01 Welcome to the corner
Before cider became fashionable and before craft anything, Britain kept two quiet domestic traditions alive: pressed apples downstairs and country wine maturing on the stairs landing. Both survive in garages, allotment sheds and kitchen corners, handed over in dusty demi johns between generations who measured sugar by eye and judged readiness by candlelight through the jar.
Our two guides here rescue the essential knowledge from that inheritance. Country winemaking turns hedgerows, gardens and market trays into something genuinely drinkable using little beyond sugar, yeast and restraint. Cider making begins with an apple press or a friendly juice supplier and ends months later with bottles that taste of the orchard rather than the effort.
Both crafts share plumbing with beer: an airlock, cleanliness and the willingness to leave things alone. If the vocabulary feels new, the cleanliness routines transfer unchanged, and the mashing explainer will show how grain based friends arrive at the same patient ferment from a completely different doorway.
02 What sits on this shelf
Every piece below belongs to this corner permanently rather than visiting from elsewhere on the site. Dates read newest first, each summary says what its piece settles, and nothing here expires quietly into an archive nobody visits twice.
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Cider from apples
Starting cider from apples: sourcing proper juice or pressing your own, clean ferments, patient rackings and.
- Wine & Cider
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Country wine making
Country winemaking from hedgerows and gardens: balancing fruit, sugar and tannin, straining patiently and.
- Wine & Cider
03 Reading onward
Neighbouring corners continue the tour when this shelf runs dry, and the [[/about/|magazine about page]] explains how pieces are chosen and made.