Season2019
Campaign status
- Total amount desired: € 6 000.00
- Number of donations: 0
- Total amount received/pledged: € 00.00
- Updated 25/2/2020
Summary
The target of this crowdfunding or rather "friendfunding" campaign is to help me to complete my first commercial cider season, 2019. I've been fermenting for over a decade but this is a first time when I can actually make real money from my beloved activity. I've a bit over 90 hl (9 000 l) of cider fermenting, results of my hard work last autumn. All apples were manually harvested, organic (no certification but no treatments), fermentated with natural yeast on the apples, nothing added during the fermentation, later on fermented naturally in the bottle. I put already over 5 000€ in and things look really good. I estimate that the costs of finishing up the season properly will be around €6 000. This includes bottles, corks, capsules, muselets for bottling but also importantly costs of distillation because not all the cider will be good enough for bottling. I also need to have ready a special "deposit" for the French government, worth of 10% of value of my products. The list could go on and on. I highly appreciate any support here, it is the 2019 and upcoming 2020 seasons which I will need help with. After that I can start to sell my products and things will get better. Of course I'm offering some cider perks. Please be aware that the cider needs time to finish it's fermentation in the bottle, so it will be not ready before August, after than it needs to be stored if possible below 10°C definitely not above 15°C. Many thanks for your support and if you have any further questions, please have a look on "details" below or get in touch. Merci!
Donating
You can donate in the following ways:
- Bank transfer to Frantisek Apfelbeck's (Algoldor's) bank account:
- IBAN : FR76 1660 6100 1084 8435 1462 511
- BIC: AGRIFRPP866
- Please add the description "cidre2019" plus "perk name" if you claim one
- Bitcoin donation receiving address (Algoldor's bitcoin wallet): 1AxX8BMNs4fnZXyCpZURqtMDiP1yGY3YMS
- Please add the description "cidre2019" plus "perk name" if you claim one
- PayPal Send money to: algoldor@yahoo.com - please use the "Send money to a friend" function and include your Name, Nickname and "cidre2019" plus "perk name" if you claim one. Thanks!
Contact: algoldor@foodhackingbase.org
Perks
Here you can soon find list of perks. Please be aware. it is expensive to ship cider. It is possible but the price for one carton (6xbottles) delivered around Europe is around 40€. I'm regularly coming to some events where I bring my cider and I can do some deliveries in France, Germany, Czech Republic and possibly other countries but it needs to be agreed on! Of course you can come and pick it up either in France or Czech Republic.
Details
I've been fermenting variety of things since 2007. I started with cider since I came back to Europe in 2016. This is my fourth season and first commercial one. I aim to do a best product and here I will simply describe how I accomplish that.
I do manual harvest only. That allows me to select just the best apple, plus they are much cleaner than when harvested by machine so I can minimize washing and therefore waste of water. I can do between 500 to 900 kg per day by myself depending on the orchard, weather, my condition and also if I harvest directly to a trailer or into the bags. I transport my apples next to my workshop and in general I allow them to sit for few weeks so they can mature a bit more. After that I crash and press the apples with help of local prestataire de service M. Benoit, who comes with his mobile press. Here a bit thanks to my friends who help me with this! If we do well, we can do around three to four tonnes per four hours, with around 70% efficiency it gives 700 l of fresh apple juice from 1000 kg of apples give ortake. I try to select which apples are pressed when during the pressing in a manner that their flavour profile corresponds as much as possible with the final cider flavour which I'm after. It is called assemblage. I transfer the resulting juice into the fermentation vessels taking the samples. If all goes well, there is a process called défécation "high clearing" where the pectins clarify the juice. I let they young cider ferment at ambient temperature over the winter. During this period I'm transferring the cider (racking/soutirage) from vessel to vessel to slow down the fermentation, disposing the sediment therefore getting rid of impurities. I check how is the specific density going slowly down, smelling and tasting if the cider doesn't have any off fragrances or off flavours. If it does I try to work with it or destine it for distillation. I also try to check the pH. Around February I do the final fragrance and flavour tests and check by microscope what is the yeast cell count. Based on that I may do a filtration through cardboard filters but I'm trying to avoid that. When I decide that the cider is ready for bottling I buy bottles, corks, muselets and capsules, get the bottling equipment ready (which I'm borrowing currently) and with help of my friends I start to bottle. The cider continues to ferment in the bottle (just natural yeast which were already present), so called prise de mousse naturelle which takes between two to five months. It should be done below 10°C resulting in pressure of 2-3 bars. If all goes well by the end of the summer or beginning of the autumn the cider is ready to be drunk. However any longer shipment especially at higher temperature just after end of the season is risky, general it is better to wait for some months more or for intercontinental shipping another summer season.