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!

Brigstock Beer Festival 2010

Beer, Cider, Perry or Pimms. The choice is yours at this years mighty Brigstock Beer Festival (Sat 18th Sept). In addition to all the beer, music, stalls, and yes, Pimms Bar, there will be a choice of local-ish ciders from Churchill of Huntingdon, Jollydale of Stamford, and most local of all, our very own Rockingham Forest Cider. There will also be a brand new, never tasted elsewhere barrel of Rockingham Forest Perry. It's a limited edition of only two and a half barrels, so get it while you can.

This particular perry has become known as the 'Mystery Perry' on account of it not appearing on any of my extensive records. A lost and lonely fermenter, languishing unloved in a dark recess at the back of the ciderhouse. Poor thing. I've reason to believe that it was made from a late harvest of assorted perry pears, possibly including some Red Longdon, possibly not!

Now perry being such an unpredictable drink to make, you never quite know what you're going to get until you lift the lid as it were. On lifting the lid on this one last weekend I was met with the sight of a strange, rubbery mass floating on the surface. Strange indeed, though not necessarily a bad thing. I've seen this sort of thing before, and it seems to be quite common with perry, but even so, it was quite a surprise. After I'd managed to carefully remove the offending 'pancake', the perry lying below turned out to be crystal clear. Even stranger still was the almost total lack of sediment at the bottom of the fermenter. It seems all the yeasty residue which would normally settle on the bottom, had floated to the surface... and stayed there!

So there you have it. It's a tasty perry for sure, and will only be available at the Brigstock Beer Festival.... and Billesdon Local Food Lunch.... and maybe Brocks Hill Apple Day if there's any left. Never fear if you do miss it, there's still the Malvern Hills to come, and that's a stunner, though lacking the pancake on top!

Looking Good Naked

New cider book alert. The terrific Naked Guide to Cider is available now direct from Tangent Books, or you can wait a few days when it goes on general release.

It's jam-packed with all kinds of cidery stuff, including a neat little Q&A from the head cidermaker at Rockingham Forest Cider... whoever that might be.

A snip at £9.95. We commend it to the (cider)house.

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...