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.

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.

Step 4: Milling

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

Step 3: Washing

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

Washing of the apples

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

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

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!

A Different Approach to Cider

I’m not the first to work with cider in Denmark. Great and experienced brewers as Kai Winter from Kernegaarden, Jeppe Gents from Fejø Cider and Per Kølster were there before me. What these guys do is French cider in Denmark. They have planted orchards of French and English apple varieties on their farms. To be honest – and I’m sorry – this does not make sense in a country with such a diverse and rich supply of apples. Denmark is full of apples native to this country.

I believe in a different approach: Danish cider on Danish apple varieties. So is this new? Yes and no. No because Kim Johansen from Pomona Cider and Jens Skovgaard from Cold Hand Winery already do cider on Danish varieties. Yes because no one has ever launched a single variety cider on Danish apples. Maybe it taste like something not to be sold? I don’t know. But think about it for a while: a single variety cider on known varieties as Dronning Louise, Ildrød Pigoen, Ingrid Marie and so on. I think there is a huge and untapped potential here.

So I have set out to investigate the potential in single variety Danish cider. Therefore I have designed an experiment investigating different production methods and techniques as well as apple varieties.

Stay tuned for descriptions and results.