New Cider Follies II:first rack and YUM

So it's been ten days and we racked the must today, straining out the cranberries and dead yeast and adding two cups of brown sugar before returning to the fermentation bucket.

Apple juice and cranberries, fermenting.  What's not to like?

Of course, in the process of straining it off we had to try some, right?

Pretty, no?

What great color!

We were flatly blown away.  The Scrumpy is tart and sweet, with a wonderful complexity, and just a hint of secondary fermentation.  Hell, we could drink it right now.  I can only imagine what it'll be like in a week or so after secondary fermentation.

These cider projects are really fun.  Recommend them highly for long, chilly winters.

More stuff over at Life, Art, Water.  Stay tuned.  Stay Warm

M

New Cider Follies

Well, hey, the last batch turned out so very well that we're doing some more experimenting with our hard Ciders.

New batch, Cranberry Cider

So the new batch consists of apple juice, 24 oz of fresh cranberries (stewed for a bit until they pop), brown sugar, some raisins, and yeast.  We'll rack it off the lees in about a week and add more sugar, then bottle a week after that and age......yeah, right, we'll drink it.

This is fun.

M

Notes on the New Year: your opinions wanted

Notes on the Road Ahead

2017 is going to bring a lot of changes--and a lot of work--to us here aboard "The Floating Empire".  Our plan is to build a new vessel, one based on our nearly four years of experience living here on the water.  The new boat, currently dubbed "Tesla's Revenge," will be an electrically driven barge houseboat, somewhat smaller than "Empire" but more seaworthy, and designed specifically so that anyone can build it out of common materials and with just a simple set of hand tools.

We plan on beginning the new construction in early spring, hopefully with a splash before or in early summer, and to spend most of the summer exploring the Erie canal system and the Great Lakes.

This leaves us with a number of decisions to make, vis a vis The Floating Empire.  We'd love you guys to give us your ideas on this.  What shall we do?  Do we disassemble the Empire and use the components to build the new boat?  Do we gift The Floating Empire to someone who wants her, someone who will continue her story of life on the water?  Do we do something else entirely?  Would you like to live here on the water?

What do you think? We'd really love to know.

The weather is lovely here right now, surprisingly warm this week, and without the stiff winds that have been plaguing us.  We're planning on cooking out tomorrow, doing a roast and Yorkshire pudding in the fire pit above, and then visiting good friends on Christmas day.  We wish all of you a great Yuletide season, and a happy and safe new year.

M

A minor gas update

The ubiquitous #20 Propane bottle.

Just as a quick update to our propane installation:  We've been using the propane only for cooking, and as you know if you've been following our blogs, we cook. We enjoy it, seldom eating out and almost NEVER using prepared foods of any kind.   Morning coffee and tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner. . . we roast our own coffee, we bake occasionally.  We use the galley constantly.  We also use the propane to heat water to do dishes, and for hot water bottles to warm up chilly feet on chilly evenings.  That's pretty continuous use of the stove.

We were curious how long one of the #20 bottles would last us.  Now we know.  This first round lasted us a trifle over six weeks.  Not bad, and certainly more economic than using non-refillable bottles.

Just cause some of you asked.  You may notice I didn't mention the wood stove and haven't mentioned the Kerosene Butterfly Stove in a bit.  Yes, we've stopped using them and, no, we're not particularly happy about it.  The Butterfly Kerosene stove worked well and faithfully, but Gail began to have a problem with the Kero fumes (ditto for our kerosene heater).  We were more than happy with out little TMZ Woodstove, but the Marina decided they didn't want any solid fuel stoves in the marina.  So, if we wanted to stay here, we're stuck with an electric heater and no woodstove.  Sigh.

More later

M

Update to the Cider Update Update

So we did the second rack off and bottling last night, the secondary fermentation having stopped.  Of course, we had to have a glass.

This REALLY turned out well.

Even as young as it is, the scrumpy is delicious.  Final ABV is about 7%, and it's surprisingly smooth.  Fun project that we'll continue.

M

Update to the Cider Update

. . . . .or, give it a little time, dammit.

So I put together the must for the pumpkin cider, pitched the yeast, and waited.  A day passed. . . .two. . . .nada.  No signs of fermentation (WHY would I think there would be?), so I freaked out and stirred it again, even did another yeast pitch.  Maybe, I thought, the must was still too hot when I did the original pitch (it wasn't).  Maybe there was too much chlorine in the water.  Maybe the moon was out of phase.

Sigh.

Only to feel like an idiot when the thing started cooking in earnest the next day, and has been ever since.

Yep, bubbling away.

