Ciderhouse News - June 2014

We're approaching 'Peak-Cider' time here at Rockingham Forest Cider, with both cider and perry (almost) literally flowing out of the ciderhouse and straight down the throats of thirsty customers. Almost! We do have to transfer the golden liquid into boxes and barrels to aid this process. Licensees help too with their fancy 'glasses' and stoneware cider mugs, for which we thank them.

It's an inevitable reaction to the hot weather. People prefer to move around a lot less in the heat, and what then are they to do with those idle hands and moribund legs? Might as well shuffle to the bar and order a pint. That's where we come in..

This coming weekend you might want to shuffle over to Oakham for pints (or halves) of cider at the almost accurately named Oakham Ale Trail. Fear not cider and perry lovers, it's not all malt'n'hop in the capital of Rutlandshire. Our regular outlet in the town, the terrific White Lion, has expanded its range to include our Vilberie Cider, Red Kite Cider, and Green Horse Perry. Exotic 'foreign' cider will also be available from 'Udders Orchard of 'Uddersfield-in-the-North. Rare and unusual beers will also be available, as well as Maria's rare and tasty 'Craft' Pies (fully endorsed by the Rockingham Forest Cider branch of the Campaign for Real Pies) as well as other food type things.

Staying in Rutland for a moment, our Red Kite Cider will also be available at a mini-beer festival at the Exeter Arms, Barrowden. I haven't got a good picture of the Exeter Arms, but this photo of Saturday afternoon Cribbage play in the bar gives an idea of the kind of traditional village local it is. It's also home to the Barrowden Brewery, so expect some of the beers to have been sourced from literally 'yards' away.

Continuing to stay in Rutland for just one more paragraph, a Rockingham Forest Cider blend continues to be on tap at the bijou Veranda Cafe at Wing Hall. Great food and regular live music evenings here too, including the fabulous Latin Jazz sounds of the Sven Klang Jazz Band on the evening of 5th of July.

In other news, the ciderhouse has now been fully fitted out with a vintage skittles table, something else to do with those idle hands and moribund legs in the Winter. This table will be making an appearance at the forthcoming Cottingham & Middleton Village Fete (5th July), as will a box of our Red Kite Cider. The date for this popular village event has (almost certainly) been set to celebrate the day after American Independence Day (possibly), although I haven't managed to get confirmation of this yet (and probably won't). Either way, come and celebrate 'something or other', with a glass of cider and a throw on the skittles table. It's what Summers were made for.

Middleton Village Orchard

The Middleton Village Orchard Project is now in the final stages of the renovation which began way back at the beginning of 2012. The main entrance of Main Street is open, and the orchard has now effectively been given back to the community to enjoy.

A path circumnavigates the grassy interior, with several benches provided for quiet contemplation. The mature trees have all been heavily pruned back after many years of neglect, and it will be interesting to see how they now perform when blossom time arrives in the Spring. In addition there are new plantings of native broad leaf trees, assorted shrubs, and a few additional fruit trees. A James Grieve dual-purpose apple has been sited against the back fence, presumably ready to train as an Espalier. There are also individual specimens of the cooking apple Grenadier, early season dessert apple Discovery, and both Concorde and Doyene Du Comice pear.

What was once a wild and neglected village eyesore has been transformed into a very usable, attractive, and much more accessible space as a result of the work that has been done. I'd have to say that right now it all looks just a little too tidy for my taste, but I'm confident that this will change as the orchard develops, and the new plantings have had the chance to establish themselves and mature over the coming years.

Village Orchard Project - Update

Work has moved up a gear in the village orchard now that the weather has turned clement.

With the brambles now all cleared from the perimeters, perhaps the most striking difference is that it looks so much bigger. So much so that the remaining trees look quite sparse against the expanse of orchard floor. Now this is important because one of the ongoing plans for the orchard is to plant a few extra fruit trees, and I'd been wondering whether there was really room for them. I can see now that a few well positioned saplings will eventually help give the space a more traditional orchard feel than it perhaps has at the moment.

Another major alteration has been the removal of the apple tree which fell during high winds a few years ago. Despite the fact that this tree has still cropped regularly since it was blown over, it was hard to see how a felled tree like this could remain as part of a more accessible orchard.

Footings are now in place, and the bricks from the demolished walls have been cleaned up ready to rebuild the walls along two sides of the orchards boundary. Presumably there are not enough usable reclaimed bricks to reinstate the rear wall, and this has now been replaced with a new timber fence.

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.

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.

Pouring, Not Raining

It's official, there is a God! A God of village Fetes to be precise... and a minor deity of Beer Tents too.

