39 gallons of cider and a cider explosion

[seth8530]

Well, its been a while since I have posted but I have been kind of busy with life and stuff.. And fermentation in general.

So, a few days back I called my local u-pick farm and they said they were selling cider at $5 a gallon. So, rushing on this opportunity I decided to make the best of it and filled up all of my remaining empty carboys.

So here are the base stats. TA= 2.97 PH= 3.77 OG= 1.050

For the 15 gallon cold batch we adjusted the TA to 8.1 g/l and the PH down to 3.04.


So what to do with 39 gallons of cider?!

Well 15 gallons of it is going to be a fruity dry cider.

I am fermenting it with R2 yeast at 45 degrees F to try and really ramp the fruitiness up. So, we shall see how that turns out for us. As of right now it seems to be slowly bubbling so at least it looks like it is moving.

R2 was isolated in the Sauternes region of Bordeaux by Brian Croser of South Australia. It has excellent cold temperature properties and will ferment as low as 5°C. Without good nutrition and protection against osmotic shock, it can tend to produce VA. For this reason, suspension in NATSTEP during R2 rehydration and good nutrition during fermentation is recommended. R2 helps produce intense, direct fruit-style whites by liberation of fruity and floral aroma precursors. It is recommended for aromatic white varieties such as Sauvignon blanc, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. It is classified as a Saccharomyces cerevisiae bayanus.

I also added 15 grams of booster blanc up front to help smooth things out a bit and intensify the freshness I am trying to express with the R2 and cold fermentation.

Booster Blanc is a natural inactivated yeast product from the ICV range of selected
yeast. It has been specifically designed to smooth mid-palate intensity and enhance
fresh aromas in whites and rosés. Booster Blanc can increase the perception of volume
and decrease sensations of acid aggressiveness in whites and rosés. It can also reduce
the perception of acid aroma and limit ethereal, chemical and burning perceptions in the
mouth, particularly in wines made from botrytized grapes. Booster Blanc is a Natural
Yeast Derived Nutrient that can supply certain fermentative advantages together with
significant wine quality improvement. Used alone, it should not be viewed as a substitute
for DAP or other fermentative nutrients.

However, this only accounts for 15 gallons.

12 gallons are being fermented at room temp with two separate beer yeast straion.. I think a saission strain and a London strain perhaps.. Need to double check..



12 more gallons are being fermented with lacto bacteria and brett. I plan on making this my farmhouse strain.... I pitched the lacto and left for thanksgiving for a day or two with sealed bungs... We will discuss this poor decision next post. However, I can tell you I am pretty sure it underwent natural fermentation and perhaps MLF since it taste kind of creamy compared to the other strains.

 

[seth8530]

So how did bunging up unsulfited un yeasted but bugged cider work out for me... Like a charm... If I was trying to paint my room with cider trubb. Pretty much what happened is that I got done helping my Dad move into his new house over Thanksgiving, so I stayed with family a couple days while disaster stirred up in the fermentation room.




I got back at 9PM, and we found that we had two carboys with their bungs blew off and a very nice spatter pattern on the popcorn ceiling.. And the walls. So, we spent the next hour or so scrubbing the ceiling ( not very successful) and another hour or so scrubbing the wall ( more successful) with sponges.. Turns out if you have water based paint you basically end up repainting the wall this way.



After getting tired of this exercise we ended up walking to a bar and we put the mess behind us for a night...



So enter today! We removed everything from the fermentation room and racked all the cider ( and spilled two gallons on the carpet... yet another thing to clean). We then went to lowes, talked to a helpful person who told us to buy some kind of spray on spray sealant and some specail paint and a nice fancy roller meant for popcorn ceilings.. A few hours later and more work and the ceiling was put back to new with a fresh coat of paint and the fermentation room was better organized than it had ever been before.

 

[grapeman]

That sounds like it was quite an unexpected turn of events. Glad you saved the ceiling. Too bad about the lost cider and spilled cider.

 

[seth8530]

Actually, surprisingly the losses from the explosion were relatively low. But, the mess was kind of expensive and a pain in the arse to clean up.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

TA=2.97? Seth I think that might be some kind of a record What kind of apples did they press, crabapples? WVMJ

 

[sour_grapes]

Good Gawd, I loathe popcorn ceilings. My sympathies, my man!

 

[Tenbears]

Some people have all the luck, Unfortunately yours is bad right now... It will turn.

 

[seth8530]

TA=2.97? Seth I think that might be some kind of a record What kind of apples did they press, crabapples? WVMJ

2.97 g/l So, really low. But yea either way it might qualify as a record lol. On the otherhand the sugar was pretty darn high.

Good Gawd, I loathe popcorn ceilings. My sympathies, my man!

I did not really realize how much I hated popcorn ceiling until tonight.. I now vow that if I ever buy a house I will not have popcorn ceiling.. Anywhere.. Ever.

Some people have all the luck, Unfortunately yours is bad right now... It will turn.

I sure hope so, Perhaps some other person somewhere is getting some good luck while I am getting all the bad luck.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Did you ask the orchard what apples they were pressing for this cider? I wish I had some apples with that low a TA to blend some of our higher acid apples with. Sounds like an exciting experiment. I think it looks like good luck not bad, at least your caps performed as designed and popped off, if they had stood their ground you would be picking up pieces of carboy from the holes in your wall and roof WVMJ

 

[seth8530]

Ha yeah, not sure what kind of Apple's they were.I know it was a blend abd I imagine it was not designed for feImentation since the sugar was so high and the acid low.

But all in all I look forward to seeing how this will turn out now that my fermentation room is back in order. I will take a gravity reading of the cool cider today.

 

[BernardSmith]

My sympathy , Seth. I share your pain... But to be serious, you just reminded all of us of the "risk" that pressed juice is already filled with yeast. Here in NYS apple juice cannot legally be sold unless it has been UV (or heat) pasteurized because of past cases of e-coli outbreaks and death caused by contaminated apple juice.

 

[asterof]

Knoxville

Actually, surprisingly the losses from the explosion were relatively low. But, the mess was kind of expensive and a pain in the arse to clean up.

It says you are in Knoxville, you know where the Johnson Bible University is ?
on Hodges Ferry road.

 

[seth8530]

Not off the top of my head, but from what I hear it is not far from me.

 

[seth8530]

The cold cider is still chugging on along at 1.040 ish. I am turning up the temperature up to 55 to let it get going really well before I turn it down back to 50.

The funk ciders are drying out and souring as plan, so at least that is working well. I imagine that I will have lots of work to do in the wine room in a few days.

 

[seth8530]

Welp, we had a massive bottling party today. Invited a couple friends over, so me, my brother and my two friends bottled around 340 bottles of cider/beer today. It was quite a bit of work, but it was fun.

In a couple of weeks, we will have some carbonated funk cider as well as some nice clean fermented cider. The acid is a bit high and the wine is dry, so I am kind of going for a dry champagne like style. But, I guess we will find out how it turns out in a couple of weeks.