My Father-in-Law has a large back yard (the paddock) with three different apple trees in it. One is a ‘baking apple’ that he doesn’t remember the name of, the second is definitely a “Lord Darby” and the third is a bitter unknown species that I suspect is for cider.  That’s how these things work.

What I hope is a cider apple from paddock in West Grimstead

So that’s what I’ve set out to do. I peeled half a bushel of apples -they were dropping off the tree while only a little ripe because of the weird weather we’ve had this year-and then juiced them to produce about a pint of apple juice. I added that to a kit I had found on offer in Stockbridge. Brand name Kilner. It was mostly a large ‘boxed wine’ kind of container with the sugar and apple juice premixed, some sterilizer and some yeast. Got it for 50% off mind you. 🙂

Anyway I added those together and a cup of brewing sugar just for good measure and turned it loose. Boy did it gurgle and burp! Probably straight thru from day 2 to day 7 I could hear it every 10-15 seconds. Then exactly a week later I noticed it had settled down and I actually got bored waiting to hear it burble.

Now here’s where more experimentation came in. I bought some 2 gallon plastic bottles off Amazon and for the first time dear reader, I opted for a second racking instead of going straight for the fermentation in the bottle option. Specific gravity was right on according to my hydrometer but I wanted a bit of bubbles in my end product so I added two teaspoons honey to each 2 gallon jug before sealing them up tight. This made a LOT less mess than I’ve caused by trying to siphon and fill pint bottles one after another.  Made me happy and the Mrs didn’t have to smell cider everywhere around the kitchen. 🙂

It was a cool night and the heat came on and the next day they were distended and so tight they wouldn’t stand up on their own. I filled three jugs and carted them out to the shed for a month or so of contemplation. The fourth was about 3/4ths full (some lost to dregs at the bottom you know) so I decided to bottle that much as normal and do a flava comparison a few months down the road. I got 6 pint bottles and a chance to use my new bottle capper.

It feels good to have another batch that seems to be going well. It’s the third one I’ve done since moving to Salisbury. Arthur is keen to see how it’s going to taste with a hint of real apple added to the concentrate. I had a taste just to see and its got good bite to it, tastes of green apple. Thus the name Grimstead (where the tree is) and Green for the flava.  I think this is the first batch that actually lives up to the name Promissory Cider.

cheers!