iCider. The taste test

I have blogged before about my making cider, and after leaving it to sit for a few months, I decided to give it a taste test.

What can I say, it tasted like a cider should taste, and was very nice.

I deem it to be a success.

If anyone wants to try some, I will happily show you how to make it yourself.

iCider

When we moved into the new house, one of its biggest selling points were the number of established fruit trees.

Now we have a problem, we have two apple trees full of ripe apples, and what do we do with them all.

A few quick internet searches showed us how easy it is to do hard (Alcoholic) apple cider.

Easy, yes, Time consuming, YES.

pick the apples, grate the apples through a food processor and then put the apples in a fruit press, or cook the apples in water.

Sieve the pulp, and put in big fermenters, and wait three weeks.

of course, for these efforts we have 60 litres of hard apple cider brewing in the garage.

As for the left over pulp, well we have 15 litres of stewed apples, and 10 litres of an apple chutney.

and this is from two trees. we still have two trees left that are late ripeners. 

A vintage year, and it's done in five gallon cans

I try not to be a wine snob, but instead i say life is too short to drink bad wine.

However, a recent venture into a wine shop revealed that the bar had lowered when it came to wine packaging.

Wine in cans.

Well i guess it had to happen, after all we are the country who invented the Goon.

Taph and i had to try it, so we bought one can of the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It did not have the famous fresh cut grass, aroma that New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs have. In fact it was a little flat,

Overall we figured it was marketed for those occasions where the place you are going does not allow glass, and you do not want to take a goon.

And who knows, with that marketing plan, we may end up buying a slab of it.

My aversion to wine in cans comes from this old "Arthur Daley E's Alright" song, which has the line "it's a vintage year, and it's done in five gallon cans"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_Wine

The Wine Update.

Two quick updates to the wine making adventure.

First, The previous attempt of wine seems to have failed, but instead we think we have a vinegar mother growing.

Second, TSS got me a half box of white wine grapes. These were squashed and put into a separate container and are currently fermenting in the Bathroom.

As we find out more we will post it.

TOF, jam and wine maker

TSS has a grapevine that has grown over her fence. Earlier in the year i asked her not to prune it, as we could grab the grapes that grow on it, combine them with my grapes, and if all goes well, we should be able to make a few bottles of wine.

My graphs failed. The ants turned them into raisins. It had been so dry they were pricking the skins and drinking the juice. I tried to take some photos, but as none of my cameras have a macro lens, this is the best photo I could get.

However TSS had more success with her grapes (apart from what the possums ate), so last weekend Taph, TSS and myself spent a little while in her back yard harvesting the grapes.

There was no mention of these being used for Grape jam.

No, these grapes were squashed (the traditional way) and are currently fermenting in the bathroom.

The only question is what to call this drop. Chateau TOF is one idea. TOF Juniors Creek is another. Pure Old Panthers is already taken, and besides, i do not follow the Penrith Panthers. Besides, Pure Old Brumbies or Pure Old Raiders, just does not have the same ring.

Things to do with fallen fruit

Taph and TSS invited me to join them on the great apricot adventure of 2008. The problem was that there had been a major storm the day before and this had caused a great number of apricots to fall from the tree and start to rot on the ground.

Taph and TSS were happy to leave these on the ground, and just rake them up for compost, but I could see a much better use for them.



If we were to collect them, ferment them in a beer brewing kit, and then use a pressure cooker to form part of a still (just do not tell the customs and excise department), attach some copper tube as a condenser to the pressure release nozzle and I could make my own brandy, and then use the left overs as compost.

I even found this pressure cooker at Salvos, Mitchell, and the only wanted $8 for it. Just think, for an outlay of under $10, I could make my own brandy and vodka. I left it behind as i did not think the rubber seal was in the best condition.

That is the easy part. The hard part would be keeping the still at a constant 78 degrees. Actually after spending a night doing jam, i am so sick of apricots in my house that i have now given up on this and we have used them as compost.