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Temperature control! YAY!

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Corcis

Worker Bee
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Oct 30, 2008
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Well, I finally invested in some proper form of temperature control other than looking at the LCD thermometer and fretting. I got a fridge delivered yesterday, now I'm making room for it in my bedroom. Err...the joys of college student living. We're going to throw together a cider to celebrate and ferment it with champagne yeast. It makes me feel like we're living dangerously. Also going to get another 5gal of cider and do cyser now that I've got this down. The local apple farm has delicious honeycrisps and sells a five gallon batch in-your-fermenter for $22! I'm so excited to finally get this together!
 

Corcis

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Oct 30, 2008
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Wayne, I don't need more reasons to wax poetic about this place, but the farms just rock. It's a small-medium city (~60k people) in the way I like. There's a farm two miles down the road - it's actually closer to downtown than me and I'm not even out of city limits. I LOVE it. Ten, maybe twelve miles north of here, is the apple orchard.

Coupled with the fact that we have two nationally-acclaimed brewpubs in town, a good brew shop, a meadery (which I have yet to go to - sacrilege, I know)...I'm kinda in heaven and have been since I turned 21 a few years ago.
 

Corcis

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Oct 30, 2008
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Bellewood Acres. If you take I-5 up to Bellingham, hop off on the Guide Meridian exit, turn right on Ten Mile Rd. They said they will take a fermenter and hold it until their next pressing, then will stick it in their fridge for a few days; price is $4.50 a gallon if you do this. Even if you just buy cider in gallon jugs, it's $5.50 a gallon, which is a steal.
 

Vino

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 30, 2008
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Birmingham, Alabama
We have a great orchard (Steele Orchard) just an hour north of us, they press a blend for our hard ciders that includes Honey Crisp, Jonagold, Pink Lady, and a small amount of wild apples (crabapples) that they harvest from their pollinizers.

The blend creates a good balance of sweetness and acidity, and the wild apples add a bitterness that emulates some of the UK ciders I have tasted (Westons, Henneys).

BTW, how are you controlling the temperature on the fridge?
 

Corcis

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Oct 30, 2008
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Item #40090 on NorthernBrewer and a Thermowell stopper added to the fridge.

I am kind of worried the honeycrisp cider will be too sweet, but there're ways to change that once it's fermented.
 

Vino

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 30, 2008
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Birmingham, Alabama
Yes, though it's not here yet. Any particular reason you ask?

Have a couple laying around...would have sent you one.

I use them on both my freezers (draft/fermentation) they work great. You can set the differential to +/- 1 degree, but their greatest feature is setting the cycle time so the fridge/freezer don't cycle off and on which can reduce the life of the compressor.
 
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