In the beginning … there was The Tree and The Tree made the Apples and the Apples made The Cider and the Cider-Maker tasted The Cider and The Cider was Good …

Ok., ok., ok. not so long ago and the short and sweet version – I promise. So picture a hobby brewer, wine maker, hobby Ciderist with home made equipment with lots of free wild apples. Now picture them cutting them up, mashing them up pressing them, in the garage, the cellar, the kitchen into the wee hours of the morning. Then fermenting them and refermenting them and waiting and waiting and using a few other tricks of the trade like racking off & bottle conditioning and then more waiting and waiting and waiting, and then finally tasting … and discovering that he made some very good cider – cider good enough to want to do it again and again. Then success followed success, then sharing these successes with his friends. Then the friends saying: ”Hey this is pretty good stuff”, “Do you have anymore of this stuff”, “Hey, this stuff is pretty potent but smooth” and “Hey you got anything else?”

But all this with minimal equipment.

Then the quest was on to find more apples and different varieties and to learn more about Cider making and to seek out slightly larger equipment and more carboys and then do it again and again and again with experiments and other variations – all the while keeping notes.

This is how the addiction began and how I became absorbed by my hobby and quest to make even better ciders.