Fall 2009 Batch #3, Pine Hill Orchard Sun Crisp blend, Lalvin 71B yeast (blend B)
FAILURE

 

Blend Notes

Purchased at Pine Hill on 11/7/09.
The "Sun Crisp Blend" was:

This tasted the most acidic of the blends. Normally I might have avoided that but the third blend (not recorded) seemed the weakest of the three so I avoided that.
Trying this with Lalvin 71B-1122 purchased at Modern Homebrew Emporium in Cambridge.

Amount: 5 gallons
Specific Gravity (original): 1.044
Potential Alcohol (original): 5.45%
PH: 3.2ish?
Specific Gravity (post-sugar): 1.064
Potential Alcohol (post-sugar, dry ferment): 8.25%

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.

11/18/09: Vigorous fermentation now. Suds snake has left the carboy.

11/21/09: Suds all done. Airlock in place.

11/24/09: Replace vodka in airlock with new vodka with red food coloring.

2/20/10: Racked into clean carboy. Good smell, good taste. A little bitey but hopefully that'll relax over time. 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.

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