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.

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

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

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.

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!