Cider 2019

(Around 1500 lb of apples in total.)

- Thanks to Andrew for creative re-purposing of a wood chipper and his hydraulic garage press add-on.

Produced this.

Later improvements such as charging the press with three cheeses at a time and using the hand lever to take up the slack (why didn't we cotton on to this earlier?) meant that pressing time was drastically reduced later on and was less stressful to the cheese cloths.

About 3 good 75 litre tubs from around 660 kg of apples if my math is correct.

A sachet of Lalvin EC-1118 yeast was added to each while filling.

Also Planning on doing a few 5 gallon jars to spread the risk, being the caution s*d that I am.

Pressed another batch of apples to put into glass later on.

The resulting juice was left in two of these 60 litre containers...

...And these two for primary fermentation.

Barrels contents (1005 original gravity and a ph of 3.5) were, in turn, decanted into a sterile 205 litre plastic drum and the sediment rinsed out then 'scrubbed' with a chain on a rope (Top tip from Andrew Hewett) before a 22mm hole was drilled in each for the taps. Incidentally. The oak is about an inch thick and the drill was barely halfway through before the air was filled with the aroma of Jack Daniels.

These holes were tapered by hand with very course emery cloth using a tap as a former. Slow and painful but it did the job. - Blisters are healing nicely!

They were then rinsed repeatedly with a hot water pressure washer before a final rinse with 30 litres of near boiling water. - No steriliser used on the oak barrels!

Barrels were then placed in position, refilled with an an additional 2.5 gallons to each from the 5 gallon plastic fermenter. (1020 o.g)

The additional batch was decanted into five and a half x 23 litre carboys. Not sure how the half will fare with air space but CO2 is active in warmth. Will most likely transfer the half to smaller demijohn flasks at the weekend.

A bit of DIY tech to keep them warm during the seasonal temperature drop.

Two layers of insulation, a thermocouple and a heat pad under each keeps them cosy, efficient and frost proof.

Channel four not currently used and is indicating ambient air temperature of 10 degrees here.

Set temperature has just been reduced from 20 to 17 degrees C.

Gas line runs around the walls where Tees will be added later. - Think twice, cut once!

Fittings and hoses courtesy of RLBS Ltd. and used regulator, eBay.

The tees will accept either blanks or aspirator pegs as required to blanket a barrel's contents when drawing off begins.

There's room on the stand for five barrels in total.

Now in kit form and in the back of the ATV. - On to the next...

So-called treated stakes failing early are slowly being replaced by (hopefully) properly treated stakes. from.jacksons fencing

Over the last five years around 450 have been replaced out of an estimated 1200. January or February each year the fence is walked and every single stake is given the wiggle test. - Grab top, push-pull using body weight and feel/listen for weakness... Sometimes quite subtle but you get to know.

One more branch reported on the north side cut up and then.....

Locks removed. o.g down to 1. Samples drawn with large pipette were crystal clear with very acceptable flavour to both barrels.

- So far at least.

Finally they were each topped up with around 0.75 litre boiled water before bunging and driving home the hard spiles.

Will cover later to keep dust and bird s#*t off these weak points, ready for when aspirator/gas pegs are fitted before drawing cider off.