Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Step 11: Finishing the wine: Disgorging and addition of dosage

To day I finished all the modern sparkling apple wine by disgorging and addition of dosage and sulfur. Dosage was added to adjust the sugar level to 13 g/L. 50 ppm sulfur was added. Watch me disgorge here (YouTube).





Monday, May 6, 2013

Sparkling Apple Wine on Danish Apple Varieties

It has been quite here for the last month. I have been working hard to finish my thesis on sparkling apple wine. It's done now. Last friday it was done and signed.

Interested? Read the whole thesis here...

Monday, March 25, 2013

Step 10: Riddling

10 days before disgorging I started riddling. I hope that I will be able to remove all the yeast in only 10 days. If not I have to continuous. However, in order for my experiments to make sense I have to take out sample on day 66 (66 days of bottle fermentation) in order to be able to compare with the traditional ciders.

Here are some shoots from the riddling process.







Thursday, March 21, 2013

Step 9: Bottling of Modern Cider

The idea of the modern approach to cider making was to do a secondary alcoholic bottle fermentation in the bottle following the making of a dry base apple wine. From this I will make a wine higher in alcohol and with more fizz. Beside this I have the idea that the autolysis of yeast will contribute to the overall flavor of the wine.

The modern cider was to be bottled when all sugar was fermented and the wine was dry. When bottled the SG was below 0 g/cm3. Ildrød Pigeon was very slow fermenting and has therefore not been bottled yet. However all other cider was bottled and added yeast and sugar. Sugar is important to allow the secondary fermentation to go on. I added 15 g/L in form of white table sucrose sugar. The yeast was the same Saccharomyces bayanus as used for the alcoholic fermentation.

For some of the ciders (AB-M, IM-M and SVA-M) I divided them in to two groups, to investigate the importance of nutrient level. Group 1 was only added yeast and sugar (as describes above) and group 2 was furthermore added Brillant flüssig, Tannin flüssig and Vitamon Ultra.

The bottles was closed with crown caps and laid down for secondary fermentation. I will take out samples on day 14, 35 and 66.





Calculations

Group 1:
Sugar are weighted on scale and added to the bottles (each bottle). 15 g/L x 0,375 L (the bottles used) = 5,6 g sugar.

Yeast: Calculations: 4 g yeast / 10 L wine = 0,4 g / 1 L. One bottle is 0,375 L = 0,4 g/L / 2,67 bottles per L wine = 0,15 g yeast per bottle. The solution is added to the bottles. 1 mL per bottle. So 1 mL should contain 0,15 g yeast. Therefore 15 g yeast should be added to the 0,1 L water and this solution is added as 1 mL to the cider.

Group 2:
Sugar and yeast as above.

Brillant flüssig. Calculations: 70 mL / 100 L wine = 0,7 mL / L wine = 0,26 mL per small (0,375 L) bottle of wine = 0,26 x 1000 = 260 microliter per bottle wine (added with automat pipet).

Tannin flüssig are added after Brillant flüssig. Calculations: 60 mL / 100 L wine = 0,6 mL / L wine = 0,23 mL per small (0,375 L) bottle of wine = 0,23 x 1000 = 230 microliter per bottle of wine (added with automat pipet).

Vitamon Ultra is a powder. Calculation: 60 g/100 L = 0,6 g / L wine. When small bottles 0,6 g / 2,67 = 0,22 g per small bottle. The powder is weightet and added directly to the bottles.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Step 9: Bottling of Traditional Cider

All ciders were monitored by density and brix value. In my good old cider handbook I found that bottling cider with a density between 1020-1018 would give a sweet cider, 1019-1015 a normal sparkling cider and 1013-1010 a light sparkling cider. From this I decided to bottle when the cider was at 1015 g/cm3. However, I only managed to do this for some of the ciders. The ciders was bottled at:

Ingrid Marie: 1017
Ildrød Pigeon: 1019
Dronning Louise: 1001
Sukkeræble fra Vaalse and Søde æbler fra Aalsrode: 0,9989
Aston Brown Jeresy: 1016

Dronning Luise and Sukkeræble fra Vaalse and Søde æbler fra Aalsrode fermented so fast that I didn’t managed to bottle it before it was to late.

The ciders was bottled in 0,375 L bottles and closed with crown cap, laid down in plastic boxes for further fermentation.



Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Producer: Kristoffer Møller @ Horn Cider

Horn Cider in central Jutland was the last stop on my way drive through Jutland. Horn Cider was founded by Kristoffer Møller in 2006 after he attended a how-to-do cider course at with Jens from Cold Hand Winery. Since then Kristoffers production has grown and today he sells all his ciders to restaurants and deli shops in Jutland.

Horn Cider produces two different ciders. One bottled with residual sugar and allowed to ferment and build up pressure in the bottle. So as known from traditional French cider. However Kristoffer uses Danish apples. The other cider is fermented to dryness, then bottled and added sugar and yeast and allowed to ferment for a second time in the bottles. Both ciders are riddled and disgorged.

What make Kristoffers ciders special is that he use honey instead of yeast for inoculation. Kristoffer told me that he was working together with some scientists to figure out what yeasts the honey introduced and what happened during the fermentation. I’m really looking forward to hear more about these results…





Monday, March 11, 2013

The Producer: Jens Skovgaard @ Cold Hand Winery

I met Jens Skovgaard the first time last summer at Food Festival in Aarhus. Jens was busy serving wine and talking to potential customers. The energy level was so high that all attention was drawn to him. Jens was so busy that I never got to talk to him in-depth about his production. Visiting Cold Hand Winery was therefore obvious, and I did so on my Jutland-drive some weeks ago.

It all started with a dream for making ice cider (frozen-thawed-fermented apple must) in Denmark. Never ever seen before here in this country. He manages and since then the portfolio has expanded also to include sparkling apple wines, sparkling strawberry wine, sparkling raspberry wine, distilled spirits, fortified wines, and much more. Cold Hand Winery is by far the most innovative winery in Denmark.

The day I visited Jens he prepared digorging his pine wine (sparkling apple wine infused with pine).

I was there because of my interest in sparkling apple wine. Jens’ approach is very much similar to the way of making Champagne. However, the main difference is that Jens freeze-concentrate the must to enhance the sugar and acid concentration. The must is then fermented to complete dryness, secondary fermented in bottle with yeast, sugar and nutrients, disgorged and added dosage. And you can guess that the dosage is not ordinary. Jens experiment with dosages made from must of darker berries.

To get it all going Jens teamed up with Flemming one of Denmark’s biggest apple growers. In total 47 hectares of apples!






Stay updated on the winery. They seem to come up with new and exciting brews!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

On the Cider Making Team

Until last Tuesday I was not sure whether or not to start my own production of cider. But after my road trip through Jutland, visiting producers, the beauty of making apple wine amazed me. All winemakers were so passionate about the process and their wine.

There is no doubt. I want to be a part of this team. Therefore I decided to open up my own production of sparkling Danish apple wine.

This decision leaves me with lots of questions: What apples should I use? Where do I find money for equipment and production facilities? Does anyone want to buy this product when it is done? How should I produce it? Brand name? Communication and marketing? …

So these days I try to work a lot of these questions out. Hopefully I will be able to start up during this autumn.

I you're a interested in funding a project like this, or know some one, please let me know...

Stay tuned @ jacobdamgaard.tumblr.com and sign up @ jakse.dk

Monday, March 4, 2013

The Producer: Sven Moesgaard @ Skærsøgaard Vin

Last week I went on a road trip to visit Danish cider / apple wine producers in Jutland. The first stop on my way was Skærsøgaard Vin. The winery is located only a short drive from Kolding. This is the closet you get to a “real” wine estate in Denmark. 15.000 wine plants and a winery packed with the newest equipment. There is no doubt that Sven – the founder and owner – is passionate about this project. Svens place is like heaven for a real wine geek.

I stopped by Skærsøgaard for a talk on apple wine, as Sven do Danish cider on Danish apple varieties. However cider is not his only product. His portfolio counts a broad selection of red and white wines, sparkling wines, fortified wines and distilled and aged spirits.

Sven talked me through his production and thoughts on cider as we walked through his fascinating winery.


Sven do two different wines on apples. However the only thing that differentiates the two wines from each other is the dosage, where he use either his fortified apple wine (æbleau) or his fortified black currant wine (crème). The production of the wine is as close to the traditional way of making Champagne as we get. Must of Danish apples are fermented to total dryness using Saccharomyces bayanus, allowed to stabilize and clarify for rather long time at low temperature, bottled with sugar, nutrients and Saccharomyces bayanus and allowed to ferment and mature in bottle. The wine is then riddled, disgorged and added dosage. This gives a sparkling, light aromatic apple wine. And I really like it!






