2026-01 · Cider · started 2026-08-08
Danish farmhouse, wild, 24 h maceration, no sulfite, 1 kg solbær
Kind: cider Stage: primary Fruit: augustæbler from the baking-apple tree, variety unknown (trees.md), plus blackcurrant Volume: ~17 L crushed must → 9 L juice Style: Danish farmhouse, wild, 24 h maceration, no sulfite, 1 kg solbær Vessel: 25 L bucket, cider shed Started: 2026-08-08
| OG | 10.5 Brix ≈ 1.042 |
| Volume | 9 L juice |
| Addition | Solbær 1 kg · 111 g/L |
| Yeast | wild |
| Enzyme | Zymex pectinase, 5 g |
| Nutrient | none |
| Tannin | none |
| SO₂ | none |
| Shed temp | 26 °C day / ~13 °C night |
| pH | ? |
| FG | |
| Est. ABV | ~6.0% |
| into 9 L | |
|---|---|
| Baking-apple juice | 9 L |
| Solbær, frozen, bagged | 1 kg |
| Zymex pectinase | 5 g |
Nothing else. No sulfite, no yeast, no nutrient, no adjustment.
This is the control batch — first time this tree has been worked on its own, so whatever it tastes like in spring is the tree talking. The red-apple glut is where experiments go.
~17 L crushed from the baking-apple tree. Fruit: early, green and red, bright flavour, firm flesh, warm acidity.
Into sealed buckets with a little headspace for a 24 h maceration — house method, learned from a Danish friend on a farm.
Sanitation, logged as a variable: the measured spray bottle for no-rinse sanitizer is lost, so that step was skipped. Buckets rinse-sanitised, chopper rinsed.
9 L of juice off the hydropress.
Juice: dark orangeish · fairly flat · no honey or floral notes · mild acidity. OG 10.5 Brix ≈ 1.042 — low side for cider, matching the flat palate.
Fine apple flesh left in rather than strained; it settles out and gets racked off, and feeds the wild ferment meanwhile.
📷 photos/2026-08-09-2026-01-press.jpg
1 kg frozen solbær bagged and in — ~111 g/L. Chosen because the juice was flat on its own and blackcurrant brings the acid, tannin and colour it lacked.
5 g Zymex pectinase, the larger of the two doses tonight since this batch carries double the fruit of 2026-02b. Pack expired 03/2023, so activity is uncertain.
Into the cider shed. 26 °C daytime, ~13 °C overnight, mean around 19–20 °C. No temperature management.
📷 photos/2026-08-09-2026-01-solbaer-in.jpg
Score /5 and a sentence, when it's drunk.