Saturday 13 December 2008

...onwards an' up an' all that

This is the first year ever that I've been able to enjoy a glass of the previous year's cider while pressing the current year's juice!
The 'Jackie' press is holding despite hearing another loud crack (presumably from the top beams..? er, 'tis only softwood...) on the first pressing of batch 4...
the first two 30 litres are now indeed cider with a gravity of 1002-3 and quite different. Batch 1 one is a 33% mix (ie a third each of sweets, sharps and bitters) and showing promise, whereas batch 2 is a trial with 50/35/15%'s (sweet, sharps and bitters) as I'm trying to reproduce last yr's later batches when the crab apples were becoming depleted! As all was well with these later batches it seemed a sensible move as the crab apple supply has been reduced this year.
Hopefully tomorrow will see another 90lbs of apples prepared for the creation of Batch 5! I have the apples but limited time this year, Scratter and pulper setup working well this year...