Apple Avalanche? This Cidermaking Log Will Help You Harness This Year's Harvest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cider-Making Logbook from 33 Books Co. for Home Cidermakers
PORTLAND, OREGON, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 — After trading his city life for a country home in 2017, 33 Books Co. owner Dave Selden knew he was in trouble when he filled his fourth wheelbarrow with apples.
"I was thrilled with the idea of making cider from my own trees," says Selden. "I'd made cider at home many times, so I wasn't exactly new to the idea of cider-making. But it was a lot easier back then: buy some juice at the store, dump it in a carboy, add a little yeast, and bingo! Two weeks later, it was cider."
But after picking a small mountain of fruit from a dozen apple trees, he realized the hubris of his harvest idea.
"I pretty quickly realized that picking, pressing and fermenting tree volumes of fruit was a little more like professional cider making," he continues. "I needed to up my cider game considerably."
His first step was buying an apple press. His second? Designing 33 Cider Pressings, a logbook Selden created for home cidermakers.
33 Pressings' clean, chronological layout allows home cidermakers to list the apple varieties used in their juice, as well as key stats on its composition, including gravity (a measure of sugar available for fermentation), pH and T.A., or total acidity.
Once the juice is pressed, space is provided to track fermentation in detail, including treatments and transfers.
When fermentation is complete, cidermakers can note the finished cider's stats and yield in bottles, cans or kegs.
The book's layout and features were developed in collaboration with some of the preeminent cidermakers in the Northwest, including Nat West (Reverend Nat's Hard Cider), James Kohn (Wandering Aengus/Anthem) and Abram Goldman-Armstrong (Cider Riot!). The book brings professional-level process to home cider-makers.
"I really wish I'd had this book when I was starting out," says West, who is known for his inventive modern ciders. "In fact, I may start using it at our cidery now. It works even for my unusual ciders.”
33 Cider Pressings is printed in Portland on 100% recycled paper and is available today for $7 each at 33Books.com and finer DIY and homebrew stores nationwide. Volume pricing for interested retailers can be obtained by contacting 33 Books Co.
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About 33 Books Co.
Dave Selden started 33 Books Co. as a side project to his side project. A weekend homebrewer and beer blogger, he developed a unique pocket beer-tasting notebook in 2009 to help take notes on the beers he was writing about. After just a few years, the books became his full-time job. Today, 33 Books Co. produces more than a dozen flavors of pocket tasting notebooks and other tasting tools in Portland, Oregon.
