is our usual
little ‘cider only’ festival here tomorrow. We will crown the May
Queen in my orchard followed by a BBQ and cider tasting, from 3 pm. If
you are a local cider maker and would like to bring a small quantity
to donate to the cider table you will be especially welcome.

Rose.

[ukcider] Powerstock Cider Festival

Published by
Rose
at April 28, 2009 in diary. 1 Comment

Our annual ‘not to be missed’ event in Dorset was the best yet, in my
opinion.

The sun was shining and I felt on top of the world, driving once again
over glorious Eggardon hill, then down and down the narrow rutted
little road to Powerstock far below. It was important to get there a
little early so as to get the cider set up before the event started.
On entering the school playground I was warmly greeted by Nick Poole,
who organises the event, and then by my dear Ukcider friends Ny and
Sharon, after their long journey from Leominster. Nick introduced me
to Michel, a cider maker from France and I was even more warmly
welcomed, in the traditional French double cheek manner! I marvelled
that the attraction of Powerstock has now even extended across the
Channel. Ny and Sharon’s Cyder Circle friends, Tom, Sandy and Dave had
also come with their ciders. The word must be getting around as this
year there were craft producers from Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and
Herefordshire as well as from our neighbouring counties. There was a
friend of Roy’s from Berkshire and a number of visitors who had somehow
discovered the event and come all the way from London.

The various cider barrels, kegs and boxes were arranged on tables
close to the walls inside the hall to allow the main area between them
to become the drinking and chatting area. This soon gets full of
people, so I like to use the early part of the evening to get around
and meet some of the other makers and have a taster here and there. I
spoke to several who were donating cider for the first time, including
Matt and Alan who had come from my own area. I’m beginning to have
local competition! The interest in real cider is certainly growing in
Dorset and it was good to see so many different ciders on offer. There
were many cider makers that have been going there every year from the
beginning, but that I’ve still yet to meet. There is never quite
enough time before things start to get busy. However this year I was
delighted to be able to meet Winston and Diane and the other nice
couple who run Monkton Wyld Cider at Charmouth. They had 3 very
interesting little oak barrels of cider, each very different in
flavour. The most noteworthy of these had been made in a Rioja barrel.
Winston joked that it was called ‘Wider’ and I was surprised to find
that I enjoyed the unusual taste, but then I do like Rioja. I met
James Crowden, Liz Copas, Rupert Best and Penny Whatmore (from the
Cider museum),
also enjoying a walk around and tasting.

People had started pouring into the hall so I went back to join Ny and
Sharon, to help with dispensing the ciders. My cider shared the same
table as theirs and that of their friends from Oxfordshire. As usual
it was so nice to see their little dog ‘Rosie’, tucked up, as good as
gold, in her bed under the table. Very few people even realised that
she was there. She is a real sweetie, not bothered in the slightest by
the ever increasing forest of people’s legs and the rising noise
level. Soon the hall was packed, the cider pouring out rate increased
tremendously and the little group of folk musicians started their
playing with obvious pleasure. One of them, a small lady in a green
dress, played the fiddle with a furious delight. She was amazing, the
wailing notes from her fiddle
seemed to cut into your very soul. A great feeling of sheer happiness
seemed to envelop everyone there. It was not long before we were all
singing along to the tunes. ‘Drink thee zider’ was of course the best
sung of all!

I caught a worried look on Nick’s face as he looked out of the hall
into the playground. I went over to him and remarked what a great
success his evening had become. “Look out there”, he said. “I’ve
created a monster!” In the playground a four or five person wide,
snake like queue of people could be seen, snaking all the way to the
hall from the village road. Nick decided that he would have to go and
lock the gates before the hall became completely overwhelmed. I’m not
sure if he actually managed to do this, but things never became a real
problem. In the hall a mass of people seemed to flow in continuously
from the main door, with an never ending sea of arms reaching out for
their plastic tumblers to be filled. They were mostly young adults but
were all well behaved, many of them taking their cider out through the
other door to enjoy in the playground. They looked so pleased to be
there and were obviously enjoying themselves. I never saw any trouble
at all and was pleased that Nick’s success had not become a binge
drinking problem. Perhaps it was his wise choice of small glasses and
the fact that the sheer number of people soon exhausted all the
available cider, but I’d prefer to think that cider drinkers are just
nice people. Whatever the reason, the visitors numbered 800, compared
with 700 last year. A lot to squeeze in a small hall in a tiny
village, itself squeezed within a narrow valley. I can’t begin to
imagine where they all parked!

The interesting thing, as Ny remarked to me, was the age range of
those who attended. Most were 20 to 30. Real cider has become very
popular with the younger generation. There weren’t very many grey
heads like me to be seen! Another interesting thing that I have
noticed this year, is the rising popularity of Cider Festivals
(meaning cider only!). Three sports clubs have asked if I can supply
theirs and our Sports club in the next village have asked me if I
could help to start one as a regular summer event. I also supply
several events where cider is the only drink provided.

