Exeter & East Devon Branch

Cider News

On the 25th July the Orchard Inn, Bristol (12 Hanover Place, BS1 6XT) was announced as winner of the Southwest Cider Pub of the Year (POTY). The pub which also stocks 4 real ales is a street corner pub and can be found near the SS Great Britain.
Haymans is a new Cider producer based in Broadclyst. We hope to have more details and an article in the next edition of Exe Ale.
The Somerset Cider Handbook is now out. It is a very informative publication, but we are currently checking the regulations because we are not sure that strawberry cider is in line with CAMRA policy, which we believe states 100% apple. Jean Cottee our Apple rep is on the case.

Venton Cyder - Clyst St Lawrence, Devon

In August 2006 Sharon and I bought an old cottage and smallholding in Clyst St. Lawrence near Whimple, the first time the place had changed hands for 70 years. Amongst the jungle surrounding the house were two old standard orchards of 60 apple trees with at least 20 different varieties, from Bramley's cookers and Tom Putt's eaters to Crab apples and many different Cider apples. By the time autumn arrived the undergrowth was cleared. Amazed by the carpets of windfall apples laid out before us, which for years had been going to waste, we collected up by hand as many as we could and I did a deal with a local chap who had made a bit of cider before. The deal was that we would supply the apples, he would make it and we would go halves on the cider. Anyway, when I took the bags down to him it turned out he had had a stroke so couldn't do it. With that I took the apples up to another local chap who also had a press. He said he had finished pressing for the year but to leave the apples and he would feed them to the pigs. I said "oh no you won't!" and took them home. Determined not to let the apples go to waste I borrowed a friends little 12 litre basket type press and crusher. My wife Sharon would wash the apples and cut them in half so the crusher could cope with them; I would crush and press them and the juice began to flow. All in all about 25 gallons that first year and a lot of hard work for such a small amount of juice. That was it; I was hooked and in 2007 made 50 gallons the same way.

Oak tree from which the press was made I told an old local ex cider maker that I made cider and when I told him how much he laughed and said that's not makin' cider boy! As it happened the old boy was working at the sawmill where I had just taken an Oak tree to be milled. I had already decided to make a "proper" press and the oak was to build the timber around two huge Victorian screws I had dug out the ground in Gloucestershire the year before. By now it was late July. I knew by early October I would need to have it finished, not to mention Oak barrels and a crusher sorted, so the pressure was on and the doubters said I would never get it all ready in time. Well I like a challenge and on the 2nd weekend of October 2008 we had 15 willing apple pickers on a mission to collect 40 bags which is about a ton but they all got carried away and 60 bags or 1 ½ tons were collected that day. They all went on the first press which was a bit like the launching of a ship. Everyone had a glass in their hand as they cheered the first flow!

The apples had just been randomly picked up, there was no science to it, but there were in all about 38 - 40 varieties used last year so a good balance of tannin, acid and sugar was more likely to be achieved but still pot luck!. Realising our apple supply would now be outgrown very quickly I spent the winter grafting scions (last years branch growth) onto 150 new rootstocks from carefully selected trees in our own orchard plus another local vintage orchard. The old trees go over eventually; we have lost ten since we moved here from Talaton. Hopefully after I plant out the new orchard this coming winter the grafts will ensure that we don't run out, and will also ensure the old varieties whatever they are, are preserved to blossom another day.

Cheese Cider making is not just a case of pressing a big pile of apple pulp, it has to be held together and because making a rack and cloth system would have cost a fortune I decided to go down the old fashioned route and picked up a big bale of organic Barley straw to make up "the cheese" (old Devon name given to the pile of apple and straw). In Devon they used to use long straw, turn it up and fold it over at the sides. This binds it all in but you can't get the long straw so easily these days so I made a cedar frame, with supporting pegs driven into the cheese. The frame would be raised to the top as we progressed upwards. First a couple inches of straw then a couple inches of pulp and so on, each layer being packed down tight especially around the edges to keep the cheese upright. Don't want any collapses!

It's a good job we had plenty of barrels ready because on that first press with so much weight on it, there was over 40 gallons of juice run off without even putting any pressure down on the press! We were flat out trying to keep up with it. The first few buckets had straw in with the juice but as all the loose stuff runs away early on; the juice clears and cleans up a lot. We all had to have a taste - it was delicious but I personally wish I hadn't drunk a whole glass. Turns out that fresh off the press untreated apple juice can have a very strange effect on your stomach! Four days later the cheese was just about squeezed right out, over 150 gallons had been barrelled up so it was time to strip the waste pulp out and start again which we did mid week. The pulp ended up going back out into the orchards for the pheasants; full circle and re-cycling at its best. By late November we were just about done and had surpassed all expectations by pressing 1,020 gallons. I thought "now that's makin' cider!" By Christmas we were tasting it, not bad at all but by Spring 2009 it had fully fermented, been "racked off" (siphoned into clean barrels leaving waste behind) and had matured in the Oak nicely so I decided to enter into the Dry Cider Class at the Devon County Show, not for one minute ever thinking I would stand a chance but all those hours spent out in the barn, one night in minus 8 degrees paid off, the cider won first prize so happy days!

The 2009 harvest looks like it could be a good one and I look forward to making some more good dry cider but also some naturally sweet cider this year. My nickname, given by my mates when I had my leg in plaster a few years ago is "Skippy" and the cider is now known locally as "Skippy's Scrumpy" so look out for it!

Mark Venton