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

This year it was impossible to fully blend until the first 1000 litre
IBC had been emptied, due to the lack of tank space. The cider in this
tank was acceptable but rather on the sharp side. Although in itself a
blend of perhaps 4 varieties, they were early season apples which tend
to be acidic. It sold well enough but I was not really happy with it.
When it had gone I was able to blend the remaining 5 IBCs ( I make
6000 litres of traditional draught). It was a moment of truth when I
tasted the result, being very pleasing and having the same rich, soft
dry, sort of flavour as in previous years. My full season ideal seemed
to be vindicated once and for all. The romantic notion that Nature
provides its own balance came to me, not for the first time.

I’ve given this blending problem a lot of thought in recent years.
I’ve mentioned it here which stimulated clever proposals involving
pumping this way and that between the tanks to ensure that each
contained the identical blend. One posting stood out in my mind. It
was about Customs & Excise inspections rather than blending. Tom
Oliver remarked that he had difficulty explaining to the inspector
that his 6000 litre blending tank was not used for the storage of
cider! This is the solution for me too, I thought. Never mind the
inspections. I will cross that bridge as and when needed. I want a
6000 litre tank! I can do the initial fermentation of the whole
season’s cider in it, whereupon all will be fully blended. Plentiful
co2 will fill the headspace, safeguarding the juice as the season’s
pressings progressively fill the tank. Then just after Christmas I
will transfer the still fermenting cider to the 6 IBCs in the tank
room, thus performing a racking in the process. Well that is the theory.

Today it became a reality. A massive plastic cylindrical water tank
now stands in our garden. I can’t believe how big a 2 metre diameter
tank actually looks! My mind has been working flat out thinking how to
alter its role from being a giant garden ornament, to a functional
item situated out of sight behind the cider house. I had thought it
would be possible to move it by rolling, but have been dismayed by its
great weight and the fact that it is impossible to get any sort of
grip on such a large drum. It is over 2 M in height which is also
unhelpful. I can see that I will definitely be in need of help from my
friends.

A few weeks back Barry and Albert came with a very awkward load.
Somehow back at Burley they had managed to get some very heavy items
inside Barry’s big white cider van. One of these was a pallet of
champagne bottles. These Barry had kindly bought on my behalf along
with his own consignment from France. This weighed best part of a ton
as did the other item. This was a 500 litre stainless dairy tank
complete with outer cooling tank and refrigeration equipment! Barry
and Albert had been determined to rescue this for me from a farm in
the New Forest where it was no longer required. It will be perfect for
keeving, due to the possibility of temperature control. I look forward
to modifying it and putting it to good use. However the immediate
problem was how to get these things out of the van and into my garage.
Luckily Charles, a friend in the village, came along with his tractor
and was able to lift them out with his front loader.

I am now very much in need of Charles with his tractor again! There is
a strong lifting eye moulded into the top of the tank. I’m hoping that
Charles will be able to lift the tank up and over the fence behind the
cider house, once I have obtained permission from the owner for access
to his adjoining field.

This is what the tank is like except that it is black. There is a 1 in
BSP stainless outlet fitted near to the base. Luckily I thought of
asking for that, as the standard fitting is brass.

Rose.