Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Blackberry Cider

So I think that free sugar is the best sugar so I went picking blackberries on Sunday afternoon.  I'm curious if devils fruit was already taken when they decided to name Blackberries,  because I think they have some serious contention to the title.  I bleed from my legs mostly, but my hands are a little scrapped up as well.  In three hours on my own I got about 2 gallons of berries that are now vacuum sealed bags in the freezer.  I haven't seen the cider I like to use for sale yet, but I figured having the berries ready to go will make it easier to get a small side batch of blackberry hard cider when the time comes.  If the kiddo doesn't kick my ass to much I'll try for a 5 gallon main batch and a 3 gallon blackberry version.  I've been hiding away a few of the second batch of hard cider from last year, that I am curious to see how they have aged after close to a year.  Maybe I'll get a few people together for a vertical tasting of the Cider with last year, this year and the blackberry.  I've read about cellaring for a year, but I don't know that it would be a good idea for the cider to do a multi-year cellar.   (oh Jebus, I looks a little bit just after writing that and I'm terrified of the amount of work people are talking about!)  SO2 schedules and ph monitoring for keeping still cider at the optimal sulfite levels as it ages!!! I don't even own at least two of the pieces of equipment mentioned, and I haven't done a ph test since High School chemistry.  Did I accidentally backdoor myself into wine production here?  I don't own any oak barrels and if I did I would be doing weird beer not cider in them.  I need a bigger basement damn it.

3 comments:

  1. Dibs! Especially if you accidentally made some sort of wine - dibs!

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  2. Sounds difficult

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