Zider..

[Jedo_03]

Recent newbie to the forum...
Lots of mention of Scrumpie \ Scrumpy
Spent a fair time down in Devon UK in me younger days... Coupla stints working picking cider apples and manning the apple press and vats and some filling containers... A few different locations...
Some comments...
cleanliness was as far away from godliness as the devil himself
every apple picked was used - bruised, infested, cankered
every part of the apples was crushed... skin, core, warts and all
the press merely separated the juice from the solids (or didn't)
most ciders I saw were fermented on their own "wild" yeast
the colour, quality, %alco was VERY variable... often impossible for a single establishment to replicate year by year
one place I worked used to add "wild" honey, raided from "wild" bees nests in their orchards - as a sweetener NOT a fermentable...
QUESTION - anyone actually made Scrumpie... or close to it...
cheers
Jedo

[KEG]

interesting re the honey - it'd only work as a sweetener if it was drunk pretty quickly. the medium to long term effect would be to make it drier.

[Jedo_03]

Does make it a tad drier - slow secondary ferment... Not that you'd notice the change in the degree of dryness over the original scrumpie...
I'd smile at the beckoning tourist signs that said "ROUGH CIDER"... well it couldn't get much rougher...
cheers
Jedo