Over the last two weeks a concrete base has been made for the tank to
sit on. The tank will have a built in advantage, due to the ground
behind the cider house being about 3 ft above the floor level inside
the tank room. This height difference plus the the height of the
concrete base for the big new tank means that it will be possible to
gravity feed from it to the 6 IBC tanks in the tank room, after the
first stage of fermentation and blending.

On seeing the big tank nearly in its place behind the ciderhouse I’ve
had several onslaughts of my favourite daydream – to jump the 7000
barrier and grow the business. Several times now I’ve paced out the
area available, and could easily imagine another 4 or even 5 of the
6000 litre monsters sitting there. Now that would look a proper job,
an impressive sight indeed, like a mini Westons! Well I can tell you
emphatically, that dream faded away for ever this week. Circumstances
have forced me to work at the rate that would be required by an annual
output of 18,000 litres. It has been very tiring and time consuming.
I’ve shipped 38 x 20 litre boxes over the last week, delivering by
day and often packaging well into the night. I could never keep that
up on my own, especially not with all the book keeping needed by the
liability for excise duty.

Reality has dawned! But how did this happen? Warm weather created a
surge in demand from the pubs. I did some extra marketing and gained
four more outlets. Silly really, but I can’t help myself doing it.
Then in parallel with this there have been several good orders for
festivals. It seems to have all come at once, but it has had the good
effect of bringing me down to earth. No more daydreams, I will stick
to my 7000 litres, it is a job enough for an old un !

There is only 2000 litres of draught left for this year, so I could
even have a rest period before pressing starts, or at least find some
to make improvements to the equipment.

It was good here today! This morning I acted as collection point for
ciders destined for the Gillingham ( Dorset) Football Club Cider
Festival, to be held on 27 th June ( see wiki ). Last week Barry left
3 of his B-in-Bs for it here. Today I had the pleasure of meeting
Martin Inwood, a craft cidermaker from Bere Regis who had also brought his cider
for the festival. Patrick, the Festival organiser, had arranged to
collect these ciders, together with my own, and was already here when
Martin arrived. It was a sunny morning so it was only natural to have
a little cider tasting in the garden! Martin had anticipated this I
think, as he arrived, bottle in hand. Our first toast to fine weather
was with his latest ‘Lulworth Skipper’, a fine clear golden cider that
had been matured in an oak wine barrel. It was excellent, crisp and
pleasantly oaked. It confirmed that I do like oaked cider after all,
if like Martin’s, the oak is fairly subtle. I can now put the early
bad experience with whisky barrels behind me and move on. I’m getting
to like wine barrel cider! Just as the Monkton Wyld ‘Wider’ delighted
me at Powerstock, Hecks Port Wine has become a firm personal favourite.

I must get one or two ex wine barrels from somewhere before the
autumn. Anybody know where?

Rose

I’m still dazed and amazed at my unbelievable good fortune with this
cider at last week’s Royal Bath and West Show. To win the cup for the
champion Farmhouse Cider was like a dream in itself. When that same
cider was then chosen as the Supreme Champion of the Show, I scarcely
was able to take it in. It seemed just incredible! Having had a
completely trophyless lifetime, (I was totally useless at all sports
in my schooldays), to unexpectedly win two silver pots, big ones at
that, was certainly breaking new ground. I was thrilled to bits! For
me this was not only the high point of this cidermaking year but of
all my cidermaking years and doubtless of those yet to come. A joyful,
once in a lifetime experience, thanks to the golden juice from a tiny,
18 tree, Dorset orchard!

I felt honoured to be the first cider maker to bring these two trophys
to Dorset. On coming back here with them last Saturday, I had the
curious thought that bringing the Worshipful Fruiterers Supreme Cider
Cup out of Somerset, seemed rather like stealing the Stone of Scone. I
note however that Alex Hill wrested it across the boundary into Devon,
after winning with his Bollhayes Cider in 2006. But in all other
years it has remained solidly in its home county, being won by
Somerset producers, large, medium and small (notably our Michael Cobb
in 2004).

I might have known that such braggart thoughts could elicit an ancient
Somerset curse, perhaps muttered by some old farmer on the Levels,
into his mug of scrumpy. And so it was that on Sunday morning I found
water was pouring out from under the ciderhouse door and there was an
unpleasant hissing sound coming from within. A pipe had burst during
the night, spraying water upwards and drenching everything. The
electrics had tripped due to water in the light fittings. The steel
vats had been topped up with water on top of their sealed lids.
Fortunately this was unable to penetrate into the cider held below the
seals. Most things were none the worse for a soaking but there was one
terrible exception. A few days earlier I had worked hard bottling,
corking, wiring and labelling, 150 bottles of keeved Kingston Black.
I’d then packed them into cardboard boxes and stacked them below the
table for temporary storage. This whole stack of boxes had now become
a soggy mess. It took most of Sunday to get the water out, from in and
under furnishings and equipment. Today I set to work rescuing the
bottles of Kingston from their squelchy cartons. I found that a large
number of the bottle labels had also been ruined. There is a lot of
work that now has to be done again.

