Scrumpy, Baby!

[KenJohnson]

Hey guys,

so im making an experimental cider/scrumpy using nothing but apple juice and wild yeast.
The juice is Beechworth- Just apple juice, from the organic shop nearby. for the yeast I used organic apple peels in apple juice, made a few batches and waited a week. some smelled yuck, and one smelled really nice and cidery. so im gonna use that one

did a hydrometer reading, which was 1055

 

[KenJohnson]

Its been one day, and there's a nice foamy head on top. so id better keep it nice and cool, darn crazy brisbane weather!

 

[Milky11111]

I'd love to hear how this works out, I'm looking to do a cider in the "not-so-distant" future and cultivating a wild yeast to use sounds intriguing. Hope it goes well! :beer:

 

[InCider]

Sounds awesome Ken! :icon_cheers:

 

[Punkal]

Nice... I like how you have cultured some wild yeast... You will have to collect some so you can reuse the little buggers, especially if they do there job well...

 

[SuiCIDER]

Traditional scrumpy has raw meat in it. Just sayin'.

 

[hsb]

:huh: What?

 

[Airgead]

S'true... some old recipes for scrumpy had a piece of raw meat added to the juice to assist fermentation. So did a lot of really old ale recipes.

The thinking is that the meat acts as a yeast nutrient (proteins, amino acids etc etc) which for a cider could be quite important as they are often low in nutrients.

Nice robust fermentation but I'm not sure how it would affect the taste...

Cheers
Dave

 

[Malted]

S'true... some old recipes for scrumpy had a piece of raw meat added
Nice robust fermentation but I'm not sure how it would affect the taste...

Probably could beef up the flavour!

 

[hsb]

I've seen a fair few Scrumpy setups in Somerset and they weren't of the meaty variety, just apples, oak presses and flies - maybe the flies substitute for the meat round shepton 'way.
There seemed to be more than a few nutrients floating around for sure, sounds like an old country tale to put the city folk off, or sell a few extra sides of ham - but i'm sure it's all gone in one way or another over the ages.

 

[manticle]

According to Annie Proux it is an old method for kicking off a stuck fermentation, particularly when wild yeasts are relied upon for fermentation and may move very slowly.

She doesn't recommend it.

 

[hsb]

Interesting stuff, learn something new every day on here. A little snippet about it here:

Fermentation in the past was a haphazard affair because no one knew how to control the wild yeasts properly. Often a leg of mutton was thrown into the barrel, or sometimes the cock's throat was slit and blood was poured in! It was said that no traces of meat or bone remained when the barrel was emptied however. It is also true, that rats who drank from the froth at the top of a fermenting barrel often got drunk and fell in.

The cider presses I've seen have been basic as, just wooden presses, a gutter and a barrel. No sign of real temperature control for the ferment, just seasonal variation I guess and definitely no stainless bling!

Good luck with that wild yeast KJ, you takes your chances with that.

 

[KenJohnson]

I know, the wild yeast is a bit of gamble but if it turns out ok, i'll resuse it for sure raw meat? i think i'll stick with regular yeast nutrient haha. ah experimental brewing, its the best sort

 

[Silo Ted]

Nice work, love your approach. I have been toying with the idea of using wildharvested sourdough in a brew bittered by local plants. Your little experiment reminds me that I should pull my finger out and get started.

Hope you keep this thread updated with the progress.

 

[KenJohnson]

I got the technique from a video where this English guy shows you how to do it... now where is that video?

and part 2


its a pretty good way to lower the chance of getting a crap strain of wild yeast

 

[KenJohnson]

Scrumpy has been fermenting for 15 days now. the bubbles have slowed down to about 1-2 per minute. So the question is, should I rack it or leave it for longer? If I do rack, should i top up with more juice? OR should i just take a gravity reading, wait a few days and take another, then bottle etc.
probly dumb questions, but it just seems wrong to leave it in Primary for more then 2 weeks. So what do you all reckon?

 

[Feldon]

Scrumpy has been fermenting for 15 days now. the bubbles have slowed down to about 1-2 per minute. So the question is, should I rack it or leave it for longer? If I do rack, should i top up with more juice? OR should i just take a gravity reading, wait a few days and take another, then bottle etc.
probly dumb questions, but it just seems wrong to leave it in Primary for more then 2 weeks. So what do you all reckon?

Time to chuck in that leg of pork

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Scrumpy has been fermenting for 15 days now. the bubbles have slowed down to about 1-2 per minute. So the question is, should I rack it or leave it for longer? If I do rack, should i top up with more juice? OR should i just take a gravity reading, wait a few days and take another, then bottle etc.
probly dumb questions, but it just seems wrong to leave it in Primary for more then 2 weeks. So what do you all reckon?

Take a couple of gravity readings. Say every couple of days, if the readings are all the same bottle!

Out of curiosity..... What temp did you brew at? and what does the hydro sample taste like?

Also I wouldn't rack and add more juice, this will make the brew take longer to ferment.

1 more thing....... Never having done a scrumpy or anything like it, the scrumpys ive seen in tv shows have all been cloudy as all buggery! So i have no idea why racking to secondary would be beneficial.

 

[KenJohnson]

thnks guys ok i'll just take some readings and see how its actually going. I know the airlock isnt a true guage of the fermentation, so i'll do that tomorrow and have a little taste of course

temp was around 20 degrees, give or take.

 

[manticle]

Take a couple of gravity readings. Say every couple of days, if the readings are all the same bottle!

Out of curiosity..... What temp did you brew at? and what does the hydro sample taste like?

Also I wouldn't rack and add more juice, this will make the brew take longer to ferment.

1 more thing....... Never having done a scrumpy or anything like it, the scrumpys ive seen in tv shows have all been cloudy as all buggery! So i have no idea why racking to secondary would be beneficial.

It's not beer Wallace. Naturally fermented cider can take a very long time and can stall so the couple of day reading thing doesn't apply here. Racking to secondary is for maturation and maturation happens better in bulk volume.

Ken: racking to secondary is fine for this kind of beverage. Leaving it for a couple of weeks in primary won't do any harm though. I'd rack when your SG is around 3/4 the way to your expected finish. Forget counting bubbles. Some more fresh yeast will grow but you'll take it off the old dead cells.

If you do rack then you do want to minimise headspace so adding juice isn't crazy - however you will be kicking of ferment agan. Depending on how much headspace is there, you can top with cooled, boiled water or simply put some sanitised marbles in the vessel to raise the level