| Ref | 2020-08 Orchard Orgy (Pre-Release) | Brewer | Farmer Jim's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Style | Experimental Cider | Type | Cider |
| Started | Thu 27th Aug 20 | Status | Archived, |
| Packaged | Sun 15th Nov 20 | Fermenter | Plastic Bucket |
| Handle | 2020-08 Orchard Orgy (Pre-Release) |
|---|---|
| Brewer | Farmer Jim's |
| Style | Experimental Cider |
| Type | Cider |
| Fermenter | Plastic Bucket |
| Status | Archived, ABV |
| Started | Thu 27th Aug 20 |
| Packaged | Sun 15th Nov 20 |
Like Type 25a I hadn’t realised these were still in the house, so it’s about time they get into cooler temperatures for conditioning. It’s around 3 – 5 ℃ in the garage right now, should help clear up any remaining cloudiness. Speaking of which, these look more or less perfectly clear already – can’t wait to see where we end up when we do our tasting in a couple of weeks.
Bottled this batch today, adding a combination of Xylitol and carbonation drops in order to evaluate and get a feel for what we want to do with the two 25 litre buckets we collected today from the 25 September batch. FG came in at 0.998 (so no change in 2 weeks) and bottle numbers (release candidates) are as follows:
I’m storing these in a brown cardboard box in the server room at between 20 and 22 ℃ until they’re ready for conditioning.
Only bubbling weakly once ever 2 minutes now. SG measured at 0.998 with signs of carbonation making readings difficult and necessitating repeated spins of the hydrometer. According to the ABV calculator we’re looking at around 4.20% now, and since the sample tastes just fine I’m going to bottle this as soon as the SG stabilises – maybe around 4 weeks after secondary (so 15 November) according to this article?
Rate of bubbling has slowed to around one in every 20 seconds since a few days ago, keeping steady. Some small flecks of foam on top, also fairly constant.
Islands of foam have linked up on the surface, bubbling at rate of one every 1-2 seconds. The formation of foam itself appears to be cyclic; 30 minutes after writing the last sentence I happened to notice that the irregular quarter inch deep foam on the surface had receded back to large, shallow islands again. A further 20 minutes later and we’re back to a solid layer of foam, approaching an eighth of an inch in thickness here and there. Weird.
After just 24 hours with more sugar things have kicked off again. Isolated islands of clean, small-bubbled foam have formed on the surface, and the air lock is bubbling once every 5 seconds.
Still bubbling slowly. Decanted into fresh demijohn in order to leave behind some of the sediment, specific gravity measured at 1.006. That’s low enough for bottling, but we decided to improve the already OK taste and give it a chance to make more alcohol by adding 250g of white sugar. (That figure was plucked out of thin air after reading the instructions with the hydrometer properly, in hindsight the 25g was added last week was nowhere near enough)
Bobbling stopped, trying to encourage secondary fermentation by transferring to a fresh demijohn via glass jug and paper coffee filter in funnel to remove sediment. Gravity measured at 1.005. Added 25g brown sugar dissolved in warm water, about half a gram of wine nutrient, and a whole sachet of EC-1118 champagne yeast, first revived in warm water. Lost a little bit from the old demijohn due to sediment and filter issues, maybe just over half a pint. Gravity at the end was around 1.009, started bubbling at a rate of 1 in 25 seconds pretty much as soon as the airlock was on, so hopefully we’ll get a good fermentation. New demijohn now store in Mark’s office, where it’s around 22 degrees.
The heating’s still off in the spare bathroom, and now it’s hovering around 16 ℃ during the day. Bubbling has almost stopped.
The 1 gallon demijohn we took home to Onchan has been bubbling well for a couple of days now. It’s being stored in the spare bathroom (Jac & Jim’s room) with the heating off since it’s warm enough and quite dark in there.
Pressed around 1.5 gallons in Port Erin, approximate specific gravity 1.030. 1 demijohn with Nicky & Mark in Onchan (guest bathroom), one with Jac & Jim in Port Erin.
Not exactly a huge batch, but the rest of the crop isn’t ready yet and we can play round with this in order to get some ideas.