It was a chore sorting out this little disaster area today, but I was
buoyed up with a new resolve. When the Kingston has been reworked I
intend to bottle the winning cider with a little sugar into heavy
weight bottles. This should then preserve it as a sparkler that can be
enjoyed as a memento of last week’s success, for a good few years to
come. I wont put any boxes of it under the table though, just in case.

Rose

The sun was shining and I felt on top of the world, driving once again
over glorious Eggardon hill, then down and down the narrow rutted
little road to Powerstock far below. It was important to get there a
little early so as to get the cider set up before the event started.
On entering the school playground I was warmly greeted by Nick Poole,
who organises the event, and then by my dear Ukcider friends Ny and
Sharon, after their long journey from Leominster. Nick introduced me
to Michel, a cider maker from France and I was even more warmly
welcomed, in the traditional French double cheek manner! I marvelled
that the attraction of Powerstock has now even extended across the
Channel. Ny and Sharon’s Cyder Circle friends, Tom, Sandy and Dave had
also come with their ciders. The word must be getting around as this
year there were craft producers from Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and
Herefordshire as well as from our neighbouring counties. There was a
friend of Roy’s from Berkshire and a number of visitors who had somehow
discovered the event and come all the way from London.

The various cider barrels, kegs and boxes were arranged on tables
close to the walls inside the hall to allow the main area between them
to become the drinking and chatting area. This soon gets full of
people, so I like to use the early part of the evening to get around
and meet some of the other makers and have a taster here and there. I
spoke to several who were donating cider for the first time, including
Matt and Alan who had come from my own area. I’m beginning to have
local competition! The interest in real cider is certainly growing in
Dorset and it was good to see so many different ciders on offer. There
were many cider makers that have been going there every year from the
beginning, but that I’ve still yet to meet. There is never quite
enough time before things start to get busy. However this year I was
delighted to be able to meet Winston and Diane and the other nice
couple who run Monkton Wyld Cider at Charmouth. They had 3 very
interesting little oak barrels of cider, each very different in
flavour. The most noteworthy of these had been made in a Rioja barrel.
Winston joked that it was called ‘Wider’ and I was surprised to find
that I enjoyed the unusual taste, but then I do like Rioja. I met
James Crowden, Liz Copas, Rupert Best and Penny Whatmore (from the
Cider museum),
also enjoying a walk around and tasting.

People had started pouring into the hall so I went back to join Ny and
Sharon, to help with dispensing the ciders. My cider shared the same
table as theirs and that of their friends from Oxfordshire. As usual
it was so nice to see their little dog ‘Rosie’, tucked up, as good as
gold, in her bed under the table. Very few people even realised that
she was there. She is a real sweetie, not bothered in the slightest by
the ever increasing forest of people’s legs and the rising noise
level. Soon the hall was packed, the cider pouring out rate increased
tremendously and the little group of folk musicians started their
playing with obvious pleasure. One of them, a small lady in a green
dress, played the fiddle with a furious delight. She was amazing, the
wailing notes from her fiddle
seemed to cut into your very soul. A great feeling of sheer happiness
seemed to envelop everyone there. It was not long before we were all
singing along to the tunes. ‘Drink thee zider’ was of course the best
sung of all!

I caught a worried look on Nick’s face as he looked out of the hall
into the playground. I went over to him and remarked what a great
success his evening had become. “Look out there”, he said. “I’ve
created a monster!” In the playground a four or five person wide,
snake like queue of people could be seen, snaking all the way to the
hall from the village road. Nick decided that he would have to go and
lock the gates before the hall became completely overwhelmed. I’m not
sure if he actually managed to do this, but things never became a real
problem. In the hall a mass of people seemed to flow in continuously
from the main door, with an never ending sea of arms reaching out for
their plastic tumblers to be filled. They were mostly young adults but
were all well behaved, many of them taking their cider out through the
other door to enjoy in the playground. They looked so pleased to be
there and were obviously enjoying themselves. I never saw any trouble
at all and was pleased that Nick’s success had not become a binge
drinking problem. Perhaps it was his wise choice of small glasses and
the fact that the sheer number of people soon exhausted all the
available cider, but I’d prefer to think that cider drinkers are just
nice people. Whatever the reason, the visitors numbered 800, compared
with 700 last year. A lot to squeeze in a small hall in a tiny
village, itself squeezed within a narrow valley. I can’t begin to
imagine where they all parked!

The interesting thing, as Ny remarked to me, was the age range of
those who attended. Most were 20 to 30. Real cider has become very
popular with the younger generation. There weren’t very many grey
heads like me to be seen! Another interesting thing that I have
noticed this year, is the rising popularity of Cider Festivals
(meaning cider only!). Three sports clubs have asked if I can supply
theirs and our Sports club in the next village have asked me if I
could help to start one as a regular summer event. I also supply
several events where cider is the only drink provided.

I have an increasing conviction that there is a new awareness of
Real cider. It is gaining the presence that we have all hoped for and
people do know the difference between it and the supermarket stuff.
What is more I’m sure that the existence of the UKcider website for
the last ten years has had much to do with it. We must overcome our
difficulties and keep up the good work!

Rose.

BTW. For those who are wondering what has become of Ny. He IS still
with us, but has an intractable spam filter problem. His ISP does not
seem to want him to see any UKcider postings at the moment. (A good
thing, maybe! )

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