Personal pages/Appleharvest 2014

Appleharvest 2014

I asked Nicole if they were expecting to harvest the apples from the three trees on the field next to our house. She gave me permission to pick them.

2014/10/13 I started by picking, washing, slicing and freezing 2 x 15kg of the red apples. Then I continued picking the large yellow variety.

2014/10/21 Bought 3 x 100L vats on Ricardo @ SFr40 each.

2014/10/22 It got really cold last night. Yellow apples: by now, I have 2 + 6 crates of about 15kg each, all stored in the Schlachthaus under a tarpaulin. There is a nice apple smell when you enter. The freezer has 2 x 15kg of red, and 2 x 15 kg of yellow which I've just today started defrosting with a view to juicing them Friday morning. Today up I picked up at least 30kg, it was easy due to the storm yesterday.

Vat X

2014/10/24 Have squeezed 20kg from the freezer, leaving 2kg of dry pomace. Vat#10. I soaked this in 3L of water, which I expect to squeeze tomorrow. The 17L of apple juice looks good, it's very clear and tastes quîte sweet.

2014/10/25 The pomace looked like it had soaked up all the water, so I added another 2 litres. Intend to leave it till tomorrow, then press it.

2014/10/29 The juice (23 litres) has been fermenting on the wild yeast for a couple of days. Not very fast though. Have measured Oechsle today, looks like 31. Which I think means 31g sugar/liter. Per % alcolhol per liter, we need 17g of sugar. For e.g. 5% alcohol, that makes (5*17-31)*23 = 1242g = 1.2kg. For 12%, it is (12*17-31)*23 = 4kg.

2014/11/01 Still no yeast, sugar content has dropped to 25g/litre. I drew out a couple of litres and added 2kg sugar, then returned it to the vat.

2014/11/02 Bubbling seems to have slowed somewhat.

2014/11/03 Yeast has arrived, I made a quick starter solution (1ml+applejuice) and added that. Sugar content now 58g/litre,

2014/11/04 Sugar content now 55° (g/litre).

2014/11/13 Sugar is now 45°. When it's ready to bottle, it's supposed to be 17°, (55-45)/9 = 1.11g/day. (45-17)/1.11k = 25 days.

2014/11/21 Sugar is now 39°.

2014/11/23 Depending on the target level of alcohol, I need to dilute with water. With 2kg of added sugar, the end alcohol% should be 6.9. For a target of 4.5%, add 25*(6-9/4.5-1) = 13.3L of water. This makes 25+13 = 38L, i.e. 76 x 500ml bottles. British websites suggest bottling when sugar content reaches 10°. 36L at 10° = 360g sugar. 360 / 25 = 14.4, so that is when we dliute and bottle.

2014/12/03 Sugar is now 35°.

2014/12/12 Sugar is now 27°. Getting close. Bottles available = 20 + 20 (Jens) + 4 (transparent). Not quite enough, need anopther 36 .... the big Paulaner equals 4 x 500ml, the 6 bottles from Italy is 12 x 500ml, so that makes only 20 needed.

2014/12/18 Sugar is now 27°. Have racked, leaving 2litres which I added to vat IX. Could probably have used those too, the sediment is quite settled/stuck. 2/25x13 = 1, so only add 12L of water. 35L at 10° = 350g sugar. 350 / 23 = 15.2 so that is when we dilute and bottle. Judging by the graph and the trend line, we should hit 15° on day 362, i.e. just after Christmas. I think sugar consumption has slowed down somewhat though.

2015/01/12 Sugar has been holding at around 27-28° for a while now. Sugar consumption appears to have largely stopped?? I oxygenated it for maybe 10mins with the drill.

2015/01/18 Sugar now 24°. Will keep a close eye on for the next week.

2015/02/21 Sugar remains 24°. Have added 8 litres of water and closed the vat (no airlock). Looks like about 30litres in total, approx. 60 bottles.

2015/03/07 Have racked into bottles, 52 x 0.5litre. Judging by the two clear glass bottles, CO2 is still being produced, albeit in tiny amounts.

2015/03/28 We tasted the first bottle of cider. No bubbles, very disappointing. Taste was fine, slightly sour/dry. More like applewine than cidre.

2015/04/04 Tried measuring the alcohol level, but it said 0 !!? When I measured a can of Somersby cider, it said -5 (estimated, the scale doesn't go negative). According to one American cider-making in Nadine's CS magazine, they would only start consuming the cider in June. Maybe we just wait a little longer.

2015/05/12 Jens wasn't overly impressed, nor were Pascal and Alicia. Nor am I. Spoke to George who said his neighbour added a lump of sugar per bottle when he bottled his home-brew beer. I tried adding about half a teaspoon of sugar to two bottles. They fizzed immediately and I quickly closed them again. These two are on the shelf behind the washing machine.

2015/05/14 Added a full teaspoon of sugar to two bottles, they're on the windowsill in the boiler room. Immediate fizz etc.

2015/06/13 Opened some bottles and did have impressive pops and a little "fog" in the bottle neck. Some even fizzed and rose out of the bottle like champagne. Weird.

2015/06/14 Adding the extra sugar did produce some fizz, but not much. Later I read that adding 10g sugar per litre as "priming sugar" when bottling dry cider is the way to go. Have emptied most of the remaining bottles into Nadineŝ cider-jar. The rest will go into the next distilling-run.

Cider conclusion - adding the water diluted the taste too, made the end result undrinkable. Next time I'll just aim for 5-6% alcohol, no diluting needed then.

2015/08/26 Distilled the remaining cidre, about 18L. Yielded 700ml @ 63%, 700ml @ 45%.

Vat IX

2014/11/08 I squeezed 20kg of apples, producing X litres of juice, sugar 50gr/litre. Then I soaked the apple left-overs in 6litres of water.

2014/11/09 Squeezed the apple left-overs, produced 5litres @ 18g/litre. All poured into vat#9.

2014/11/10 The yeast starter was sizzling. I dissolved 5kg of sugar in juice, the poured it back into the vat, then added the yeast.

2014/11/12 Have squeezed another batch of approx 20kg, producing 15 litres of juice, sugar 52g/litre. I added 3+2 kg of sugar to the lot.

2014/11/13 Am soaking the dry pomace in 8-9 litres of water. Have topped up water a couple of times.

2014/11/14 Squeezed out 5+3L at 13° and 11° respectively. Added 2kg sugar.

2014/11/21 Am defrosting another 20kg of apples.

2014/11/23 Have squeezed the batch of approx 20kg, producing 14.7 litres of juice, sugar ~52g/litre. I added 3+2 kg of sugar to the lot. The dry pomace is soaking in 5litres of water.

2014/11/23 Squeezed out 5.4L at 14°. Added 1kg sugar. (I guess I added some more water).

2014/12/14 Have squeezed another batch of approx 20kg, producing 15L of juice, sugar ~52g/litre. I added 4kg of sugar to the lot, didn't use the dry pomace.

2014/12/18 Added 2L from vat X, left over after racking.

2015/05/17 Distillation started. I am doing it in batches of 30L (2x15L). I did a new thing for the heads - took 17 cups of 50ml, tried them with the nose. I left them for 6-7 hours, then decided the first 14 were heads. I'm deciding the tails based on smell, but I think I'll re-distill all the tails, maybe even mixed with the pear ditto.