The Cider Chronicles Part II

My cider is in the secondary fermenter which happens to be a six gallon glass carboy with an airlock on top. I live in Florida so setting my fermenter up in a basement is pretty much out of the question. (Yes, I know there are basements in Florida but I don't have one. I'll dig it if you stay and bail it.) But, I have an old refrigerator out in the garage that has a shot thermostat and the seals on the water tubing that supplied the ice maker are also toast. The compressor is completely functional, the fridge just won't stop running once plugged in. What a perfect box to store my liquor. Even if the thermostat worked perfectly, its highest setting (warmest) is still too cold to allow fermentation to progress at a desired rate, but I found a fix for that.

The temperature problem was easily remedied by getting a Johnson Control temperature controller. This little gadget is self contained box and comes with a length of tubing and a temperature sensing bulb. I ran the thin tubing through the front door seal (basically close the door over it) and the box hangs on the outside door handle. The box plugs into the wall outlet and the fridge plugs into the controller. There you have it, an upright basement! I set the dial to 60 degrees F and walk away. The unit has something like a 3 degree temp. differential so the compressor doesn't get overloaded by frequent starts and stops. Set at 60 the controller kicks on the fridge when it gets to 63 and shuts off when temp. drops to 57. A nifty little box and if you shop around and don't mind used, your wallet won't suffer a whole lot.

Toughest thing for me in this new endeavor is waiting for the cider to age. I tasted the cider blend before placing it in the primary fermenter. I tasted it again when the time came to transfer it to the glass carboy (secondary). Now, I have to wait for at least 3 weeks before I get to sample my experiment again. Ha, or so I thought. I often make a trip out to the garage to just take a gander at that golden treasure as it sits in my fridge. The controller has yet to pass its reliability phase so I feel that temperature checks every 3 or 4 days are prudent. I also study the cider with a critical eye to see if anything is there that should not be. So during my visual tonight, what did I see? Mold! That's right, two small specks of dark colored mold about six inches down from the top of the carboy (but not in or near the cider). I dropped a few curses and stomped around the garage looking for something to throw at the neighbors cat (well, not really but I was peeved)

My plan was to start with a small batch of 3 gallons because the first time (usually not just) is when something will go wrong due to inexperience. I would shed a tear if I lost 3 gallons, but dumping 6 might cause an embolism. The only drawback to the 3 gallon approach is there is only enough cider to fill both the primary and secondary fermenter half way. The primary fermenter is not a major concern for contamination because the aggressive yeast/sugar reaction and resulting CO2 production greatly lower the risk of a ruined batch (Cider tasted fine after primary fermentation so I am inclined to go along with this line of thinking) Secondary fermentation is where I was most worried of contaminates ruining the batch. The next batch will be at least 5 gallons to reduce the real estate available for those damn illegals, I mean contaminates, to make a home.

Return from sidebar. I stomped back inside to jump on the info express and find out if my life long rule of , “if it don't taste rotten, you can eat or drink it” applied or I was going to have to water my lawn with my first brew. Sure enough, I was not the first poor sap to have this experience. The answer across multiple sites was the same – can't be sure until you taste it. Now that, I could do. I cleaned and sanitized my primary fermenter and transferred the cider from my carboy back into it. During the transfer process multiple tastings were required to ensure quality, and I am happy to say that my cider is doing fine and back in the fridge in its new plastic, air-locked home. The level of cider is a mite lower than previously but hey, I had to be sure!

“Hey! How did it taste bonehead? I followed your rambling this far and you haven't told me if it was good, decent, or you would rather suck gas through a garden hose than drink it again!”

It tasted good. There, you happy? It had an apple toned champaign taste, without the carbonation. It was medium in dryness and that is about as sophisticated as I can get for you. If you want all that, “earthy undertones with a rosy nose” crap you will have to head to one of those upstate yuppy bars where you can swap pedicure horror stories with the other metrosexuals.

Talk to ya soon.