I wanted to make scrumpy, which I *think* is made from apples crushed with water as opposed to cider which is made from freshly squeezed apple juice.  I went to the lovely local library and found BREWING: A step-by-ste guide to making beer, wine and cider by Jack thompson.  I then followed the recipe for “Scrumpy Cider”.  Well, I say followed, but as usual my impatience got the better of me.  It says “roughly chop the apples” then cover with lots of boiling water, then “crush every few days”.  I did this but nothing happened for 5 days.  I imagined that the yeast had been fried.  Maybe I should have let the water cool down.

Anyhow, I came home 5 days after it started to find still no action at all.  I blitzed the apples with a hand held food mixer and shoved in some bakers’ yeast.  Apparently some recipes have raw meat, but I didn’t fancy that.  It got going right away and five more days later it looks more interesting.

The next step is in a few days when I mix it with other ingredients.