Managed to go to two cider mills on the way to Frankenmuth and back with the mrs.
On the way up I visited Uncle John’s Fruit house winery and on the way back we stopped at the Country Mill Orchard & Cider .
Uncle John’s was the more commercial of the two and sat up on a hillside with orchards and fields all around. We arrived in the afternoon and after discovering that I had to go into the wine tasting shed to buy the cider I stood for 30 minutes and had a very grumpy woman offer me a sample of their two ciders in a glass that smelled of windex. Might have helped if there had been more than a teaspoon in the glass. Initial reaction: I can’t say either tasted very remarkable. Then I was handed two bottles and rushed out the door. JJ initially reported that there was no actual pies in the pie barn, but we tried again and found that there were pies there, just extremely expensive ones. We bought some ‘baking’ apples and had a glass of hot cider and a cider donut before carrying on to Frankenmuth. Actually we stopped just north of Flint for a night but that’s a Tale for another blog.) Everything else there was nice enough, almost like a carnival atmosphere with the extra things they put on for the children at this time of year, but I have to say my cider tasting tour was not off to a great start. Which was sad because most of the people I’ve contacted or reviews I’ve read rated Uncle John’s as one of the best. They must have had children with them, or they’d tasted a lot more than two tiny tipples of cider.
On the trip back Sunday we made an early stop in Charlotte, Michigan at the Cider Mill farm. This one was’nt as big as Uncle John’s but still looked like a fully functional farm on top the cider business. You see artsy craftsy nicknacks, some items of clothing, and a view into the cider press room. We were too early to buy alcohol, apparently in Michigan you can’t buy it till after noon. And boy did the line build up exactly at 12! They had a very friendly gent behind the counter who gave me samples of all their two ciders and their apple wine. I was doubtful of the cider made with Maple syrup, but I’m a convert now! It tasted exactly like the Gaymer’s gold cider I had in London, and I liked it hands above the cherry based one. The wine was good too and I would have bought that on a wine tasting trip. The bloke behind the counter told me that technically their cider is called wine because it has more than 7% alcohol. This may have been a contributing factor in its like-abliltiy, I’m not sure. 🙂 They also had taps where you could pour your own cider and though I’d brought a 3 gallon water bottle like the one I have underway, it was clear it wasn’t going to fit under the taps. So I just poured three separate gallons and carted them proudly home.
They had a ‘hard cider brewing kit’ on the counter, which consisted of yeast, rubber stopper and airlock. Instructions from a place called ‘red salamander’. Website is here.
Speaking of the batches I have underway, the ‘cheap stuff’ which will hereafter be known as “tcs” has slowed to a bubble every second or so, and is in need of racking off for the second fermentation. The first 3 gallons wate rbottle of cider, hereafter known as the October batch or “TOB” still isn’t showing much activity. I expected primary fermentation to start by now if not finished. I did some research on it, and it could be that its cooler or doesn’t have enough sugar or could be ‘off.’ I took a whiff of it and it doesn’t smell bad, still smells slightly yeasty as it did on day one. I could either use some of the TCS to boost it, buy another bottle of apple juice and let that add to the overall sugar content, or get about a half cup of sugar and dissolve it into the batch. I’m tempted to try honey or even syrup now, and it was kinda in the back of my mind that come sampling time I’d add something to sweeten it up if it tasted too harsh in the intermediary stage. SOME of the instructions I read said to add dextrose to the fermentation, some didn’t. Looks like now I probably should have. I expected results similar to that I got with TCS but that stuff must have a higher sugar content.
I’m learning, and tomorrow I’ll start the november batch or “TNB” as well as sort out TOB, which isn’t yet a lost cause.