Bits'n'Bobs (Formerly Ciderhouse News) - January

It's no secret that we have a 'Mole' inside the Leicester CAMRA Beer Festival organising committee. She (or indeed He) goes by the code name of 'Susan', aka Sue, Susie, The Suse-let etc. depending on what disguise she (or he) is working under. Information can also occasionally comes to us via her (or his) intermediary, 'Paul' aka 'Susans Husband'. Now I'm not at liberty to reveal any more than this, certainly not her (or his) role in the organisation. Suffice to say that our Mole is very close indeed to the inner sanctum of the organisation, and has a key role in the drinks orders, though not necessarily anything to do with the beer... or soft drinks. I can't say any more.

Anyway, Susan has already supplied us with a few nuggets of information ahead of the event, on the strict understanding that we carefully 'leak' them here. So I can now exclusively reveal, that subject to all the usual issues of supply, this years cider bar will feature a whole bunch of local Ciders (and a Perry), as well as a whole bunch more ciders and perries from elsewhere. It's hoped that over the weekend the following producers will be represented in one form or another, including rather excitingly the current top three East Midlands producers as judged by CAMRA at last years Nottingham Beer Festival:

Bottle Kicking Cider Co - Leicestershire
Charnwood Cider - Leicestershire
Rockingham Forest Cider (Silver Medal Winner) - Northamptonshire
Scropton Cider (Bronze Medal Winner) - Derbyshire
Thirsty Farmer Cider - Leicestershire
Torkard Cider (Gold Medal Winner) - Nottinghamshire

If I've got any of these details wrong, I can only apologise. Sometimes the intelligence can arrive in a 'scrambled' southern dialect. One other snippet of information: Cider Bar in New Stillaging Shocker! - Folk singer already booked to lament the old ones...

In other breaking news, the Rockingham Forest Ciderhouse Pub Games Collection continues to grow, with the recent acquisition of a vintage Rings Board and accompanying collection of Tatty Hoover Belt Rings. Once a very popular pub game, but now mostly confined to Ireland and the Ventnor area of the Isle of Wight, this handsome board will take pride of place on the ciderhouse wall ready for the entertaining of visitors. A lovely old Mahogany Cribbage Board has been secured for the scoring, though lacking lovely-pegs as yet. We're still on the look out for a Sussex Toad in the Hole, though heaven knows where we're going to put one...

It's always nice to get a bit of feedback on this blog, nice and usually a surprise since we know our readership is usually quite slim (in numbers, not necessarily girth!). It was a genuine delight to receive the following message from across the water in Ireland, and on a subject close to my heart. The famous Anna McKean Christmas Pudding which I'm pleased to say we enjoyed again this year:

Hi, I'm Jane from near Rateen, St Johnston and Anna McKean was my grandmother......I can't tell you how delighted and pleased I was for my wonderful Granny when I saw your mention "tip of the hat to Anna's plum pudding". She was a very hard working farmers wife who spent her whole life rearing children - my Mum being the eldest - and cooking, cleaning and best of all baking for those around her. Many people over the years have said what a wonderful baker she was - her shortbread and Christmas cakes (wedding/christening etc cakes) where second to none. Oh and how could I forget her delicious chocolate sponge cake - oh man that was so good. She passed away in Sept 2006, I miss her still. It's heartwarming and deserving for my Gran that she gets some tiny taste of fame for her baking even though it's too late for her. My mum, Joan, and her sisters Mary and Anne are all good bakers too and it was Aunt Mary who discovered this website when she googled Rateen. Thanks again, Jane

Proof, should it be needed, of the wide demographic spread this blog enjoys, thanks for that Jane, the pleasure is all ours. Now, if only we could attract a few more cider enthusiasts to the blog...

Weighing-Up the Year

As 2011 draws to a damp and windy conclusion, it's traditional amongst bloggers to look back, take stock, and write a festive space filler in leiu of something more interesting. Well we're bucking the blogging trend, looking firmly forward, and writing a festive space-filler....

To be honest, there's little to report from the ciderhouse. Fermentation continues to bubble away without the interuptions for cold weather we experienced last year. Just as soon as we can get to Tewkesbury for a couple of new tubs, we'll be racking the ciders and perries, and getting a first taster of the 2011 vintage. Needless to say, you'll be able to read all about it right here.

In the mean time, our thoughts turn to forthcoming events where we hope to sell a bit of what we've made. Pre-orders from earlier this year merely need confirming closer to the date, and I'm pleased to say that there are a few new events that we're hoping to be at next year. As ever, the first festival of the year will be the Leicester CAMRA Beer Festival in March, where we'll be sending the very last barrels of our 2010 cider and perry. The theme this year appears to be the Charles Dickens bi-centenary, which is a little worrying to be honest! I do hope nobody rises to the challenge of a Dickens Cider re-badge...

The first opportunity to try our new-season cider and perry is likely to be at the innaugral South Notts Real Ale Festival in May, subject to confirmation.

Enough of the future, let's turn our attention to the presents. Christmas Presents to be precise. It's was a good year for gifts in the Rockingham Forest Cider household. Everyone seemed to get what they wanted, even Karen, but I can honestly say that no-one got what they wanted more than I did.