No doubt that Svens passion is more than a hobby. I had a great time visiting the winery, tasting the wines and disusing interesting aspects on Danish cider.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Step 8: Alcoholic Fermentation

To ensure a controlled fermentation yeast was added to all the wines. I used Saccharomyces bayanus, 2 g/10 L. During the fermentation I monitored the change in density and brix. Samples was taken out and freezed down for analysis of sugars, acids and nutrient composition. These results will be uploaded when the analysis are done.

The following figures illustrate the change in density and brix for modern and traditional cider.

Change in brix during alcoholic fermentation for traditional ciders

Change in brix during alcoholic fermentation for modern ciders

Change in density during alcoholic fermentation for traditional ciders

Change in density during alcoholic fermentation for modern ciders

Abbreviations:
Ingrid Marie: IM
Ildrød Pigoen: IP
Dronning Louise: DL
Sukkeræble fra Vaalse + Søde æbler fra Aalsrode: SVA
Aston Brown Jesey: AB
Modern approach: M
Traditional approach: T

Monday, February 25, 2013

The Producer: Kim Johansen @ Pomona

I met with Kim at his office located in historical surroundings at the old Carlsberg area here in Copenhagen. Until 2008 millions of beers was brewed here every year. The location is no coincides, cause Kim knows beer. As a teacher at the Scandinavian School of Brewing is teach the magical processes of brewing.

Beside his profession as teacher Kim brew cider on license. Why do a man with so much knowledge in beer brew cider?

Kim was inspired to do cider after a trip to Somerset in England. After some years as garage brewer Kim teamed up with a big apple must factory to do cider.  In 2002 he launched his first cider named Pomona.

Kim way of making cider is far away from what’s seen elsewhere. The apples come from orchards around Fyn and from locals garden (they trade 4 kg of apples for 1 liter of must). After pressing the must is pasteurized. Sugar is added to the must together with a secret yeast strain that Kim chose himself. After fermentation Kim added lactic acid bacteria that convert the sharp malic acid into the weaker acid lactic acid. Kim does this to give his cider a more pleasant acidity. Finally unfermented pasteurized apple must is added to the cider and it is then filtered, added carbon dioxide, bottled and pasteurized.

Kims way of making cider is quite unique and very different from the French approach that most of the Danish brewers follows.

Read more about Pomona cider @ http://www.pomona.dk/English.htm

Some years ago Kim did an article on how to brew cider after a field trip around Europe. Download it here for free.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Producer: Kai Winter @ Kernegaarden

I’ve mentioned Kai earlier on this blog. He was the first that introduced me to “real” cider. Since our first meeting Kai and I have done different project together and discussed the aspects of being a small producer in Denmark. Unfortunately we never discussed his cider production in details. So last week Kai came by Copenhagen for a talk about cider.

Mapping Kais cider production and tasting different ciders.

Here are some of my notes from the meeting.

Kai started producing cider at Fejø in collaboration with some other guys, including Jeppe from Fejø Cider (read more about Jeppe here). Today Kai operate on his own from his small farm Kernegaarden.

His approach to cider is French. The cider is produced from French cider apple varieties that grow in small orchards around the island. Kai buy the apples from the growers and produce cider from these. Kai produce two different ciders, a traditional semi dry cider and “summer cider”.

The production the traditional semi dry cider is very simple and as natural as possible: The apples are matured in plastic nets, then milled, pressed and clarified by Keeving. The cider is racked and allowed to ferment spontaneously for up to 3 months at low temperature. The cider is then filtered, bottled and matured for 2-3 months before sale. This gives a rich and aromatic Danish-French cider.

The “summer cider” varies from the traditional in the duration of fermentation. The summer cider is allowed to ferment longer. After the fermentation the cider is filtered, bottled and added carbon dioxide and is then pasteurized.

I went to visit Kernegaarden a couple of times. Here are some of my shoots from the visit.

Kai in a talk @ Torvehallerne, Copenhagen

Maturation of cider apples

The shop @ Kernegaarden, Fejø

Wooden barrels outside the winery




Monday, February 18, 2013

Step 7: Clarification of Modern Cider

For the modern cider we want to make a dry base wine (base cider) with no residual sugar – as known from the production of Champagne and other sparkling wines. Due to the addition of pectinolytic enzymes pectin is broken down and the must is therefore not able to form the pectin gel. Nutrients are therefore not removed – and the wine is able to ferment to total dryness.

