2017 Catch-up

Apple harvest time is upon us again, but before I get to posting about a new apple mill renovation project, I thought I should give a brief update of what has happened with the house this year. Building had taken a bit of a back seat the first 8 months of the year, but things are picking up again, with projects that had been put on the long finger getting attention again.

But first, back to December 2016! One of the worst things about the house in winter was the old front door. An aluminium and safety glass monstrosity from the 70s or 80s that would not seal right, and had ice crusts on the inside during the coldest winter nights. Towards the end of 2016 we'd finally ordered a door, so in December I took an angle grinder to the door ope, to cut a space for a future sandstone frame. The original was dumped when they rebuilt this section of the wall, presumably when the existing door was installed, so we felt it would be nice to reinstate a frame.

With the dirty work done, the new door was installed. It immediately made a difference to the climate inthe hall, being well insulated and closing properly, not to mention to the look and feel of the front of the house. Certainly more in keeping withthe style of the house. The colour matches the outer frames around the windows, so despite not being initially too sure about ordering that colour, we're very happy with it.

In January, we had some lovely snow, but also severe storms.

A view of the back of house.

It wasn't till a couple of days after the biggest storm, while walking over to our local, that I noticed the barn roof looked different. Walking around the other side, I saw a large chunk of roof missing. Inside the extent didn't look too bad, but those are asbestos corrugated sheets, and i wasn't happy having to deal with that at this stage. Sometime soon, I want to re-roof the stall part of the barn, and prepare it for solar panels, but that's another story.

 

Luckily, a good friend is in the trade, with the right kind of equipment, so the following day we bought material and patched up the hole with new cement-based sheets. Ugly, but necessary, and a little dear for a temporary fix.

Nearly done

The next big thing was the second vaulted cellar. I had done the walls and ceiling in May 2016 (May!), but had not been able to continue the floor due to shoulder problems in the autumn. In March this year, I was able to kick this off again, with the removal of 4 tonnes of heavy clay, to bring the floor level down a bit. As with the beer cellar, the idea here was to build up a layer of pebbles to promote drainage (this cellar is considerably damper tan the other), topped with crushed stone and a final brick layer.

The stages can be seen in the photos below, including painting with a silicate paint, but that's as far as it got, as i have not been able to source reasonably-priced old bricks. We may do something else if I don't find any soon. This cellar is intended to be used as a food store, and should be ideal for storage of spuds, carrots and the like, once I build a new door.

In between all of this were some more hobby-related tasks, mostly relating to alcohol production.
I acquired a Cabernet Sauvignon Barrique early in the year, directly from the Schneider winery, so I made a stand for it then brewed 200 litres of Imperial Brown Ale to age in it. It's now serving, and was worth the effort!

In late summer I then had my first foray into making fruit wine, after a neighbour asked if I would like to use his father's redcurrants. Sadly, his dad is no longer able to do it, so I was only too happy to help continue the tradition with them. We used a berry mill and the cutest press I've ever seen, both built by his father and uncle. We now have 54 litres in the cellar, finished fermenting, so I'll have to bottle soon.

I forgot to mention the apple brandy I got distilled in January, but I may come back to that in another post. But as the Schnapps buzz has me, I mashed up 60kg of our cherry plums, so am hoping this will make a nice schnapps in January!

And that's a quick roundup of the positive highlights of the past 10 months. Stand by for the attic conversion, cellar insulation and another apple mill restoration.

Cider 2016 update (and a bit of 2015)

Winter has seemed very long this year, and with my shoulder still not quite right, I've been doing very little around the house and garden. I begin physio next week, but it will still take some months before I'm back to normal, or so I've been told.

With that slight handicap, there was still plenty I could do cider-wise, and I guess there's been a lot going on since the last blog post, where the pressing process was shown.

I didn't get to try out keeving, but I somehow ended up with a few different variations on a basic cider, which makes things fun. The basic dry cider, like I made last year, was fermented in two 60 litre barrels, and I recently split that up into 30L barrels, which makes it handier for experimenting with dry hopping and such. Three of the barrels on the board in the photo below contain dry cider. Another portion has been put into a carboy, mixed with cherry plum juice (also from our own trees), and is now having a second fermentation, so lets hope the plum flavour remains!

The large barrel on the left now contains about 50L of what I am calling Grapple Cider, which sounds rather unappetising, but simply refers to the fact it is made with 50% apples and 50% grapes. Our neighbour had a lot and gave them all to us, so we put them to good use. On taking a sample when racking it into this barrel, I was very pleased indeed. Tasting notes will follow later in the year, but suffice to say, I want to make his one again!

The 30L barrel on the right contains a kind of accident, or at least, a cider that was not planned. On Halloween, we held a small harvest festival, of sorts, with plenty of food, beer and cider, but also pressed 100kg of apples for fun. We had intended to pasteurize it there and then, but I ended up sulphiting it, and leaving it sitting for a while. 30L I used to top up the oak barrel (more in a moment), and the rest I left sitting in the cellar, ignored till it started blubbering a few weeks later. Happily, it was a nice, clean fermentation, as wild yeasts took over, and it tastes pretty good. The gravity is a little higher than the others, but I expect it's not quite finished, as that part of the cellar got down to 6°C a few weeks ago.

