My New Juicer:

I've just come back from, amongst other places, a 'Good as New' charity shop with a fruit juicer for only 5 euro! What a bargain. Too late for the apples, of course, but I've just made carrot and ginger and apple and shrivelled tangerine juice with it, and I can't believe how much easier it was than weilding a bit of two-by-four. Well, no, I can believe it, but the 2x4 was easier to clean.

Cider:

Making the cider reminded me of doing the first brew; checking up on it every five minutes, sniffing it, making sure it’s nice and cosy, etc. Recently I’ve been quite confident in my brewing technique, so brewing up has become routine. Now, trying something completely different, it has that sense of the unknown again. Adventure, exploration, that kind of thing.

Also, this week, I’ve opened up the second lot of IPA. It’s to coincide with a curry I made, which coincides with a book I’m reading about I.P.A. and its journey to India. The book’s called Hops and Glory, by a fellow called Pete Brown. It’s a great book, and though it only just creeps into the home brew genre, it will none the less receive a review in the appropriate section soon. Oh, and the I.P.A. was fine, thanks!

So now that the cider is fermenting away in the spare room, under a sleeping bag, a duvet and some sort of blanket, we’ve got the dining room table back. The apples were resting there for a week, as per online advice (well, they didn’t specify a dining room table), and it didn’t take long before bills, books and other day to day household gubbins were piled on top of the apples!

I won’t really know how the cider turns out until spring, but until then I’ve written up my ‘recipe’ (with pictures) in a separate page. It’s not particularly useful until then, as it might turn out not to work, but if I don’t write it now I’ll not remember what I did. Anyway, these nights are drawing in, and I need something to write about!