At 12 noon today, the success of the 2011 Cottingham & Middleton Village Fete stood on a knife-edge. Heavy rain was predicted, and just for once the Meteorologists had got things just about right. All morning the rain poured downwards, the only bright note being that it wasn't pouring sidewards, or indeed upwards. Things were looking a little damp to say the least. The fate of this village Fete was hanging by a thread...

Just when all seemed lost and most of the stalls had retreated to the sanctuary of the village hall, the rain miraculously stopped. The sun came out, the band struck up, and a goodly portion of villagers formed an orderly queue at the bar. Langton Brewery beer, and our own Rockingham Forest Cider & Perry were on offer, accompanied by talented local musicians, and the star of the show, the incredible floating marquee... The wind had got up by now!

We'd like to extend our congratulations to the organisers of this years Fete, and particularly the BBQ team who gamely soldiered on, quite literally in the eye of the storm. We had a great afternoon in good company, and look forward to next years Fete, come rain or shine.

Weekend Welland Valley Wanderings... and Wing

Some memorable moments from one of the biggest weekends in the Welland Valley year:

The view from the George & Dragon, Seaton







Barrels and Mr Bip at the Red Lion


• Local legend Mr Bip rocks the Red Lion Middleton on Friday night, aided and abetted by a bus load of extremely up-for-it drinkers from the Shoulder of Mutton Weldon. If you want to know why our Green Horse Perry temporarily ran out on Saturday (and why the Red Lion floorboards may need replacing), the good folk of Weldon must (ahem!) shoulder some of the blame. Videos of the evening available 'under the counter' at the Red Lion...


• Excellent cider and perry range at Welland Valley Beer Festival newcomers the Fox Inn, Wilbarston. The Burrow Hill Cider was my pick of the festival, closely followed by the Parsons Choice. Served cool and delicious from the outside bar at the Fox, accompanied by the fleet-footed men and women of Braybrooke Morris. An excellent debut from the Foxters.


• Multiple cider re-orders for the Red Lion Middleton, as thirsty festival-goers drink the bar dry. Around 300 pints of our cider and perry were consumed over the weekend at the Red, plus another 100 or so of cider and perry from our friends at Charnwood, Ross, and Torkard. Excellent work from all the staff, particularly the glass washing team. You can't drink real ale and cider without a glass...



Ales, Cider & Perry at the Red Lion



• Whoever it was that organised the Lancaster Bomber to fly low over Lyddington on Saturday, top job Sir (or Madam)! Or was it just passing through to an air show...

• Vintage buses. Lovely!



• The mighty Skibbereen do what they do best on Saturday night at the Red Lion, as thirsty customers do what they do best at the bar. A slightly surreal night as the Red seemed to turn into a ciderhouse, and the Skibbereen Pipes player warms his instrument up in the Gents...



• The wind-down session at Wing Village Fete was a little bit on the wet side, but just the job nevertheless. A glass of Welland Valley Festival Special Cider helped ease the pain, with tea and cakes in Zia's terrific Veranda Cafe, and more Spaniels and Labradors than you can shake a sausage at, all wrapped up in a thoroughly traditional English Summer drizzle. Well worth getting a hangover for.

Cider & Perry @ Red Lion Middleton this weekend

Ciderhouse News - June

A busy day in the ciderhouse today. Barrels and boxes have now been filled ready for the next round of festivals and local deliveries. Barely a drop passed my lips... honest!

First up is a delivery to our friends at the Criterion Freehouse in Leicester, with a box of our new season Green Horse Perry. Like our other perries, this has finished with quite a high gravity of 1.014, giving a rich medium perry of 4.6% abv. Green Horse perry pears make a naturally opaque perry, with a pleasant citrusy sharpness, and just a hint of Ginger to my taste buds.

The cider and perry list for our village local the Red Lion has now been firmed up ready for this weekends Welland Valley Beer Festival:

Rockingham Forest Red Kite Cider (Med/Dry) 7%

Rockingham Forest Welland Valley Festival Special Cider (Medium) 7.5%

Rockingham Forest Green Horse Perry (Medium) 4.6%
Rockingham Forest Blakeney Red Perry (Med/Sweet) 4.2%
Torkard Floppy Tabs Cider (Medium) 6.0%
Ross Blakeney Red Perry (Med/Dry) 6.0%
Ross Browns Apple Cider (Med/Dry) 6.5%
Another local-ish cider (tbc)

This seasons Welland Valley Festival Special has emerged with a bit of soft tannin from the Russets we pressed, and a lovely orchard-fruits aroma. This cider will also be crossing the border to Rutland for the inaugural Rutland CAMRA Beer Festival later in the month, along with the very last barrel of this seasons Blakeney Red Perry.

