SC - Apples for Cider

[Stefan li Rous]

Colin asked me: 
> >I wish you luck. While I've never had a mead fail, I've never had
> >a cider work out.
> 
> I'm curious - what didn't work out with your cider?

Well, if totally knew what was wrong I could probably fix it. I haven't
made any brewing for several years.

The first time I tried for cider I started with fresh apples. I don't
have a press, so I put them in the blender with some water. And had
to keep adding water to get them chopped up. It was pretty weak. And
worse it started growing white stuff. Out it went.

The next time I started with apple juice. I was brewing it for an
event several weeks in the future. It looked like it was doing ok,
but got to tasting vinegary. Since I had transferred this into some
Grosch bottles (the ones with the spring-clamp ceramic tops with
red 'O' rings), I put them in the refrigerator to slow/stop the
fermentation. And forgot about them. Several months later I decided
to dump them out into my compost pit and start over. I took the first
bottle out there, and casually, flipped open the top. The top rockets
off the bottle, barely missing my head and there is a four foot 
fountain of foam and apple vinegar coming out of the bottle. I was
much more careful in opening and dumping the remaining three or four
bottles.

Who knows? Perhaps I will try again sometime. The meads were well
liked. Especially the last pair of bottles that I had forgotten about 
for about five or six years. :-)
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****