Put to bed
Rose Grant
have removed the 6 tonnes that had been bearing down on the tank's
insecure block-work base. However it has been a worthwhile exercise,
firstly because all IBCs now contain the same blend and secondly
because the racking allowed a large amount of the initial lees to be
discarded. I do not intend to rack again until each IBC is required
for packaging into bag in boxes. The routine that works well for me,
is to transfer 1000 litres from an IBC to the three 400 litre floating
lid, stainless tanks in the pressing/packaging room. This achieves a
final racking just before packaging and the use of floating lid tanks
means that only the required amount of cider needs to be be packaged
to meet the ongoing demand.
Barry and Albert had their reservations about the 6000 litre tank when
they first saw it, since they reckoned it would be difficult to clean.
Barry favours the 1500 litre Rotoplas tanks ( 60 or 70 of them at the
last count! ). These do lend themselves to cleaning. When empty, they
can easily be tipped over on their side, then cleaned and tipped
upside down to drain. I must confess that I did wonder how I would be
able to cope with the monster. Actually it was not too difficult. The
worst part of any tank to clean is always the inside top, where the
tide mark from the cider leaves its brown sticky residue. As the big
tank was filled nearly to the top and because the top is domed, the
tide mark occupied a fairly small area. It was a simple matter to
reach this through the top manhole and clean off the residue with a
sponge cloth. Removal of the lees from the bottom of the tank was more
difficult. I had to dangle a pressure washer lance through the
manhole. Its pressure jet then had to be repeatedly scanned over the
the tank bottom until all the yeasty deposit was dislodged. Clean
water was flushed through the tank continually whilst this was going
on, until I was satisfied that all of the khaki dross had been removed.
With the draught all safely stored in the air-locked IBCs my worries
were over in good time to enjoy Christmas. Being a sentimental old
fool, I've long hankered for a white Christmas. This year I persuaded
Frances that it would be fun to go and find one. We went on a rail
tour to Germany. This culminated in steam hauled rides on a preserved
line through the snowy Harz mountains, during the Christmas period.
It was every bit as exciting as I had hoped and absolutely memorable.
For Frances there was an unexpected bonus. For once, I forgot all
about cider and unusually, the word did not pass my lips for days! (I
had discovered almost straight away that we were in a cider desert).
In that part of Germany ( the old DDR ) all I could find was apfelsaft
and something called apfeltickler which proved to be a carbonated
version of the same. However, the hotel was excellent, the wine good
and the beer superb, so I'm not complaining and for Frances it was a
complete rest from any mention of Big C! This did not actually cross
my mind until we were nearly home again. With just 10 miles still to
go, we passed a big free house. "'I'm determined to get my stuff in
there next year", I said. "Oh", she exclaimed. "There you go. Business
as usual!"
A notable exception did occur on the appley front, when we visited a
German Christmas market. We came across what could best be described
as apple crisps. These thin slices of dried apple proved to be very
tasty and made an enjoyable snack. It was amazing how well the flavour
and sharpness of the fruit had been preserved in the drying process.
We both agreed that it would be great to have a large bowl of these on
our Wassail table to go with all the usual appley eats such as Dorset
apple cake and apple fritters etc. We are resolved to give it a go. I
anticipate a low oven heat and lovely lingering cooked apple smells in
the kitchen next week!
A happy appley New Year to one and all!
Rose.
David Llewellyn
Happy new year to you! Nice to hear you had a lovely holiday in Germany!
About your big tank... Is the top opening not large enough to allow a person
inside the tank to clean it from the inside? Is it Fibreglass or steel?
David L.
Rose.
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James Fidell
> A notable exception did occur on the appley front, when we visited a
> German Christmas market. We came across what could best be described
> as apple crisps. These thin slices of dried apple proved to be very
> tasty and made an enjoyable snack. It was amazing how well the flavour
> and sharpness of the fruit had been preserved in the drying process.
