| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 04/01/2005 : 15:01:12
I've sent off some queries, and hope to get a proper reply soon, but here's a teaser (full details to follow soon, with any luck):
In the village of Putley (Herefordshire) they have an annual series of events under the umbrella name "Big Apple". In May (I think it's due to be the first weekend in May this year), they have a weekend where they do a variety of orchard walks and talks about cultivation/pruning/etc, and they also have a cider competition.
(According to our friend Mike Henney from Frome Valley Cider) anyone can enter, all you have to do is enter one gallon of your own cider, and all entrants become judges and get to taste and judge everyone else's cider . (Also per Mike, apparently it's reasonably common for people who've only made a few gallons for a hobby to get well commended).
I've written off to try and get more info, and will let you all know when I hear anything. Assuming the facts are reasonably close to what Mike's told me, above, then I reckon we're definitely entering and will plan a camping and cider weekend. If any of you lads (well, I suppose that just means Al this year) want to enter, then it'd be great to meet up with you there. (In fact, if any of you really want to enter, you can enter with a gallon of our stuff - although we'll be picking the best two for Mrs I and myself to enter, so you'd have to have 3rd best). |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 30/06/2005 : 14:00:43
And a really early reminder that the second part of the annual Big Apple celebrations (picking and pressing) is the weekend of 15th Oct. We might be on holiday then, I think, but it should be good as lots of cider makers are open and you can see their pressing in action. |
| Gents |
Posted - 06/05/2005 : 16:57:34
Im thinking of doing more than calling Paddy - im thinking of hiring a lorry and going up to buy a bottle of everything he has got!
Im sure Tom Oliver/someone from Olivers registered on this very forum once, but never posted. Haven't got time to check now tho. If you are out there - give us a wave.
ZIDER |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 06/05/2005 : 16:09:45
Give Paddy a call. He's friendly bloke, and loves to talk about beer, cider, wine, etc. We met Tom Oliver at the Big Apple, and had some of his "three four" perry (very nice) from the shop, as well as smapling his competition entries (he got a couple of wins/seconds or third places). I've had a cube of his cider before, and that was good too. Tannic, but good. |
| Gents |
Posted - 06/05/2005 : 14:12:30
Ive just looked at their website: http://www.hoppocketwine.co.uk - that place looks like heaven, what a selection! Whats the Olivers White Beech Bottle Fermented Cider 75cl all about? Its much more expensive than the other bottles of the same size. I need to try some of this magical cider.
ZIDER |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 06/05/2005 : 13:34:54
Me and Mrs I could tell which were ours (but only because they'd kept the original bungs on, and our were marked "T" and "A" (Tina and Abednego - the names of the barrels they were from). Don't know about other people, but we didn't vote for our own (it wouldn't have been sporting, and there were definitely three better ciders).
My friend's shop is called Hop Pocket Wines and is at Bishops Frome (bottom of the big hill on the Hereford to Worcester road). He's just expanded and now has 100 local beers and 100 ciders and perries (as well as a lot of fruit wines and the like that apparently go like hotcakes with the visiting WI groups he gets). Tell Paddy I sent you. |
| Gents |
Posted - 05/05/2005 : 19:15:31
Congratulations on officially making a cider in the top 56% of those in the country Ivanhoe, very impressive as a first attempt!
Could you tell which was your cider when you were tasting? People could cheat and vote for themselves 3 times! Sounds like an unbelievable event - 50 ciders to sample in a short space of time! Im not surprised you were "relaxing" outside after all them!
Where is your friends cider shop? Sounds interesting.
ZIDER |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 05/05/2005 : 16:08:19
Sorry. Meant to post something sooner.
About a dozen of us went up to the competition, and we had 6 entries between us (all in the Draught Dry Cider class). Not surprisingly, Draught Dry Cider was the most popular class and there were just short of 50 entries. Imagine the sight of the groaning table, with 50 demijohns and 50 bottles squashed onto it (they emptied the demijohns into bottles for ease of pouring your tasting samples).
There were quite a few people there, all of whom looked as if they’d done it before. Most of them definitely had, because I knew/could recognise most of them as professional cidermakers. It was quite daunting before the tasting began. I was just hoping that we hadn’t made a big mistake and were about to be shown up and ridiculously outclassed.
It was pretty hard work tasting. Not that the cider was generally bad (although some of it was pretty “sharp” to say the least). The really hard thing, especially when loads of people were flocking round the crowded table, was remembering which I’d tasted and which I’d yet to taste.
