Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Hi Folks,

Showalter's is starting up their press this week and will be pressing every Monday and Thursday for a while.

I'm planning to go next Monday, the 13th and can pick up juice for anyone who wants some.
It will be a mix of Gala, Cortland, MacIntosh, Honeycrisp & Jonathan - very similar to the mix I got around this time last year, which made great cider
Cost is the same as last year - 2.75/gal for bulk juice and 2.50/gal if we get 100 gallons or more

Please let me know ASAP if you are interested - they dont have a lot of Honeycrisp and Jonathan apples, but Shannon said he would set some aside for me if I let him know how much we wanted (otherwise the rest will get pressed this Thursday). Send me an email at klynch@cstone.net

Same as before, drop the sanitized carboys off with me before 7:30am on Monday morning and I will have them back around noon

I'll be making a run about every 3-4 weeks for the rest of the season

cheers - Kevin

I am definitely interesting in getting some more juice later in the season.  Thanks for organizing this, Kevin.

Hey Kevin,

  I'm using sf-05 yeast in one of my cider batches, How many days should I let it ferment before I check the gravity? also what gravity reading do you recommend to finish semi sweet ?  Also,after cold shocking the yeast, do you go ahead and bottle at that time or do you let it age in a racked carboy a little longer before bottling?
(can you tell this is my first cider batch?  LOL)
My second batch I pitched whitelabs Saison Ale yeast WLP56.  It has not started to push bubbles into my airlock yet and has been 24 hrs. (best before date was Sept 1) If this batched doesn't start soon, what do you reccomend pitching with it?   Thank you for all your help !!

Don,

I am happy to chime in here, though take it with a grain of salt, as this is only my fourth batch of cider.  Last year, I chilled mine when its gravity was 1.000 and it was definitely too dry for my tastes.  This year, I followed Jamey's advice and targeted chilling it down when it got to about 1.010 SG.  My batch hit this mark by about 2.5 days.  I would definitely pull a sample and test it after two days.  Make sure you get as much CO2 out of solution as you can, as the bubbles can stick to the hydrometer and make it read higher than it actually is.

As for cold shocking the yeast, I put the whole carboy in the fridge and let it sit for four days to a week.  Then once the cider appears relatively clear (not crystal, but most of the yeast has dropped out), then rack it to a clean and sanitized vessel, add any priming sugar, and bottle.  Then let it sit out for 2 weeks to a month until it is carbonated.  Then, you should really store ALL of the bottles cold, if you can.  This become more important the sweeter the final cider is, as the yeast will continue to ferment it down if you don't keep it cold.  This leads to exploding bottles.

As for your WLP56, give it another 24 hours and if it has not started fermenting by then, pitch some dry yeast on top of that.

I hope that helps,

Tom

Great !      Thanks for the info !