Lawrence Brewers Guild

Thought some of you might enjoy this entertaining documentary on cidermaking and drinking in southwest England. Pro-tip: keeping your gaze trained on their eyes or foreheads allows you to almost completely avoid their disturbingly stereotypical British smiles.

Also, I've got an article on making hard cider in the current issue of Mother Earth News magazine. Reading it online is a poor substitute for having a real-life copy of such a lasting contribution to the field of boozemaking journalism, so rush out and buy several copies.

Cheers.

This is getting me ready to use our newly acquired club cider press! Is there any apple or pear crop this year that we could put it to use? I know the frost kind of screwed things up this year. But I sure am game if anyone has an inkling.

Jensen wrote:This is getting me ready to use our newly acquired club cider press! Is there any apple or pear crop this year that we could put it to use? I know the frost kind of screwed things up this year. But I sure am game if anyone has an inkling.

let me know quick so i can gather some help to get this press ready for action. It needs some cleaning....

According to Fieldstone Orchard's website (they are near Overbrook), their crop was wiped out by the late April freeze and we might just be SOL this year. Unless we scrounge up some cheap imported fruit, but that just doesn't feel right to me.

As far as soft cider goes, I stopped by Rees a few weeks ago; they said they didn't know when they'd start pressing, if at all. I checked w/the Merc folks yesterday, too, and they said probably no Rees stuff this year, so they're looking into different sources. There's Louisburg, too, but I'm pretty sure they always get all their apples from out of state anyway.

I agree w/sherrybob that using crappy imported apples is a no-go, but I wonder if we could do a bulk buy of decent apples through the Merc and do a pressing. Would anyone here be interested?

Nate,
Im interested in a bulk apple buy as well. Could you please post this up in the bulk buy section with some ideas of when and where this could take place?
thanks,
Andy

PS, im glad Sherry found out that Fieldstones apples have been wiped out. I was planning on getting apples there, not now.....urgent!!

Nice use of the word 'discombobulating' in a serious magazine article, Nate. Seriously, very good article.
Joe

yeah, BTW Nate, what a great article on cider making. It is the guide I'll use!

Since last night's tasting was cider and I talked a bit with a couple folks interested in making it, I'm shamelessly bumping this thread (and re-linking to the image of the British cider guy who looks like my grandpa).

Cheers!