From CiderbyRosie blog
Last month I mentioned the ease with which a Europump can be dismantled for cleaning and repair. From my own experience and from what I have heard from other owners of this useful little pump, there are two components that are most likely to fail after several years of use. These are the drive spring that connects the motor to the pump and the shaft seal that prevents leakage from the pump into the motor. If, like me, you are in need of one of these spares, I have some good news!
Alex has advised me that Vigo has them in stock. They are listed as follows:
Item
code 21009 Spring Europump drive. Price £1.91
Item code 72249 Seal shaft 5 x 15 x 6m double lip R23 (Europump). Price
£3.25
Clear step by step instructions for replacing these items are also supplied.
Happy pumping!
Rose
Last year I decided to take my two ex winery aluminium ‘Sputnik’ tanks to the scrapyard. They were taking up too much room in the ciderhouse. I was also not convinced that their internal enamel coating would continue to survive being immersed in cider for a great deal longer. Scrap metal prices were good and I was able to more than cover their original cost of £50 on Ebay. Having less tankage has however made blending even more difficult than usual, since I’d lost two tanks that I could move the cider to, during the mixing process. I do like my draught to be truly composed of the complete season’s apples. It has become a ‘lodestar thing’ for me that Cider by Rosie fully represents the season from mid September to Christmas and that its flavour remains the same throughout the drinking season.
This year it was impossible to fully blend until the first 1000 litre IBC had been emptied, due to the lack of tank space. The cider in this tank was acceptable but rather on the sharp side. Although in itself a blend of perhaps 4 varieties, they were early season apples which tend to be acidic. It sold well enough but I was not really happy with it. When it had gone I was able to blend the remaining 5 IBCs ( I make 6000 litres of traditional draught). It was a moment of truth when I tasted the result, being very pleasing and having the same rich, soft dry, sort of flavour as in previous years. My full season ideal seemed to be vindicated once and for all. The romantic notion that Nature provides its own balance came to me, not for the first time. I’ve given this blending problem a lot of thought in recent years. I’ve mentioned it here which stimulated clever proposals involving pumping this way and that between the tanks to ensure that each contained the identical blend. One posting stood out in my mind. It was about Customs & Excise inspections rather than blending. Tom Oliver remarked that he had difficulty explaining to the inspector that his 6000 litre blending tank was not used for the storage of cider! This is the solution for me too, I thought. Never mind the inspections. I will cross that bridge as and when needed. I want a 6000 litre tank! I can do the initial fermentation of the whole season’s cider in it, whereupon all will be fully blended. Plentiful co2 will fill the headspace, safeguarding the juice as the season’s pressings progressively fill the tank. Then just after Christmas I will transfer the still fermenting cider to the 6 IBCs in the tank room, thus performing a racking in the process. Well that is the theory.
Today it became a reality. A massive plastic cylindrical water tank now stands in our garden. I can’t believe how big a 2 metre diameter tank actually looks! My mind has been working flat out thinking how to alter its role from being a giant garden ornament, to a functional item situated out of sight behind the cider house. I had thought it would be possible to move it by rolling, but have been dismayed by its great weight and the fact that it is impossible to get any sort of grip on such a large drum. It is over 2 M in height which is also unhelpful. I can see that I will definitely be in need of help from my friends.
A few weeks back Barry and Albert came with a very awkward load. Somehow back at Burley they had managed to get some very heavy items inside Barry’s big white cider van. One of these was a pallet of champagne bottles. These Barry had kindly bought on my behalf along with his own consignment from France. This weighed best part of a ton as did the other item. This was a 500 litre stainless dairy tank complete with outer cooling tank and refrigeration equipment! Barry and Albert had been determined to rescue this for me from a farm in the New Forest where it was no longer required. It will be perfect for keeving, due to the possibility of temperature control. I look forward to modifying it and putting it to good use. However the immediate problem was how to get these things out of the van and into my garage.
Luckily Charles, a friend in the village, came along with his tractor and was able to lift them out with his front loader. I am now very much in need of Charles with his tractor again! There is a strong lifting eye moulded into the top of the tank. I’m hoping that Charles will be able to lift the tank up and over the fence behind the cider house, once I have obtained permission from the owner for access to his adjoining field. This is what the tank is like except that it is black. There is a 1 in BSP stainless outlet fitted near to the base. Luckily I thought of asking for that, as the standard fitting is brass.
Rose.
Our annual ‘not to be missed’ event in Dorset was the best yet, in my opinion.
The sun was shining and I felt on top of the world, driving once again over glorious Eggardon hill, then down and down the narrow rutted little road to Powerstock far below. It was important to get there a little early so as to get the cider set up before the event started.
