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Cider and Perry "Oscars"
- The Pomona Award
From InnSpire - Issue 63 - October
2006
Edited by Julie Currey
CAMRA invites nominations
annually (from individual members and branches) for this special award to
the person, place or thing that has done the most for Cider & Perry - either
during the past year or for their ongoing work. Here we highlight some of
the seven nominees…
• CAMRA’s Newcastle Beer Festival has, in steadily expanding the available
range over a period of 25 years, supported Real Cider & Perry in one of
Britain’s ‘cider wildernesses’.
• Two small distributors who supply Real Ciders & Perries nationwide:
‘Merrylegs’ (John Reek - supplier to Chesterfield Beer Festival!) and Jon
Hallam, were nominated jointly for their sterling work. Both offer a unique
range to pubs and festivals - thus playing a large part in encouraging craft
producers to continue. Traditional Cider and Perry makers enjoy nothing more
than knowing their craft products are being savoured hundreds of miles from
their origin!
• With a circulation area extending from Manchester City Centre South to
High Peak, the magazine edited by Stockport CAMRA’s John Clarke - ‘Opening
Times’ - promoted a 16-pub cider passport trail, attracting wide praise from
publicans and consumers alike. This event also broadened Cider & Perry’s
appeal and availability in the area.
• Since the summer of 2005, J D Wetherspoon have brought Cider & Perry to a
new audience by offering a varying range of products, supported by
specialist features in their in-house magazine.
Rather fittingly, as a supplier to the National Cider Pub of the Year,
‘Merrylegs’ was declared as joint winner of the award, with Jon Hallam.
Such has been the demand for Cider & Perry, John Reek is now concentrating
on supplying bulk orders to festivals etc., whilst seeking regional
assistance in meeting the requirements of pubs and individuals. In our area,
Chris & Sue Rogers are acting as gateway for ciders that might normally be
purchased from ‘Merrylegs’. They also produce their own cider under the ‘3
Cats’ label. They can be contacted on 01332 880041 or via email:
sue.rogers4@tesco.net
The Pomona award process will begin again in March, when the 2007 nomination
forms will be available. So, if you know of anyone or anything deserving
recognition ‘for outstanding services to Cider & Perry’, don’t assume they
will be nominated - do it yourself!
A use for Cider Apples
that could shock you...
From InnSpire - Issue 57 - October
2005
From an article in ‘Hereford Hopvine,’ the newsletter of Herefordshire CAMRA
(July 2005).
A major project that will
save over 2,000 acres of cider orchards from the axe, whilst generating an
environmentally-friendly supply of electricity has been planned for
Herefordshire. A new company, Coressence Ltd., has been formed with the
support of the county’s Cider Fruit Growers Association, to produce ‘green’
electricity from unwanted apples.
The initiative will save in excess of 360,000 fruit trees that would
otherwise have been felled. Unfortunately cider fruit is not suitable for
apple juice or other culinary apple products as it is too bitter. The
oversupply of cider fruit in Herefordshire amounts to about 40,000 tonnes
and that volume cannot be left to rot on the ground.
The redundant fruit will be converted into pure alcohol - bioethanol - which
will then be combusted in a gas turbine heat & power unit. The electricity,
once exported to the National Grid, is thought to be sufficient to meet the
power needs of a small town with a population of 15,000.
As the electricity is deemed ‘green’ it will attract a subsidy of £30/MWh in
addition to the wholesale price of renewable power and will cost the
consumer exactly the same as electricity derived from other sources. Other
sugar-producing crops will be used, ensuring electricity production all year
round.
A Bluffers Guide to
Cider and Perry
From InnSpire - Issue 57 - October
2005
Edited by Julie Currey
Why does an apple taste
sweet, yet cider is naturally dry?
To make cider, the apples are milled and then pressed to release the
juice. Using either the natural yeast - on the apple skin - or introduced
yeast, plus the sugars in the juice, fermentation takes place. The sugars
are converted into alcohol leaving a dry product. Medium or sweet
cider is created by using unfermented apple juice (or artificial
sweeteners).
Which apples are best for
making cider?
Dessert apples are very different from the specialist fruit for cidermaking.
There are over 600 types grown here and it is estimated that 75% are cider
apples. Their three
components of sweetness, acidity and tannins give cider its range and depth
of flavour. Specialist cider apples are favoured in the majority of
cidermaking areas - whereas in Kent dessert apples, balanced with the
acidity of cookers, are used.
What’s special about a
cider apple?
