Recap

It has been awhile since i have written anything so ill give a recap of what Mike Webster (http://hudsonvalleyfoodiefun.blogspot.com/) and i do on the weekends.

We pressed apples back in February and we let them ferment into vinegar. We had a few bottles that were a little watery and we had two other bottles that were amazing. One was more apple in taste and the other vinegar so we are going to marry the bottles for one very good bottle of homemade apple vinegar.

I remember when Mike called me up and said i have 5 gallons of milk we are going to make cheese and other goodies from it. So a 5 gallon bag was sitting in the fridge Hudson Valley Fresh. Its amazing milk. So we made farmers cheese and buttermilk and infused the cheese with herbs and spices. Making your own cheese is amazing and pretty easy.

We also have been using the smoker a lot more lately and it has produced some wonderful results.

We also visited the first distillery opened in New York since prohibition Tuthilltown.

Thank you Gable and Cathy, and Tuthilltown.

After we left Tuthilltown we headed back to Mikes house to start pressing apples so we can make hard sparkling apple cider. I wrote a blog but did not have any pics so im not going to write just show the pics.

We have a few other projects that are in the works and the Sparkling apple cider will not be done until around april when i graduate the BPS program from the CIA. I hope this will inspire someone to make your own products from start to finish because we have a lot of fun doing it.

Hard Sparkling Apple Cider

First thing is first...OH HELL YEA!!!! Local Hudson Apples pressed and fermented by the team of Brandon, Mike, Forest, Andrew, and Elizabeth. The Apples were sourced from Red Barn in New Paltz thanks to Mike, who knows Bill through his job as a food and production manager at Vassar college. The apples are Romes 120 US Fancy grown by Klein Kill Fruit Farms Germantown, NY for 13 dollars a case. We got 3 cases for $39 and we also got a personal tour of the production facility which was started by a guy named Kevin who is bringing not only local farms but also the home gardner to one source for local produce. It helps support the local farmer by providing an additional source of income besides the farmers market, it also helps the local community by helping educate them about our food chain as well as help the environment by not leaving a large carbon footprint. From just returning from California on my Food and Wines Seminar through my school we toured places just like Red Barn but the one thing that was different about Red Barn was their ripening room and the fact that a home garden grower could sell produce to them and Red Barn will split a case of product or produce up if they want that. Many larger companies like Sysco or Ben E Keith will not do that for an order so the restaurant that only needs half a case buys a case because they will not break the case and the restaurant has to throw away half a case which equals money. Joined to the Red Barn was Pantano's Wine Grapes store who had the champagne yeast, the capper, and 100 caps available to us. The yeast is Red Star Pasteur Champagne Active Dry Wine Yeast 5 grams usable for 5 gallons. Which when all said and done we got 5 gallons from 2.75 cases. The store was like heaven because they had everything you needed from start to finish making your own wine, beer, and liquor. I mean everything from the grape crusher, the grain mill grinder, and even a pot distill and barrels to go with it. You can even buy your own local grapes which i thought was very cool. After this we went to a distillery that was close by that Mike was neighbors with he lived in New Paltz (ill have a separate blog post about this).

The first case we learned what we should of been looking for and how the flow was going to go. Ill break down the process in a few categories including: buying, sanitation, production, processing, bottling, and other. I am also going to ask questions along the way so feel free to respond and answer the questions.

Buying: Apples Romes 120 US Fancy grown by Klein Kill Fruit Farms Germantown, NY

The apples that we got seemed mealy and had a thick skin. It produced a beautiful rose juice it also tasted amazing.

What apples would be the best for cider.

Sanitation: We made a bleach solution and sanitized everything that we were going to use and the area we were going to work in. I also put about 1 oz of bleach in the 5 gallon bucket and washed it out.

Is that the right ratio of bleach to water for the gallon bucket.

P & P: We cut everything into 6ths and cut 1 flat in a case at a time so that the apples would not oxidize. We did not core them and we did not take the stem off either. The juicer worked best when only a few were put in and it was cleaned every third of a flat or less. We put the pressed juice in a pitcher and strained off the foam that was on top and then strained it through a chinoise into the 5 gallon bucket. We also put some water and the juice in with the packet of yeast to activate the yeast before we put it in the bucket.

Should we of pealed the apples first of kept it on.

Should we of cored the apples or does it not matter

Should we of removed the stem of does it not matter

Should we of kept the foam or not. Can we do anything with the foam.

How fine do we want to strain the juice

We had to keep up with cleaning or we did not see a good yield from our apples or case for that matter but what could we do to increase production lower labor and increase yield.

When do we need to add the yeast and does it matter how much liquid we have when activating it.

What kind of fermentation would work best for us. Open air or bottle and if bottle how full do we have to fill the bucket up (to the brim or with breathing room)

Should we leave the foam in the mix or not

Other: The other thoughts that i have are

How much do we need for a last dosage

Do we do the dosage in the bottle or bulk

What works best for us right now

Can we riddle or do we just cut the loss and have dead yeast in the bottle

Will the caps hold the pressure we are adding

How many bottles do we need for the 5 gallons

Do we filter before we bottle. is it worth it will we lose flavor.

What else can we do with the fermenting juice. Ice cider, dry, brut, extra brut, sweet, semi- sweet,

Names: Brandon and Mike's Dick~n~Cider was what i thought before we added people to the group.

How long do we do the first fermentation and the second.

What's best to store the bottles during the second fermentation

Will the cold slow the fermentation down we do live in New York

It was a fun day and we still have a lot to do so i would love to hear what you have to say and what you think.

just to start.

Just as a little background... i never had any passion for food growing up because i was too involved with sports and school and life to care about food. Now that sports are out of my life i had to figure out what i was good at and what i liked to do for a living. I found that in food because there is a little bit of everything in cooking and food because everyone has to eat. Filling the void of baseball, i take on projects with my friends, mainly Mike Webster, to create what we take advantage of everyday and i bet you don't even realize it. When was the last time you made or thought about how to make cheese, vinegar, bitters, liquor, beer, vegetables, fruits, soy sauce, the list is endless and i want to make them all. We have made apple vinegar, cheese, and we just started the process for hard sparkling apple cider. (I will write about those in detail later). I love the life i have and i know it will only continue to get better. Many adventures have come and gone and many friends have come and gone and looking back i would not change anything. Many adventures still wait around the corner and many new friends and crazy people to meet and situations to find myself in. I love to travel and i love trying new things and experiencing many activities or foods that most people have not of experienced. This is just a way for me to keep track of my little projects and for the people i know to help me grow with new and better ways to accomplish my goals.