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Gents
HMZ God
Trinidad and Tobago
2214 Posts |
 Posted - 13/05/2004 : 10:43:55
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Thought i'd start this as a new topic to save the confusion of having it on the Cider in Bristol thread...
Chimes certainly sells some nice cider (about 4 different ones?), and a perry i think. But it wasn't the type of rough backstreet local i was hoping for, more of a poncy restaurant/bar. The cider was served in halves, in wine-like glasses, for about £2 each! Worth a visit, but not the type of place you'd want to go regularly for a casual drink really.
Head of Steam at Euston = excellent cider, although how you're supposed to remember the code for the toilet door by the time you've walked to it from the bar after 4 pints i just don't know.
Apart from that i don't know many London cider pubs so your suggestion are gratefully received. Once we get our Pub Guide on the site, and win the lottery, we'll have to do a London cider mission so we can add a London section to the guide.
About the only other pub i'd recommend is Red Lion in Soho, sells Samuel Smiths cider from up North, a sparkling variety, which isn't as nice as your cloudy pints but still class above cackthorn, etc.
ZIDER! |
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Tharg drinker of cider
Cider Bus Convert
Borneo
184 Posts |
Posted - 13/05/2004 : 15:23:15
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Fitzrovia (north of Oxford Street, west of Tottenham Court Road) is rammed with Samuel Smith's pubs, which are worth visiting because they are generally cheaper than the rest of the West End. Their cider isn't the best, but it is better than the usual "chemical factory" stuff that's generally on offer everywhere else. Do give us a call when you finally get around to your London cider crawl, although it'll be a short one!
And you will know us by the trail of empties.... |
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Tharg drinker of cider
Cider Bus Convert
Borneo
184 Posts |
Posted - 19/05/2004 : 14:02:09
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Hello all, I'm on here looking for advice (and I'm keeping a low profile on the SE1 site, as a result of the b*ll*cking me and Ivanhoe got off the web-master for managing to get the word cider into every thread yesterday). Last night we met a woman who works for Surrey Docks city farm, who has very kindly agreed to provide a permanent home for our press. They made their own cider there last year, utilising the apples from their own small orchard, which included Kingston Blacks. They have two small presses already, but we feel they'd be too small for our purposes, so we've decided we need a bigger press. We haven't decided yet whether to buy or build one. There is also a scratter to be acquired, We've been looking at the 'electric drill' attatchment, any tips? We also need to find our apples. We're looking at a few options in this regard. One of the biggest problems we need to address, is that of quantities. How much juice do you get out of an apple? If you can help us with any of these queries we'd be very grateful, and it goes without saying, when our brew is done, a large jar will be delivered to your good selves in due course.
PS I took hold of another delivery of that Broadlands Farm perry last night, lovely!
And you will know us by the trail of empties.... |
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Gents
HMZ God
Trinidad and Tobago
2214 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2004 : 12:24:14
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Hello Tharg, sorry for the late reply - as you might have noticed from the website we have been pretty preoccupied with football these last few weeks, but now that has let us down again my thoughts are turning back to cider.
We read last year from a few sources that a tonne of apples gave 1000 pints of cider (1kg = 1 pint), but from practice i believe now that those figures must have been based on the production of the huge cider companies using high-tech machinery rather than a few blokes in a garden with home-made press. From about 500kg of apples we only made 170 pints (2.9kg = 1 pint), but we recognised that we werent operating the equipment as efficiently as we could have been for the first day of pressing, and quite a lot was spilt too, for various reasons. The main suppliers of cider-making equipment in England are Vigo (http://www.vigoltd.com/pressing.asp), who sell a range of presses you might be interested in. They also state that 20lbs of apples should make a gallon of cider (1.134kg = 1 pint by my maths) which still sounds a bit ambitious to me.
ZIDER! |
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Ivanhoe Martin
Cider Bus Convert
Oman
273 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2004 : 15:28:17
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Cheers Gentz.
Sorry about the football. Thought of you lads over the weekend. I know it's no consolation, but at least you have easy access to all that quality cider to drown your sorrows in.
It seems that there's a lot of difference of opinion over fruit-to-juice ratios. A colleague went to the cider place near Lewes this weekend and they told him 2lbs to 1 pint, so obviously everyone has their own views.
Me and Mrs I are off to your area this weekend (Banwell, I think the place is called. Near Cheddar somehwere, I think), and will make a point of asking everyone we meet (whether they are cider people or not) for their opinion. Will remember to do that before I start tasting, and to write down the answers in my newly christened (cider) notebook.
All the best
Ivanhoe |
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Jungle Jim
HMZ God
Falkland Islands
1872 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2004 : 18:49:21
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Hmmm Gents are you suggesting if some of the cider-makers had been more sober during production we might have squeezed a bit more juice out of those apples, and not spilt so much?!
