Saturday 16 November 2013

Not a Oner...

Nope, no apples pressed at all yet, not a single apple - did find a new roadside crab recently though - it's now on my Google apple tree map.
Still chance yet though...
New clutch now installed in 4x4 Panda - might get away with old battery yet, but will need 2 new tyres. No horn either and wiper spinde worn - as they do on old Pandas. Need to make a gap-filling bush to secure arm.
Took a med and a dry to local family bonfire bash recently - gave 25 litres to Tony (Landrover Tony) - he says it's improving with age (...he's had it since August lol)
and that's about it... for now...

Saturday 7 September 2013

"Meester Fawlty no like me"

Think I may be being a little hard on myself as I took a barrel to a fancy dress party last Saturday night which went down okay. I left it outside and noted that people kept nipping out for a refill.
I went as Manuel... she went as Mrs Fawlty... Apparantly the pics are surfacing on Facebook...

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Coals to Newcastle!

Can't cope won't cope!
All batches tried so far this year are not up to par - thin and yucky. Hardly worth bottling. Definitely not up to my usual standard... with a bit of apple juice it's like bought stuff!
This is the folly of making more than you can handle - biting and chewing and all that...
It hasn't helped putting off cider jobs for other activities, but there's only so many hours in a day.
On the plus side the 25 litres I gave Tony were well received - he's taking it it to Dorset to a steam fair. I told him he could always mix it with the local stuff!
Hopefully the later batches will be better...

Tuesday 30 July 2013

The merry chink ...

Some late bottling tonight - not just late in the day, but just plain late - batch 12, 2011...
A customer had been to the Isle of Wight and brought me some Godshill cider, (Lazy Lob) so I thought it a good idea to drink and bottle - thing is, I had to add some of mine to give it some flavour...
I've made myself a 'bottling aid' and will try and get a pic up as time permits - plenty to bottle yet...

Devon Oliver lending a hand
The Godshill Cider bottle in 'filling position' shown here.
Basically a wooden frame supporting 3 bottling tubes that are hinged and spring loaded. The bottle sits on a tilting 'cradle'  with a wire hoop (stainless steel from old wiper blades).
As the fill nears the top of the neck, the cradle is flipped forward, thus dropping the bottle around 10cm which closes the filling tube valve. Timing is a bit tricky as the fill level speeds up on reaching the neck...
Bottling time should in theory be much reduced though in not having to wait for each bottle to fill individually.
System is gravity fed with a 3 way John Guest 'splitter'...
Of course I need to get the barrel higher than the bottling position - a dead lift of 30 kilos no easy feat at my age! I need a hoist... or pump into some form of holding tank.
On the 'drop' a bit of cider is thrown out the top as well - hence the basic bottle catcher suspension - currently a plasterboard rawl plug and a bit of pipe insulation, which could be softer...
The bottles don't all fill at the same rate and can be dropped one at a time. I did experiment at getting them all to fill at the same time as 'fluid dynamics' is a bit beyond my expertise - even as a window cleaner lol.
I'll try and rig up the camera and do a video.

Heath Robinson or ingenius, ha ha..? - there's plenty of room for improvement!

Wednesday 8 May 2013

The Dude abides ...

- indeed he does - just in case you were wondering. None the less, cider needs to be racked - be sure the Dude is on the case. Bit of a nightmare though ... just 4*30 litre left to rack







Monday 21 January 2013

Pie in the Sky...

This thrush thinks so -














I was surprised to see these sweet apples still on the tree, finding them quite inaccesible back in November when I collected most of the fruit from its neighbour. The surrounding undergrowth was quite impassable. Being able to reach one I sampled it back home - the very tough skin may be the reason they've lasted so long. Good to see they are not going to waste anyway.
















Tuesday 1 January 2013

All done...

Hey! I got 16-18* litres out of the last pressing - very good from 20.5 k of apples. The majority were crab/wilds that seemed very dry too. The apples were tough little devils and I had to change the drill on the pulper as it developed problems and the revs began to fall. So combined with the over-press from the last two batches it made 20 litres bringing the total pressed to 855 litres.
(*I had 2-4 litres already in the 20 litre container - thinking on, I should have filled another container to the same level with water and measured it. There must have been more already in there than 2 litre surely)
Anyway that's it for another year - just need to get the final 4 batches fermenting and work out what the hell I'm going to with it all!