Difference between revisions of "Personal pages/Season 2019"

Revision as of 11:04, 19 July 2020

Season 2019

A few news itemns before I get started on the harvest:

• new 10litre oak cask. It still smells a little stroingly of whatever was in it before. Only Sfr50.
• a garden shredder (Häcksler) acquired in the Brocki for Sfr75.
• a large hydraulic press, SFr400 on Ricardo, picked up in Hombrechtikon.
• the above also came with an Obstmühle, but it's useless. Maybe if the fruit is quite soft. I intend to sell it on Ricardo.

Harvest

The two usual apple trees (Schneider) on the neighbouring field wqere hit by frost just as they were blooming, so no apples there. Nicole suggested I go to the field next to Freitag, as they are renting it anyway - including fruit. There are 5 apple trees (Golden Delicious), and a number of pear trees, standard Schweizer Mostbirne as far as I can tell. According to my research, the Mostbirne can have 60-70° Oechsle, i.e. sugar content. The birnebrand from my first attempt back in 2012 came out really well.

2019/09/28 Sofar I have picked 4 crates of about 20kg each. I've put one create through the shredder, which I think went quite well.

2020/01/12 A final report, albeit a bit late. I estimate I picked towards 900kg! At least 100kg probably ended up being thrown away, now composting in the garden. Downstairs, I have :

• 1 x 100litre vat with ~90litres of pear juice, for "perry".
• 2 x 150litre vats (pear mash)
• 5 x 100litre vats (pear mash)
• 1 x 100litre vat trester from pear juice, water and sugar added.
• 3 x 30litre with a) experiment with molasses, b) black pears only.

Some notes / questions -

• after picking up, the pears do well with being left for maybe a week to ripen. I have no idea where I might be be able to do this. Leaving them in the crates is a half-cocked solution. Some long tables/shelves sound like a better idea. OTOH< for shredding, they are best when a bit hard.
• the shredder could do with a new funnel. Something that is easier to clean. It does not need to be so sturdy.
• apparently, the white vats are really for juice, not for mash. I have acquired some blue vats instead.
• what to do with the leftovers. The compost bin is already overflowing, and I had to dump 100kg of rotting pears in the garden.

2020/01/12 Perry - have racked into 2 x 30 litre vats, maybe 20 litres each. Distilled the rest, about 25litres, which produced 1litre of 45%. I am wondering if the boiling did anything to the other unfermentable sugars (sorbitols?), I will try adding some dry yeast, just as an experiment.

2020/01/15 Sofar no reaction, it's a dud.

2020/01/16 I have seen the leftmost 150litre still bubbling. Very slowly.

Shredder

Using this on fruit works perfectly fine, at least on the fairly hard pears. It's not quite it's intended purpose, but never mind. The result is quite finely chopped fruit, not quite mush. Occasionally when I throw in another pear, I can see a very fine mist of fruitjuice. The first load of approx 20kg went straight into a 30litre vat, then I added a bit of the yeast. One day later it is bubbling already. The shredder is not easy to clean. There are bits of fruit everywhere. Pascal's highpressure cleaner is a godsend. I have to get one myself. However, it means only cranking it up when there is enough clean fruit to process. Maybe once a week - I can pick up two crates of fruit in one session, but only 2-3 times a week. In between I have to wash them, so maybe only use the shredder on the weekend?

Experiment with Kaiser Alexander pears

2019/11/24 I have taken two x 2litres of apple trester (72% and 74%) from May 2017, added 3litres of water and 1kg of Kaiser Alexander pears, diced. They are in a 15litre Faserplast vat. When they are done, maybe beginning of January, I expect to fill up four 2litre bottles and add 25grams of anisseed to two of them.

2020/01/06 When I measured the alcohol volume, it showed only 36, which is weird. Re-calculating, it is as if I had added a litre of water too much? I have added 2litres of trester 60%, this should produce a final of 41%. I'm thinking of letting it "stew" for a while longer.

2020/01/17 have now bottled it and had a sip. Very nice! I think I'll call it "Alex".

2020/01/19 After finishing the bottling, I let the pearbits drip off over night, then put them back in the vat and poured in the two big bottles of Jostabeer (2017 and 2019), probably 10litres at 65%. (estim.). The Jostabeer has a very distinct "nose", not really pleasant.

2020/07/19 After exactly 6 months, the Jostabeer has taken on a slightly 'green' tint, but no additional or better flavour that I can tell. Have thrown away the pear bits now, jostabeer now in two 5litre bottles. There is also another 4 x 700ml of josta on the shelf. See below.

Experiment - josta infused with josta

2020/07/19 I picked about 200g of josta berries, and prepared two 1 litre bottles: one with 50 and one with 100g. Both at approx 70%. They are now stewing downstairs, properly labelled.

Experiment with Sweet Sensation pears

2020/01/28 about a week ago, I bought 1kilo of "Sweet Sensation" pears. There were left in the fridge. Today I diced them, and poured in the approx 5litres of apple trester distilled about two week ago. They are very sweet and very soft, I think I'll only leave them in for a month. Will need to measure the alcohol later.

2020/07/19 as usual, my poor note-taking means I don't know when I bottled the above. In fact, I have a suspicion I may not have at all, but simply just drunk it. I see not traces of it downstairs. I don't think the type of pear made much of a difference.