I swear someone must have been actually listening when I dropped all those unsubtle hints in the run-up to Christmas. How else would a deluxe Jelly Straining Bag have found its way under the tree! The same can be said of the beautiful Acacia wood Pizza Paddle I found stuffed into my Christmas Stocking (even if I did buy that one myself). A Christmas dream come true I hear you say, but hold on, I've saved the best till last...

It's a well-worn tradition in this household that underneath the Christmas Tree, in amongst the little packages of sweet smelling Girly Things, mini-bags of Reindeer Poo Chocolate, and carefully wrapped Hen Treats, there'll always be found the two things I most crave at this time of year. Two neatly wrapped, cool-blue, 120 litre Open-Top Kegs (cider for the fermenting of). These bulky beauties are truly the way to a cidermakers heart at Christmas, which made it all the more perplexing when the tell-tale tub-shaped pressies failed to appear under the tree. What was she thinking!

Well fear not patient readers, I got something even more exciting than 4.5 kilos of food-grade plastic, and a cute-as-a-squirrels-nut Boy Toy no less. Witness the goosebumpingly thrilling MYCO MZ-600 Digital Pocket Scale. Mmm!

This gorgeous brushed aluminium gadget, beloved of small-time drug dealers the world over, is more than capable of (reasonably) acurate measurment down to a (quite) impressive 0.1g. The ideal instrument for measuring out the tiny quantities of Sulphite required to keep our ciders and perries fresh and clean. Backlit for comfortable work in the gloom of the ciderhouse, wipe cleanable, and with a lid for putting 'things' into. The best Christmas EVER!

Ciderhouse News - November

That's it, our cidermaking is all over for another season. No more apples will darken our doorway, we've had our fill of the Mill, and early morning Pressing has become thoroughly depressing. We've ran out of room, we have no more fermenters. So no more! Here is the news:

The final batch of bittersweet Vilberie apples reached full maturity well ahead of turning rotten, which is always a bonus in cidermaking. They were surprisingly juicy, and have helped pushed our fermenter capacity to the limit. In fact over the limit, as there are still six sacks of apples left we've no room for which will now end up as pig food in nearby Keythorpe. So here's the final inventory of what seems like the longest cidermaking season yet:

Ciders

Home Orchard Blend (70 litres) 1.060
Dabinett/Harry Masters' Jersey/Yarlington Mill Blend (70 litres) 1.062
Yarlington Mill Blends (1340 litres) 1.057 - 1.062
Vilberie Blend (470 litres) 1.060 - 1.062

Perries

Malvern Hills (240 litres) 1.069 - 1.071
Blakeney Red (190 litres) 1.060
Green Horse/Oldfield/Blakeney Red Blend (120 litres) 1.065
Red Longdon (120 litres) 1.058
Unknown Perry Pears (120 litres) 1.066

In other news, I feel I must draw your attention to the latest edition of award-winning CAMRA publication, Nottingham Drinker. Always a good read, with a stronger than average focus on cider issues under the editorship of Hucknall cidermaker and CAMRA activist Ray Blockley. The latest edition has confirmation of all the winners in the recent East Midlands Cider of the Year Competition held at Nottingham Beer Festival. We came a commendable second to Torkard Cider who took the top spot, with Scropton Cider of Derbyshire third. We also rated very highly amongst the Nottinghamshire Constabulary...

The soon to be announced 2012 Cider Workshop Photographic Challenge will be announced... soon. More details will appear on the Cider Workshop webpage just as soon as it's been agreed that pressing for 2011 has finished. We've finished! Get on with it Jez...

Blakeney Red - The Sweetest Pear

Blossom on Pear Tree
Middleton Village Orchard

Well that was one hot-hot weekend.


Friday was spent drinking some very good (and some not so good) ciders and perries in the metropoli' of Nottingham and Beeston, of which I'll write more at a later date. Saturday was just made for a spot of gardening. Sowing seeds, constructing Sweet Pea supports, mowing the tufty remnants of our hen-pecked lawn, and generally working up a good honest thirst. Three cheers then for Red Kite Cider. Three cheers too for a profusion of Pear Blossom and generally frost-free nights. Looks like it could be a good year for perry pears.



Sunday is strictly a day of rest in the Rockingham Forest Cider household. I spent most of the day 'resting' in the ciderhouse with a length of hose and several empty barrels, whilst Karen was 'resting' at Saddington Car Boot Sale, along with a boot-full of highly desirable junk. Not much of a rest then!



'Polymeric Perry Pear Tannins' floating
on top of this batch of Blakeney Red 

I'd earmarked this Sunday as the day for barreling up cider and perry for festivals at the Crown, Elton, and the Swan & Rushes, Leicester (see right). I've selected a lateish pressing of Yarlington Mill/Dabinett/unknown Sweet/Bramley, which has cleared nicely for a bittersweet blend, and weighs in at 7% abv. This will go out as a Medium version of our Rockingham Forest Cider.