I have an increasing conviction that there is a new awareness of
Real cider. It is gaining the presence that we have all hoped for and
people do know the difference between it and the supermarket stuff.
What is more I’m sure that the existence of the UKcider website for
the last ten years has had much to do with it. We must overcome our
difficulties and keep up the good work!

Rose.

BTW. For those who are wondering what has become of Ny. He IS still
with us, but has an intractable spam filter problem. His ISP does not
seem to want him to see any UKcider postings at the moment. (A good
thing, maybe! )

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The big tank

Published by
Rose
at April 23, 2009 in diary. Closed

Last year I decided to take my two ex winery aluminium ‘Sputnik’ tanks
to the scrapyard. They were taking up too much room in the ciderhouse.
I was also not convinced that their internal enamel coating would
continue to survive being immersed in cider for a great deal longer.
Scrap metal prices were good and I was able to more than cover their
original cost of £50 on Ebay. Having less tankage has however made
blending even more difficult than usual, since I’d lost two tanks that
I could move the cider to, during the mixing process. I do like my
draught to be truly composed of the complete season’s apples. It has
become a ‘lodestar thing’ for me that Cider by Rosie fully represents
the season from mid September to Christmas and that its flavour
remains the same throughout the drinking season.

This year it was impossible to fully blend until the first 1000 litre
IBC had been emptied, due to the lack of tank space. The cider in this
tank was acceptable but rather on the sharp side. Although in itself a
blend of perhaps 4 varieties, they were early season apples which tend
to be acidic. It sold well enough but I was not really happy with it.
When it had gone I was able to blend the remaining 5 IBCs ( I make
6000 litres of traditional draught). It was a moment of truth when I
tasted the result, being very pleasing and having the same rich, soft
dry, sort of flavour as in previous years. My full season ideal seemed
to be vindicated once and for all. The romantic notion that Nature
provides its own balance came to me, not for the first time.

I’ve given this blending problem a lot of thought in recent years.
I’ve mentioned it here which stimulated clever proposals involving
pumping this way and that between the tanks to ensure that each
contained the identical blend. One posting stood out in my mind. It
was about Customs & Excise inspections rather than blending. Tom
Oliver remarked that he had difficulty explaining to the inspector
that his 6000 litre blending tank was not used for the storage of
cider! This is the solution for me too, I thought. Never mind the
inspections. I will cross that bridge as and when needed. I want a
6000 litre tank! I can do the initial fermentation of the whole
season’s cider in it, whereupon all will be fully blended. Plentiful
co2 will fill the headspace, safeguarding the juice as the season’s
pressings progressively fill the tank. Then just after Christmas I
will transfer the still fermenting cider to the 6 IBCs in the tank
room, thus performing a racking in the process. Well that is the theory.

Today it became a reality. A massive plastic cylindrical water tank
now stands in our garden. I can’t believe how big a 2 metre diameter
tank actually looks! My mind has been working flat out thinking how to
alter its role from being a giant garden ornament, to a functional
item situated out of sight behind the cider house. I had thought it
would be possible to move it by rolling, but have been dismayed by its
great weight and the fact that it is impossible to get any sort of
grip on such a large drum. It is over 2 M in height which is also
unhelpful. I can see that I will definitely be in need of help from my
friends.

A few weeks back Barry and Albert came with a very awkward load.
Somehow back at Burley they had managed to get some very heavy items
inside Barry’s big white cider van. One of these was a pallet of
champagne bottles. These Barry had kindly bought on my behalf along
with his own consignment from France. This weighed best part of a ton
as did the other item. This was a 500 litre stainless dairy tank
complete with outer cooling tank and refrigeration equipment! Barry
and Albert had been determined to rescue this for me from a farm in
the New Forest where it was no longer required. It will be perfect for
keeving, due to the possibility of temperature control. I look forward
to modifying it and putting it to good use. However the immediate
problem was how to get these things out of the van and into my garage.
Luckily Charles, a friend in the village, came along with his tractor
and was able to lift them out with his front loader.

I am now very much in need of Charles with his tractor again! There is
a strong lifting eye moulded into the top of the tank. I’m hoping that
Charles will be able to lift the tank up and over the fence behind the
cider house, once I have obtained permission from the owner for access
to his adjoining field.

This is what the tank is like except that it is black. There is a 1 in
BSP stainless outlet fitted near to the base. Luckily I thought of
asking for that, as the standard fitting is brass.

Rose.

Europump repairs.

Published by
Rose
at April 20, 2009 in diary. Closed

Last month I mentioned the ease with which a Europump can be
dismantled for cleaning and repair. From my own experience and from
what I have heard from other owners of this useful little pump, there
are two components that are most likely to fail after several years of
use. These are the drive spring that connects the motor to the pump
and the shaft seal that prevents leakage from the pump into the motor.

