from the larger producers in locally produced apples accompanied by a welcome improvement in the standard of cider. However, it is still true to say that the best ciders are produced by small farms using their own cider apples.
Travelling Cider Presses.*
Farms which did not grow sufficient apples to justify having their own cider making apparatus used the travelling cider mills and presses. These were custom made of heavy oak, often by wheelwrights, mounted on two wheels with shafts for the horse. Going from farm to farm, equipped with a couple of horses, buckets, tubs, strainers and an assistant or two, they would set up for a few days at each, making six or eight barrels of juice a day (about six to eight hundred gallons).
The apples went through a “chawling” machine first, similar to a root pulper sometimes called a “scratter”. This was powered by a horse going round and round in a ring driving a "spinny-jinny", which crushed as well as pulped. The resulting pomace was then shovelled into the press, a frame about 2'6" square, like a box with no bottom or top, with handles. An open-weave cloth would be put into this frame and the pomace shovelled in. The cloth would then be carefully folded over the top to make a “cheese”. This
would be repeated using wooden laths to separate each frame. After building up to four or five feet with some dozen cloths, a square block of timber would be placed on top and screwed down with a capstan, using ash poles for extra leverage; the juice would seep out at the bottom. Water was added all the while; tap water was scorned, pool or brook water was thought to add an extra something before the fermentation process.
*Extract from Charles Kightly, "Country Voices", 1984 Thames and Hudson.
Beaumans Cider
Here we are talking about a very small orchard of 10 Bramley full standard trees about 70 years old; plus 2 – Arthur Turners (a big fluffy cooker). In addition there are 7 recently planted cider varieties just coming into production , 3 – Michelin, 2 – Kingston Black, and 2 – Tom Putt.
My standard cider mix is 70% Bramley 10% Arthur Turner and 20% cider apples, which give it flavour and bite. The batch size is 620 lbs (a bin) since this quantity is pressed commercially. It takes 10 minutes to press and produces 40 – 50 gallons of apple juice (a plastic barrel of 225 ltrs). Apples are picked as late as possible, Sept/Oct , and pressed November. No drops are used. The yearly quantities range from 50