More intriguing is the perry I've chosen, a single variety, naturally sweet Blakeney Red. Most of our perries have finished quite sweet this year, although one or two are still fermenting away quite merrily. This one has finished with a very high gravity (1.023), giving a full-on sweet perry, not too tannic, and clear as a bell in the glass. It's lovely stuff, but thanks to the higher than normal gravity, it's unusually low in alcohol at around 4% abv. The holy-grail of cider and perry making is to produce a naturally sweet, relatively low alcohol drink, so I shouldn't complain. Whilst it's well-known that many people prefer their cider and perry on the sweeter side, we've also noticed that some people (women in particular) can be quite put off by the high strength of the more traditional drink. A 4% perry is not something we would normally aim for, but it's certainly a very 'commercial' strength, and I think this perry will sell very well indeed, particularly if we're blessed with more of this lovely warm weather. Oh! sorry, I forgot it's a Bank Holiday. Never fear, it should go equally well with rain...

Antici...pation!

The clamour for a taste of our new season ciders and perries has reached an all time high. 'Clamour Factor 7' or thereabouts, which is quite high I think you'll agree.

In response to this persistent (and altogether welcome) customer demand, I've taken to mooching around the ciderhouse. Sniffing here, dipping my 'Cider Thief' there, looking for that which all cidermakers yearn for at this time of the year. A cider that's ready to go-go-go...



It's mostly bad news I'm afraid. The plop and fizz of yeasty activity is still evident in several vats, and most of those that have finished fermenting are still far from ready. So the outlook from the ciderhouse is still rather cloudy, though clearing from the (erm!) top down. Things are looking brighter for April... or maybe May, by which time the Clamour Factor will have probably reached 11... with storms brewing at several pubs we know!

2010 Yarlington Mill Cider Apples



It's not all bad news though. There's just a slight possibility that a rogue fermenter may have gone quite literally 'fermentation crazy', and finished slightly earlier than its sluggish cidery pals.



Now I can't promise anything at this stage, but plucky old Vat #5 (a mostly Yarlington Mill blend) appears to have cleared quite nicely, and could just possibly be ready to go. I need to have another, more careful, slightly bigger taste tomorrow morning, before there's any chance I can pass it fit for release. If it is ready, we're looking at a full-bodied 7.2% abv version of our very popular Red Kite Cider. Ooooh!...

...and if it isn't!... well, can you come back in April?.... or maybe May?...

Wild Things!

A year ago today, I posted my tasting notes on our perrys ahead of their first racking. Today I've been in the ciderhouse, sipping, swirling and nosing my way through the fermenters, and what a difference a year makes.

Last year we went over (almost) exclusively to 'wild yeast fermentations', relying on the naturally occurring micro flora on the fruit and in the ciderhouse to initiate the fermentations, rather than the addition of a single strain cultured yeast as we've done previously. Cultured yeasts are preferred by many cidermakers for their tendency to produce rapid fermentations, even in very cold weather, and give predictable results. Wild yeast fermentations on the other hand can be slow to start, and may give unpredictable results. So why do we choose this more risky path?

The short answer is 'complexity'. If managed well, through a combination of good hygiene, and the careful use of Sulphites to control unwanted spoilage organisms, wild yeast fermentations will usually produce more complex ciders and perrys. This is because in the initial stages of fermentation, a range of yeasts will be present, all working slightly differently to each other, and therefore producing a slightly different flavour profile. Of perhaps equal importance is the speed of the fermentation. A cultured yeast will have been selected to do a specific job as efficiently as possible. Under ideal conditions, a cultured 'cider' yeast can ferment out the juice to bone-dry in a matter of weeks. These fast fermentations can often lead to the more subtle esters and aromatic components being 'blown-off' in the froth and fizz. Wild yeast fermentations are generally much slower, and can result in more of the flavour being retained.

Unfortunately, we had some difficulty getting the wild yeasts in our perrys to start fermenting last season, and in most cases we resorted to adding a cultured yeast. I'm happy to say that this seasons perrys were much better behaved, and after a couple of weeks anxious wait, they all started to gently ferment away without the need for our intervention. Then things got very cold! Fermentation all but stopped in the perrys, and even now, things are moving pretty slowly.

So, it's a different season, with different growing conditions, and a generally later harvest than we experienced in 2009. Plus, we've done things somewhat differently in the ciderhouse. It's perhaps no surprise then that things have turned out rather differently, which just goes to highlight the very seasonal, and 'vintage' nature of cidermaking.

Malvern Hills - There's a slight yeastiness on the nose, as you'd expect at this early stage, but this perry has almost completely cleared. It's still quite sweet, with a rich pear flavour, and moderate tannins. I suspect the tannin may be stronger than it appears, due to it being masked by the sweetness. It would be nice if we could retain just a little of this sweeteness in the finished perry. 

Blakeney Red - This has a also cleared beautifully, with a slightly deeper colour than the Malvern Hills. There's no yeastiness present, and this perry is clean enough to drink now. There's a candy-ish sweeteness, and a rich, tinned pear juice flavour. Light tannin and gentle acidity makes this an extremely well balanced perry. I'm very pleased with this, although I would hope it will ferment out a bit more yet.

Green Horse - Wow! This perry still needs a little more time, but the flavour even now is fantastic. It's a hazy, very pale perry, with Lemon, Ginger, and Pear, enhanced by a rich sweetness, and good balancing acidity. A slightly sweetened Green Horse was my favourite perry of last season, and I'm hoping that this will be even better by the time we come to sell it.