The way it worked was that you could only vote for three ciders, and out of the three you had to put a star by one to indicate the one you liked best of all. We didn’t win any prizes, but most of us got at least one vote (a couple got two votes). Given the low chances of getting any votes at all, I think that was pretty good. As you can imagine, plenty of people got no votes at all, and when they showed the results afterwards apparently our posse came in at between approx. 20th and 28th out of 50 (I can’t remember exactly, as I was outside in the sun relaxing by then and someone else had to tell me later).
Apart from the competition, we had a great weekend. Lovely camping, loads of cider and perry, great local food, beautiful countryside etc. Got a manucube of Gregg’s Pit perry (won 2nd prize this year) and am enjoying that at home. Also stocked up on some other cider/perry oddities at my friend’s new cider and beer shop. Another thing we did which was very interesting was to go on one of the guided orchard walks where we learned a lot about the ecosystem in the orchard (where they graze Hereford cattle under the trees - very scenic).
All in all, a great weekend. We’ll be back next year (and one of our number is already investigating the possibility of making perry next year, so maybe we’ll enter more than one class!). Hope to see you there.
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| Gents |
Posted - 04/05/2005 : 16:28:54
Did you enter the Big Apple Ivanhoe? How did your cider get on?????
ZIDER |
| Gents |
Posted - 22/03/2005 : 15:45:13
It definitely wasn't Ross, must be Ledbury, but i saw Leominster on the map too so thought it may have been there. Definitely begins with "L" and has a house on legs! I'll try to drum-up some support at the weekend.
ZIDER! |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 22/03/2005 : 13:15:00
Ledbury does indeed have a house on legs (the old Market House, now the Registry Office), so unless you're thinking of Ross-on-Wye (which also has a house on legs), I reckon you must have been there. If not, then I reckon all these house-on-legs villages are much the same so you'll know what to expect (except that there are probably more cookware shops in Ledbury than in Ross).
You can email me if you want contact details. I'll take a mobile with us when we go, and if you're coming and want a lift you'll just have to give me a call before we start on the breakfast ciders |
| Gents |
Posted - 21/03/2005 : 20:35:53
Thanks for the lift offer Ivanhoe, may well take you up on that, and if i make tyhe journey i'll aim to get there well before the cider starts flowing! Think ive been to Ledbury before (is that the place with the strange house-on-legs thing?) and buses to Much Marcle were pretty regular which doesn't look far from Putley on the map.
Whose up for it then? Its far too dangerous for me to attempt on my own!
ZIDER! |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 21/03/2005 : 17:16:55
We'll have a car, so if you're planning to come to Ledbury early doors (i.e. before the cider gets flowing) then I could probably be persuaded to give you a lift from the station to Putley (around 5 miles at a guess). We'll be camping just where the road to Putley turns off the main road between Ledbury and Hfd, so it wouldn't be much of a trip to go back to pick someone up from the station. You could then doubtless save the cost of a taxi back by persuading someone to drop you from Putley village to the main road (main rd between Ledbury and Hfd) and get a bus to Ledbury, if you called Ledbury Tourist info and asked re bus times. 50% of people leaving Putley will have to come via the road you need to get to to get to Ledbury. |
| Gents |
Posted - 21/03/2005 : 15:41:54
Not sure if i can afford yet another weekend away, but id be up for getting the train there and back for the day to take part in one of those daytime cider-tasting sessions. Anyone up for doing it on the bank holiday monday? It takes about 2 hours from Temple Meads to Ledbury which isnt far away, we can get train back about 7-ish and have a few take-away ciders on the journey home.
Al, are you going to have any cider left to enter???
ZIDER! |
| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 21/03/2005 : 14:33:09
Updated details are now out on the Marcher Apple Network, see here: http://www.marcherapple.net/bigapple/ (or should I have said "look here", given proximity to Wales?)
I got a copy of the competition rules a couple of days ago. There is a draught category (where you need to enter 1 gallon), or a bottled category (where you need only enter two bottles).
???See any of you there???
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| Ivanhoe Martin |
Posted - 17/01/2005 : 09:17:35
Yes Gents (Blosson Time), sorry for confusion. Big Apple is the umbrella name for all the stuff they do (May, October,etc).
The lady says that they will send out info a couple of months before the date, and she was a bit vague about whether someone did camping last year or not.
If not, this could be the perfect time to camp at Broome Farm (the man who has a fire pit in his orchards for late night cider drinking whilst camping). Haven't got my map out, but it's probably 5 to 10 miles away (although ideally we'd be camping in the garden of the village pub in Putley) |
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