Cider apples are usually more closely related to the wild crab apple as they
are smaller, harder and lack the unblemished attractiveness of eaters or
cookers. Higher levels of tannin make cider apples bitter, astringent and
difficult to swallow.
How do you know which
apples to use?
Cider apples are classified according to four categories:
Bittersweets: low acidity, high tannin - Sweets: low acidity, low tannin -
Sharps: high acidity, low tannin - Bittersharps: high acidity, high tannin.
Cidermakers use a closely
guarded mix of apples at pressing to create their own blend of cider. These
days the consumer tends to prefer sweeter, smoother, less acidic ciders so
cidermakers tend not to favour ‘bittersharps’.
Planning starts with the
planting of orchards, where a number of different varieties of tree are
planted together, to ensure the harvest can be processed in one go.
However, ‘single varietal’ ciders are on the increase, for example:
Kingston Black: a medium bittersweet apple, which produces a full bodied,
spicy cider -Dabinett: a full bittersweet apple producing a full bodied
cider with soft tannin - Yarlington Mill: a mild bittersweet apple, which
produces a good bodied, fruity cider with soft tannin. Where the label has
the name of a particular fruit, this is a single variety product.
Is there anything or
anywhere special needed to ferment cider or perry?
Once pressed, the juices of cider apples or perry pears are placed in wooden
vats or
food-grade containers and fitted with an airlock, placed in a barn or cellar
and allowed to ferment. Fermentation is usually completed by the spring of
the following year, so the cider and perry we drink is made from the
previous year’s crop.
How is the fruit
harvested?
In traditional orchards the fruit has ripened by September and long ash
poles (40ft for perry trees!) are used to knock the apples and pears from
the trees. The fruit is stacked up in mounds or tumps, covered with straw
(prior to bagging up), then sent for milling and pressing. This is a labour
intensive process which many growers would welcome help with.
Alternatively, where a new
type of faster-growing dwarf variety of tree has been planted - ‘bush trees’
are laid out in tight rows with wide avenues between them - harvesting is
automated. Tractor-borne vibrators clamp around the trunk and shake the
fruit off. Blowers are used to line up the fruit between trees and then a
machine like a combine harvester collects the fruit whilst discarding
stones, twigs and leaves.
When are cider and perry
made?
The month of October is the ideal time to mill and press; the autumn
evenings, being
warmer and dryer than the winter months, allow the cider and perry to get
off to a good start. Fermentation can be very vigorous at this initial
stage.
What is perry?
Perry is made from pears. Again, specialist fruit is used, smaller and
harder then dessert pears. Perry tends to be Sweet or Medium Sweet, although
there are Dry perries like Barker’s from Worcestershire. Perry also contains
natural levels of non-fermentable sorbitol. Perry trees, while bearing
fruit in 3 to 5 years, will continue to produce fruit for 200 or 300 years -
much longer than apple trees. This has led to the phrase ‘plant perry for
your heirs’.
Cider and Perry Month -
Why October?
From InnSpire - Issue 51 - October
2004
Last year, CAMRA designated
October as its Cider and Perry Month, and you may well ask, “Why October?”
After all, there’s 11 perfectly good other months, aren’t there? How
about sometime in the summer, when the weather’s better, for example?
Well, October has several things going for it relating to both the fruit and
the cider.
Some years back, an organisation called Common Ground came up with the idea
of having an Apple Day each October. Now Common Ground does little in the
way of events themselves, they have always encouraged other groups to do
things, whilst supporting and publicising them. However Common Ground
organised the first Apple Day event themselves, which took place in London’s
Covent Garden. And it was a startling success.
CAMRA ran a cider bar and there was a big market selling fruit produce. My
lasting memory is that it was so windy we had to blue-tack the beer mats to
the tables!
Since then local Apple Day events take place all over the country. Common
Ground’s website
www.commonground.org.uk lists them all, county by county, from August
onwards. Some have cider, some don’t, but for some strange reason, they all
seem to have a longest apple peel competition.
Cider making usually takes place from late summer to Christmas, so October
is definitely a cider-making month. If you’ve never visited a cider maker
before, it’s far better to go at this time of the year, as you can actually
see the cider being made. In fact, CAMRA’s annual cider trip is normally in
October for this very reason. Also, a number of cider makers have their own
Apple Day event, so it’s possible to kill several rats with one hammer (so
to speak!).
So yes, October is an ideal time to have a Cider and Perry month. It’s just
a pity that it can’t be every month!
Mick Lewis
This webpage was last updated on
Sunday, 20 April 2008
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