I also tried a couple of the ciders, but they really are far too young to assess properly. At the moment the Welland Valley Festival Special is cloudy and some way off being ready, but still shows great potential. It's rich and fruity, dryish, with soft tannins and a slight bitterness in the finish. Vat #22 is a mixed bittersweet cider, which tastes like alcoholic apple juice. Nice, but not nearly cidery enough for my taste.

The next job is to rack off the perrys, which I'll be doing just as soon as I've got some longer 'O's from the 'Fork Handles' shop...

...and they're off... at last!

Early days I know, but it's already becoming clear that the 2010 cidermaking season will be remembered by many cidermakers for its Apple Lollipops, Pomace Slushies and Torpid Fermentations.

Here at Rockingham Forest Cider, we managed to avoid the misery and potential frostbite of Pressing during the big freeze, but the recent cold spell has played havoc with the performance of our delicate Wild Yeasts. All the later pressings of Yarlington Mill, Dabinett etc. have been extremely reluctant to show signs of life in the chilly ciderhouse. On one memorable early morning, we recorded a garden temperature of -11C, and though it's unlikely to have been this cold in the ciderhouse, I'm guessing the temperature will have hovered either side of freezing for the last few weeks. It would take a pretty hardy microbe to rouse itself for fermentation in these conditions, and so it's hardly surprising that none of them did. Bad Yeasts!

This ongoing lack of fermentation is a worrying thing for a cidermaker, so it came as a bit of a relief when last weekend's lull in the freezing conditions helped kick-start the last few malingerers into life. I'm now pleased to announce that it's a lot noisier in the ciderhouse, with all 25 fermenters finally fizzing and glopping away like ....err... big fizzy gloppy things.

The imminent return of freezing conditions shouldn't be anything to worry about. Once a fermentation gets going, the process by which the yeasts convert sugar to alcohol (and CO2), also generates a little bit of heat, hopefully just enough to keep things ticking over. Even this little demijohn of Green Horse Perry (right) continued to ferment throughout the Nov/Dec freeze. Notice the strange 'alien' gloop floating on the top of this perry, a common occurrence with high tannin perrys, something to do with 'Polymeric Perry Tannins'... or something!

With everything now as it should be in the ciderhouse, it's high time we turned our attention to the serious business of Unbridled Christmas Pleasure. More of which later...

Winding Down & Stirring Up

So the ciderhouse has now been thoroughly cleaned and put to bed for another year. With the press partially dismantled, there's now quite a bit more room in there to move about and fret over the fermenters and fermentation. A man needs a bit of space to fret properly you see! I'll be fretting all the way through the Winter, topping up, checking the progress of fermentation, before eventually racking off and blending most of the ciders and perrys early in the new year.

Sunday has been a day of rest, but even so I decided to set myself three challenging but achievable goals: 1. Cook a Rabbit in Mustard & Cider, 2. Make the Christmas Pudding (because it's Stir Up Sunday and I must), 3. Spend the whole day in my Dressing Gown. I'm pleased to report that all three goals have been effortlessly achieved, this despite having to regularly retrieve Molly (our current Houdini-Hen) from her adventures in the dangerous 'world outside the garden'. How she keeps getting out is a Cock-a-Doodle mystery, security couldn't be tighter here at Stalag Apfelwein. Perhaps we need to up the raisin and porridge rations...

The Rabbit casserole is the first stage on the road to a batch of Boozy Bunny Pasties. When Karen 'The-Pastry-Queen' returns from her own adventures in Cheltenham, I'll bore you with the details of these wild crimped delicacies... Meanwhile, the Christmas Pudding was 'Stirred-Up' to the same delicious recipe as last year, and merely awaits the addition of some top quality Calvados, liberally applied over the coming weeks. It's already benefited from a good slosh of Rockingham Forest Cider, as indeed have I, because I'm worth it...

End Game

As the 2010 cidermaking season draws (slightly painfully) to a conclusion, with just one more day of pressing to go, I thought I'd post a few of Karen's pics of the weekend action. If I look half asleep in these photos, it's because I was, though sufficiently alert to operate dangerous machinery safely.... obviously!!!

We've been pressing our main Rockingham Forest Cider blend this weekend, consisting of mostly Yarlington Mill, some Dabinett and unknown Sweet cider apples, plus various Sharps to help balance the pH. We should end up with around 170 gallons of this blend, which we may blend in turn with the 100 gallons or so of Kingston Black which we pressed earlier in the month.

The specific gravity of the Yarlington Mill juice was 1.056, which is a little below last years figures. This reflects the sugar levels we've been getting across all of our apple and pear juices this year, which are generally very good, though not quite at the 'Vintage' levels of 2009. The blend itself is averaging out at 1.054, which should give an alcohol level of around 6.9% if fermented to dry.

Traditionally, the spent pomace (apple pulp) which remains from pressing would have either been spread on the land as a low-grade fertilizer, or fed to local livestock. We've a fair size garden, but it's certainly not big enough to deal with a ton or so of dryish apple pulp. As for livestock, the Rockingham Forest Cider Hens will have a peck at most things, but there's a limit to how much a flock of four can consume before the poor little cluckers develop the Chicken equivalent of IBS! I'd like to think they'd give it their best shot though, and it's probably worth a small experiment if only to see how good the eggs would taste!

