Fall 2007 Batch #1, Pine Hill Orchard Roxbury Blend, Montpellier yeast
Blend Notes
Purchased juice on 11/03/2007 in Franklin County at Pine Hill Orchards. Ciderday
weekend, though we didn't attend the festivities this year. $42.50
for two full 5-gallon carboys and an extra gallon (of the Roxbury
Blend) to fill out any other local blends (Carlson's) we make this
year. Comes out to $3.86/gallon, which is a little pricier than years
past, especially compared to the $2.50/gallon price at Carlson's.
Still, interesting blends this year.
The "Roxbury Blend" was:
| Amount: | 5 gallons |
| Specific Gravity (original): | 1.0625 |
| % Sugar: | ? |
| Potential Alcohol (original): | 8.2% |
| PH: | unknown |
| Specific Gravity (post-sugar): | 1.081 |
| Potential Alcohol (post-sugar, dry ferment): | 10.7% |
Additives
11/3/07:
60ppm SO2 (10 Campden tablets, based on 30ppm/gal/tab noted on the
bottle)
11/11/07:
2 packs of yeast Lalvin K1 yeast, prepared as written on the back of
the package (2 oz warm water, let sit for 15 minutes, dump into juice)
1 lb 11oz Honey (from Dawn's parents) (+9 points SG)
24 oz organic cane sugar from Shaw's (+9.6 points SG)
NO tannin powder
Notes
11/2/07: Cleaned two carboys with BT. Much easier/faster/less-smelly than bleach. Let drain and topped 'em with saran.
11/3/07: Drove out to Pine Hill in the morning. Seemed to have plenty
still at 9:30am. More complex blends this time. Put the 5-gal
carboys in milk crates again and it worked well. Brought saran to
re-apply tops...also a good plan. Black milkcrate.
Stopped by Homebrew Emporium on the way home to grab yeast. Trying a
new kind this time.
11/11/07: Cleaned up top of carboy which got some weird white fuzz,
maybe from SO2, maybe from yeast, maybe from The Evil. Hopefully
it'll be ok. This batch sat next to the island for a week, getting a
little sun from time to time. Hopefully they're ok.
Added honey, sugar, and yeast. Stirred it up, wrapped a towel around
the neck, placed saran over the top, and put it downstairs.
11/29/08: A year later, I did a tasting of the lot, decided this was the best, and kegged it. Hadn't racked carboy prior (bad). Kegs came from Keg Connection in TX. CO2 came from Leominster Homebrew @ $18. Set this to 15 PSI @55degrees =~ 2.11 liters CO2/liter liquid for a low carbonation "English Style".
11/30/08: CO2 pressure dropped overnight to 10PSI. Raised it back to 16.
12/3/08: Carbonation is very light but noticeable. Dawn and I agree to raise it up a bit, so back to 16 PSI for two more days. Tastes good!
12/5/08: Checked bubbles, turned down to 10 PSI. Nice frothy head but not much bubbly.
General notes: I've had good luck mixing this with previous blends. Overall it's pretty good but lacks a little something by itself. The bubbles are minimal, so crank things up a little higher for future ciders.