The whole pressing log
Every page, shelved by the season it belongs to
A season here runs from one pressing weekend to the next, because a cider pressed in September is still being racked, bottled and argued about the following summer. Newest season first. Each page carries a shelf mark so it can be found again in the paper log.
Season 2025–26
Bottling
Bottling for a gentle sparkle, and the spring two bottles went off
Bottle-conditioning plot cider for a light fizz: gravity checks, priming, crown caps and swing tops, and what two burst bottles in a Vilnius cellar taught about patience.
Written 7 June 2026 · last amended 13 September 2026 · 7 minutes
Fermenting
Wild against cultured yeast: two carboys from one pressing
One batch of plot juice split in two, one left to its own yeast and one given a cultured strain, then tasted side by side through a Lithuanian winter in a cold cellar.
Written 15 February 2026 · last amended 3 May 2026 · 7 minutes
Pressing weekend
The pressing weekend with the neighbours, hour by hour
How one late-September weekend on a garden plot near Vilnius turns about two hundred kilos of apples into juice, with a borrowed rack press, six pairs of hands and a lot of wasps.
Written 26 October 2025 · last amended 11 January 2026 · 8 minutes
Season 2024–25
The trees
The old trees on the plot, and the two nobody can name
Eleven cropping trees on a family plot north of Vilnius: what Antonovka, Lithuanian Pepin and Popierinis each give the juice, and how the unnamed ones earn their place.
Written 19 January 2025 · last amended 28 September 2025 · 7 minutes