Luckily for us, our friends Adam & Serena of Keythorpe Valley Farm have a real passion for Pomace. Actually it's their rare breed pigs that have the passion, in fact they go wild for the stuff. By close of play next weekend, these pampered porkers will have snouted out over a ton of pomace, and if you want to know what apple-fed pork tastes like, you know where to go. The latest load of pomace was picked up by Adam & Serena last night, and we were delighted to receive a Brace of Leicestershire's finest feathered game in return. I plan to hang these handsome beasts for a few days yet, which will give me ample time to 'pluck' up the courage for the messy business of dressing the birds. I think they'd benefit from some time spent in a pot, possibly with something sweet and alcoholic. Any excuse to open a bottle of cider.

Rain Doesn't Stop Play

I was quite concerned about the weather today. It was certainly cold, though the sun poked its head out for a brief spell, but the promised downpour around 3pm never happened, and I managed to get everything pressed and cleaned down in good time. It was a pleasure to be pressing perry pears again, awesome yield, and no clogging of cloths. The local dessert apples pressed pretty well too, possibly thanks to a slightly different pressing regime. Instead of firing up the press and waiting until the gauge reaches the maximum 320psi, I decided to apply a little pressure, turn the press off and wait a while for the juice to stop flowing, before repeating several times. The result was a good juice yield, and no pulp oozing out of the cloths. Result!

So it's back to work for a couple of days rest, before attempting to scale the foothills of the Yarlington Mill mountain next weekend.

(someone else's) Ciderhouse News...

Our friends in the north Ray & t'Gail of Torkard Cider have hit the headlines in a big way recently. Everything from the Skegness Bugle, to the mighty BBC East Midlands Today programme are falling over themselves for a piece of Torkard Ass at the moment. All I can say is they must have done something very bad to warrant this kind of attention...

The blanket media coverage has got so bad recently that Wayne Rooney himself is apparently '... a bit miffed...' with the Hucknall Headline-Grabbers. There simply isn't enough bandwidth available on this blog to list every piece of Press, Radio and Television coverage the 'Hucknall Two' have appeared in, so here's a link to the latest offering. Two and a half minutes of hardcore Hucknall cidermaking, presided over by Nottinghamshire's answer to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall... in the bath! View from 16.10 minutes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vn75v/East_Midlands_Today_03_11_2010/

Coming soon: Ray & Gail host their own television series: 'Drink Up T'Cider Me-Duck'

Fruit Salad Days

The bloomin' hard graft of cidermaking could become something of a chore at this time of year. Picking, washing, milling, pressing.... cleaning, picking, washing, milling, sleeping.....picking.... I think you get the idea.

Panking cider apples. Nothing but fun!

That it doesn't is largely down to everything that's peripheral to the work itself. For example, we share the orchard work with all sorts of entertaining wildlife. Green and Spotted Woodpeckers, Buzzards and Bugs. Rabbits and Ramblers of all shapes and sizes. We also share the orchard with the slightly tamer life of our picking & panking helpers Paul & Sue. It all helps make for a pleasant day in the orchard. A lunchtime trip to a nearby pub is also a great help...

Work in the ciderhouse can be a bit monotonous to be honest. There's a limit to how much raw excitement we can squeeze from washing apples, shovelling apple pulp, and err... well that's it really. We relish our tea-breaks, and take great pleasure in the odd escaped-hen-incident.... It really is that exciting. Vital signs are maintained by the all-important Ciderhouse Radio, a constant aural companion in a barren sea of largely silent fruit. A Leicester Tigers rugby match is (usually) a highlight, but in the absence of sporting excellence we often have to rely on the holy trinity of Radio's 3, 4 and the BBC Asian Network. I recently spent a delightful afternoon in the ciderhouse listening to an exotic, if slightly baffling series of top Desi Sounds, broadcast to help celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid. The clatter of the hydraulic mill and the hypnotic rhythm of the Tabla combined to create a (somewhat Avant-garde!) party atmosphere in the ciderhouse. Radio 3 brings a calmer mood, just the job when the fatigue sets in. Radio 4... when all else fails, Libby Purves!

It's the little things, you see. Biting into an apple with so much tannin it quite literally sucks your front teeth out brings a smile to my face. Pressing apples with such a high sugar level, the hydrometer refuses to settle in the juice and bobbles about on the surface with unbridled glee. The satisfying creak of the suspension on a tonner van as we relieve it of a ton and a half of prime cider apples (only joking Mr Van Hire Man. We absolutely never overload the van....honest!).

This weekends orchard work and pressing has already delivered a few small pleasures, not least of which was the non-arrival of the rain promised by last weekends Countryfile Weather Forecast. Thanks to Karen being the designated driver for the day, I had a rare opportunity to visit almost all of Broadways pub stock yesterday. It was an interesting and slightly exhausting experience, not one I'd necessarily want to repeat! Strangely enough, Karen described the journey home in similar terms... Pick of the bunch was once again the Crown & Trumpet (Stanway Wizards Brew), with the Horse & Hound (Purity Pure UBU) a close second.

