Hello Samantha
May I congratulate you in choosing to pursue such a wonderful and fulfilling hobby.
Cyder making is easy, all you need are apples that you crush and press and a container for the juice and a means of covering to keep both the air out and the dreaded vinegar fly at bay. You need no added yeast, the natural yeasts from the apples will start the fermentation to make good cyder.
Every time you make a cyder it will be different from any previous tastes and the larger scale scrumpy maker would blend their cyders from the bitter sharp and bitter sweet varieties.
Locally we have still an abundance of Morgan Sweet apples that make an early cyder that you can drink just after Christmas but it is not the best apple in my opinion. However when apples are in short supply I have made cyder from Bramley apples, damn sharp but mixed with fizzy lemonade it still was a good drink.
I do not know what is best for West Yorkshire (I thought that you all drank bitter ale there) but I’m sure a good nurseryman would advise you.
Although not like the good old days, there are still many traditional cyder makers in the West Country especially in Somerset and apples such as Kingston Black, Slack My Girdle, Tremlett’s Bitter, Yarlington Mill, Somerset Red and many more including Tom Putt are used.
I have not made any cyder for the last couple of years but my eldest son still makes a drop and I always make a point of acting as his quality controller!!
A lot of scrumpy cyder offered for sale to holiday makers is pretty awful, but good for drain clearance. However there are many fine cyder boys still lurking in Somerset such as Roger Wilkins
I first tasted cyder as a boy when helping myself to some of my father’s that he kept in his cool larder, later on as a teenager I visited Taunton Cider Factory as part of an educational school visit (it was an agricultural technical school), what a lot of first class cyder they made in those days, none of us could remember the coach trip back to school.
Another first class cyder was that made by Michael Eavis of Glastonbury Festival fame, I remember doing some work for him when it was named the Pilton Blues or Pop Festival. He made the cyder for a local Hotel and gave us all some after the work was finished, this was an astute man ‘cause we weren’t much good after drinking this fine cyder.
Although I haven’t made any for a couple of years, I still regularly succumb and have a quart or two especially at elevenses with a slab of quality Cheddar.
I have very fond memories of times in the hay fields when the cyder (usually watered down) was drunk by us workers and of times when some used to fall asleep and then had to be carried home in agony where they had got sun burnt.
You best find yourself some apple trees and start making it because you will have along wait before any young sapling will provide enough apples.
Try the link for a first class scrumpy man.
http://www.c1der.co.uk/cider_with_roger.htmBest of luck
Barney
