Monday 31 December 2012

Looking ahead!

Never mind 'heave ho'... but at least I did manage to get the last full batch pressed leaving the pulping and pressing of the final 15 litres for tomorrow.
Pressing with the new 12 ton jack is yeilding around a litre more juice from the same amount of pulp - so I've got an extra 2 litres to add to the last 15.
25 and 26 both fermenting now and will need airlocks fitting tomorrow
Let's hope 2013 is a better year for apples ...though if it is I'll need to do some serious thinking....
cheers and all the best to all wherever you may be!

Sunday 30 December 2012

New Year's Heave?

All remaining apples now scratted ready for a last big push tomorrow (unless something else crops up...) - oh, read: later today. The left-overs made 20.5 k or 15 litres worth which are largely bitter sweet, so will be an interesting taste when the time comes.
The motor caravan has become store for the unfermented batches (as well as the pre MC1 batch*) and I've got a small oil-filled radiator on to help coax 25 and 26 to start.
27 and 28 still in garage. A bit of head scratching to find somewhere to put these then there's tomorrow's...

Saturday 29 December 2012

Mario Kart time...














... been watching this pint of John Downie, poured for the daughter's boyfriend, and it's still got a 'head' after 20 mins (now 1/2 hr) which is a tad unusual for cider.
Not very good at it myself - I keep going over the edge - but the cider is good!
Earlier the other Ampleforth Abbey cider was sampled - not good - medium... I should have left it at the Abbey and got 2 of the contract bottled instead. Mind you, it has all gone now...



















It's a bit 'spritzy' and the sleeve provided tends to suggest they've lost a few..?
Too sweet for me... Lec (D's boyfriend) is more used to commercial cider and found it more acceptable...

chaos here, but look - JD still got ring of 'head'...

Five Go~old Rings!

Q: How does Santa get a 12 tonne jack down the chimney?



















A: It's a mystery - we haven't even got a chimney (more's the pity, as an open fire would be nice...)



















Extraction rate goes up - the 20 litre container (top pic) has been hastily prepared to accomodate the extra juice (approx. 1 - 1.5 L?)
Batch 28 then makes 1.045, with next batch scratted ready and remaining fruit weighed - sufficient for just 15 litres (+?) - on target then for 850 litres.

Friday 28 December 2012

Idleness sets in...

Just a few days off and the simplest of tasks become almost insurmountable - it's all down to the 'up there for thinking'...
Sweets and sharps prepared today for the last full batch, wearily it has to be admitted, and it's a good job I denied the moorhens some of their seasonal treats in the run up to the holidays as the 2 kilos gathered may just tip the balance to get 850 litres. I'm supposed to have quite a lot of some questionable swt/shps to the tune of 8.5k but in fact will be lucky if there's 2k left. The thing is remembering to adjust the figures for the remaining stock on every batch preparation...
There's also a few extra bits of fancy gear kicking around to try out...

Tuesday 25 December 2012

'tis Indeed...

the season to be merry














apple midst holly
and not a single berry

good wishes to all!

(please remember to live responsibly)

Sunday 23 December 2012

Banished

- from the kitchen - from today. Called for a major reshuffle of available space and sort of stored empties - most time-consuming...
775 litres with tonight's - gravity not taken yet - also required re-stacking. Apples prep for next, then just one more full press to go. See what's left over then for final... should that be finale..? Should make 850 litres in all...

Thursday 20 December 2012

Sheer magnetism

allbeit electro... that's an electric drill for you. Clever stuff. Not so though when all the innards come out as you remove the cover... doh. At one point I thought I was going to have to take the cover off the other just to see how it all goes together... but the moulded base is lugged and it can only reassemble a certain way.
So, new brushes now fitted. Good as new, and next batch scratted ready for pulping tomorrow. For a budget brand of DIY drill at £20 they do well considering the pulper alone accounts for 17.5 hrs of use with over a tonne of apples so far processed.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Spoke too soon...

The drill powering the pulper packed up last night. Though I have 2 so I don't have to keep swapping from pulper to scratter, but the scratter one is the everyday drill and the bearing took a hammering from drilling the holes on the press and is sounding pretty rough.
The fault may yet turn out to be just worn brushes and I do have a set of new brushes, somewhere...
It's a wet one here today (now Thursday), so there may be time to sort it and a few other backed-up jobs.
After two consecutive nights of pressing I had one off last night. Last batch made 1.051 and puts me to 745 litres

Monday 17 December 2012

Woefully inadequate..?

Just about describes my current set-up. Press needed a restack again tonight. At every pressing the remaining fruit gets that bit softer and that bit slippier. Blending the apples beforehand helps, as does applying pressure slowly, but the press cloths and solid boards are just not letting juice out efficiently. I've reached scrounger's limit!
Though having said that, it's nearly there on the next 30 litres with just another 4 pressings to go and there may be enough left for a part-pressing, maybe 20 litres.
Better get out there and give the jack a few more cranks...

Sunday 16 December 2012

Small step. Giant leap?



















Defintitely more than 210 litres - more like 230-240(?) filled to just below the threaded section. 200 gms sugar added dissolved in hot water - scientific calculation? - hardly - it was all the caster sugar I could find, but should help keep it active. Make mental note: need better pump!

Saturday 15 December 2012

Both Barrels...

...back of the car.














I was lucky to get them into the car at all as they are bigger than anticipated and look much larger than the 210 litres described. (Net weight declared of original contents is 290 kg - begs the question: what's the difference between mango chutney and cider..?)
One's on its side on the kitchen floor with 2 gallons of sterilising solution and being rotated every 10 minutes.
That's it, final turn - two full rotations, should be well sweet enough for cider tomorrow now.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Leave it Alone!