On entering the school playground I was warmly greeted by Nick Poole, who organises the event, and then by my dear Ukcider friends Ny and Sharon, after their long journey from Leominster. Nick introduced me to Michel, a cider maker from France and I was even more warmly welcomed, in the traditional French double cheek manner! I marvelled that the attraction of Powerstock has now even extended across the Channel. Ny and Sharon’s Cyder Circle friends, Tom, Sandy and Dave had also come with their ciders. The word must be getting around as this year there were craft producers from Yorkshire, Oxfordshire and Herefordshire as well as from our neighbouring counties. There was a friend of Roy’s from Berkshire and a number of visitors who had somehow discovered the event and come all the way from London.
The various cider barrels, kegs and boxes were arranged on tables close to the walls inside the hall to allow the main area between them to become the drinking and chatting area. This soon gets full of people, so I like to use the early part of the evening to get around and meet some of the other makers and have a taster here and there. I spoke to several who were donating cider for the first time, including Matt and Alan who had come from my own area. I’m beginning to have local competition! The interest in real cider is certainly growing in Dorset and it was good to see so many different ciders on offer. There were many cider makers that have been going there every year from the beginning, but that I’ve still yet to meet. There is never quite enough time before things start to get busy. However this year I was delighted to be able to meet Winston and Diane and the other nice couple who run Monkton Wyld Cider at Charmouth. They had 3 very interesting little oak barrels of cider, each very different in flavour. The most noteworthy of these had been made in a Rioja barrel. Winston joked that it was called ‘Wider’ and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed the unusual taste, but then I do like Rioja. I met James Crowden, Liz Copas, Rupert Best and Penny Whatmore (from the Cider museum), also enjoying a walk around and tasting.
People had started pouring into the hall so I went back to join Ny and Sharon, to help with dispensing the ciders. My cider shared the same table as theirs and that of their friends from Oxfordshire. As usual it was so nice to see their little dog ‘Rosie’, tucked up, as good as gold, in her bed under the table. Very few people even realised that she was there. She is a real sweetie, not bothered in the slightest by the ever increasing forest of people’s legs and the rising noise level. Soon the hall was packed, the cider pouring out rate increased tremendously and the little group of folk musicians started their playing with obvious pleasure. One of them, a small lady in a green dress, played the fiddle with a furious delight.
She was amazing, the wailing notes from her fiddle seemed to cut into your very soul. A great feeling of sheer happiness seemed to envelop everyone there. It was not long before we were all singing along to the tunes. ‘Drink thee zider’ was of course the best sung of all!
I caught a worried look on Nick’s face as he looked out of the hall into the playground. I went over to him and remarked what a great success his evening had become. “Look out there”, he said. “I’ve created a monster!” In the playground a four or five person wide, snake like queue of people could be seen, snaking all the way to the hall from the village road. Nick decided that he would have to go and lock the gates before the hall became completely overwhelmed.
I’m not sure if he actually managed to do this, but things never became a real problem. In the hall a mass of people seemed to flow in continuously from the main door, with an never ending sea of arms reaching out for their plastic tumblers to be filled. They were mostly young adults but were all well behaved, many of them taking their cider out through the other door to enjoy in the playground. They looked so pleased to be there and were obviously enjoying themselves. I never saw any trouble at all and was pleased that Nick’s success had not become a binge drinking problem. Perhaps it was his wise choice of small glasses and the fact that the sheer number of people soon exhausted all the available cider, but I’d prefer to think that cider drinkers are just nice people. Whatever the reason, the visitors numbered 800, compared with 700 last year. A lot to squeeze in a small hall in a tiny village, itself squeezed within a narrow valley. I can’t begin to imagine where they all parked!
The interesting thing, as Ny remarked to me, was the age range of those who attended. Most were 20 to 30. Real cider has become very popular with the younger generation. There weren’t very many grey heads like me to be seen! Another interesting thing that I have noticed this year, is the rising popularity of Cider Festivals (meaning cider only!). Three sports clubs have asked if I can supply theirs and our Sports club in the next village have asked me if I could help to start one as a regular summer event. I also supply several events where cider is the only drink provided.
I have an increasing conviction that there is a new awareness of Real cider. It is gaining the presence that we have all hoped for and people do know the difference between it and the supermarket stuff. What is more I’m sure that the existence of the UKcider website for the last ten years has had much to do with it. We must overcome our difficulties and keep up the good work!
Rose.
BTW. For those who are wondering what has become of Ny. He IS still with us, but has an intractable spam filter problem. His ISP does not seem to want him to see any UKcider postings at the moment. (A good thing, maybe!)