I also had the opportunity to bring home a small cache of bottled ciders, and a particularly good perry. Once Upon a Tree's excellent single variety Dabinett Cider has already featured on this blog, but what of Badgers Bottom Cider from nearby Cheltenham! I'm looking forward to trying this, along with Allan Hogan's lovely Vintage Perry.

I also managed to secure a half-dozen more Quince fruit from the terrific Broadway Deli, supplied by a local villager, and sold by the shop for charity. They're beauties. Ripe, aromatic, and perfect for drowning in cheap Brandy. Today being a rest-day, I've made a few litres of Damson Vodka, and a rare bottle of Quince Brandy. I cored and chopped the Quince, then stuffed the chunks into a kilner jar with a bottle of Spanish Brandy, a teaspoon of Vanilla Sugar, two more of Caster Sugar, a couple of Star Anise, and a small piece of Cinnamon Bark. I'll be shaking the whole lot on a regular basis for the next few weeks, before decanting into the prettiest bottle I can find, or a glass, whichever is more convenient.

Kettle primed. Radio tuned. It's pressing time again tomorrow...

The Ciderhouse is Buzzin'

Here's another mystery apple from the orchard in Worcestershire. The single tree that these orangey, speckled and striped apples come from is now mostly rootstock, producing a sharpish, green, ribbed apple of little value to us for cidermaking.

The original grafted variety produces a reasonable crop of early bittersweet cider apples, most of which have already dropped by early October. Once they've hit the ground, they have a tendency to rot, so we pressed them today along with some of our own home-grown bittersweets, the Sweets we harvested last weekend, and a few sharps to help lower the pH.

My best guess on these is Ashton Bitter, an early bittersweet usually grown alongside Dabinett as a pollinator. This tree is in the same part of the orchard as the Dabinetts.

We also pressed a small trial batch of Kingston Black today, finding very few rotten fruits, and giving a respectable gravity of 1.055. It will be interesting to see how this variety develops over the coming weeks. I'm hopeful that we may get closer to 1.060, and maybe improve the flavour if we can leave them a little closer to December.

The Kingston Black apples are producing the most wonderful candy-apple aroma as they mature, and the fragrance in the ciderhouse today has been quite heady. The Wasps find it very attractive too, and I had to fish several out of the juice as the afternoon wore on. Look carefully and you'll see a couple buzzing around the cheese on this short video of today's pressing.

Ciderhouse News - Mid October

The weekend cidermaking started earlier than usual this week. On Thursday I collected the Kingston Black cider apples and Green Horse perry pears from Worcestershire, delivering them back to Rockingham Forest Cider HQ ready for pressing. The Kingston Blacks will be left to fully mature for a few weeks more before pressing, but the perry pears had already stood for a week following harvest, and were on the cusp of being overripe. We also pressed the apples and pears from Rockingham which will form this seasons Welland Valley Festival Special.

It was a long, hard day in the ciderhouse, but we were rewarded for our efforts with around 300 litres of cider and perry. The Green Horse pears have pressed with a similar sugar level to last years crop, giving a Specific Gravity of 1.050 (as measured with my shiny new German Hydrometer). This will produce a perry of around 6.4% abv, although only around 100 litres will actually be sold as a single variety perry. The rest will be used for blending with other perrys for our Rockingham Forest Perry.

The local Rockingham fruit had been left to mature slightly longer than absolutely necessary, resulting in a fair few apples and pears not making the grade due to rot. Not an ideal situation, but nevertheless I had high hopes for this fruit. There were four different varieties, all dessert fruit. An early, soft-fleshed apple with a lovely fragrance, though no great keeping quality; a crisp, sharpish eater, only just ripe at harvest; a probable Conference pear; and a greenish/golden russeted apple, almost certainly Egremont Russet. The russets made up the bulk of the fruit, and I'm expecting a soft tannin from them to add a welcome complexity to the blend. All that waiting around will have helped the sugar levels, and I was pleased to record a Specific Gravity of 1.058, giving a potential abv of 7.4%.

Once again we are relying on wild yeasts to get fermentation under way, and I'm pleased to say that after a worryingly slow start, it's all systems go with the Malvern Hills and Blakeney Red perrys. Phew! Fermentation is very slow in these perrys, possibly due to the extremely low nutrient levels in this very old, largely unmanaged orchard. Slow fermentation is considered a good thing for flavour, just so long as it remains slowly ticking over, and not stopped entirely. No sooner has one fermenter got fermenting, than the wait begins for another to get going. Green Horse is at the starting gate and ready for the off...

Virtual Cider House

Four days of persistent rain, hard graft in assorted orchards, and the washing & pressing of a third of a ton of Blakeney Red Perry Pears, has finally taken its toll. Today (Sunday) has been designated a rest day.

Limbs aching, and fuzzy-headed with tiredness, the only thing we're good for today is a trip to the Red Lion for a pint and a snooze on the comfy sofas. I'll be enjoying the Great Oakley Welland Valley Mild, Karen the Wot's Occuring, but we could equally enjoy a pint or two of the recently delivered Rockingham Forest Perry. This is the mystery perry which will also be going to Brocks Hill Apple Day, and very nice it is too.

