Hard Apple Cider and Vinegar

Fermenting cider turned out to be as it is called-hard. First I fell off a ladder(dont worry I wasnt injured) harvesting the apples-see past post in the blog archive on the right entitled "Daily Harvest 10/21/13 Apple Picking." Then because of my chemical sensitivities I almost alienated my community needing help with my sustainably grown and organic apples and not being able to help with the commercial variety. Luckily that day turned out fine and was super fun-see past post entitled "Making Apple Cider 11/3/13." Then understanding and obtaining all the equipment was the next challenge coupled with not being full time at the farm. This caused some of our cider to start to turn to vinegar. The other challenge for me is the science. Hydrometers are one thing, but measuring viscosity, acidity, etc. seemed overwhelming. Then adding chemicals to kill off some things and encourage others, and adding yeasts and sugars seemed too dangerous to my health concerns. And the final straw of borrowing a hydrometer and promptly having it disappear into a void in the barn made me realize that using my intuition smell and taste to determine what to do next and choosing the method of add nothing to the mixture and accept what you get was the way I had to go. 

We used two kinds of apples. The bulk of our apples were from our tree here on the farm; an old variety with a bit of tannin, but still some sweetness and a nice rich taste. The other variety were a bushel of drops from Hutchins Farm. They were much sweeter. We tried to make cider with the pure Ivory Silo variety to see what it would be like(since the fresh cider tasted so delicious,) but unfortunately due possibly to their make up and natural state or more probably to the fact that we did not have the airlocks we needed in the beginning, most of this has started turning to vinegar. What I have done with it, is to deprive it of oxygen and put it in a cooler place to see if those yeasts will be discouraged but I am resigned to eventually make vinegar with it and/since I wanted some anyway. In the above picture you can see the 3 gallon carboy which is a mixture of the 2 kinds of apples with a good golden color brewing away. It has bubbles rising slowly and deliberately. This has always had an airlock. It has been siphoned once and smells and tastes bad like blueberry wine before it is ready. The 1/2 gallon mason jar on the left is mostly Ivory Silo apples that did not seem to have as much of the vinegar yeasts. I added a little of the other mixture to it to top it off(so it did not have so much head space thus oxygen) and see if it would continue to ferment and not turn. It is not fermenting as well as the bigger carboy and is darker in color. I moved the two more than 5 feet apart just in case. In the end this is all such a beautiful and fascinating experiment that I am not complaining, just musing and learning and waiting to see what happens.