If, like me, you are in need of one of these spares, I have some good
news!

Alex has advised me that Vigo has them in stock. They are listed as
follows:

Item code 21009 Spring Europump drive. Price £1.91
Item code 72249 Seal shaft 5 x 15 x 6m double lip R23 (Europump).
Price £3.25

Clear step by step instructions for replacing these items are also
supplied.

Happy pumping!
Rose

Re: [ukcider] Re: Blending keeved cider

Published by
Rose
at March 22, 2009 in diary. Closed

I’ve been mulling over the pearls of wisdom from David and Gary with
regard to the errors in SG measurement due to temperature variation
and the phenomenom of stratification. When making dry cider these
effects are of no great concern. Apart from the all important
measurement of SG prior to fermentation, thereafter the hydrometer
really only serves as an indicator to confirm that fermentation is
complete. This is quite a different matter when it comes to keeved
cider. The SG reading and its rate of fall, is crucial at bottling
time. One needs to be able to determine that the yeast is becoming
starved and that the SG is ‘bottoming out’. Only then can bottling be
safely carried out. At SGs above 1010, one has to feel confident that
there will not be the potential for more than the small amount of
fermentation needed to produce a sparkle. I’m all the more conscious
of this now having seen the bottle figures in Andrew’s book. The most
a champagne bottle can stand is 1010, should the fermentation decide
to go to fully dry.

At this time of the year I’m watching the SGs of the keeved ciders
almost day by day, in order to establish when it will be safe to
bottle. We discussed this here last year and a useful rule of thumb
came to light. If I’ve remembered it incorrectly, please somebody put
me right, but I believe that if a one point drop of SG takes a period
of 10 days or more, it can be taken as an indication that the SG is
bottoming out and that it is safe to bottle.

The implication is that for keeving it is important to be able to read
SG to within a degree and therefore reading errors do need to be
considered. I’ve looked in vain for some figures. David please
enlighten me. Say for example the ambient temp is 10 C, how is the
hydrometer reading affected? Regarding errors due to stratification,
that is something that I never would have even thought about. Thank
you Gary, it is good to be aware of it. I will have a gentle stir
before measuring in future, if notable changes in temperature have
occurred.

Continuing the experimental 50/50 blending of the keeved Porters and
Yarlington, I’ve progressed from the demijohn and now have a 120 litre
tub of it. Like the demijohn, this is also holding at 1012. As the
two ciders were well mixed during their blending, I needn’t worry
about stratification. Since the weather has stayed the same for two
weeks, around 15 C every day, there is no difference between
hydrometer readings due to temperature. Another week of similar
readings and perhaps I will feel confident enough to bottle!

I’m looking forward to bottling because I’m dying to try out Barry’s
corker, that he has kindly lent me.

Rose.

On 19 Mar 2009, at 11:11, Gary Awdey wrote:

> On Tuesday, March 17, 2009, David Llewellyn wrote:

>> Apart from the accuracy problem of actually determining small
>> differences while reading along a scale, if the
>> temperature of the cider was much lower at the time of the first
>> reading (ie the cold weather we had weeks ago), it might have accounted for an
>> apparent small change in SG, unless you corrected the readings to 20 degrees
>> C for example. The lower the temperature of the liquid, the higher the SG
>> reading will be, so you have to correct to a standard temperature. Sorry if
>> you have already taken this into account!!
>
> Another cautionary note (with more apologies if you’ve already taken
> this into account) is the effect of stratification. In the past I’ve
> occasionally noted odd readings that go counter to what would be
> predicted by the temperature density effect David mentions. When it is warmer
> you would expect density (and gravity readings) to be lower. What I’ve
> found is that sometimes the warmer weather makes fermentation of keeved
> ciders more active with the result that it is de-stratified. Measurement after
> racking is also occasionally higher than measurement before (I generally take
> samples from near the top). Heavier cider, richer in sugar, is
> mixed up from the bottom when fermentation is more active. This phenomenon is
> mentioned in several winemaking books so evidently it is not
> particularly unusual. When an accurate gravity reading of the entire batch is
> needed (which is admittedly not very often) I make sure the cider is
> adequately mixed by stirring or sparging with carbon dioxide gas (taking care
> not to introduce oxygen at the same time). However I don’t attempt to
> destratify cider that is still sitting on top of deposits that might be
> disturbed. I usually mix blended ciders thoroughly before measuring gravity.
> Otherwise measurement tends to be skewed toward the low side (and presumably the
> opposite would be true if samples were obtained from the bottom of the
> vessel).
>
> Similarly, if two keeved ciders are mixed and fermentation is very
> slow (as one would hope it would be) then you may start with a well mixed
> blend but see measured gravity drop unexpectedly quickly as stratification
> occurs. This would seem to be more likely as a cause of possible measurement
> error if you see a notable drop in gravity without seeing a corresponding
> amount of gas escaping at the airlock.
>
> Gary Awdey
> Eden, New York

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