For those of you who can't make it to a pub today, here's a virtual version for you to relax with. Pour yourself a pint of beer of cider, surround yourselves with the Sunday papers, sit back and warm yourselves at the Fleece Inn, Breforton's cosy open fire:

Ciderhouse News - September

It's been a Mop and Bucket kind of a weekend. The ciderhouse has received a full top-to-bottom clean ahead of the first pressing of the season, which will hopefully be next weekend if we can catch the Malvern Hills perry pears in time. Word is that some pears have already fallen, so I'm just hoping that the high winds we're experiencing this week haven't brought the lot down before I manage to get to the orchard on Friday.

I'm combining the trip with a visit to the Orchard Centre at Hartpury in Gloucestershire, which is hosting a day In Praise of the Perry Pear on Saturday. I'll be taking along a few of our own perrys to get feedback and advice from the experts, and hopefully a few of the unknown perry pears from the orchard for identification purposes. Around 50 perry pear varieties will be on display, so I'm hoping I can match up one or two of our own on the day. There will also be perrys available to sample and buy on the day, so I'll be sampling and buying too. It would be rude not to.

We still have cider and perry available at the Red Lion Middleton and Wing Hall Cafe Bar and Shop, and there are one or two events still to come where our cider and perry will be available. We'll be sending a box of our most recent perry to the Billesdon Local Food Lunch (3rd Oct), for which tickets are required, and will have cider and perry to sample and buy at the forthcoming Brocks Hill Apple Day (10th Oct). We'd like to thank David Bates of Welland Valley Vineyard for sorting out the licencing for this years event. David will have bottles of his own excellent Roundhead Cider available to buy on the day too.

In other news, the Rockingham Forest Cider Flock has increased again with the arrival of 'Molly Maid' our beautiful new Maran Hybrid. She'll be company for 'Chucky-Egg' who despite repeated efforts to sidle up to the 'Big Hens', has so far failed to find an acceptable place in the existing pecking order. Bad Girls! Young Chucky is laying small brown eggs at the moment, but has still managed to squeeze out this delicious 'double-yolker'. Good Girl!

In related news, the ever dwindling grape harvest has now been officially cancelled... Very tasty eggs though!

Newton Abbot

In the absence of any hard facts emerging from Paul & Sue's Grand Tour of the West Country, I'll have to make some up...

This first pic shows a mixed double of ciders being enjoyed in Ye Olde Cider Bar in Newton Abbot. The smaller of the two appears to be Thatchers Cheddar Valley, a garishly orange cider known locally as Diesel! The larger, man-size glass contains local speciality Sam's Dry Cider, from the Winkleigh Cider Co. This is an exceptionally clean, low tannin cider in the Devon style, made by a former worker at the Inch's ciderworks.

I don't think it would be overstating the case to describe the Cider Bar as a national treasure. One of only a handful of genuine 'cider houses' in the UK, where cider (and fruit wines) hold sway and beer doesn't get a look in. The Cider Bar is notable for it's range of ciders (naturally), and basic but atmospheric interior, which if Paul had been more of a tourist and less of a 'local', I might have been able to show on here! Instead here's a video of Cider Bar owner Richard Knibbs, talking about Darling's recent attempt to increase duty on cider by 13%:


Last heard our intrepid cider tourists were overdosing on clotted cream scones and something called 'Real Ale'! It now looks as if they've 'gone native', so here's a couple of pics from the Newton Abbot archive.

Henley & Sons was a sizeable regional ciderworks at Abbotswell near Newton Abbot. They were taken over by Whiteway's Cyder in 1933 and eventually closed. The picture below is from a small exhibit at Newton Abbots other treasure, Tuckers Maltings, where Henley's Cyder was formerly bottled.

First Taste II - The Ciders

We're in no great rush to start selling our ciders, which is just as well really as all the signs point to them maturing a fair bit later than previous years.

Several factors have slowed things down in the ciderhouse, chief of which is that we didn't start our cidermaking until well into October, which is several weeks later than the early season dessert apples we pressed in 2008. A minor difference maybe, but compounded by the significant change in temperature from warm and sunny September, through to the chill of November. Colder weather means a slower, steadier fermentation, generally considered a good thing for overall quality, but not so good if speedy results are required.

Another factor is that all of this seasons ciders contain a high percentage of tannic bittersweet cider apples. I've previously found that ciders made with a high proportion of cider apples tend to take longer to clear and mature than those made from dessert and culinary fruit. This year we have very little early 'Eastern-Counties' style cider to fill the gap until the 'West-Country' stuff is ready!

This season we're relying on the natural yeasts on the fruit to ferment all of our ciders. Whilst most cultured yeasts have been selected to ferment in the most efficient way possible, often measured in weeks rather than months, wild yeast ferments tend to be much slower, sometimes continuing right through to the warmer Spring months. It's quite possible that some of our later pressings may continue to ferment right through until early Summer, and therefore may not be properly mature and ready to drink until Autumn comes round again! Such is the unpredictability of cidermaking.

So, bearing all this in mind, here's an early-early tasting of this years very young ciders. I've named them after the highest proportion of apples in each batch, which usually constitutes around 60-80% of the blend:

Yarlington Mill - Pick of the bunch, though nowhere near ready. Tastes great. Rich, mellow tannins, some sweetness, lovely deep golden colour. Still very cloudy though (see pic). Promises to be our best cider yet when fully mature.

