Tuesday 31 January 2012

Ciderhouse News - February

  • The season gets under way even earlier than usual this year, with a barrel of our very popular Blakeney Red Perry making its way to The Hucknall Beer Festival, c/o our friends at Torkard Cider. This special new-season perry is the result of our recent racking, blending and topping-up adventures. We used a smaller fermenter of Blakeney Red for topping up the big tubs, and ended up with 5 gallons of beautifully clear, naturally sweet, and modestly strength'd (4.9%) perry, going spare and needing a good home:

  • Work has now started on the renovation of Middleton Village Orchard. Walls are being re-built, with landscaping and better access planned. More details can be gleaned here, and I'll be popping across the road with my camera to record progress on an irregular basis.

  • Our garden orchard is currently enjoying a welcome cold-snap, much needed if we're to avoid the trees budding up too early and suffering frost damage. It's going to be touch and go over the next few weeks whether we get a proper spell of cold, encouraging dormancy, and safeguarding this years crop for orchardists everywhere. This picture features one of the few remaining Bramley apples which the Blackbirds and Redwings haven't had a peck at yet. They are of course, very welcome to them.

2 comments:

Bittersweet said...

Glad to hear your Blakeney perry is ready to sell. Considering my perry racking at the moment...
Neil
Worley's Cider
www.worleyscider.co.uk

Mark said...

A very different year Neil, as I'm sure you know. The warm Autumn/Winter meant the perries romped away, mostly finishing fermenting around Christmas (around the same time they 'started' fermenting last season). Now the cold has finally arrived, some have dropped very bright and taste good if a little sweeter than I'd like. This Blakeney is still very gently fermenting, but is clear, clean and reasonably stable at a SG of 1.022...