Fruit Set - Looking Good

Three Festivals and a Wedding

The last weekend of April looks set to be a Right Bloomin' Royal Wedding Bank Holiday Jamboree Knees-up, Cor-Blimey Guv! Needless to say, this calls for a drink!

It's now accepted tradition in Olde England that we celebrate absolutely everything and anything with a pub festival, so it's no surprise that those pubs still loyal to the crown are going quite literally 'Beer & Cider Festival Crazy' in honour of the royal nuptials. In our own local trading area there appears to be much more festival action than we can possibly digest in a single weekend sitting, but three in particular have caught our somewhat bibulous eye. For want of a better idea, I've arranged them as a three course Royal Cider & Perry Banquet... in French... naturally!

Entree

The weekend kicks off in very local style at the Red Lion Mini-Beer, Cider & Perry Festival, in our own bijou villag-ette of Middleton. Monsieur et Madame Barby will be our Gourmands for the weekend, and we recommend an Amuse Bouche from the Rockingham Forest Cider drinks trolley, washed down with... oh, I don't know... perhaps an Entrée or two of Rockingham Forest Perry. Fine local music and all-round Bonhomie will also be on tap during the Friday evening sitting. Bon Appétit. (Incidentally, we're now le cidre du patron, de la maison at the Red Lion... Voilà!).

Le Plat Principal

The Swan & Rushes in Leicester is renowned for delivering generous portions and the very topper-most quality during its annual Cider & Cheese Festival. A whopping 30-40 Ciders and Perries have been promised for the weekend's Plat Principal, accompanied by a similar selection of quality Fromage to aid digestion. In fact so much cider is being imported from the West Country for this popular event, we're seriously worried that the delicate tectonic balance of the British Isles could be upset, plunging most of Anglia and the Fens below the icy waters of the North Sea. Sacré flippin' bleu! We know a few people in the Anglian region. They're not great swimmers to be honest! In view of this we're aiming to help restore the balance by bringing some of our own cider and perry to the festival. I just hope Grant won't be charging corkage...

Le Dessert

Will we have room for Le Pudding I hear you ask? Never fear, there's always room for one last Cidre or Poire, particularly when we can combine it with a small Digestif of genuine Cambridgeshire Bric-a-Brac and Jumble at the Elton Village Fete. The cider and perry selection at the Crown Inn Beer Festival in Elton is modest, but usually includes a few local specialities, including a barrel of our own cider or perry, both local and special... Bien Sur!

Welland Valley Beer Festival 2011

Mincing About in the Kitchen

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in the Welland Valley. Due in large part to the good folk of Rockingham Castle, who've jumped the gun somewhat and decked their expansive halls with many-a bough of holly. A little early you might think, but it's all part of their annual Victorian Christmas event, and for us humble flood-plane dwellers, a good opportunity for a nosey around the 'Big House' on the hill.

Here at Rockingham Forest Cider HQ, I'll be sticking rigidly with time-honoured tradition. No trees will be erected, Tinsel hung, or Baubles polished, until I'm jolly well told to by 'She Who Must Be Obeyed At Christmas... and beyond'. This is Karens time, and she'll be running our 'Christmas Season' with military precision, and dishing out military-style punishment to those that step out of line. I made the mistake of using my initiative one Christmas. It won't happen again!

That's not to say that the Christmas spirit is entirely absent. Regular readers will know that the Christmas Pudding has already been cooked, and is now being force fed regular tots of weapons-grade Calvados. The Christmas Cake has also now been baked, and will meet a similar boozy fate between now and the big day. I've also made a small experimental batch of Rockingham Forest Slider Mincemeat, in a vain attempt to feed the voracious appetite of 'She Who Can't Stop Baking Mince Pies'. There's much more to this super-rich mincemeat that the Slider though, so for adventurous bakers, here's the recipe :

200ml Slider (or a Sweetish Cider)

200g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

200g Currants

200g Raisins

750g Cooking Apples (Peeled, Cored, Chopped quite finely)

60g Dried Figs, Dates, or Prunes (I used Prunes, you decide)

60g Nuts (I used Walnuts)

60g Damsons (or Plums)

Grated Zest and Juice of 1/2 Lemon

1/2 tsp Mixed Spice

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

A good Tot of Cider Brandy or Calvados

Heat the Slider and Sugar gently in a pan until the sugar has melted. Add everything else, having chopped anything big into a smallish dice. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for half an hour. Spoon into sterilised jars, and pour a little brandy on the top to help preserve the Mincemeat before sealing. Ideally, store for a couple of weeks to mature before use, but to be honest, we'll be making some pies with it tomorrow...

