Only things earned — his own experience, or a fact that actually changed a decision.
No textbook padding. None of this is a rule. Things tried and how they went; the
next batch is free to ignore all of it.
The orchard
Plum is retired. Didn't enjoy it enough to spend a season on. Settled preference.
The red tree can't carry a cider alone. Good juice, watery flesh, no backbone.
The green champagne tree is the benchmark. Judge other batches against it.
The baking apple presses flatter than it eats. Bright fruit, dull juice, OG 1.042.
Lever for next year: pick later.
How it's gone
Nothing gets drunk before ~10 months. Ciders almost universally improve with age;
stinkers have been rescued in year 2 or 3. Worth not writing a batch off early.
The julecider is the exception — back-sweetened, drunk young at Christmas, sweetness
covering whatever needs covering.
Both sulfited and unsulfited batches have been good. Campden tabs in everything, wilds
included, two seasons back — good results. 2026-01, 02a and 02b are all unsulfited by
decision, so this season is the other half of the question. No preference established yet.
Sulfite has gone in at the top of primary, ~1 tab/gal ≈ 50 ppm. Timing is the one thing
that isn't free: into a ferment already running it's mostly spent binding acetaldehyde, and
a cultured pitch wants it 12–24 h ahead or the pitch gets inhibited too. A wild can take
the full dose but then starts slowly — weeks. Partial kill starts faster. Sourced, Lea.
Mead doesn't need it at must. Honey is antimicrobial in its own right — osmotic
pressure, low water activity, glucose oxidase → peroxide. Sourced. For mead the sulfite
question lives at bottling.
The perpetual ACV lives in the tool shed, a long way from the cider shed.
Things that changed a decision
Sulfite at crush doesn't survive to protect the aging — it binds to acetaldehyde
during fermentation. Whatever goes in at juice stage is spent before trouble starts.
Metabisulphite loses strength with age. The shed's pack is from 2022; a half-dose of
weak sulfite is less than half. Fresh pack ordered.
The recommended wild-ferment dose is pH-dependent (table below), so "half the
recommended dose" means nothing without a pH reading. Never measured here.