A.D.D. Theater 7 · 2:52am Dec 19th, 2014
This is a bit of a test for a CMC story. I think IT would be about 5 chapters, if I ran with it. Tell me what you think.
Applebloom wrinkled her nose. Berry Punch’s winery smelt funny. She wouldn’t say it smelt bad, just strange. Then again she’d never been inside a winery before; she had no idea what one was supposed to smell like.
“Hello,” she called, looking around for Berry Punch. She knew the mare in passing, but had never really spoken to her.
“Back here,” a voice answered from somewhere in the maze of wooden vats.
Closing the door behind her, Applebloom ventured into the building. It was about the same size as their barn, but with the feel of a kitchen. Barrels of all sizes filled the space. Hundreds of hogsheads were stacked along the wall, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. Along the center of the room, a dozen wagon-sized barrels divided the space. It was beside one of these behemoths that Applebloom found her substitute teacher.
“Hey Applebloom,” Berry said, watching some little thing float in a beaker of purple liquid. “Just you?”
“Yea, Twilight found us separate tutors for while she’s gone.”
Berry nodded her head, and sat the beaker down. Taking up a pen and notebook, she made a little note. “You’ve been studying alchemy, right?”
“Yep. But I don’t get what wine has to do with alchemy.”
“Plenty!” Berry smiled at Applebloom. Setting the notebook down, she motioned her to come closer. “See that,” she said pointing to the thing she had been holding earlier.
“Looks like a thermometer floating in grape juice.”
“You’re close. It’s called a hydrometer, and that’s wine; or at least fermented grape juice. I’m not quite ready to call it wine.”
Applebloom was actually familiar with a hydrometer. Twilight had taught her how to use one in the lab to measure density changes in potion. While Twilight’s hydrometer looked different, now that she knew what it was, Berry’s looked familiar enough. “Why do you need to know the wine’s density?”
Berry blinked at the question, surprised that the young mare knew what the instrument measured. “Well, I measure it before I add the yeast. As the yeast turns the sugar into alcohol, the density lowers. Taking measurements tells me how that process it going: how much sugar I started with, how much is left, and how strong the wine will be. Knowing those numbers is the only way I can recreate a batch of wine later.”
“Oh, that’s kinda cool.” Picking up the little notebook, she scanned the column of numbers. Again, she found the to be roughly familiar, but still strange.
Berry Punch spent the next few hours showing Applebloom the shop. She took great pride in explaining her craft to the young mare, showing her how she blended art and science into a prized drink.
“So, can you make wine out of something besides grapes?” Applebloom asked, looking over one of Berry’s recipe books.
“Sure! Most any fruit or berry can be fermented. Heck, great uncle Applejack was famous for his hard cider; which is really just apple wine.”
Applebloom’s head jerked up for the book in her hooves. “What! Really?”
Berry hummed and hawed for a moment. “Well... you can technically call hard cider and apple wine separate things. But really you kinda have to be a connoisseur to care about the difference.”
“No.” Applebloom shook her head. I was asking about you having an uncle named Applejack.”
“Oh.” Berry smiled. “You didn’t know? We’re cousins. My great grandfather and yours were brothers.”
Not really enough to make an enthusiastic call on it. It's a well written scene, sounds interesting enough from the vague details, just no idea what your intent with the piece is. Can we at least get a plot description of some kind?
2663309
Here's the thought.
Sweet Apple Acres, hasn't made hard cider in decades. They only sell their sweet cider in the fall.
The story will be about Bloom digging out great grand pa's old notes, and making a run of Hard cider. In the process, we'll give the CMC their marks in various skills.
Well now, you see, that sounds like a cool story. Given from the above that it looks like you have at least some background in brewing, this could be a fascinating read indeed. And I do like the linked comic, saw that a little while ago and loved the idea.
Yes, I think this could do well.
My friends made an apple based moonshine once a while back, had a full still for it and everything. It's... interesting stuff. I only had a shot myself. I swear the damn thing vaporized on my tongue, and while I was expecting to swallow it, I got nothing. Still tasted good.
2663346
I brew my own hard cider every year. Have 24 liters sitting behind me aging right now. I want to use this story as a "write what you know" exercise.
2663362
Well there you go then. As long as you can give it something of a decent plot I think this'll work quite well.
I know it's several days after, but I think you should take this idea and run with it like it was a two all-beef patties, special cause, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun and you were the Hamburglar.
Also, I would like to inquire into your recipe, or at least get your opinion on different yeasts to try. I like my go-to well enough, but it's a champagne yeast, so while it does a good (if somewhat dry) job, it's really better suited for making applejack, so I'd like to consider branching out, and as I'm really not a fan of liquid yeasts for reasons I'm not able to articulate... well, there you have it.
2672513
That kills the apple flavor.
You want an actual cider yeast. Something that produces esters that have an apple profile. This is what I use, and I'm very happy with it. It's a liquid, but the cake in that vile is huge. You can pith and forget if you want.
As for the recipe, I keep things simple. One pound honey per gallon of fresh cider. Tannin and Oak to taste. I treat it like red wine when I'm balancing the tannin. This year I added elderflower, and while they turned the cider a horrible color, it smells wonderful. I'm hoping it tastes as good once it's bottle aged.
2672785
I have not had positive experiences with elderflower, but I'm inclined to blame that on the recipe since that was all it tasted like; pony words or not, drinking flowers is not really my thing.