News 2025 2 2
Greetings to all in the new year 2025.
We hope that you have enjoyed the Christmas holiday and managed to rest also a bit during January. After many years, we have managed during January to take it a bit more easy; alas, it was partly because of a disease, but still. From the events of interest, we should mention the cider trip to Normandie and SIVAL. Together with Cider Bohemia, Cider Talk, Selský sad, and cider maker & artistic carver Vlastimile Hanuš, we have first visited our cidrerie in Normandie. We have profited from the lovely landscapes around, took grafts from the orchards that I rent, especially the bitter and bittersweet varieties. We have continued with stocking during our visit to Maison Hérout, cidrerie, where I've done my internship during my studies to become a certified cider maker at the institute le Robillard. Our final stop was participation of our delegation at SIVAL, which is one of the biggest agricultural expositions in France. No surprise, we were after everything related to cider. The main topic of the traditional theoretical presentations was focused on usage-specific strains of yeast in the cider fermentation, both during primary and secondary fermentation in bottles. Our French colleges were not idle. Later we went on the "walk", where we were searching around the area for equipment used in cider production, which was quite a task. We have checked varieties of filters from tangential flow filters (TFF), kieselguhr filters, and sheet filters. There were many fermentation vessels, from the ones made of stainless steel to concrete and ceramic. Many different shapes and naturally technological improvements like external cooling systems and a variety of sensory systems. I have also been after corkers which would be able to do champagne corks, which are broader than our currently used d = 27 mm and last longer. The corks with a diameter over 29 mm are more expensive, and importantly, to be applied, they need machines like ELVAmac Rapid 56. I was also curious about the mesh steel stillages, which are used for the storage of bottles after bottling; they are very practical because of their folding features. We have made a stop by the stand of IFPC, which was giving the presentations and talked about what is new in the field. I would rather not start about the variety of machinery used for upkeep of the orchards. My colleagues were very interested in the grass cutters with satellites, which are making cutting in the orchards way easier.
As some of you already noticed, after a more relaxed January, we opened the 2025 season on the 2nd of February at the farmers markets at pražská Náplavka. During February we will be there every Saturday. For March we would like to invite you to the International Beer Festival in Litoměřice, where we will be representing our ciders.
Concerning the opening of the 2025 season, it would be all from us for now. If you know about some interesting event in your region, which you think would be suitable for us, let us know, please! Also, if we get together more than ten people, we would be happy to come and do our cider flows.
Have a great time,
from Kout na Šumavě for Kvasírna Jara,
Franišek Apfelbeck
