[Donald]

Hello,


This the first of the last 4 years that I have really had a decent apple crop and resulting cider pressing. With the excess I'm trying out oak barrel storage and here is the documentation of progress till now. I have obtained a second hand wine barrel, category firkin or in the neighborhood of a 39 liter storage capacity though now there is closer to 34 liters in there.












I hope to provide updates on a successful brewing.


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff

[Olly398]

Good stuff, thanks for posting Donald 
You lucky guy, that looks a great solution. I am currently deciding how to store my 75 litres brewed this year (see here for details) but it will be a ragtag mixture of pop bottles, glass bottles, the odd little keg and flagon.
 
Are you planning on still cider or sparkling? I presume the former with a wooden barrel? Cheers, Olly

[Donald]

Hello,
You're telling me you pressed 75 liters with that little hand press? Amazing!


Just racked 22 or 23 liters today and stacked them in the kelder. As far as what I hope to get in the end, well simple, anything that's drinkable. I'm not a choosy one when it comes to cider.


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff

[Olly398]

Yup! 
 
I'm, sure your cider will be good. The strategy for fizzy is to add some more sugar and seal the container, which must be pressure-tight. The CO2 generated during the extra fermentation adds 'condition' to the liquid. Conditioned cider has the extra advantage that the CO2 forms a protective blanket over the liquid, excluding air.
 
I'm not sure this would work with wood, so still cider is probably the way forward. But have you considered that with the barrel half full you will be exposing a large surface area to oxygen, which creates favourable conditions for acetobacter to thrive and turn it into vinegar... I don't know how people normally cope with this, apart from observing strict sanitation obviously, to prevent the organism entering in the first place.
 
Just a heads up I guess. Cheers

[Donald]

Oh man, I did that last time and the next time I popped a cork, emptied the bottle on the ceiling. This time I'm going about it all differently.
Maybe you are suggesting I fill the barrel to the bung. I'll look into that though beforehand I sterilized it pretty thoroughly. After scrubbing it good inside, my favorite part was to put it back together and then burn a part of a sulfur wick in there. I couldn't hold my nose above the bung hole the fumes were so acidic. No bacteria were alive after that to get reactivated. That was my hope anyway. Since then it has been bubbling away, which seems a good thing. Thanks for your words of caution though, I will keep an eye on things.


Greetings,


Don Wagstaff

[Bodger]

I bought twelve of these three weeks ago. They're oak barrels from the French wine industry and all of them were made in either 2007 or 2008.
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
I quickly knocked this stillage up.
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
and now I have a new cider storage room. They've been filled to the brim with sterising solution for the last two weeks.
 
 
 
 

 


 

[Olly398]

Goodness me, they look fantastic. I take it you have a pint or two of cider knocking about? 

[Bodger]

About 3000 litres. This summer will see me selling cider commercially for the second year. I supply four pubs locally through out the summer and I also sell from the farm gate on 12 days with an occasional licence. In addition I have half a dozen shows and events lined up.

[Olly398]

Good for you. Where abouts is your "gate"?

[Bodger]

North Wales.

[OhLaLa]

Good to follow this, thanks for putting the info and pics up. Would love to read a bit more detail about your apple collection, pressing and brewing process. With photos would be even better!