Therefore this wine was clarified by cold stabilization. After 4 days in cold storage the wine was racked and prepared for fermentation.

Cold stabilization

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Step 7: Clarification of Traditional Cider

Clarification is traditionally done by Keeving. Some say that this is where you – to some degree – make the cider. Pectin is de-esterified by pectin methyl esterase (PME) enzymes and this allows the pectin to form a gel when calcium ions are present. Both pectin, PME and calcium ions are natural occurring in apple must. However in some modern cider production they are added to ensure the gel formation. In my experiments I added both PME as NovoShape ® and calcium chloride.

Why is Keeving important?

Impurities are entrapped in the gel and the wine is therefore clarified. But Keeving is more than this. Beside impurities the pectin gel entrap important nutrient. When nutrients are removed from the must fermentation will naturally stop (or slow down) and leave a wine with a natural sweetness. So Keeving is also a way to control fermentation.



Monday, February 11, 2013

The Producer: Jeppe Gents @ Fejø Cider

Last week I met with Jeppe for coffee (cortado for Jeppe and a large americano for me) for a talk about his cider production at Fejø. Jeppe was very interested in my project on Danish cider – but laughed a bit about my approach. As Jeppe said “what you are doing is apple wine – not cider” and I guess apple wine is bad when comparison.

Here are some notes from the meeting.

Jeppe and his wife (the manager of the firm) was some of the first to produce cider here in Denmark. They used to have an apple orchard at Femø with Danish varieties but decided to plant a new orchard with cider apple trees on Fejø. Femø and Fejø are both small islands in the southern part of Denmark – very close to each other.

What they planted was mainly French cider and juice varieties as Douce Moen, Douce Coet Ligne, Avrolles, Kermerrien, Bedan, Bisquet, Friquin rouge, Judeline and Judaine.

Fejø cider is a natural cider. Organic grown apples. No additives. No sulfur. No yeast. No nothing – just pure cider apples grown in Danish soil.

Fejø cider is French cider in Denmark. A rich and balanced cider. Golden and very drinkable. Jeppe emphasized vintage 2011 as one of the best!

All work takes place at Fejø. The apples are harvested in the beginning of November, matured in big wooden boxes until milling and pressing. Jeppe don’t do maceration. The must is allowed to form brown hat and is then racked and fermented at low temperature in big plastic boxes and stainless steel tanks for up to three months. The cider is then filtered (not always), bottled and matured.

Jeppes cider sells on restaurants and bars around Denmark and at Systembolaget in Sweden – and I think Jeppe said Norway as well. Try it.

Sorry – but no pics yet. See and read more @ www.fejoecider.dk (in Danish).

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Danish Cider Producers

A very important part of this project is to get a better understanding of how cider is produced in Denmark by now: Who are the producers? Why do they start producing cider? How do they do it and why this way? How do they see Danish cider in 10 years from now?

In order to get all these questions answered I decided to visit them all. So these days I’m kind of a logistic manager trying to work out when and where to visit them.

Doing my research I found the following producers in Denmark (do you know more than these then email me).

Kernegaarden
Fejø Cider
Pomona Cider
Meyer Food
Bryghuset Braunstein
Cold Hand Winery
Skærsøgaard Vin
Horn Cider
Bornholms Mosteri
Årstiderne (planning to do cider in the future)

I will post more about my visits in the future. So stay tuned here at the blog.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Step 6: Pressing

After 24 hours of maceration the pulp was ready to press. It was obvious that browning reactions had taking place. However in the middle of the pulp – with little or no oxygen exposure – the pulp was still light and not oxidized. The must extraction varied much among the apple varieties.

For the pressing I used a hydropress. The must was collected in glass balloons and prepared for clarification.

Pressing of pulp with hydropress

Friday, February 1, 2013

Step 5: Maceration

Maceration of pulp at 15 C

The milling process break down the apple into small pieces and enhance the surface area. The interior of fruity flesh is now exposed to the real world consisting of potent reactants as oxygen and light. Enzymatic reactions as browning and other oxidative processes will now take place – and this happens fast. The process where apple pulp is left over time in contact with oxygen is called maceration.

I asked my good old friend Kai what he does in his production at Kernegaarden. Kai mill the apples and leave them for a couple of hours before pressing. According to my good old book “The Principles and Practice of Cider-Making” the maceration should last for 24 hours. So what to do?