Bulmers Norman - Sharp and very fruity. Some tannin, slight peardrops. Still cloudy and definately one for blending.

Vilberie - Clean, balanced flavour, with some hard tannin. Light golden in colour and slightly cloudy. Sharper than the Yarlington Mill, should mature into a very drinkable cider.

Welland Valley Special (Dessert/Culinary) - Fresh, fruity and very well balanced. Slight peardrops. This has almost cleared and is tasting very good already, but should be even better by the time this years Welland Valley Beer Festival comes around.

First Taste - The Perrys

It's been almost four months now since our first pressing of the season, a trailer load of Malvern Hills perry pears, at a peak of sugary ripeness despite being picked in September. Unlike the later pressings of cider fruit, fermentation was quite rapid owing to the warm Autumn weather, and had all but finished by the time things turned colder in November. For this reason, Malvern Hills Perry can often be one of the earliest perrys available in the season, and I've been lucky enough to try some fine examples as early as mid-March.

Of all the different ciders and perrys we've pressed this season, the Malvern Hills is the one I've been most looking forward to trying. It's a particular favourite of mine, usually very pale in colour, crystal clear, with an exceptionally clean, fruity flavour. Like most perrys, Malvern Hills has a light, fragrant quality, Elderflower-like aroma, and fresh, fruity flavour. When sampled straight from the vat, there will often be a pleasant prickle of dissolved CO2, which only serves to enhance the delicate flavour of this highly regarded perry. It can also be very strong! Our Malvern Hills perry has been toned down a little through topping up with a smaller quantity of Blakney Red pear juice. Even so, it's still likely to achieve an alcohol level of 8.0% or more, which is around the maximum permitted level for a drink taxed as perry.

It's the 'racking-off' that provides us with the first opportunity to taste the fruits of last years Autumn labour. 'Racking' is the process of carefully syphoning the young ciders and perrys off the old yeast deposit (sometimes known as the Lees) into fresh vats. This can help to clarify the drink, but it's main purpose is to reduce the chance of 'off flavours' developing as the old yeast deposit breaks down over time. It's also a great opportunity to assess the general quality of each batch, and it may also be desirable to do a bit of blending at this stage. Finding a vat which has cleared naturally and lost the 'yeastiness' of a young, immature cider, is a real bonus at this time of year.

I spent most of Sunday racking the ciders and perrys, an exhausting task even with the help of our efficient little pump. The ciders are, not surprisingly, still very cloudy, and some months away from full maturity. In fact some of the very late pressings such as the Vilberie, which wasn't processed until mid-November, are not even ready to be racked yet. The perrys are much further forward, and showing great promise.

Malvern Hills - Clear, clean tasting, and showing only a slight yeastiness. This perry is almost ready to drink, though far too tannic at the moment. Needs another few months to mellow and soften, but should be an exceptional perry when ready.

Blakeney Red - We have two vats of Blakeney, one being quite cloudy, and still showing signs of fermentation. The other vat has cleared nicely, and finished fermenting with some sweetness remaining. It's soft, light and very well balanced, but still showing a very slight yeastiness. Now we've racked this off, I'm confident this should be ready for the forthcoming Leicester CAMRA Beer Festival in March.

Green Horse - Young, somewhat hazy in appearance, but the mild tannins in this should make for a very drinkable perry in another few months.

Vat #25 (Unknown Perry Pear) - Pale and hazy like homemade Lemonade. It may stay this way or clear to near colourless. This is fully fermented and quite dry, with a harder, slightly bitter tannin. Needs more time.

Vat #2 (Unknown Perry Pear) - A real surprise this one. Still very tannic, and therefore not quite ready, but a lovely pale golden perry, crystal clear with a delicious juicy-fruits flavour. Sadly most of this perry has been used for topping up purposes, though a very small quantity has been set aside for bottling and giving away to the long list of people who helped us make it!

Next: The Ciders

The Cider Must Get Through...

Daring adventures in deep snow are not usually my kind of thing, but it's sometimes worth taking a few risks in pursuit of good cider. Our local the Red Lion needed cider, award-winning Herefordshire cidermaker Mike Johnson has a barn-full of the stuff. I call that synchronicity of purpose, and a trip to Broome Farm was necessary for cosmic balance to be restored...


Mike conducts his cidermaking business in splendid rural isolation at Broome Farm near Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. The picturesque approach to the farm is via a winding single-track lane, perched above the flood plane of a small tributary to the River Wye. A lovely drive through a quiet valley of pasture and mature cider orchards, even better by foot or cycle from Ross. Not so good when covered in a few inches of snow!


I was worried about this final approach to the farm, but thankfully there had been very little traffic this way and the snow was still powdery rather than icy. So much for the treacherous lane, just the 1-in-4 up to the farm to negotiate. This proved to be a risk too far and I decided to leave the car on the lane. Following some light sampling in the ciderhouse, we delivered the boxes of cider to the car by sturdy wheelbarrow, and I made my escape before the next round of blizzards threatened to snow me in. Come to think of it, I can think of much worse places to be stranded...

The ciders have now been delivered to the Red Lion, a fairly dry Whisky Cask matured cider, and a Medium/Dry blend of Ellis Bitter and Browns Apple. Get them while you can, they're going fast.