There's cider in them there hills

[willk]

Hello all - crackin' forum!  I'm a long time lurker on here but I've joined because I need to ask a few questions - I'll get to those later.  Until now, my "thing" has been craft cider.  Once upon a time in the hills of Donegal, I planted a small orchard of various cider, culinary and dessert apples so my adventure has been root to bottle - all for personal use, not commercial.  I'll probably chip in on the cider forum now and then for the craic. Annual bottling is about 300L currently and set to get totally out of hand as the trees com into full production... 

That all being well and good, a friend (damn him) has piqued my interest in homebrewing so I've been playing around with a couple of kits - what with all those fermenters just lying in the shed, doing nothing...

[Drum]

Welcome to the darkside Will    That's a good friend you have. 
That ''root to bottle'' description of your cider is very impressive, Well done man. I don't think even the most experienced cider makers on here can say they've done that (No offense intended to anyone).  Stick around , you'll make good friends on here but keep the location of that orchard secret or you'll have all the cider lads knocking on your door in september

[willk]

Stick around , you'll make good friends on here but keep the location of that orchard secret or you'll have all the cider lads knocking on your door in september

Everyone is my friend in March - just after bottling day.... 
Not so many hands in evidence around September/October when the heavy lifting needs doing *rolls eyes*

[irish_goat]

That's some setup!

[Dracusse]

Wow im you friend now as well ahahah
Like the set up ....

[Keg]

Looks good, welcome!

[nigel_c]

Must be something to do with the name Will. 

[willk]

Cheers lads.

[LordEoin]

any pears for your heirs? 

That's a nice setup, I'm jealous

[willk]

any pears for your heirs? 

Just a couple of dessert pears being trained up a wall - no use for perry, not even when mixed with crabapples.

That's a fine pear you have yourself...   

[Will_D]

Hi Will.

Will_D here. I am also enlarging my rugby clubs orchard (Malahide). I have 30 mixed apples: desert/cookers/cider also 8 perry pears (yet to fruit) and 8 desert pears.

Got first harvest last year (5 gallons).

More apples and pears and crabs are on order for this year. Also a lot of rootstocks for grafting !

Great to have you on-board.

There should be as link somewhere to an upcomming pro/am cider competition.

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/cider-perry-wine-mead/beoir-irish-cider-competition/msg166379/#msg166379

See reply #14 for link

Cheers

Will

[willk]

Hi Will.

Will_D here. I am also enlarging my rugby clubs orchard (Malahide). I have 30 mixed apples: desert/cookers/cider also 8 perry pears (yet to fruit) and 8 desert pears.

Got first harvest last year...

Thanks for the welcome.  I hadn't considered Rugby Clubs and Orchards to be a natural fit - go figure!  First harvest is special.  The crop weights will increase very quickly now so brace yourself!  My orchard is slightly more modest - 14 cider trees, 5 dessert, 3 culinary and 3 crabs (as pollinators, but great jelly too!).  The older trees are 14 and the youngest are just cropping now at 5 years old.  In all they give about a half ton but I expect that to rise to the ton over the next five seasons.  As my max usage of cider is about 250L per annum I expect to have a serious apple surplus.  The plan is to be very particular while grading and use only the ripest fruit.  I harvest and juice in two tranches, so I have different juices to play with come blending time, made from a mixture of apples.  After maybe ten seasons of cidermaking I can make a fairly reliable and clean sparkling dry cider that has a few keen followers (aka freeloading moochers).  Now I'd like to improve the quality through better orchard husbandry, fruit selection and blending.  Up to now - all fruit was good fruit 

[irish_goat]

If you're running a surplus gimmie a shout come harvest time and I'll take a scoot down and take some off your hands sure. 

[willk]

If you're running a surplus gimmie a shout come harvest time and I'll take a scoot down and take some off your hands sure. 

You have dibs - beats composting them.  But until The Great Surplus pays out, you'd be getting the wee scabby green ones from the north side of the trees....

[Leann ull]

Correct Answer you'll do just fine here