Bottling

This has been an exciting week. On Friday we took delivery of the equipment we will need to finish bottling and processing last years cider. We use the “Methode Champenoise” which is a labour intensive process but it can be made more manageable if you have some special equipment.

Our cider is fermented just the same as every other cider until all the sugar has been turned into alcohol. This produces a flavoursome but dry and still drink. Whilst cider aficionados may love this presentation it does not meet with universal approval. If you want to produce a drink with a sparkle and hint of sweetness there are a couple of options available to you.

You can kill the yeast by pasteurisation, add sugar and then gasify with CO2 as with a keg beer or you can try the more elegant (as we would say) Methode Champenoise. In this case the cider has a small amount of organic sugar and yeast added and it is then bottled in 750ml champagne bottles topped with a crown cap. This is left to undergo a secondary fermentation that in turn produces natural CO2 given the cider a gentle effervescence rather than a harsh gassy, sod pop fizz.

You now have your sparkling cider but it is still dry, perhaps too dry, so here comes the clever bit. You place your champagne bottles of cider in an oak frame called a pupitre. It stays here for a couple of weeks being turned a quarter turn every day. This causes the sediment to collect in the neck of the bottle. Once all the sediment has reached the cap the neck of the bottle is frozen in a special machine creating an ice plug in the neck which traps all the yeasty sediment.

The bottle is then immediately turned upright and the cap removed, if desired a small amount of organic sugar syrup is added and the bottle is topped up with more cider before corking. To complete the process a wire cage is placed over the cork and a label applied.