Fall 2007 Batch #2, Pine Hill Orchard Redfield Blend, Montpellier yeast

Blend Notes

Purchased juice on 11/03/2007 in Franklin County at Pine Hill Orchards. Ciderday weekend, though we didn't attend the festivities this year. $42.50 for two full 5-gallon carboys and an extra gallon (of the Roxbury Blend) to fill out any other local blends (Carlson's) we make this year. Comes out to $3.86/gallon, which is a little pricier than years past, especially compared to the $2.50/gallon price at Carlson's. Still, interesting blends this year.
The "Redfield Blend" was:

• Redfield 30% (NY apple, red juice, very sharp and somewhat bitter)
• Suncrisp 30% (sweet yet mildly subacid/intense)
• Baldwin 10% (Massachusetts apple, good cider blend, medium acid, medium sugar)
• Northern Spy 10% (medium to high acid, aromatic, subacid flavor)
• Spitzenberg 10% (old NY apple, Jefferson's favorite, dessert apple, aromatic and acidic)
• Dabinett 10% (english cider apple, sweet and full bodied - bittersweet)

Amount:	5 gallons
Specific Gravity (original):	1.048
% Sugar:	?
Potential Alcohol (original):	6.1%
PH:	?
Specific Gravity (post-sugar):	1.0661
Potential Alcohol (post-sugar, dry ferment):	8.7%

Additives

11/3/07:
60ppm SO2 (10 Campden tablets, based on 30ppm/gal/tab noted on the bottle)
11/11/07:
2 packs of yeast Lalvin K1 yeast, prepared as written on the back of the package (2 oz warm water, let sit for 15 minutes, dump into juice)
1 lb 9.5oz Honey (from Dawn's parents' friend Charlie Brown) (+8.5 SG)
24 oz organic cane sugar from Shaw's (+9.6 GS)
NO tannin powder

Notes

11/2/07: Cleaned two carboys with BT. Much easier/faster/less-smelly than bleach. Let drain and topped 'em with saran.

11/3/07: Drove out to Pine Hill in the morning. Seemed to have plenty still at 9:30am. More complex blends this time. Put the 5-gal carboys in milk crates again and it worked well. Brought saran to re-apply tops...also a good plan. Blue milkcrate.
Stopped by Homebrew Emporium on the way home to grab yeast. Trying a new kind this time.

11/11/07: Cleaned up top of carboy which got some weird white fuzz, maybe from SO2, maybe from yeast, maybe from The Evil. Hopefully it'll be ok. This batch sat next to the island for a week, getting a little sun from time to time. Hopefully they're ok.
Added honey, sugar, and yeast. Stirred it up, wrapped a towel around the neck, placed saran over the top, and put it downstairs.

November '09: This was racked off around when I got the kegs and has been sitting, sealed, in a clean glass carboy since. It looks ok but I haven't tried it or done anything with it. Considering kegging or bottling soon.

12/1/09: Kegged it. Some sediment in the bottom of the carboy got sucked up into the keg, as I didn't put cheesecloth over the end. Hopefully it'll settle over a few days and come out in the first few pours. I'm not artificially carbonating this one.

10/31/10: The keg is kicked. We've got about 3 more glasses left in the fridge now. For whatever reason, the very end of this was really quite good. Age really helped this cider.

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