Personal pages/Season 2020
Season 2020
2020/05/29 Just some preliminary notes:
- we have had no frost or snow in spring, so it could be a bumper crop. Schneider apples, golden delicious and Mostbirne over at Freitag.
- also plenty of Jostabeeren growing.
- I will likely not have any more room than last season, so limited to the same ~900kilos. Maybe I can fit another two 100litre vats into the boiler-room.
- use schneider and/or golden delicious for cidre ?
- juice mostbirnen and ferment the juice, but add sugar ? use the 300litre vat? it's too big for solids.
- vats available: 10 x 100litre, 2 x 150litre, 1 x 300litre. Not including the 100litre Graf for watering.
- will need to think of what to do with the left-overs.
- need to buy press-säcke for the big hydraulic press.
- consider replacing the funnel on the Häcksler.
- need to maintain a spreadsheet - "maische-status" - and put labels with numbers on the vats.
- ideas for a washing plant? something with brushes and water sprinklers.
Reflux experiment with a heatsink and fan on the main pot - I don't think it is particularly effective. The temperature on the heatsink is good, with a big fan down to 28C, but on the copper pipe, it's still 65-66C. I suspect that is too high for any vapour to condensate?
2020/06/13 I distilled the 30litre vat with the whole brown (black) pears, plus a few litres of leftovers of the last vat with pearmash. Yield was about 1litre of clean alcohol, X%, but the interesting thing was that the pot did not shake whilst boiling, it just sat completely still on the induction plate. I'm guessing because there was enough space in the water between the pears, for the vapour to escape easily.
2020/06/14 Have found another 30litre vat with what must be pear juice. I really must keep better records.