Okay, so I get impatient.  This, like a lot of natural processes, takes time, and takes it's OWN time to happen.  Kinda like life.

So in a week or so, when the fermentation slows down, I'll rack it off the lees and to a second ferment, adding a bit of brown sugar and spices (it is a Pumpkin cider, after all), and, if I can keep my freaking hands off it, all shall be well.

Patience, Mungo, Patience.

sigh.

M

Cider update

A bit of a Cider update:  It's been nearly two weeks now, and we strained off the fruit and racked the cider into a new container, adding a bit more sugar.  Showing 4.59%  ABV on the hydrometer.  Tastes wonderful.  Will rack again over the weekend and bottle.

Love doing stuff for ourselves.

And, as an update to the update:  (Dec. 1 now) Been a couple of days, and the Cider has stopped it's second fermentation (which was really energetic), so we've racked it off into a couple of growlers (with a bit of sugar to give it a bit of fizz) and a carafe for immediate consumption as a still Scrumpy.  Showing 6.56 % ABV now.  Yay!

Hey, new stuff at Life, Art, Water.  Check it out.

M

Cider for the Holidays

So going into the holidays, we decided that brewing up a few bottles of strawberry cider would be in the cards:

So here's some of the fixin's:  Organic apple juice, a cup of double strong tea. . .

And, of course, diced gala apples and strawberries.

So dutifully, we added some of Bauger's wonderful apple juice with a bit of strong tea and some chopped gala apples and frozen strawberries from summer. . .

Gotta love the stick blender.  We use it for everything.

Macerate well, pitch in a packet of Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast after rehydrating, a cup or so of brown sugar, and some raisens.

Here it is, perking away.

Snap on the lid and a fermentation lock, and watch it bubble away.  We'll strain it off the fruit at about a week and add a bit more sugar, then bottle it at two weeks or so, with a bit more sugar to give it a bit of fizz.  Should be ready for New Years. . . .

. . . .who am I kidding, it'll never last that long.

We survived another Turkey Day with friends (the good news is:  The dishes are done.  The bad news is:  It's time to eat again), and now we're back into our winter prep and working on designs for the NEXT boat we're building.  More on that later.

For the moment, it's chopping wood, tidying up stuff, and making ourselves snug for the winter.

enjoy.

M

Our boat has gas. . . .

. . . . and it's a good thing.

Okay, so here's the deal:  We're still in the throes of working out the details of our decision to go carless.  So far, so good, but it has made some changes in how we do stuff.  We find we do a lot more shopping locally (within walking distance. . . not that we didn't before) because we are forced to be aware of the cost of transit.  We also have been ordering a lot of stuff on the internet that we would have otherwise driven about shopping for.  One of the more interesting effects has been on our propane/butane usage.  While we do some of our cooking on the woodstove, we also use our little Gas One dual fuel stovetop for a lot of stuff.  The trouble is, fetching propane or butane for the stove is no longer as convenient as it was with the car, entailing, at the very closest, hiking up to Target to get gas bottles and then carrying them back.  Then there's the irritating and very UNecological disposal of the empty, non-refillable, and non-recyclable containers.

Gas One Dual Fuel Stove

So after looking at the prospect of quite a bit of winter hiking to get stove fuel, we decided to hook the little burner (and it's accompanying pressure regulator) up to one of the ubiquitous 20 LB refillable propane cylinders, which, we figured, would only have to be refilled or exchanged every three months or so. 

Passing the stove's propane gasline through the countertop

The installation was surprisingly easy.  We purchased a 5' gas line adapter and extension, the kind used for rigging camp stoves and lanterns to a bigger gas bottle, from Amazon.  We routed the propane adapter line that came with the stove through the countertop (which put the pressure regulator where the 16 OZ propane bottles attach OFF the counter)

Routing the adapter hose through the forward bulkhead.

Not wanting a rather large bottle of explosive gas inside the boat, I plumbed the adapter line through the forward bulkhead so the gas bottle can sit on the foredeck.

Here's where she'll sit.  In coming days I'll build an enclosure and seat to cover.

Once it was all connected and hooked up, we turned on the gas and checked the now pressurized hose connections with soapy water.  Bubbles=Leaks of Explosive Gas.  Do NOT skip this part.  The stove in its new configuration works fine.

The installation had the added plus of freeing up counterspace from the hose and bottle.

For the next couple of days we'll be shutting off the gas at night and when we leave the boat, and checking our fittings for leaks to make sure it's secure, but for right now, it seems to be working just fine.

More details as we use the unit.

Hey, more stuff and some great photographs over at Life, Art, Water, check them out!

Stay tuned.

M

Why we live here, yet another sequel

enough said