The more I thought about it the more I couldn’t’ remember if I’d actually put honey in the Batch A bottles like I mentioned in a previous posting. So yesterday I grabbed one of the bottles — a 3/4 full amber colored PET bottle that said Pepsi Max on it and cracked it open.
OH man was it dry! There wasn’t a drop of honey left in that bottle. So I had to open the other 10 bottles some of which were like champange on the inside and add a 1/2 teaspoon of honey to them. Man am I glad I bought those dark blue bottles! The pet bottle held up well too, and can be used as an alternate if good bottles aren’t available.
If you’re doing the math you realize there’s one bottle not accounted for. Well after openning about 6 bottles and having them make a loud pop and spew white foam down the side, I open a bottle and nothing happens. UH OH, ones gone flat or bacteria have gotten at it. Nope, neither of those… a clear unfizzy liquid was in the bottle. I poured some out into a small glass and looked at it. IT was the sterilizing solution I use to clean the bottles. I must have missed filling it with cider! Glad I didn’t send that somewhere to be judged!
The Mrs. and I went to Christmas tree shop and I saw a tall thick walled bottle stamped ‘best milk’ or something like that and I thought I’d give it a try. I shouldn’t have the same problem with still cider as before so I am kicking myself for donating away most of those bottles I had from before. I’ll stop by the basement sometime this week and take pictures.
If I had to drink either of the batches today, Batch A would be the best of the lot, though a couple more weeks will bring round the rest. I’m worried that Batch A in the fridge won’t have matured any further though it had a light bubbly nature to it when I tapped out a bit, which is about where it should be for a Still cider. I think I’ll try a sample bottle around June 7th and decide if its ready to be consumed or if I should let it mature for another month. Fourth of July is a good weekend to drink cider!
Final note: Since I have two batches underway totaling 22 bottles and roughly 1 1/2 gallons in the fridge I won’t be able to start another batch till I’ve ahem! Emptied about half of them. Oh the trials we go thru for our art!
Coding for the rest of us: Why you should learn, and how to get started
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/coding-for-the-rest-of-us-why-you-should-learn-and-how-to-get-started/
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/coding-for-the-rest-of-us-why-you-should-learn-and-how-to-get-started/
http://virtuecider.com
Last night I had a small taste of the two March batches. There was surprisingly little difference in taste between Batch A which has been in the fridge since it was bottled in March, and Batch B which has been in the second fermentation bottle during the same amount of time. Batch A was cloudly, and Batch B was ‘flatter’ though I expect both batches to have little or no fizz because they’re ‘still cider’ batches. I suppose there’s a third batch which is the 10 or so bottles of Batch A I put in the basement after about a month. Those should have fizz from the tablespoon of honey I added when I bottled them. I’ll call them Batch C though they are actually a subset of Batch A. Follow all that??
Anyway…
Since Friday would have been the end of the second month since bottling I took today to bottle up Batch B and add 1 tablespoon (aprox. 15ml) of honey to each. I use a measuring spoon and a funnel but its still a bit messier than I’d like it to be and the bottles are filling up before I can get a tablespoon of honey into the next bottle. I will have to think about how to ‘prep’ the bottles before adding the cider because its quite a complicated dance to keep the cider flowing thru the siphon which takes two hands to start, then squeeze out a tablespoon of honey and tip that into a funnel while keeping an eye on the first bottle so it doesn’t overflow. I tried microwaving the bottle of honey so it would flow better but I just scalded my hands and after the third bottle it was back to room temp anyway.
Oh well, I will think upon it and try something else, maybe go to Demerara sugar though I do like the subtle taste of honey…then I’d have the problem of getting it ground fine enough…
So set your cider clocks for June 15th my friends, I’ll have twenty plus bottles of cider ready for tasting.
I’m thinking I might have to educate some palates in that tasting. I’ve been collecting various ciders from Martins and I can do a little taste test around that date. I am picturing a blind test of my cider against 4 commercial brands. Five if they bring back Original Sin; it was pulled from the shelf last I looked. If I win then I’ve got the process down enough to lock it in, if I lose I’ll know what people want it to taste like and tweak in that direction.
I wonder who I can get to come over and taste it though… I wonder…