Spending time in the cosy comfort of the kitchen has made me realise just how lucky we've been with the cidermaking this year. I'm giving thanks on an hourly basis to whichever deity it was that decided 2010 would be an 'off' year for Vilberie cider apples. Vilberie are a very late variety, not ready to be pressed until well into December. Now we'll do whatever it takes to fill the fermenters, but cidermaking in December is just a squeeze too far for me. To those friends and colleagues of ours still toiling over Mill & Press in icy Winter conditions, I salute you.... with a steaming mug of tea and a nice warm Mince Pie. Cheers!

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...

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Thanks to a tip-off from a friend in the village, I've spent the last two evening picking dessert apples and pears in a nearby country house orchard. There are around four different varieties of apple, at least half of which are Russets of some description. There are also a few cooking apple trees bearing very large green apples (Lord Derby at a guess), but we won't be using these in the cider. The russets are a bonus since they are widely regarded as being excellent for cidermaking purposes. If I can keep a few specimens in good condition, I'll be taking examples of all the varieties to the forthcoming Brocks Hill Apple Day event (10th Oct) in the hope that the resident apple experts can identify them for me.

All in all we've got maybe a quarter of a ton of fruit to press. This will form the core of our 2011 Welland Valley Festival Special Cider, along with the fruit from various other trees dotted around the village which are a few weeks off ripening yet.

My pleasure at spending time in this lovely old orchard was seriously tempered by the knowledge that it almost certainly won't be there next year. Sadly there are plans to build on the land, and the orchard will be grubbed up in due course. Such a shame.

Here are a few photos I took this evening. Unfortunately the light wasn't very good, and the heavy rain created a few problems too, but hopefully you'll get an idea of what we'll soon be missing...

Apples, and a Right Pair

The Leicester Mercury have cornered us in the orchard again. They just won't take no for an answer. It doesn't help that we come over all Pavlovian and grin like silly idiots whenever a photographer gets us in his sights.

The strong of stomach can read-all-about-it here (you may wish to disable 'images' on your browser before clicking this link): http://tinyurl.com/2arnotr

Red Lion Beer & Cider Festival

The bar at the Red Lion in Middleton, is reaching a kind of critical beer-mass ahead of this weekends Beer & Cider Festival (3rd-5th Sept). Handpumps are at a premium, so there will also be a neat pile of casks, and a selection of boxes to help make up the numbers. We've delivered the last of the Red Kite Yarlington Mill and Welland Valley Festival Special ciders, as well as Blakeney Red and Green Horse perrys. The weather is set fare, and resident Tattooed Love God Neil has been tasked with erecting the canvas ready for tomorrows Live Music and Saturday Barn Dance. I may also have a bottle of our new-season Slider available for tasting. Stop me and try one...

Red Lion Doin' The Do!

Life moves pretty slow in Middleton. It's a 'Northamptonshire Village' kind of thing. Months, sometimes years can pass by without so much as a whisper of a newsworthy event. We rarely stop to look around once in a while as there's very little to be missed, and generally speaking that's just how we like it...

...and then our village local the Red Lion go and spoil it all by announcing a Mini Beer & Cider Festival for the weekend of the 3rd - 5th of September. Bah!

It's going to be a bit of a 'fun' day apparently, with a Barn Dance, Live Music, Food, Real Ales, Real Cider & Perry. Well I ask you, where's the fun in that! I suppose we'll throw ourselves into it, gritting our teeth, sharing a beer or two, making the best of a bad job. To that end we've agreed to supply some of our own ciders and perrys for the event. Here's the provisional list:

Rockingham Forest Cider (Med/Dry)
Welland Valley Festival Special Cider (Medium)
Red Kite Cider (Medium)
Rockingham Forest Perry (Med/Dry)
Green Horse Perry (Medium)

Well there you have it. Some of that new-fangled 'fun' is coming to Middleton. Whatever will they think of next! Never fear, I confidently predict that normal service will have resumed by Monday.

Everything in the Garden Not So Rosy

'Read all about it...'

I'm pleased to report that Rockingham Forest Cider has finally made it into the national press....

I say 'we'. What I really mean is we've piggy-backed our way into the Daily Telegraph on the back of our village local the Red Lion, Middleton. We'll take our publicity any way we can get it.

Anyway, congratulations to Kevin & Fiona on this bit of national recognition. You can read the feature here: Pint to Pint