28th November 2009 marked a red letter day for the Society with our Lambasted BlueSpot Cider being sold at our very first outlet - the Muntjac Pub in Harrold, Bedfordshire.
This cider is long gone and although we would love to sell as much of our cider as possible, we are just a small group and our wholesale production is now all sold-out for this season. However, we have kept some back for supplying to special one-off events, so don't forget to look at The Fun section to see what other events our Cider will be sold at.
Any feedback is good feedback, so why not give it a try and let us know what you think.
Without a certain amount of equipment and somewhere to work, making reasonable quantities of cider would be pretty difficult. The following are our most important.
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The society has a very old, probably Italian made, large Fruit Press constructed from steel with a locking oak cage. Blocks of oak are placed on top of the pulp and juice is extracted by downward pressure exerted via a central spindle with a rachet. When pressing larger quantities a traditional hydraulic 'cheese style' press is used. Demonstrations of our Press can be seen at the Bromham Apple Day event. |
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The Shredder, known fondly to us as 'The Beast'! Its also Italian made but this time by Ferrari (no honestly), hence it's bright red fly wheel! The object of shredding apples or 'macerating' to use its technical term, is to turn them into something that is crushed enough to release the juice. This also helps the efficency of the press. |
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The Orchard was planted as a long term project to secure a reliable supply of apples for our cider making activities. We have split the planting between traditional cider apples, Dabinett, Tom Putt, Kingston Black and local Bedfordshire varieties, Laxtons Superb, Laxtons Triumph, Laxtons Royalty, Lord Lambourne and Bedfordshire Foundling. |
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The Bottle Filler is a brand new addition to the equipment list. Hand-built by an expert in fluid dynamics it can fill four bottles simultaneously to within 1 or 2 ml, time and time again. |
Our Brew Master is in charge of all aspects of the cider making process. Here you can benefit from his valuable knowledge of the subject. The links below are in pdf format. Just 'click' to open.
