English scrumpy

There is evidence of apple growing in the delta area of Egypt from around 1,000BC, there isn't any evidence that the ancient Egyptians used apples to make cider though. However given their enthusiasm for brewing in general I'd be very surprised if they didn't.

When the Romans came to England in 55BC they found the people of Kent drinking cider. Nobody knows how long it had been produced by this point. Cider production was continued by the Romans but greatly reduced after Saxon and Viking occupations. Around 600AD orchards were reinstated by monasteries and cider production was again restored.

Traditional farmhouse scrumpy and cider was produced continually and is made using whatever variety of apples were grown. Cider is easy to make from minimal natural ingredients. Apples contain natural sugars and yeast is usually present on their skins, so an apple will naturally ferment if left to its own devices. This is known as "spontaneous fermentation" as was used well throughout history, after all a thousand years ago we didn't have extracted yeast cultures but beer, cider and wine was still produced!

To make apples into cider all that is required is to remove the pulp so that we have only the juice. Then we add some extra sugar or more traditionally honey so that there will be more alcohol and leave it to ferment! That is the simplest form of cider and a good part of the reason that cider became so popular in England.


I'm going to produce three different ciders using this very same simple method and fruit from the trees in my garden. First, a pure apple cider, secondly an apple and pear cider, and third a pure pear cider (perry). I'll post more details of the cider experiments and plenty of pictures of the process. As you can see from these pictures the fruit is nearly ready, I've cleaned out some one gallon demijohns and I'm going to make one gallon of each.

The thing I find hardest of all in the brewing process is waiting. It's very tempting to harvest the fruit now but I know it will be better if I have some patience.