Fall 2009 Batch #1, Pine Hill Orchard Russet
blend, Lalvin 71B yeast (Blend A Culturerd)
FAILURE
Blend Notes
Purchased at Pine Hill on 11/7/09.
The "Russet Blend" was:
| Amount: | 5 gallons |
| Specific Gravity (original): | 1.046 |
| Potential Alcohol (original): | 5.75% |
| PH: | 3.2ish? |
| Specific Gravity (post-sugar): | 1.066 |
| Potential Alcohol (post-sugar, dry ferment): | 8.5% |
Additives
11/8/09:
54ppm SO2 (9 Campden tablets, based on 30ppm/gal/tab
11/9/07:
1 pack of yeast Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast, prepared as written on the back of
the package (2 oz warm water, let sit for 15 minutes, dump into juice)
45 oz organic cane sugar from Shaw's (+20 points SG)
NO tannin powder
Notes
11/5/09: Cleaned carboys with BT. Let drain and topped 'em with saran.
11/7/09: Picked up juice at Pine Hill. Topped with fresh saran
fastened with rubber bands.
Attempted to calculate PH using papers purchased at Modern in
Cambridge, to correlate to the PH->SO2 table in Lea's book (p67).
However, the papers go in .2 increments, not .1 as the table requires,
and we couldn't get an accurate reading with them anyway...the color
didn't really match the key. So we're guessing at 3.2ish PH and using
54ppm SO2, which is just slightly less than what we did in '07.
11/9/09: Pulling off some of the sulphited cider for reserves. Adding yeast and sugar.
11/15/09: A not terribly vigorous fermentation has finally started. Slow going.
11/21/09: Vigorous fermentation.
11/22/09: Vigorous ferm seems to be close to done. Airlocking tomorrow.
11/24/09: Replace vodka in airlocks with new vodka with red food coloring.
2/20/10: Racked into clean carboy. Not much smell and kind of a weak taste. Covered with saran. Rocco's help got all three carboys done in a couple hours.
2/21/10: Replaced saran with airlock.
10/30/10: Kegged.
10/31/10: Pulled some off and fridged it. Didn't taste so great. Let's hope it improves with age.
10/15/11: Nope, not improved. After periodically testing this over the course of the year, it sucking each time, I dumped it to make room for the '10 batch currently in carboys. Both Lalvin 71B attempts from this year were bad while the wild yeast version was tasty.