> We both agreed that it would be great to have a large bowl of these on
> our Wassail table to go with all the usual appley eats such as Dorset
> apple cake and apple fritters etc. We are resolved to give it a go. I
> anticipate a low oven heat and lovely lingering cooked apple smells in
> the kitchen next week!
I've done something similar using our dehydrator. At some point I'm
going to experiment with dipping the apple pieces in lemon juice and/or
sugar syrup to try to preserve the colour.
I used to dry tomatoes in the oven and was advised to hold the door
slightly ajar with a spoon or something similar, leaving the tomatoes
in for a good few hours at the lowest temperature setting. I assume the
same might apply for drying apples.
James
James Fidell
> About your big tank... Is the top opening not large enough to allow a person
> inside the tank to clean it from the inside?
Such as a small child? :)
James
Bob Honey
success.
We have got 7 IBC's either fermenting or just finished, so racking is
the next task. Have you or anyone else come across a power washer gun
with a 180 degree bend, to enable cleaning the inside top of the IBC's?
Bob Honey
hon...@btinternet.com
07774 284499
Rose
The tank is a black HDPE potable water tank, mainly intended for use
on farms. The manhole on the top has a screwed lid with a rubber
sealing band. It allows access to the tank via a 22 inch diameter
hole. I think I could drop down inside it alright but would then be
unable to ever get out again! I might try it in summertime when I
could be barefooted and perhaps lower a small pair of steps into the
tank to facilitate my escape!
Rose.
Andrew Lea
I have copied the section on fruit drying from the 1971 edition of the
MAFF 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' (it is not in the final
1989 edition) and you will find it here
http://www.cider.org.uk/fruit_drying.pdf I guess if you slice the
apples more thinly and take them a bit past the 'shammy leather' stage
you may get to something crisp.
Maybe that will help (or not?). It is very much directed at making dried
fruit for later rehydration. There is other stuff on the internet under
'apple chips' if you Google it.
Andrew
Ray Blockley
head on...
An obvious one but worth reiterating is that CO2 is a killer and can lurk in
the bottom of fermentation tanks, so anyone considering going down inside a
large tank should be very careful to ensure the heavier-than-air CO2 is
blown away with thorough ventilation or the judicious use of a fan...
Let's be careful out there! :-)
Ray
http://hucknallciderco.blogspot.com/
http://torkardcider.moonfruit.com/
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Peter Ellis
first time this year, so I've yet to test the results. I was too late to
do figs.
Happy New Year
Peter
Andrew Lea wrote:
> I have copied the section on fruit drying from the 1971 edition of the
> MAFF 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' (it is not in the final
> 1989 edition) and you will find it here
> http://www.cider.org.uk/fruit_drying.pdf I guess if you slice the
> apples more thinly and take them a bit past the 'shammy leather' stage
> you may get to something crisp.
>
> Maybe that will help (or not?). It is very much directed at making dried
> fruit for later rehydration. There is other stuff on the internet under
> 'apple chips' if you Google it.
>
> Andrew
>
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Peter Ellis
Glad you enjoyed the Harz. Did you go up the Brocken? Its preserved
railways apart and not to be sneezed at, that part of Germany is full of
fascinating medieval historical stuff. I've friends there and when I
visited initially, was quite sobered by the realisation that a
combination of WW2 and the post war communist regime meant that I was
one of the first British tourists in what, pre-war had been a popular
area, for over 50yrs.
Happy New Year
Peter
Rose Grant wrote:
>
> With the draught all safely stored in the air-locked IBCs my worries
> were over in good time to enjoy Christmas. Being a sentimental old
> fool, I've long hankered for a white Christmas. This year I persuaded
> Frances that it would be fun to go and find one. We went on a rail
> tour to Germany. This culminated in steam hauled rides on a preserved
> line through the snowy Harz mountains, during the Christmas period.
> It was every bit as exciting as I had hoped and absolutely memorable.
>
--