Cider making course

Never had I thought that a course could be so beneficial to me.
Having booked up on a cider making course,were we would crush and press our own apple juice to make cider in a 150 year old stone and oak cider press, Dave and I travelled down to the small village of Ruardean in the Forest of Dean in Dave's van.
The weekend is organised by Richard Burns of http://www.cheerswinemakingandbrewing.co.uk/index.html
Accommodation was in the dorms at the farm,and as I wanted to avoid sleeping in there Dave and I choose to take a tent each which wasn't the best idea because my tent was what the kids use to play with in the garden during the summer months(it cost £7.97 so you can see what great quality it was!!!!).
Never mind though as the copious amounts of scrumpy kept me warm/numb from the cold!
Having arrived at the farm at 5pm we set about with the introductions to other fellow course members(18 of us in total on the weekend),grabbed a pint of scrumpy from the plentiful choice that is supplied to sup over the weekend,and pitched the tents which took about 10 minutes.
The meals are all taken sat on wooden benches which line 3 massive pine tables pushed together in the dining area,and at the first meal together on the Friday was a great way of getting to know the others there was good conversations going and banter flowed endlessly over a fine 3 course meal which was cooked by Richards wife(with a little input from Richard)Maureen,in fact Maureen did most of the meals,and as the weekend is full board she was kept busy!.
Friday night progressed with plenty of scrumpy and wines and ended with joyful anticipation of the work to be done in the morning,the last 5 of us crashed out at about 2.45am.
This is when I encountered the problem with my foolish choice of tent,it was F'n freezing(well between 1-3c)luckily I had a decent sleeping bag to get into!.
Saturday began with me dragging my sorry carcass out of my pit at 8am and trying to get dressed in this rather small tent,which was akin to Houdini attempting to get out of a sack.
Breakfast was to be at 8.30 just after the orchard owner delivered I think about 2.5tonne of apples,that involved the first work of the morning to lay a tarpaulin on the floor and make a 2 sided barricade with pallets across the barn entrance and up the right hand side to keep the apples in place when the farmer tipped them from the trailer(the left hand side was protected by a large wall),after tipping he joined us all for breakfast,after a longish breakfast and a quick brief on H&S!! we all got going and promptly over filled the scratter, which is basically a large stainless steel shredder driven by a great electric motor and the shredded apple gets thrown out of the machine at the bottom via a chute into a bucket,by feeding in too many apples at once and as the apples were very dry the machine stalled and required the hopper being detached and the blades cleared out then we got into the swing of it.On the Saturday we pressed 3 times and each pressing contained 5 'cheeses' which are made by placing a wooden surround on the cider press and laying a hessian cloth within, then filling the surround full of pulped apple,when full, the cloth is pulled tightly and wrapped shut,then the surround is taken away and placed on top of the first cheese.Before the surround is repositioned 2 wooden slats are placed on the cheese below to help stabilise the stack. The process is repeated until no more cheeses can be fitted under the press.Winding the press down is easy at first(juice begins to flow after the 1st cheese is laid and tastes great) but soon enough extra help is needed in the form of large posts that increase the leverage on the winders. We recorded a gravity reading of 1.049 from the juice which should yield a 7% cider.Fermentation will take place in my nice cool garage and the wild yeasts in the apples will slowly turn the sugars into alcohol.After being left 6-8 months to ferment it will require racking 2-3 times during that time and then left to condition(the longer the better.we were drinking scrumpy that was 2 years old and it was dry but full of flavour).
We set a fourth pressing in motion but decided to finish it in the morning as part of the weekend experience included a trip to the local pub for a meal and plenty of beer drinking.The trip itself consists of a hike up one side of the Wye valley in near darkness with Tilly lamps to guide us.Its quite rough going over fields and then the terrain changes and we were walking on very eroded footpaths high up the side of the valley with nothing but bracken to stop us falling down the side.After several hours in the pub whilst watching England v South Africa in the final of the RWC2007 it was time for the return journey which was made even harder by the amount of beer that had been supped.
Sunday started again with breakfast at 8.30, then the group split up.Some of us went to a local orchard to pick pears to make perry whilst the people who remained finished the pressing that had been started the day before.
Picking 12 sacks of pears is no easy task especially when the pear tree's have to be shaken to get at the fruit.The sound of pears dropping and hitting the floor, and peoples heads, filled the orchard along with the sounds of laughter at each others misfortune when struck by a falling pear.
Finally the sacks filled and then it was time to head back to the farm and press the pears.We had collected enough fruit to do 1 pressing, which was quicker than apples as the pears go through the scratter far easier due to a higher juice content.
By 2pm we had finished and settled down to a nice lunch.Still work to be done after lunch as all the equipment used had to be broken down and cleaned along with the barn floor which was sticky from all the juice that had been spilt on it.The fermenting vessels had to be hosed down and airlocks fitted,then we were done.
Another trip to the pub was arranged before the evening meal, but as my legs and body could take no more I and some of the others declined and just sat around sampling plenty of scrumpy and perry which had been made the previous year.
After dinner on the Sunday it is the talent night and songs,poems and stories which are mainly rude are sung,recited and told.
Someone had a bottle of Captain Morgans rum to drink as it was Trafalgar day(not that we needed an excuse to have a little rum anyway).
On the Monday after breakfast there is a trip to Weston's cider factory in Much Marcle.
It is a fantastic place to look around and is possibly the biggest cider manufacturer in the UK.
After the tour it is back to the farm and time to pack up all your belongings, not forgetting the Apple and Pear juice(I had 20gallons of AJ and 4gallons of Pear juice to bring home and ferment).
Lunch was a selection of sandwiches and fruit(nobody ate the apples from the fruit bowl funny enough),then a final flurry of cars and vans being loaded up before the goodbyes to each other said.
This course is well worth the fee and some!,in fact it is so popular(some people on the weekend have been going for the past 5 years or so)that I will need to go and book 2008 now.

Colin