I think the apple:juice ratio probably varies quite a bit according to type of appple used, ours were mainly the little red ones, which didn't seem to be giving us much, afraid my technical knowledge doesn't extend much beyond that.
But you will enjoy Banwell, mainly because it is right next to Sandford, home of the Thatchers factory/cider mill. So make sure you have lots of space for the gallons and gallons of lovely cider you will want to export back to London! Basically head out of Banwell towards Churchill along the A368 and it is about 5 mins away on the left hand side.
Hannah More Zider...
keeping the apples burning 
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Tharg drinker of cider
Cider Bus Convert
Borneo
184 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2004 : 08:48:31
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Cheers Gents, I must say I tried many sources for advice on quantities, and all of it was different, I even got in touch with:
http://www.cidermuseum.co.uk/ and their figures were different again.
We'll just have to suck it and see.
Sorry about the football, although being from the Forest Of Dean, I'm a rugby man and we've had a very mixed (and frustrating) season with Gloucester this year.
And you will know us by the trail of empties.... |
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Ivanhoe Martin
Cider Bus Convert
Oman
273 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2004 : 09:36:48
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<<But you will enjoy Banwell, mainly because it is right next to Sandford, home of the Thatchers factory/cider mill. >>
I know it's near Thatchers. That was one of my conditions for picking somewhere to stay. I didn't realise until later that it was near so many other cider places.
Imagine my surprise when I came home late last night to find my wife spreadeagled on the floor, bent over........
....a map of cider farms!! Obviously, I thought Christmas had come early. Especially when she said: "I've had a look and I reckon we can get to at least half a dozen cider farms over the weekend".
It all seems too good to be true. Should I worry that she's having an affair or something?
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Tharg drinker of cider
Cider Bus Convert
Borneo
184 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2004 : 09:40:44
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I'll bring back some of this Orchard's stuff, and we can have a tasting session Ivanhoe!
And you will know us by the trail of empties.... |
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Ivanhoe Martin
Cider Bus Convert
Oman
273 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2004 : 10:46:38
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Excellent!! Splice the mainbrace!! |
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Gents
HMZ God
Trinidad and Tobago
2214 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2004 : 15:53:09
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A holiday right next to the Thatchers Farm! Sounds like a trip of a lifetime to me! You'll also have a good base to visit some of the other farms I mentioned on that other thread, but it sounds like you've got all that sorted with the map and stuff anyway...
A few pubs selling the juice of the apple very nearby that may be of interest: The Swan (Roberrow), The Star (Star), and The Crown (Churchill - this was Camra's pub of the year a short while ago).
Have a good trip...
ZIDER! |
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Ivanhoe Martin
Cider Bus Convert
Oman
273 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2004 : 14:12:30
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Thanks Gentz.
I'll put up some notes on where we've been when we get back. I imagine that you guys will have been to most of the places nr Banwell, it being in your neck of the woods and all. I've read about one place - in the Somerset tourist cider map that I linked to above - where they have a massive vat called Adge that, apparently, they brought down from Nailsea. If we go there, I'll definitely raise a glass to you lads.
(Oh, and I'll remember to take plenty of kindling ;0))
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Gents
HMZ God
Trinidad and Tobago
2214 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2004 : 14:58:00
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The Cider Museum looks awesome, I should think the Vat was the one from Coates Cider of Nailsea that was auctioned off when Coates closed down. I think I read that Adge bid for the Vat himself but was gutted to be outbid by someone else - looks like this is where it ended up. You can download a clip of the Vat being unveiled by The Wurzels here http://www.britishpathe.com/product_display.php?searchfilm=wurzels the clip also shows a brief run through of the cider production at Coates.
Have a good one - let us know how you get on!
ZIDER! |
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Tharg drinker of cider
Cider Bus Convert
Borneo
184 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2004 : 11:41:02
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One of our SE1 cider making crew has announced that he is facing possible redundancy (boo!) however, should this be the case, he's considering opening a pub in our corner of town (hooray!) if this happens, rest assured we shall be lobbying strongly for some real cider to start flowing from his taps - watch this space.
And you will know us by the trail of empties.... |
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Ricardiño
HMZ God
Brazil
841 Posts |
Posted - 08/07/2004 : 22:00:08
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Myself and freelove Matty and soon going to migrating to the big smoke so make sure you keep us updated and we'll come and have a cider with you. In the mean time, if you know of any good cider pubs in the Hammersmith area it would save me looking!
Make her day, put something in cider |
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Ivanhoe Martin
Cider Bus Convert
Oman
273 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2004 : 12:49:45
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I don't know that part of town very well at all, but you're always welcome to come over to Borough/London Bridge and have a pint with us.
Good luck with the move.
Ivanhoe |
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Cider In London