And finally, my pride and joy, one of the oak cider casks I picked up in Spring last year. This is filled with between 125 and 130 litres of dry cider.

Compared to the others, this looks quite soupy (this could really be on trend with an iceman pour, looking like a NEIPA!), but I imagine, given the shape and volume of the cask, there's quite a layer of sediment near the tap, but let's see how it looks in a couple months.

So far, that means harvest 2016 has yielded the following (and we only used about half the apples!)

• 130L oak-aged dry cider
• 80L dry cider
• 10L cherry plum and apple cider
• 50L grape and apple cider
• 25L spontaneously-fermented cider

But harvest 2015 is the harvest that is still giving!

I still have a couple kegs dry cider, and half a keg of dry-hopped cider from 2015, but that's not the best thing...

In 2015 I made 120 litres of "Maische", or wash, to make schnapps. I mixed 60 litres of pressed juice with 60 litres of pulped apples and set it fermenting. I then spoke to the local distiller in March 2016, but I had missed the window of opportunity, meaning I had these two barrels, full of pulp, sitting in the cellar for a year. I hadn't opened them once, and when they were finally opened, and Mr. Thomaier stuck his finger in for a taste, I was relieved that he proclaimed it good. A couple of weeks later, the paperwork for taxation was done, and I received 21 litres of my own apple schnapps. I like to imagine that having the wash mature for a year makes it a superior spirit, as it certainly tastes very good!

Of course, making your own stuff gives plenty of scope to experiment, and the first one was one I had planned for a year: ageing on apple wood. I had kept some branches from pruning the trees in early 2015 (one is on the cellar ceiling, you may have noticed), and these were duly cut into short lengths, split, stripped of bark and toasted in the over fora couple of hours, before cooling and placing in 5.5 litres of schnapps. Within a day the colour had changed, and after a week, it was tested, with approval. I'll leave it a few more weeks before deciding whether to continue or bottle it.

Plans are afoot for some apple-based liqueurs, but the spirit straight is a fairly smooth-sipping, enjoyable experience. No downing shots with this!

The vinegar-making I will come back to another time, but so far, it's been a success.

Cider time: the press in action

I'm falling behind in updates, but that's simply down to being too busy. But my son and I both made videos of the press in action over the past few weeks.

I now have 310 litres of cider fermenting. 120 of which are in one of the oak casks, and 50 litres which were made with a mix of apples and grapes, which were given to me by a neighbour. I have one more pressing session to do, to try out keeving with 60 litres, and maybe some more milling, to make 100L mash for making schnapps. However, I think I'll need help, as my shoulder is in a bad state, so hand-cranking that mill will not be good for it.

But on to the videos!

First, from my 11-year-old son, his second effort at making a video, which I tink he did a really good job on. I must post the one he made of the harvesting!

And then my slightly dryer version, a week later.

People love stopping to watch this going on, and I've heard so many tales now from old people, about how there used to be a giant hydraulic press in our barn, which was used by the community. I'd be happy to reinstate such a tradition, once I get a motor for the mill!

The old fruit press, part 3 - finished!

It didn't need too much work to finish the last pieces this evening. But finally putting it all together was very rewarding. Looking forward to trying it out now!

The old fruit press, part 2

Part two of the old fruit press restoration, for your viewing pleasure.

It's been great fun so far!

The old fruit press, part 1

This goes straight to video!

A bit later than planned, as this was recorded on Sunday.

Another project: An old fruit mill and press

So a couple of weeks ago, i decided I would really like to have a press, so I could have more control over my cider making, at least for small batches. I saved a search on eBay small ads, so anything popping up with 50km of us would show up. But then, last Saturday, I got a message from a friend asking if I would like a press, as they had one in a barn they're going to sell. It was fate!

The next morning, we went over for a look, to find there wasn't just a fine old press, but a couple of old fruit mills too. Now, I had already been looking for a staiunless steel electric model, perhaps even buying one together with a neighbour to share the expense, so i wasn't too interested in the dirty old mill. However, that very day, we were off to a festival, to man a stand pressing apples for juice to sell. And what kind of mill did they have? The c´very same kind. Well, it was a booth for the local museum, after all. So, that was decided, It worked brilliantly, looked the biz, and if it's been used for decades, it must be good. I'd take it.

Fast forward to yesterday (Thursday) evening, and we borrowed a friend and his trailer, and off we went to Allfeld to pick up the press and a mill, with a large barrel thrown in fora few homebrews.

The press and mill were layered in mud, as back in May, there were serious floods in our region, and Allfeld was one of the worst hit villages. Large parts of street were washed away, and the barn where the mill was, was right on the banks of the Schefflenz, so was filled to about 1.7 metres of water, with all the mud it carried. We escaped lightly here in Schefflenz. So, it was hard to see the true condition of the mill and press. Today was time to get out the high pressure washer,and blast the dirt off. Have a look at the video to see the mill in action, and in various stages of dismantling.