I guess the maceration process is about extraction of aroma compounds and pectin. Pectin is important in the traditional cider making process as this, in the presence of calcium ions, form a jellylike network (the brown hat) wherein important nutrients are entrapped. As nutrients are removed from the must yeast are not able to metabolize all the sugar and this result in a cider with a natural sugar content.

For my experiments I decided to macerate for 24 hours. To the modern ciders I added pectinolytic enzymes (polygalacturonases and pectine methyl esterases). This enhances the extraction of juice and nutrients as well as breaking down the pectin. Do to this the modern ciders are not able to form a hat and the must will therefore ferment to dryness.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Step 4: Milling

All apples were milled and then transferred to 30 L plastic buckets for maceration.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Step 3: Washing


All apples were washed in cold water to remove any dirt from the orchard and storage.

Washing of the apples

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Step 2: Final Maturation



The apples were stored in cold storage until use. To ensure that the apple was matured they were taken out of cold storage some days before use. Apples are climateric fruits and are therefore able to ripe after harvest. A final maturation ensures a breakdown of unfermentable starch to fermentabale sugars. The main sugars in apples are glucose, fructose and sucrose.

Before start of cider making total sugar (as brix %), pH and titratable acid was measured.


Brix, total sugar (%)
pH
Titratable acid (%)
Ingrid Marie
15,9 (SD 3,1)
3,36 (SD 0,02)
0,59
Ildrød Pigeon
12,2 (SD 0,3)
3,25 (SD 0,03)
0,68
Dronning Louise
13,7 (SD 0,1)
3,46 (SD 0,01)
0,59
Sukkeræble fra Vaalse
11,2 (SD 0,1)
3,28 (SD 0,03)
0,58 (SD 0,0058)
Søde æbler fra Aalsrode
11,5 (SD 0,1)
4,31 (SD 0,03)
0,14
Aston Brown Jersey
13,5 (SD 0,1)
4,47 (SD 0,02)
0,10

Monday, January 14, 2013

Step 1: Harvest



Without apples there would be no cider. Apples are the one and only ingredient and the quality are therefore highly important as it is reflected in the final wine. Optimal management of the orchard ensures this. However this project focuses only on the enology part and viticulture would therefore not be discussed in details.

250 Danish apples varieties are available at Pometet (the national Danish collection of apples) were I do my studies. The harvest was done before I started my project and I was therefore not able to define on my own what apples to use. Among the harvested apples I decided to work with Ingrid Marie, Ildrød Pigeon, Dronning Louise (Queen Luoise), sukkeræble fra Vaalse (sugar apple from Vaalse) and det søde æble fra Aalsrode (the sweet apple from Aalsrode). Furthermore I added Aston Brown Jersey as a cider reference apple for my experiments. All apples would be described in more details later on.

I will therefore work with the following batches:
  • Ingrid Marie, traditional approach
  • Ingrid Marie, modern approach
  • Ildrød Pigeon, traditional approach
  • Ildrød Pigeon, modern approach
  • Dronning Louise, traditional approach
  • Dronning Louise, modern approach
  • Sukkeræble fra Vaalse mixed with søde æbler fra Aalsrode, traditional approach
  • Sukkeræble fra Vaalse mixed with søde æbler fra Aalsrode, modern approach
  • Aston Brown Jersey, traditional approach
  • Aston Brown Jersey, modern approach

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Cold Hand Winery - a Passion for Fruit and Wine

Check out this video with Jens. It was shoot at the Danish Cider Forum meeting in October. Jens from Cold Hand Winery is talking about his passion for fruit wine and Danish cider. Read more about Jens at www.coldhandwinery.dk.


Good job Jens!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Experimental Design: How to Make Cider?


Denmark has no cultural understanding or approach to cider making so let us define on our own how to make cider.

Traditionally cider is produced by fermentation of a nutrient poor apple must. The poorness is do to the clarifying process step known as Keeving where nutrients are trapped in a pectin gel and removed from the juice. Without nutrients yeasts will to ferment and this results in a cider with a residual of sugar. This technique has been practiced for centuries in cider producing countries as France and England. So should we just stop here and implement this technique in Danish cider making as well? No. The traditional approach to winemaking is radically different from the modern wine industry: Here wines are produced under optimal conditions regarding nutrition’s, temperature, time, and so on.

There is a clash between these two techniques. So how to produce Danish cider? What is the most optimal for our varieties? During my experiments I will challenge the way to make cider and therefore do it by a modern approach and a traditional approach. The figure above illustrates the two approaches.