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.