Fall 2006 Batch #3, Pine Hill Orchard Redfield blend, wild yeast

 

Blend Notes

Purchased on 11/04/2006 during Ciderday 2006 in Franklin County at Pine Hill Orchards.
Their "Silver Blend" was:

We brought our 5-gal carboys and paid for 4 gallons ($3/gal) though we probably got a bit more than that. We bought one gallon jug of this blend for topping off.

Amount: 5 gallons
Specific Gravity (original): 1.052
% Sugar (original): ?
Potential Alcohol (original): 6.6%
PH: unknown
Potential Alcohol (original): ~9.9%

Additives

11/6/05:
No SO2.
11/8/06:
2 packs of D47 prepared as written on the back of the package (2 oz warm water, let sit for 15 minutes, dump into juice)
2 lb cane sugar
1 lb. 10 and 5/8oz Honey from The Shelburne Honey Company
Scant teaspoon of tannin powder

Notes

We're not adding SO2 to start, like last year's attempt with wild yeast. Instead we'll add it either after racking or before bottling.

11/3/06: Cleaned three carboys with warm water and 1/4 cup bleach for an hour, rinsed with warm water. Cleaned rubber stoppers and cleaning brush in sink with bleach solution. Let carboys drain. Put in stoppers and covered with pastic wrap and rubber bands.
11/4/06: Purchased at Pine Hill Orchard around 10am. This blend (more complex?) in the 350gal tank was 1/2 empty, since doors were opened at 8am. Make sure you don't arrive late. 5-gal carboys carried in milk crates.
11/8/06: Added sugars, yeast, and tannin.
Towels wrapped around necks and plastic wrap loosely on top.
11/9/06-11/12/06: suds snake workin'.
11/14/06: Suds snake still going. Slower fermentation than the others.
3/11/07: Still pretty dark. Not clearing as much as the #1 blend. Might just be a blend thing.
4/22/07: Racked into clear carboy. Seems okay. Some slight bubbling when we agitated it and it still seems a little dark but smelled hard-cidery and racked off neatly.
9/2/07: Bottled with the help of Tom and Julie. Much easier with help. Previous to the bottling I went to the West Boylston home brew shop and bought 24 22oz bottles for about a buck/bottle and Iodine sanitizer which was used in lieu of bleach for the equipment and all the new 22oz bottles. The 750ml bottles, a few 22oz, and all the 12oz were done in the dishwasher on the anti-bacterial setting with extra heat.
Half the batch was still, the other half primed for sparkling. Marked in green.
We got a fair amount more cider out of this one over batch #1, which we bottled first. This (#3) was darker, fuller bodied, but a little funkier.
11/7/09: Tried a fizzy 12oz bottle. Good fizz. Weird astringency...not sure if I like it. Good mouth feel...thick. Honey nose.

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