Ciderhouse News - February Pt.2

• Written confirmation of our Silver award in the East Midlands Cider Competition arrived by hand from competition organiser Dee Wright this weekend. There's an image of the certificate over there on the right, go on, have a look. Gold award winners Ray & Gail Blockley of Torkard Cider were also on hand to take receipt of their certificate, and since the presentation took place at the Canalhouse in Nottingham during a SIBA beer festival, it was a good excuse for a few halves and a natter. I wore a new woolly jumper for the occasion, and tried not to squeeze Dee's hand too hard.

• The trip also gave us the opportunity to deliver a barrel of early season Medium/Sweet Blakeney Red Perry (4.9%) for the forthcoming Hucknall Beer Festival. This will be the first festival of 2012 where cider or perry from all three of the East Midlands regional winners will be available, which includes the Bronze winner, Scropton Cider of Derbyshire.

• Another opportunity to try ciders and/or perries from the top three will be at the rapidly approaching Leicester CAMRA Beer Festival. We'll be sending the very last barrels of our 2010 vintage, including the Kingston Black/Sweet Alford blend which won Silver. There's a strong rumour that our friends from Torkard Cider will be sending their first ever perry, expect this rarity to sell out very fast. In other recently leaked news, rare and otherwise excellent ciders have been ordered from Ermie & Gerties, Tricky, and Bridge Farm. We still hope to break the full cider and perry list exclusively on here, because some traditions are far too important to let go.... aren't they Susan!

• Work has stalled briefly on the Middleton Village Orchard Project. With temperatures down to -12C this weekend, the frozen ground has proven more than a match for the hardy workforce, even with the help of a digger. The dilapidated walls are all down, we're now waiting for them all to go back up again.

• ...and finally, here's a nice pic from this morning, featuring the old Bramley in our own garden orchard covered in Hoar Frost. A proper cold snap like this can only be a good thing for our trees, hopefully forcing a good period of dormancy, and maybe killing a few pests along the way too.