Charmed as one might be to receive a jovial invitation to a Cider-Making Weekend, a glance between the lines and we’ll find the invite actually reads: come slog away at the squeezing of m’ apples that I might stock up the cellar. But, the fellow an artiste of the home-made brew, the place a haven, the weather bursting with sunshine… I trundled to the depths of Suffolk county for a weekend spent mastering the art of Wild Cider Making.
Wild Cider is the traditional brew, which harnesses the natural yeasts from the air and the fruit and thus ferments. We were fortunate to be in the hands of a man whose system is quite perfected… the method being as follows:
The Apples, a muddle of sweet eaters, washed with a jet wash are then bashed, sliced using spades to facilitate the next steps.
These are thrown into a Mill, which further pulps the apples.
A traditional pressing method squeezes the juice from the Apples.
The juice is collected in a bucket.
...
A Second Pressing was attempted, packing the pulp from the first into this most beautiful of presses, gleaned from Italy. One would imagine this second pressing, much like that of Olives produces the more refined juice? There was some debate however about the reaction between the apples and the steel, our host wary of the contraption, whether indeed this will produce a pleasant drink remains to be told…
'tis a gentleman's sport this, requiring the mere squeezing of a lever...
...the juice flows
...The Juice is filtered, then left to ferment in Airlocked Fermenting Bottles until the blossom is again on the apple trees. All being well the wild yeasts will ferment the natural sugars producing Cider. This will then be racked off into bottles and provide Cider-enough to keep mine host and friends in liquor until the following year’s batch is brewed…
...
While I'm on the subject, tomorrow I shall tell of the distilling of Cider to make a Calvados worthy of late nights and sweet dreams...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your thoughts...