One of the advantages of making more than you need ie. more than you consume (and give away of course) is that you have an opportunity to build up your 'cellar'. Thing is as the more mature stuff improves (and, oh boy, does it!) you find yourself reaching for the older stuff. For me this being 2010 (longest I've kept ever) of which a few boxes yet remain. But if I don't leave it alone it won't get to that magic triple vintage whereafter it reportedly enters decline. Avid followers will note that I am not a sulphiting fan and so it's interesting to note that there is no in-bottle degradation - in fact quite the opposite seems to be the case two years on...

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Pushing it...

getting towards the extreme end of comfortable now with my all-home-made basic set-up... Surprisingly nothing has broken this season but shh...
Tonight's pressing went a bit skewy and needed restacking, but got there in the end... bit inconvenient to say the least though to have to dismantle it all...
I'll do the gravity in the morning

Saturday 8 December 2012

'Yes Sir, yes Sir...'

...three bags full...! Apples, not wool of course. I knew there were more, but didn't expect to get so many... I think the undergrowth must have died back a bit since 'last visit. Probably my closest 'true' cider apple - true in this sense as it's about as close as I can get - and there just might be enough for a single variety! Exciting, can't wait - scoff ye not...


Friday 7 December 2012

'Them's good apples Pip me boy..'

...and that's what I thought yesterday. I'd already enquired after these (Golden Deli's), and so, over a month on, they were all over the lawn as I thought they might be... the customer had said he might want them, and the customer is always right... There were a few Bramley's as well... not that I need any, but then in the corner over there..? a small tree full of clingy reds - Spartan maybe... dunno but they all went in, making around 18 kilos in all. I left the ones the birds had started and a few more as well - there's a good few calories to help keep 'em going - Blackbirds skittering away in their alarmed fashion as they do...
Another pressing tonight... is that 600 litres now..? Losing count

Tuesday 4 December 2012

'As I sit and close my eyes...'

I'm thinking of the Beach Boys' track 'Mean't for you' from the Friends album... meanies EMI have blocked the track on You Tube so I can't listen to it even though I bought the original, and possibly still have it somewhere (how much did they make out of that? - and how much did Brian and the Boys get...) though it's probably on a format I can no longer play anyway... and If I download it from I Tunes how much more will they make and how much more etc etc... not to mention Mike Love's cut..?
Anyway, as I sit and close my eyes with a pale greeny-golden batch 9 2011 (er, with errant bits stirred by a fine bottle-conditioned steadily rising mousse) I come to realise that I've yet to empty the press...

Ooo, just accidentaly caught the spell check button - turns out that 'EMI,' along with 'er' and 'greeny', don't exist anyway...
so then 575 litres - most ever for me... yesterday's made 1.050... though at 4 deg c juice temperature, probably more like 1.049 - as if I care? Do I look bothered..? Is grass green? - not always...

back shortly...


hmm, well got a bit side-tracked there... what with the Wrecking Crew and Leonard Cohen...

dargh, press boards washed but still forgot to take the gravity...

back presently...

brr, it's got that biting cold damp feel out there - I reckon allowing for the 4.5 deg c (does the friction of pressing warm the juice..?) it's 1.049 - same

that's me done, cheers.

Monday 3 December 2012

cidre nouveau?

So then, yesterday's pressed tonight...
As the fruit hangs around, the sweets get more prone to slippage in the press. Making do with plywood press boards doesn't help - and the 'new' varnish coating is quite smooth - just have to take a little longer in applying pressure, so I've been dodging in and out to the garage as the crap acts have come on the Variety Show (Royal non less) [with a bit of Facebook banter in between...] - speaking of which it might be on the cards to create a lightweightmick's Cider Group - doh
Er yeah, just grabbed some of this year's which is coming on nicely - cider nouveau... should that be cidre nouveau? Quite pleasant... in fact (sips) very very nice!
Oh happy days...

Sunday 2 December 2012

The appliance of science?

Thinking on today (it's a dangerous pursuit but all you can do when dressing apples repeatedly) - it's the 'scientific approach' that has led us down the industrial cider path...
Keep it stupid simple I say. I read earlier today that cider making is very complicated... well it isn't, and never was. It's as complicated as you want to make it. The slippery slope of sulphite...
It's a tad disheartening to sample 'craft ciders' that should never have left the cider house, perhaps made by those who seek complication..? Of course I don't know the half of it... only been making it since 1976 - cheers - dash! glass is empty...

Beat...

just enjoying a pint of last year's batch 5 and reflecting on the day...
Been bloomin' cold out there today sorting apples. Oh, to have better quality fruit! but "yer 'as to have wot you can gets..." After tea it was gone eight and I must admit, after being out in the cold all afternoon, I hadn't got enough left to face going back into the cold to press the next batch. It's so much easier just to tip nice clean apples into the weigh tub... but it's coming to an end as I catch up with the better quality stuff - as it is today has seen the scratting and pulping of the next batch which should get pressed tomorrow, and the sweets for the following batch...
So 25 litres down on schedule tonight and time's running out...

Saturday 1 December 2012

Marathon des Sables?

...no, ...marathon des apples. It's all down now to going through all the stock and weeding out all suspect apples.. plan is to press twice on Sunday. Sweets prepared for tomorrow at least and after work first 6k of the sharps. There is certainly an underlying kind of weariness... and that reminds me I haven't taken the gravity of  last night's yet --- I reckon 1.051*. It was quite mild, but now it's turned pretty damn cold and aluminium ladders come into their own as do apples. Mind you a bucket of hot water helps in both cases - day job and hobby.

*actually lower, in fact lowest this season at 1.046