Out and About...

..this year has taken me to Norfolk. The Norfolk Cider Company sounds rather grand... but isn't, and not worth seeking out - however, Uncle Stuarts (a brewery) nearby made up for the confusion. But the cider guy was a very opinionated kind of person and over-stepped the mark by producing a Camra guide to authenticate the awful muck he was dispensing...
A very different story at Whin Hill though. Here you can even sit out and sample the fare. Some very nice cider here, though I do think they need to invest in some stronger bottles for the slightly sparkling, as one of mine burst...
Otherwise I've been down the quiz night a few times at The Old Poet's Corner, Ashover. Hmm, well I've yet to sample something decent here, though Ben Crossman's wasn't too bad... all a bit too sweet aka 'medium' to be 'proper' though - maybe it's for the ladies there. There is a festival there in October so maybe some half-decent cider will turn up...

Not much left...

Well, car mending and trying to run from one side of the country to the other have finally come to fruition in the harsh reality of having just one glass of home-made cider left... boo hoo... tis a sad day. I got as much out of the last barrel as possible, including quite a bit of crud, and allowed it to settle out before racking the last few pints at the weekend. Had I not been so tied up at the back-end of last year I'd have some new stuff ready now... but there you go - can't do so many things.
I did make a few (very poor) vids of the home-made scratter in action when making the last few batches. It's had two years of use, and this mk1 version does tend to clog as the apple pieces tend to stick to the bottom plate (plywood) - but it does clear easily and made the task of apple chopping much quicker and takes to pieces easily for cleaning. Even with de-clogging it would scrat around 90lbs (5 gals worth) in under an hour ready for futher pulping to maximise juice extraction.

apple scratter 1

apple scratter 2 (this gets suddenly loud when the drill is switched on!)

Draper drill powered (variable speed) - also from Wilkinson's for about £15 (currently £20 - Nov'10)

Cider? No!

Can't believe what's being passed off as cider these days...
The local (Elm Tree, Elmton) has two hand pumps - Westons 'Old Rosie' and 'Traditional'... what the hell? I used to think that bottled 'Old Rosie' was quite reasonable, but the draught version is quite undrinkable... (mind you the bar didn't pull them, but said 'not be a minute' and disappeared from the bar...
I'm thinking, after a similar experience at The Arkwright Arms, that if they go out back to fetch it, it's not going to be worth drinking... (as was the case with Woodthorpe Hall's and Hucknall's)
Though the Roger Wilkins was worth it at Arkwright...

ALERT: Cider LOW!

Well, have only got around 4 gallons left of last year's now... it's a terrible feeling...
I have apples enough for maybe 10 gallons this year but sadly no time... Highlight this year was finding 3 bottles of '07 vintage that I'd forgotten about... ah, happy days.

...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...

Pressing Matter...

Well I've made a bigger press for this year's cider. Customer Jackie's had the builders in and they'd left some hefty bits of wood... and guess who's scrounged them (in return for a bottle or two... fair do's)
I did the first press on Sunday, and as there were a few creaks and cracks, I investigated to find the ex-fence post for the uprights had a large knot running through it on one side! Luckily it held together and allowed me to get my 1st 3 gallons of juice (and potential cider!)
So, I now have my 1st 30 litres of juice sitting in the kitchen. Hopefully fermentation will start within the next couple of days.
I'm hoping to post up more pics this year as time permits - though the bigger challenge will be to get all the apples I've gathered in so far pressed before they go rotten!

Whey Hey!

Managed to find time to transfer batch 8 into barrel this weekend! Has a kind of `rocket fuel` edge to the flavour... and I was surprised to find how lively it was - as it refused to pump. So, I had to syphon it into poly-barrel, but didn't put my back out as feared lifting it up onto worktop...
Yes this is more of a `Derbyshire Single Shudder` and just maybe I'll get some of it into all those bottles... some of which still accompany me daily in the back of the Panda... oh dear... those 'speed bumps'. Wish I had more space... so I've got about 200 litres left now... If I hadn't had a pint of the stuff I could work that out in gallons... it's well... no end of gallons yet. Need to start thinking about welding up a bigger press for this year as it's definitely worth it. He he...