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Gone bigger and better this year after finally investing in a decent upgrade..... and what a difference! Think I cut 5hrs off my 1st cider making day this year and a healthy 23L at 1.054 OG. Speidel fruit mill says age 16 plus to operate....she was just dropping a few apples in....honest!

No idea on the type although I also have some prima Donna/First Gold growing in the garden. The wild ones smell a bit more citrussy/freshly mown grass with a hint of funk. I may well end up 2 or 3kg worth this year but obviously that's wet weight so more like 1/5th when dried.

Same here in Jersey, foraged 1.2kg of hops today from 1 of my 4 known spots. Just gonna have to dry them and freeze them though until I'm ready for the next brew. The house smells outrageous at the moment.

You've all been busy. Made a homemade AG recipe 'Plaisance Session Pale Ale' last week and it's just about finished in the FV. Time to rack off the trub, prime and bottle shortly.

Ooof, that sounds good! Looks like an air route opening between you and Jersey so maybe we can have a sampling day after all!

Yeah it does, but then feels like you've really earned that cider!

Good work, my second larger batch came out of 1.048 OG, but yep agreed it's a proper 1/2 days work to get through it. Speidel also do a good fruit mill but not used it myself. Either way will invest in the Speidel or Fruit Shark next year I think as it'll remove about 3+hrs of work as we'll not...

All good in the end thanks, came back yesterday to a solid bubbling from the Speidel and a great fresh apple smell in the downstairs loo..... which is where it's fermenting as it's the coolest place in the house.

Sorry Magistrate, rubbish news. We finished the 2nd lot on Saturday the day before we went on holiday. Managed an additional 6-7 gallons on top of the 3 gallons we made from early windfall. A couple of potential issues....we could only wait 20hrs after sulphite addition before adding the yeast...

Nice thread and glad to hear things are brewing well on the other Channel Islands too! I'm a little further south in Jersey! Perhaps we should do brewday exchanges and schedule in some day trips to the other islands for brewdays :D :onechug:!

Hi there, first attempt to make a hazy hoppy IPA / NEIPA style brew at ~6.5% (homemade recipe below) and the 4th brewday using the 35L Brewzilla. All in all a pretty smooth and relaxed brewday, but here’s a few lessons learned after using the kit. Think I was pushing the limits on how much of...

Red Rebellion please. Good luck everyone

Jersey....not much chance of that, a few commercial operators around here otherwise the old school orchards do it the old fashioned way, with a horse and stone trough!! :D

The last two years that I've used natural yeasts the Kloeckera wild yeast has dominated too much and resultant cider was not good. This year as mentioned I've sulphited and then used a cider yeast. Depending on how much I get in October's gathering I may do half without sulphite but adding the...

That's scratting made so easy!! Again jealous of the se-up and will have to invest for next year. Round two for us in two weeks or so once we get the majority of the apples off our tree and another batch from some friends. Fingers crossed ours gets into the 1.050+ category this time.

Yes I think I do need to invest in something else for next year, the manual scratter and press have been fun to use and do work, but.......takes so much time, even for 20-30kg, as you have to chop all the apples first before you can scrat them. I'll likely invest in a Fruit Shark or Speidel next...

Ha ha, now that would be telling!! Strange how certain things to better in certain places, someone we get apples from has fabulous damsons this year, I mean really, really tasty! Apples have been good, strawberries so so. But Le Mare vineyard have had an absolutely crap year with almost no crop.

Hey @Bill W always nice to meet a fellow Channel Islander! Sorry to hear about your lack of apples too, rubbish news! Ah well, maybe pies it is then. Any particular reason why the apples are less productive this year your way? Beer bubbling away nicely in the FV in the garage now with cider...