Last Saturday was a day to remember. This day was the first day
that having two huge Bramley Apple trees in our back garden
actually paid off. Before that day (in days gone by) I had to
pickup endless brown and manky windfalls sometimes two wheelies
full.
So last Saturday we made good use of the beautiful green bounty
from "old mother" nature.
The main Protagonists were me Raz, Next Door Dezza, Jonnie the
Recipe and Real-Ale Tex.
Of course I was late collecting Christian Curran who is always
never where he says he is. Armed with a zillion apples, a Fred
Karno Apple Obliterator (paint mixer) and a Magimix (actually a
Kenwood Food Processor) we set about the task of creating liquid
refreshment.
But like everything in life, making cider was not that simple. A
carefully honed and crafted recipe had been fashioned, balancing
the sharp Bramley's with Dezza's sweeter variety. Indeed Tex and
Jonnie had been crashing the countryside for free giveaway's of
fruit and a huge pile had been assembled.
So the first stage was the weighing and selection of fruit, then
the chopping into smaller pieces. Next came the good bit. Tex used
the Apple Obliterator to chop up the apples into smaller pieces and
then into the Magimix to blend the apple into a pulp.
Into the press goes the slop (which was described by Sal as
puke…which was nice). The puke was then pressed and all the liquid
removed and poured into large glass containers. All the while our
heroes were savouring Tex's fantastic home brew until disaster
struck!!!
The girls turned up with baby and dog. The party was over. This
was a serious production line we had created and didn't want the
girls embarrassing us and making it better. No sir'ee. A Vulcan
bomber was despatched to ward off the usurpers. To no avail, the
task nearly at end we packed up and left the liquor into the hands
of Tex the Master Brewer to work his magic.
Big thanks to everyone for making this happen and especially Tex
for hosting the event and letting us sample his home brew.
Can't wait until Christmas when we can sample it.