Subject: Cider Digest #1554, 11 March 2010 Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:26:30 -0700 (MST) From: cider-request@talisman.com Cider Digest #1554 11 March 2010 Cider and Perry Discussion Forum Contents: BPA in Plastics (Dan Schultz) adjusting pH (Scott Heath) Seeking French perry pear information ("McGonegal, Charles P") Need scions/offering scions and introduction. (Steven Edholm) NOTE: Digest appears whenever there is enough material to send one. Send ONLY articles for the digest to cider@talisman.com. Use cider-request@talisman.com for subscribe/unsubscribe/admin requests. Archives of the Digest are available at www.talisman.com/cider#Archives Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: BPA in Plastics From: Dan Schultz Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 08:53:57 -0800 Lurker with my first post here. I'm on my third season of cider. Making about 40 gallons annually for personal use. A friend and I buy our apples in Hood River, Oregon and then spend a few days of enjoyment crushing and squeezing them for their sweet juice. I prefer my cider dry, tart and carbonated. My background is in plastics and if any of you frquent homebrewing forums, you've probably seen me around. BPA is a precursor to polycarbonate whcih is used to make the plastic carboys (not the Better Bottles as those are made with PET). There won't be any BPA in polyethylene or polypropylene or most other plastics. I have a chart that I down loaded from GE many years ago at http://www.oregonbrewcrew.com/schultz/o2perm.jpg that ranks plastics for O2 permeation. PE (HDPE) and PP are two of the better plastics. Thicker walls are even better. I will contend that O2 permeation through an air lock is likely higher than O2 permeation through plastic so seal off your SS or glass containers before sweating using plastic if you utilize air locks after fermentation. During fermentation, the yeast will take up any O2 that might get into the fermenter so palstic is a great choice during fermentation. My choice is Corny kegs once fermentation is over; sealed stainless steel and easy to move around. - -Danno ------------------------------ Subject: adjusting pH From: Scott Heath Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 23:32:40 -0700 What is the way, or the BEST way, to lower the pH of juice and/or fermented cider? Is it just to add malic acid? Are there other methods? I didn't have a pH meter when I was pressing and now I see that my cider batches vary from about 3.75 to 4.1. Ideally I'd like it around 3.5 for protection from spoilage. AND... are there any other opinions out there about 304 SS versus 316 SS? I already have some HDPE barrels and am looking to upgrade. It seems like 316 would definitely need to be imported or custom. Everything I'm finding online is 304. Makes me want to believe that it would be OK to use. BUT, if making the jump into stainless, wouldn't it be prudent to spend the extra dough for the increased corrosion resistance? Scott Heath New Mexico, USA ------------------------------ Subject: Seeking French perry pear information From: "McGonegal, Charles P" Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2010 13:39:37 -0500 Digesters, A few years ago, I requested that several cultivars of traditional french perry pears be imported and sent through the quarantine system. The first two of them have made it through the process and will be available in another couple of years from the germplasm repository. Corvallis has asked me if I have any other info on the cultivars - and I don't. Nor have I been able to google any up. Does anyone have a really good 19th century cidre library? I'm looking for info on La Jaunette and Belle (or Poire) de Cloche. Charles McGonegal AEppelTreow Winery ------------------------------ Subject: Need scions/offering scions and introduction. From: Steven Edholm Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 17:58:30 -0800 I am new to the list. I'm an amateur cider maker for the past few years and have become interested enough to want to plant some dedicated cider varieties. I have a rural property in the coastal mountains of Northern California. I'm an apple enthusiast anyway and so far have 4 golden russet trees, belle de bosskop, king david, suntan, tydemans late orange, cox's orange, cherry cox, karmijn de sonneville, red gravenstein, edward's winter (maybe not the true edwards winter, but a small apple with some astringency and complex flavor), Lady Williams, Hauer pippin, Grenadine, yarlington mill, muscat de bernay, kingston black, michelin, wickson, hewe's crab and roxbury russet. I also have a "test tree" with over 60 varieties grafted onto it which are starting to fruit in the last couple of years. All except the test tree are 4 years or younger on M111 stock. I'm ordering up some geneva 30 rootstock (50% of standard size) to put in an experimental orchard and wanted to put a call out for scions this year. It's a little last minute, but if anyone has any of the list below I would be very grateful. I can pay shipping or we can trade. Tim Bray gave me a good assortment of scions from his orchard this year and I will be glad to send extras of those out to people that can use them. I would also welcome any comments, recommendations or especially non-recommendations on these varieties. Since I have a lot of tart dessert apples, I'm primarily interested in bittersweets, sweets and anything with exceptional and aromatics that can survive their way into the bottle.... also, I suppose anything that can make a good single varietal. Regular heavy cropping, health and generally good cultural traits are always welcome too:) I will probably try to graft what I'm most interested in from research and later top work over anything that I can't use to whatever I find does well here and suits my tastes cider-wise. I'm interested in the experiment as well as the product, but product is still the goal. Looking for: *Dabinett *Gilpin *Harry master's Jersey *Medaill D' or *Nehou *Somerset redstreak *Stoke red *Northwood *Sweet coppin *Binet Rouge *Harrison *Bulmers Northern *carolina red june (not a cider apple, but I've been looking for it and no one seems to grow it out this way). *whatchya got? I can offer: *Brown's *Kingston black *major *ellis' bitter *Fillbarrel *Hewes (virginia) crab *Tale sweet *Court royal *Michelin (this is off my multi-grafted tree, so could be infected with who knows what as there is so much stuff from unknown sources on that tree) *A small red crab apple that my friend says makes makes KILLER! (her words:) pink cider. I'm not sure she's fit to judge, but there ya have it! Unknown variety she just sent me scions of it this year The note she sent with the scions says- "crab scions from Warren- Wilson college Asheville NC. Trees of probably 30-40 years? Unknown variety- a very sweet little pink fleshed fruit- large size for a crab. Amazing cider" * Also, some of the stuff I have trees of in the top list and stuff off my multi-grafted tree if you aren't discouraged by the disease factor. Thanks! ------------------------------ End of Cider Digest #1554 *************************