Sunday, August 05, 2007

Now Drinking...

Westons strong organic cider. I'm still trying to find somewhere near me I can buy proper cider - cider with bits in, cider you can't see through. I may have to make my own. But until I get round to it, this will do nicely.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not particularly close, but the Todmorden brewery does two ciders, one of which is organic, and both of which are lovely. They've just bottled their first perry but I've not had a chance to try that yet.

Gid said...

Do try making your own cider if you have a surfeit of apples.. proper farmhouse cider is such an easy thing to make if you have the right equipment.. press the juice from the apples, pour the juice into a lightproof fermentation vessel (wooden ideally, but plastic will do at a pinch).. leave until February/March/April time depending on your level of patience..

Try some apple wine too.. roughly chop 6lb of apples (removing pips and stalks).. place in a clean bucket and pour over 1 gallon of boiling water, then stir periodically until the temperature drops to about 60F.. strain through cloth into another clean bucket and stir in about 3lb of sugar.. add a teaspoon of wine yeast to about half a pint of the liquid in a glass (with an extra teaspoon of sugar) and leave for about 20 minutes for the yeast to start.. then pitch it into the the main body of liquid, leave it overnight to spread thoroughly through the mix and then decant into a demijohn with an airlock..

I have two gallons on the go at the moment that were made last year and are still fermenting, but I reckon they should be about finished in a couple of months or so..

Anonymous said...

When I was in the Royal Navy in the 50's/60's, and based in Plymouth, I remember the cider we used to get in the pubs then. It had so much floating in it, you had to grit your teeth to seive it through. Glorious stuff and it only cost 9d as opposed to 1/- for a pint of beer; a saving of 33%, a great incentive for an impoverished, thirsty matelot on a night out on the town.

Anonymous said...

They do say you should have to chew before you swallow if its a good cider!

We are hoping to make cider too. Last year we started a pruning programme on our 30 foot high old apple trees, and this year they fruited for the first time in 2 years. Perhaps next year we will have enough for cider ...

www.sallygardens.typepad.com

Gid said...

If you do fancy making your own cider, why not make your own press too.. lots of info here: http://www.ukcider.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Anonymous said...

Another vote for having a go at making your own cider. Very easy, and so satisfying.

R.