Tis the Season for Self Made Scrumpy

on December 14, 2013 -
Random Thoughts

Tis the Season for Self Made Scrumpy

It’s no secret that we live just far enough away from the city to enjoy a bit of rural living. Mostly this allows me to the space to play on quad bikes and motorbikes without upsetting anyone. Part of the land though is actually an orchard with great old apple trees that bear quite a bit of fruit every year.
Normally, we give it away to friends and family, let the kids pick what they want and try to use as much as possible. We can never use it all though so when we heard the suggestion of scrumpy we jumped right on it.
What better than homemade cider, fermenting away over winter ready to be served up nice and cold for the first barbecue of the summer?

Pressing & juicing the apples

So I’ve turned my hand to brewing, to making these apples into something that will put a smile on everyone’s face and add a bit of oomph to any party we throw. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be but it’s well worth the effort so far.

Using the pickup we loaded all the apples, windfalls and all straight into the back. We found someone locally who presses them and took them straight there. This really does cut down the time it takes as at first I had images of putting the kids to work in a big barrel stamping on the apples until juice came out. Within days the apples were pressed and juiced and ready to be returned.

Into the barrels ready to ferment!

We put them all in barrels and rolled them into the cellar. They’re now bubbling away nicely and should be ready for the summer but in such close proximity it’s hard not to test them now and again.

If they last until next year we’ll be having a scrumpy party. I’m pretty sure the alcohol content will be high, so only those with constitutions of steel will be invited. I will not be held responsible for any scrumpy silliness that occurs as a result of drinking my cider!

With the worst winter for decades on the way and me spending some of it in one of the coldest parts of Britain – the North Sea & Scotland in recent weeks, day dreams of summer scrumpy are a must!