Hard Cider

The fall has always been my favorite season.  I love the cooler weather, the crisp air, cutting firewood, bringing in the year’s harvest and making wine and cider.  This past year we did a few new things in preparation for cider making. 

1.  We went shopping around for apples and got 15 bushels from two different orchards at really good prices.  This is the most ambitious we've been in relation to quantity.  

2.  We bought this amazing apple crusher that does a half ton\hr.  Gone are the days of having to quarter apples one by one before running them through the table-mounted hand crusher that would take all day to do 5 bushels.   Now we can load apples into the top of the apple mil and watch this thing turn them into a mash in a matter of seconds.  It’s the most wonderful thing since we got heat on the 3rd floor.  

3.  For my birthday my wife bought me a #45 press.  I also have a #25 press, which is perfect if you are making 6 gallons of something.    When it comes to cider we make quite a lot more.  In the past with the hand crusher this really wasn’t too much of problem as the bottle neck was during the crush process not the press.  Now that we have the new electric mill the bottle neck would have been the press.  Subsequently, the #45 while very large in comparison and works a lot nicer for the volume of cider we are making now.

This thing is so freaking awesome!

Apples

Pipin, Cameo, Henley Gold, Cripin, Staymen, AK Black and Russet. 

Process

10.25.14	Crush and pressed 15 bushels that yielded 35 gallons of juice. SG 1.051 about 7.5% expected alcohol.
10.27.14	Picked yeast, experimented with two brands of Champagne yeast.  Red Star v. Lavin.  The Lavin created a much slower fermentation.
11.7.14	SG 1.031, taste testing proved to be a nice apple flavor.  Racked off
11.23.14	SG 0.098 Racked & bottled 13 cases of 22 oz bottles

New toys, #45 press and electric crusher.

Sulfite bath prior to the crush.

This is how you make awesome sauce.

The press

After the press.

A reward for the day's hard work - last year's cider.

Almost of cube yard of pomace.

A little experiment with champagne yeast strains.

The rack off 

32 gallons of sweet smelling cider bubbling away in the kitchen.

Result

A still, French style cider with good flavor, very drinkable without being over done in terms of alcohol content that we had achieved in previous iterations.  I do prefer the carbonation that is produced during the secondary fermentation (not malolactic).  I think the only thing that would need to be done differently in this year’s batch is that the cider got chill proofed a little too soon.  Chill proofing stabilizes the cider (or wine) by killing off any lingering yeast or bacteria.  Ostensibly, if we had left it out of the fridge a little longer, we’d have a different result.  Nonetheless, it’s still good and I am working on consistency and perfecting the craft.  

Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

This is the third Cabernet Springs Farm has made from local grapes.  The first Cab Sav we crushed on the day my wife and I got married in 2010.  We now refer to it as the “Wedding Wine’.  We always seem to be making wine on or around our anniversary now, which is not a bad thing at all.  I skipped making wine in 2011 & 2013 due to other farm projects.  In 2012 we made 5 gallons of some beautiful stuff.  I can’t wait to do a vertical tasting of all three. 

2014 was a great year for grapes in Virginia.  It was a mild summer with cool nights and not a lot of rain.  The only thing I noticed in my own vineyard is the Japanese beetles were fierce in numbers.  I feel pretty lucky to get grapes this year as grapes are in big demand these days in VA.

:

Notes:

10.11.14	Procured 6 (very full) lugs from local vineyard.  Set up the “crush pad” and prepared for the crush and destem.  Sanitized all equipment and then a quick BRIX check of 23 from refractometer.  After the crush the addition of SO2 is added to kill off any wild yeasts or bacteria.   Let it sit for 24 hours.
10.12.14	Tested must for specific gravity and acid: SG 1.087 Expected Alcohol about 12% Barrel Temp 66* T.A. resulted in the addition of an acid blend Added Pectin Enzyme Expected yield < 10 gallons Created yeast starter and pitched Pasteur yeast
10.13.14	Strong fermentation, punched down twice a day
10.17.14	SG 1.010 temp 66*
10.20.14	SG 1.000 Added malolactic bacteria
10.25.14	SG 0.995 Pressed
10.28.14	Racked off lees
11.23.14	Racked, tart taste, added French oak chips to 9 gallons
12.25.14	Sampled how the oak is coming along, needs a bit more time to mellow. Good bouquet
1.4.14	Racked off oak, it is tasting like it might be a big wine, it has a great bouquet, it’s just starting to round out a little but it is still quite sharp and tight.

Solarization

This past summer we started working on expanding the vineyard.  As part of preparation for this expansion we marked off roughly where the rows would be placed and covered up each row with a tarp to solarize the soil.  This process can help to control not only weeds, but also fungus, nematodes and certain bacteria by heating the soil during the hottest months over the summer.   Additional benefits during the breakdown of the organic material will provide nutrients to include nitrogen, calcium, folic acid, magnesium and potassium to the soil structure.

Watering rows before plastic placement

We got started in late July. The first step after site selection and row placement is to soak each row heavy with water. Then, we rolled the dark plastic tarp out and stapled firmly to the ground.  It wasn’t until after the first soft frost that we then removed the plastic.

I sent a soil sample to Virginia Tech and the results came back good.  All that was needed was the addition of lime.

Sprayed around rows to keep grass back.

Tilled in lime and break up of soil to set up over the winter.

Final result in October

The next steps early this spring before the baby vines arrive is to add a nice layer of compost to the soil and install wooden posts for preliminary trellis prep.