Old Man Dave Cider!

[foxfish]

My bro Dave & I had been planing to make some cider with a couple of other friends, so what actually happened was "Tom" Daves son, took Daves place.
First time for all of us but with the help of some basic equiment we manged 6.5 gals today with maybe enough apple left for another 5.5 gals tomorrow?
Ofcourse the cider will be called "Old Man Dave"

 

[Sarnian]

It was great to meet Tom and I would personally be honoured to get absolutely lashed on what you finally produce!

( p.s. we've got a surplus of cooking apples - are they of any use?)

 

[island_sands]

It was great to meet Tom and I would personally be honoured to get absolutely lashed on what you finally produce!

( p.s. we've got a surplus of cooking apples - are they of any use?)

make a tarte tatin! i have a great recipe...

 

[flyflicker]

I have plenty of tatin's but no tarte's

 

[James T]

How do you make it Mart? I have loads of apples which spoil every year and would like to make some myself. They are very sweet eaters though and I thought for cider you had to have the very astringent bitter kind???

James

 

[Sarnian]

Hi James

I believe from hearing the chap who makes Rocquette cider over here, that they look for apples with the most tannin, so probably not the nicest eating ones. Mart will no doubt know more than me about it though! I think in practice they use a mix of sharp and sweet apples, which was why I wondered about cooking apples. By the way, I remember hearing somewhere that England is the only country which grows apples specifically for cooking.

 

[James T]

Ahh - I'd forgotten about the Roquette - nice one - I remember me and Juan going a bundle on that he he he.

Yup we have Bramley cookers - they are pretty sour and need loads of sugar to be added when cooking with them - but they are big.

I guess its the tannins in the cider apples that make them astringent?

 

[foxfish]

We just finished another batch, we now have 12 gals.

Yesterday it took four of us 6 hours to produce 6.5 gals - today two of us took 4 hours to make 5.5 gals!
A much improved press was a big help but also my chopping skills sped things up at lot.

James, basically very simple, yes a good mix of sweet & sour apples, use your own taste buds to test as you go.
Anyhow if you can cope with this guys monotone voice the vid is very good.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qYknjqEAWc&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - how to make cider at home.wmv[/ame]

 

[podge]

Mart you’d best hope that the drunken Spaniard doesn’t read this or he’ll be on the next boat over.
Looks good enough to drink, top job gents.

 

[agbiv]

I like the turned newell post as your "smasher"! :martial:friday

 

[island_sands]

I have plenty of tatin's but no tarte's

I am sure I could organise some... ;-)

I cant watch the video from work, will check it out later

 

[njb]

"Juice" and "bucket" are pretty funny throughout that video.

Looks good though! Do you know if crabb apples could be made into something I am able to imbibe? We have a couple trees and they are always totally loaded with fruit. I find the very ripe ones quite nice sometimes. Definitely not in any quantity though!

 

[foxfish]

Yeah, you can add them to a cider mix or make a jelly my mate makes a hot chutney with added chillies & sugar.

Our cider is happily fizzing away at the moment, some demijohns have lost there tissue paper bungs & this brown poo stuff is coming out!!

 

[Jonny250]

Looks good Mart, reminds me of my old hobby. I have a 6 or 7 year old 'Jon' of blackberry and bilberry port in a cupboard waiting for me to get brave enough...
previous versions have been ok!

I cooked rabbit stew tonight, a whole load of local cider went into that one, but it was worth it!

 

[James T]

Looks good Mart, reminds me of my old hobby. I have a 6 or 7 year old 'Jon' of blackberry and bilberry port in a cupboard waiting for me to get brave enough...
previous versions have been ok!

I cooked rabbit stew tonight, a whole load of local cider went into that one, but it was worth it!

Hey Jonny - care to share the rabbit stew recipe mate - I have a few rabbits in the freezer I want to cook up - mixed results so far...

 

[Mr. X]

Excellent - immortalized in cider! A worthy West Country tribute.

We planted several fruit & nut* trees (no, they don't produce Cadbury chocolate bars) over the last few years and now we produce far more apples than we can use, even after giving some away to family. We also seem to throw away (i.e. compost) three apples for each perfect one eaten or stored. Presumably the bruised throw-aways can be used for cider, once the slugs & maggots have been removed (or not!)?

*I beat the squirrel to the nuts last year but the squirrel beat me this year, two trees were stripped bare of nuts while we were on holiday . I hear that squirrels taste nutty .

 

[foxfish]

Re bruised apples - its the same as using cheap wine in cooking!
In our case, all four of us have mature apple trees so there was no shortage of good quality fruit but, I think you can use bruised apples if you cut the damage out. (first time for me so no expert)

 

[James T]

*I beat the squirrel to the nuts last year but the squirrel beat me this year, two trees were stripped bare of nuts while we were on holiday . I hear that squirrels taste nutty .

Yup - I heard the same - do you have an air rifle

 

[agbiv]

Soak'em in a little buttermilk overnight in the fridge. Put the buttermilk and...er...blood out for the cat or our on your favorite canine's dry food. The milk draws out the wild-nutty flavor. Essential if the little tree rats have been into pine trees and eating pine nuts (seeds) out of the pine cones. They'll carry a bit of a turpentiney flavor. Other nuts such as hickory, pecan and walnut will impart some flavor but only a few weeks after the nut season and not unpleasant. Our little lovelies get into the hickory nuts here and my black lab is the only other creature that can break them open and eat them. I can't afford the dynamite to blast'em open and shotshells make'em bounce.

I like to bark the squirrels with my .32 flintlock, blunts from the recurve or a wrist-rocket with steelies.

 

[agbiv]

And that only happens when wifie is off to M-I-L's on a weekend. Then I have to leave sticky note on left-over tub--don't eat this stew. etc.

She finds them cute and adorable even though they are nothing but bird feeder raiders (which she deplores but she is against capital punishment) and deliberate teasers of geriatric canines.