The West Country may have claimed cider as its regional drink, but Tynedale cider maker John Hutton is redressing the balance in the North-East’s favour.
IN the Garden of Eden it only took one bite of an apple to get Adam and Eve expelled from paradise. But maybe God was angry because they were daft enough to scrump it from his cider orchard.
They should have known better. Rather than being sweet, like a Golden Delicious and other tasty eaters, cider apples are so astringent that if you take a bite, they’ll suck out your lifeblood.
But squash these forbidden fruits and let the natural yeasts work their magic on the juices, and something special happens. You end up with cider of course – that fine drink associated with bewhiskered chaps wearing waistcoats, red neckerchiefs and floppy hats. A piece of straw to chew in one’s mouth helps to complete the look. And it’s also de rigueur to ask for it in the proper manner: “A pint of zider please landlord,” will do.
Zider may have its roots in Herefordshire and the West Country, but here in Tynedale, we call it cider and John Hutton is producing his very own version at East Park Farm on the outskirts of Prudhoe.
To do this, he’s created his own Garden of Eden, by planting 250 apple trees in a field, along with pear and cobnut trees and plenty of blackthorn, for making sloe gin.
John and his partner Sally French thought it would be a good idea to start making the potent apple juice a few years ago when they were drinking a bottle of cider at home. “We had this field which was too far away to get the animals on and there was no water, so we planted the apple trees there,” said John. “For the first lot of cider we made, we had to go around scrounging apples from wherever. We had some of our cider at the Tynedale Beer Festival. Then we started putting some into the Haydon Bridge Beer Festival as well.
“That is what we are planning to do – beer festivals and make apple juice. And if people have any apple trees, we will press their apples for a fee. I also do apple tree pruning as well.”
John and Sally travelled to the capital of cider making country, Hereford, to learn the trade and started making cider on a very small scale using basic equipment. “When we first started we got apples from wherever we could and had a little press,” said John. “But it was a nightmare trying to make cider with the little press. Then we built a press ourselves and used a big bottle jack to squash it, but even with that we had problems. You have got to mash the apples up properly before you press them to get the juice out.”
“At the moment we are putting all the different apples in, when we make the cider. But when we have got more apples to choose from, we’ll try more recipes and we want to try single variety ciders as well.”
John has now invested in an apple pulping machine and a professional press, which makes the job a whole lot easier at his Northumberland Cider Company. He first reduces his apples to pulp, which is then wrapped in cloth to form what are called cheeses. These are stacked on top of each other, with wooden racks in between and put in the press.
“You build up five or six layers with a rack in between each one,” he said. “Then the whole bed rises up on to the press and all the liquid comes out. It’s very easy when you have got all the right equipment. If you don’t get the apples mashed up properly beforehand, you are pressing lumps and are not getting enough juice.”
John’s orchard has around 60 different varieties of apple in it, like Kingston Blacks, Dabinetts and Katy’s, and with room for more, he plans to expand his range to try out different recipes.
“We are experimenting and learning things all the time,” he said. “I am planting lots of different varieties and I will find out which ones do best here and will pull out the ones that do not work.
“At the moment we are putting all the different apples in, when we make the cider. But when we have got more apples to choose from, we’ll try more recipes and we want to try single variety ciders as well.”
John’s enterprise relies on the weather to produce a good annual crop of apples, and this year’s frost, followed by heavy rain, hasn’t helped. “Unlike beer, you have only got one chance to make cider in the year and you are reliant on the weather,” he said. “Northumberland is probably not the best place to grow apples, but we live here and we thought we would give it a go.”
John still makes cider on a small scale and when he’s not, he’s writing lyrics for his soul/rock band, Lowryder, which he fronts as the lead singer. He’s also got his orchard to look after.
“You start off by learning how to grow your own apples,” he said. “You have got to know all about keeping your trees pruned the right size. I do not want big trees where you have to start climbing up ladders to prune them. You need to keep the grass away from them so the grass does not take away the goodness. You learn how to mash the apples properly before putting them in the press. These are the kind of things you find out. Essentially, it is a simple process to make cider. You squash the apples, you ferment the juice and you stop the fermentation by racking it off the sediment.”
One of the differences when making cider, compared to brewing most beers, is the fact that no yeast is added. “It is the natural yeasts in the apples that cause the fermentation,” explained John. “I also add no sugar. If you put sugar in, it makes it stronger. We tried it once, but we are never going down that road again. Our cider is usually between four and five per cent which is strong enough for us.”
