How'd ya like THEM apples?

[willk]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Crikey! DonegalDan's aged a bit since July, go easy on the lad

Err, my Assistant is called Roy (we call him Roy the Boy)...

...donegaldan is more of a Wingman

[Pikey Dave]

A side of Scotland's finest ready to go in the smoker for about 18 hours. It's just had 12 hours curing in sea salt, brown sugar, orange peel & a wee dram.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

A side of Scotland's finest ready to go in the smoker for about 18 hours. It's just had 12 hours curing in sea salt, brown sugar, orange peel & a wee dram.

Quality!!

[hank]

That looks mighty tasty.
what type of salmon?
we are just finishing with smoking our Coho salmon
smoked Coho and new potatoes -- life is good
we picked another truck load of apples and pressed 30 gallons today
off to pick another old orchard the next sunny day

drying pears in the dehydrator
busy time of year
cheers
hank

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by hank

That looks mighty tasty.
what type of salmon?
we are just finishing with smoking our Coho salmon
smoked Coho and new potatoes -- life is good
we picked another truck load of apples and pressed 30 gallons today
off to pick another old orchard the next sunny day

drying pears in the dehydrator
busy time of year
cheers
hank

It's Scottish Farmed I'm afraid, wild salmon is VERY expensive over here, I can only sell so many kidneys

I've just put 4litres of Sloe gin down, that should be ready for Christmas. Sloes are poor this year due to the cold spring.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

I've just put 4litres of Sloe gin down, that should be ready for Christmas. Sloes are poor this year due to the cold spring.

Put it down where? Kerny mustn't be about - 'cos you could put nothing down...

Sloes had a hard year here too, as did their cousins the plums. I had a modest patch of sloes in the garden which had formed an impenetrable thicket. I removed them this summer, saving only a nicely shaped stem. The "shillelagh" of lore is traditionally made from blackthorn so I might fettle it into something next winter when it has seasoned. You never know when a decent knobkerrie might come in handy!

[Dry Run]

Sloes were poor here as well I'm afraid. However, curiously we had a bumper crop of damsons - so it's "damson gin" this Christmas!!!

[John Kennett]

Have you got any spare damsons? I've been on a mission to find some this year, but without success!

[Boatnomad]

Originally Posted by willk

The "shillelagh" of lore is traditionally made from blackthorn so I might fettle it into something next winter when it has seasoned.

Made a few of those about 30 years ago,nice wood to work with.
Never did take a picture for some reason,always wished i had.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Boatnomad

Never did take a picture for some reason,always wished i had.

Check with John Hinde - he might have taken one for you

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by willk

You never know when a decent knobkerrie might come in handy!

Aye, just right for those occasions when you want to do a touch of light Vigilante-ing

[hank]

we picked the last of our apples yesterday
we made about 70 gallons (long 8 hour day )
then we ran out of our buckets
so we have 2 more pressings
then we will put the "immaculate contraption" away for another year

switching into the potatoes harvesting next
Monday is our Thanksgiving
and I'm thankful
cheers
hank

[willk]

Originally Posted by hank

we picked the last of our apples yesterday
we made about 70 gallons (long 8 hour day )

Kinda nice feeling when it's all done, isn't it!

I hauled the last of mine today - a cool 225kg of Dabinett cider apples. This brings the overall harvest to 464kg, just shy of the half tonne. I'll crush and press them in a week or two and the resulting cider will eventually be blended with the cider from the earlier dessert apples batches that are beginning to clear and settle in my man-cave, the only willkzone with the Goldilocks Temperature of 15C.

You need to blend the cider because the Dabinett apples are Special. They are bitter, astringent, hard to stomach, weezened yokes that improve the bland flavour of the bulk apples. I find "Dabinett" a bit of a tongue twister, so I just call 'em "Mollers"

At the risk of counting my chickens before they're hatched, that lot should translate into 240L of well hard cider

I'll return to this one more time at bottling and conditioning time in the Spring. I'm going to experiment with Pikey Dave's suggestion of the super sized crown caps.

[Erin]

Hmmm, nice curtains in that man cave of yours

Do you rack at any time prior to bottling to get it off the lees?

[willk]

Originally Posted by Erin

Hmmm, nice curtains in that man cave of yours

Do you rack at any time prior to bottling to get it off the lees?

I'm not sure which is more worrying - that I have the curtains or that you like them...

Anyway, as soon as the fermentation slows down (no regular bubbles) and it begins to look less murky I'll rack it off the lees. It will probably liven up for a few days and then settle down and clear - IF I've done my job properly. I might wait 3-4 months before bottling as I like the cider to get a chance at malolactic fermentation as well to take a bit of the bite out of it. I'll know better when I taste it in a couple of weeks...

[Erin]

Interesting. This is my first dabble with cider and I have done the first racking. It now looks pretty stable and starting to clear nicely. I guess I just remove the airlock and put a bung in it and wait a few months. Tasted bearable when I had a sip, so with a bit of natural ethanol it should be good. The OG was about 1045. This MLF thing sounds a bit unpredictable from what I've read.

Do you condition with a spoon of sugar when you bottle?

[willk]

My one attempt with pears had a very quick fermentation and settled and cleared in a very short time - just like yours. It was fairly poor stuff and I didn't bottle it. I'll probably rack that first batch of cider in mid November.

I bottle my cider in champagne bottles with about 6g (a small teaspoonful) of sugar in each. I add a bit of Splenda as well, to sweeten it. This is a rank cheat, but hey If you condition to this extent, you'll need plastic "corks" and wire cages.

If you don't like the perry, leave it in the bottles in a cold dark place for six months and then try it again - it will improve.

EDIT: I'd leave the airlock in the demijohn, IIWY

[Erin]

Haha, we're well past the Perry trial. That ended in tears with a variation on Sarsons. This time with the apples I left nothing to chance and dropped a couple of Campden tablets in a day before the yeast. It's only a demijohn's worth and was left to ferment out for a good 3 or 4 weeks.

I propose using pint bottles with a crown capper so may go easy on the sugar; though they seem to be fine with my ale homebrew but then that's probably a little less feisty than cider.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Erin

I propose using pint bottles with a crown capper so may go easy on the sugar; though they seem to be fine with my ale homebrew but then that's probably a little less feisty than cider.

Ah. I had a feeling the Perry wasn't going to have a happy ending, it's a Dark Art (i.e. I can't make it )

I understand that Champagne can work up about 5 BAR. I double dosed a bottle in error last year and as I took the wire off, the stopper did a cartoon style tour of the kitchen Less sugar, less pressure.

The plastic stoppers and cages are easily bought in small numbers on fleabay. I've sure you could collect a few empty champagne bottles from behind a taxdodgers Summer Resident's house

[Bigmuz7]

looks good .. sounds good .. when will it be ready ?