Cider was brewed early February so almot 9 months old now.
Sunday was the old boys birthday so we celebrated by opening a bottle of still cider. Very dry. Tasted of cider but not the best. Drinkable with some lemonade added, but too dry.
Tonight wife & I sampled some sparkling cider. Not much of a psssssst out of the bottle, more of a 'st'. Not very active on the sparkling side. Tasted ok, not as harsh as the still. More of a muted flavour.
Over all not the success one had hoped for. This weekend coming I will try a couple more bottles with a mate. Maybe, just maybe.
I reckon I may have received some duff advice from Charlie somewhere along the line. Should've known he'd put me crook.
I made some dry mead years ago. It was kind of nasty at six months. A year later, it was really good. Don't dump those bottles, give 'em some more time and they might surprise you.
Never been a big fan of dry ciders. The dry ones don't remind me of apples at all, at least not in the way a proper Calvados does. Or is the problem one of off-smells? Do you have dusty smelling, foul-tasting acetaldehyde, or the paint-thinner smell of ethyl acetate? If not, I suggest that you save your cider to drink with food. Kräusening your cider may help with the carbonation,
or
For sweet cider, you may need to drink it while it is still fermenting (it seems so innocent) or raise the sweetness of the juice to 32 brix or more. Eighteen per cent alchohol is about as far as yeast can go. Anything over that will be sure to remain in the cider.
In vino veritas, or a very nasty hangover, YMMV ;o)
PS. I'm sure you know that Charlie wouldn't give you dodgy advice. Once he is finished going bush, you can probably expect a damn good hiding;o)
Yeah, well, you ain't gonna get any argyment from me on this one, Rob. My cider tasted not so effing good either after eight months and I got the same "st" from the sparkling. The two gallons I initially took from primary and put in the fridge for a couple of weeks to clarify was much more drinkable and enjoyable than the aged s**te and I didn't have to go thru the whole bottling process. I'm about ready to make another batch of "applejack" as the fall ciders are being pressed hereabouts.
I'm thinking cold crashing and aging in the fridge is as good as it's gonna get, that and raising the initial brix for a sweet "cider".
Well now, I return from walkabout (translate time underlog) and find that cheeky rob slammin' me advice and givin' me grief, though I must admit, my cider tasted like s**te also. What a sad state of affairs, no?
I appreciate your support, old friend and find myself in agreement with your recommendation that one may enjoy it in it's innocence. I found that it tasted much better after a month in primary and then a couple of weeks in the fridge to clarify. What do ya' do, eh?
Where's Bill? I see little happening here or on the other group? Phorbin popped in briefly, as usual, and private Steve was about once...some, uh, new folks and a few of the old new folks.
Strike a light, you went up the booaye for some time there Charlie. Normally you are right on it when someone (often me) slags you.
roftl, maybe we both use the same brewer. When you are done drinking your stuff, let me know n I can ship some more over to you to get through. Bout
60 750 ml bottles in fact.
I have farmed a couple of bottles out to workmates who say they like still cider. Will see how long the 'like' bit lasts. Maybe some refrigeration, another month aging and some hotter weather here (just starting to warm up now) will make the cider taste nicer. End of the month I am interviewing a mate for my radio show. He'll talk me round his permaculure back yard, we'll yarm about US politics and sustainability & then open a couple more bottles of cider to taste. He is a self professed 'cider expert'. I'll see what he makes of it. Might try and capture his comments on tape for the radio.
Charles and Bill, you jokers will enjoy this story.
Its hedge trimming time so today I got the electric trimmer out to give it a sharpen. The blades are damned difficult to sharpen so I took the trimmer apart to sherpen each blade individually. The first I did with a small file. The second I got my tungsten sharpener and just ran it across the teeth, far easier. Anyhow, i tested the teeth for sharpness by accidently catching my thumb on the edge of one tooth. Yep, sliced my thumb open nicely and drew blood. Sharp enough to force me indoors for a plaster. Put the trimmer back together, tested it, ran well, and still had 3 bolts left over. Bonus.
Yeah, mate...that'll teach ya to listen to advice from the likes of me, eh what?
Yeah, well again, I sure was not/am not impressed with the botteld results!
Is your radio show available on the the internets or as podcasts or whatever them things are that you can download and give a listen? Truly, I would like to give a listen to ya live.
highly quality podcasts are available Charlie, mine are also.
formatting link
work your way through the "On demand" button on the left top of the screen. You are looking for Environment Matters in Hamilton.
I do 1 show every month - Brain, Megan and Christine also chip in. I reckon, aheam, my shows are the most interesting and so do many of my listeners like Mum and dad. Theres a lot of local issue stuff whereas some of mine tends to be on a bigger scale with poltical-social & enviroment. Climate change, the global economic crisis, Cuba, enviro economics from a left-green perspective. Amateurish stuff but worthwhile all the same, you get to voice your opinion (something important for me obviously), you learn about your community/are forced to learn about it & meet some interesting people. Take an amount of time however. I recommend it as an outlet for others.
Well, I'll be damned.....add me to Mum and Dad....well done.
Listening to 21-10-09 as I type and I must say, my mental image and my idea of ya' being a knuckledraggin' cider-sot has changed..... .....a bit ;-)
Seriously, good on ya', mate, for the local awareness you are raising and the knowledge of the serious subject at hand which you possess. Keep up the good work, Rob.
Hey, whadda ya' mean, instructing your interviewee to leave off any swear words????
Hey this is good stuff (I can actually understand your speech, like it's sometimes a bit 'o shit understanding your writing....no problems, keeps me on me toes)..... you all talking about gardening being a political activity......and keep eatin' your vegies, mate. ;-)
Later. I'm getting the gear ready to start a batch of applejack....month or so or whatever in primary till the bubblies slow or til I'm thirsty and then into the fridge for clarification. Much more sugar in primary for a sweeter 'jack....to hell with a purist attitude about this......this first go at cider was a bust and I ain't willing to invest this much time and effort into something that tastes much worse after months than it does in it's "innocence".
Hell, man, why drink summat that ya' don't like just 'cuz it "oughta" be right?
Thanks for the mp3 download stuff, adn I'll be checkin' it monthly (for I only found four downloads and only one was yours)....
Jeez mate, sorry for the touchy-feely s**te.......back to our regularly scheduled slaggin' of one another! ;-)
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