2015 batch 1: Cyser - Juicing apples

This year i will again make a cyser. I will only make one batch of mead but this time I will scale up by a factor of about 2

As this has been a terrible year with really poor weather. I have only harvested 23 kg of honey from my one hive, which is about half of what I harvested last year. I had planned for at pure honey mead, but I also want some honey for my self and some to sell (this is what pays for the bees). So I have only been able to put about 15 kg aside - not enough for a 50 L batch

So cyser it is :o). Fortunately it has been a great apple year and my apple trees have been full. Especially my "Ingrid Marie" tree. So I figured I wanted to try to make and Ingrid Marie mead. The great thing about this apple is, that it is quite low on acid, so malolactic fermentation should not be necessary at all.

Last year I pressed the apple myself, but I found that a local apple plantation offered to press apples for free, so I figured I would wait for this even though it was in October which is a bit late for these apples. But again the poor weather was a great help, since the apples matured 2-3 week later than usual and most of the apples were just perfect when the day arrived.

Most of the apples are Ingrid Marie apples - only the third box from the top contains Pigeon apples and a bit of "Red Ananas" apples - (sounds silly if translated to English...and I do not know if the sort have a proper English name?)

The automated shredder and press are so much faster than when I did it manually - and the yield significantly higher. I ended up with a bit more than 25 L out of about 35-40 kg of apples. So far so good

Setting up the Chronical fermenter

First the fermenter had to be cleaned with a TSP solution. TSP is quite cheap, so I had no problem making a 10L solution in a mixing ratio according to the producer. All valves, seals and tri-clamps was dipped in the solution and scrubbed with a bottle brush. Then these were rinsed in water. The inside of the fermenter was scrubbed with the TSP solution using a soft sponge and rinsed with water.

A solution of StarSan was prepared by mixing 2 ml StarSan in 1L of demineralized water. This solution is used for passivation of the steel. The solution was added to a sprayer and sprayed onto all surfaces of the fermenter and valves. The StarSan makes a nice foam that covers the surfaces quite well. The surfaces was sprayed a couple of times over half an hour and the entire fermenter and valve was rinsed with water before being set aside for drying. 

The next day the fermenter was collected

Clean fermenter on leg extensions

Jacket to isolate the fermenter. I associate the smell of neoprene with great times as scuba diver, so I felt strange being so happy while dressing up a fermenter.

The fermenter was no ready for use, with thermometer in the center. It looks fantastic :o). The small cooler is for ice water to be used as cooling source - hope it is large enough. I also purchased a somewhat larger airlock due the larger volume and hence the increased amount of CO2 produced during the fermentation.

One thing though. The pump for FTSS temperature control is connected to the wall with a US plug. If you buy this fermenter get an adapter for European power outlets. 

Shopping for a conical fermenter

I have for a long time been looking at a conical fermentor as this would be an alternative to racking the mead again and again. I have been looking at several brands. Basically, I do not trust that the Chinese fermenters are food grade stainless steel, even though they are specified as such, so these was fairly fast out of the equation.

I was also looking at Blichmann's but these are really expensive. They might be great but right now I am not sure if this is the way to go for me.

Over the last year I fell head over heals for the fermentor from Ss Brewtech, but these were not sold outside the US.

As time went by I found that a new home brewing shop opened very close to were I live named Humlecentralen (HERE) - and what do you know - he sold equipment from Ss Brewtech. I was thrilled.

So now I have the Chronical half barrel fermentor equipped with FTSS temperature control - and it is just so sexy..... :). Even Alexander think it is a great toy

I also purchased the leg extensions which I can only highly recommend, because the bottom valve is really positioned low so unless you open directly to a drain you cannot get a tray underneath it unless the fermenter is lifted.

Now that a stainless steel fermenter has entered the scene I also got chemicals for cleaning (TSP) and passivation (StarSan), as recommended by Ss Brewtech.

TSP (tri-sodium-phosphate) is a relatively strong base that is used for cleaning the fermenter. This is done by scrubbing the surfaces with a soft sponge wetted in a TSP solution.

After the cleaning the fermenter is passivated with StarSan which is a solution of phosphoric acid (~50%) which passivates, dodecyl-benzene-sulphonic acid which is a foaming agent (5-15%) and some antibacterial component(s) which is hush hush (proprietary according to the MSDS)

This is the mild version of the passivation process I know from work which is sodium hydroxide wash followed by a nitric acid passivation bath..... Not really a process you want to fiddle with at home in your kitchen

Looking so much forward to try it out

Death in the family

It has been a while since my last post. My mother was very sick during the spring with pancreas cancer. It is a horrible type of cancer and there is almost nothing you can do to stop or slow it down, and she passed away this June.

With funeral, clearing and selling the house and ending all ongoing arrangements in her life and just dealing with the loss, I have not been doing much about brewing of mead, and of cause not posted anything on this blog.

Now that some time has passed, and most of all the things I had to deal with have been finalized, things are getting back to what can reasonably be called normal.

May she rest in peace!

Pic is from December 2014 when my mother and I when to a fish spa for some mother and son quality time. She died 6 month later

All I can say is that whenever you have an opportunity to give money for cancer research, do not hesitate to donate.