Building a Cidery

We do have some apples this year.  And we have a grinder.  And a press.  And fermenting containers.  But we have nowhere to do the work.  In past years, we did it in the driveway.

But now we will have a building.

Here's its future location











:





Here it is in progress.
Well - it's in kit form.  D is moving the roofing.
From right to left is the door.  The cider press covered in two tarps.  The pile of components.

Hard to believe that little pile will be a 12 x 15 building!

Building the floor.  Notice that Bry now has two supervisors!

Before the 4th wall was put up, the very heavy cider press was moved in.

Working on the roof.
Ed and Bry have lost their third man!

With Ed Maynard supervising, it is fully framed the first day.
He had help from his cousin Rick and son Bryant.

Ed and Bry got the building completely framed and installed the purlins.














And reinforcements in the form of Michelle and Rick arrived to help put the green metal roof.

Day Two:  

Next come the eaves and soffit.

It's Ed and Bry working alone. 

This is becoming a really attractive building.

With the eaves trimmed beautifully, it's time to put up the siding.

The men worked two long days and accomplished all this.

They will be back another day to finish the west siding, the gables, the door, the roof vent.

We may wait to install the windows until after we figure out the best location for them.

If you are wondering how the colors were chosen. . . Ed picked them.  It's apple red and leaf green.  Perfect colors for a cidery.

DAY THREE:  Adding the finishing touches, and it's done!

This building is even better than we had hoped.  Ed came up with an excellent design.  He and Bry with help from Rick executed it perfectly.  We should be able to be operational at the end of September, 2015.

Ciabatta

I'm ready for a chewy, crusty bread.  I found the recipe for ciabatta and that appealed to me.  The night before, I made the biga, allowing it to rest overnight.

Biga

4 ounce (1/2 cup) water
1/2 teaspoon active-dry yeast
5 ounce (1 cup) all-purpose flour

Here's what it looked like at night.

And here's the next morning.

 Ciabatta

17 ounces (2 cups + 2 tablespoons) water
1 teaspoon active-dry yeast
Biga
20 ounces (4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt

After adding the next ingredients and beating, it was obvious it was a very slack dough.

After 10 minutes with the stand mixer, I had a runny batter.  10 more minutes, still a runny batter.  I gave up and added three more ounces of flour.  It finally came together after 15 more minutes of beating.  But you can see how soft it is.

It is almost like trying to handle jello.

They were very well received.  I guess I'll try this again!

Sadly, one tray got burned on the bottom shelf of the oven before I caught it.  That meant I could not take it to the covered-dish lunch.  I'll have to trim off the dark places and eat them myself.

The recipe says 475º for 20-30 minutes.  Too hot, too long. . . 

Crumpets

We picked up some crumpets at Trader Joe's.  It had been years since we had eaten them.  They were a treat, so I decided to find a recipe to try.

After proofing the yeast in 1/4 cup water and a bit of sugar, you add bread (320g) and AP (320g) flour, 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar,  and 2 cups of water.  Beat for a few minutes.

After a one-hour rest, it should have risen and fallen.

Add 10g salt and rest for a few minutes before adding 2/3 cup milk and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

Then it's ready to put on the griddle.  Don't turn until the top is holey and dryish.

Serve the end result with lots of butter and anything else that appeals.  I used honey, but I'm thinking nutella would be good, too.

The holes are great at holding butter!!

These may have been too thin.  I did not use crumpet rings.  Maybe next time.

Rainbow

Tonight a quick burst of rain appeared out of no where, but the sun was still shining, so we got to enjoy a rainbow.

A lovely end to the day.